For boutique search · founder-led recruiters · in-house TA

Send better
shortlists.
Get faster
decisions.

Shortlistr turns every shortlist into a partner-quality briefing room — it sources candidates with an AI agent, drafts the brief for each one with quotes from their own resume and LinkedIn, and sends your client a single private link. They read it, click Advance / Hold / Pass, and the decision lands back in your inbox. No login, no PDF attachments, no follow-up call.

· AI agent finds candidates· Brief written from their own words· Client opens one link, no signup· Looks like your firm, not ours· Exports as a PDF that matches
Briefing Room ·Staff Product Designer · Linear-stage fintech, Series B
Live · 2 of 3 decided
Reviewers·HMR2CAviewing
  • Slate · 3 candidates
  • IAIris AhlströmStockholm, SEADVANCE
  • MOMalik OseiLondon, UKMAYBE
  • HKHana KobayashiRemote (NYC)REJECT
Open · SBJ-014-AStaff Product Designer
IA
Iris Ahlström

Shipped Klarna's checkout redesign. Now consulting; wants to go in-house again.

Yrs11
Comp€140–155k
Notice4 weeks
Their verdictAdvance
Advance
One private link · No login for reviewersSample
00 ·What Shortlistr is, in three lines

A tool that turns a job description into a briefing room your client actually reads — and decides on.

  1. 01Source

    An AI agent searches LinkedIn and your ATS export and returns a ranked longlist — with its reasoning visible, not a black-box score.

  2. 02Brief

    For each shortlisted candidate, Shortlistr writes a one-page brief where every sentence links back to the CV, recommendation, or portfolio it came from.

  3. 03Decide

    You send your client one private link — a Briefing Room. They click Advance, Hold, or Pass. The verdicts land in your inbox. No login, no PDF chase.

The six steps below show one candidate going through this loop in a week.

— / Without Shortlistr
Friday 5pm
JD lands. You print it.
Tuesday
12 CVs into a spreadsheet. Re-keyed by hand.
Thursday
Chasing the hiring manager for a verdict. Again.

Now run the same week with Shortlistr.

00 ·One candidate's week, end to end

One brief.
One week. One link.

Follow one candidate from Monday's JD to Thursday's verdict — without the re-keying, the chase, the silent inbox, or the "why this person?" call you've already had this quarter.

01/ 06
Step 01 of 06IntakeMon · 4:47pm

Intake the brief

The JD for your client's Staff Designer role lands at 4:47pm Monday. Paste it — must-haves, dealbreakers, reviewers, comp band are pulled out for you.

In plain words

You paste the JD. Shortlistr reads it and pre-fills a structured brief — role, must-haves, dealbreakers, comp band, who'll review — so you can start sourcing in minutes instead of in the morning.

§ 01

You start sourcing before your competitor finishes scoping.

Step 02 of 06ImportsTue · 9:02am

Two ways to fill the Briefing Room

Tuesday morning. Hand the role to an AI agent and read its thinking, or drop the ATS export you already have. Either way, candidates by lunchtime.

In plain words

You either let an AI agent search LinkedIn and return a longlist (with its reasoning shown), or upload a CSV from your ATS. Both routes land candidates inside the same Briefing Room — no re-keying, no spreadsheet.

No re-keying. No “final_final_v3.xlsx.” No black-box scoring.

Imports · Agent search · A of 2
Method A · Agent search

An AI agent runs the search. You read the thinking.

Hand it the role. The agent plans sweeps, considers profiles, refines its query in the open, and ships a shortlist with verbatim evidence — never a black-box score. Run state persists across refresh; you can leave and come back.

Agent · thinking
  • Planning sweep · staff product designer · EU
  • Searching · design systems, 0→1, eng-adjacent
  • Considered 412 profiles
  • Refining · tighten on tenure ≥ 3y
  • Sweep II · broaden geography to UK + DACH
  • Shortlisting top matches with verbatim evidence
Considered · 412Sweep II of III
Candidate A
Staff Product Designer · a top EU fintech → consulting
92
Verbatim ✓8y tenureLed 0→1
Candidate B
Principal Designer · Linear
87
Verbatim ✓Design systemsPublic talks
Candidate D
Senior Staff · EU design tool
81
Eng-adjacentHiring lead
Milestones
  1. Pass I
    Broadened ICP
  2. Pass II
    Tightened tenure
  3. Pass III
    Shipped shortlist
Shipped
12 / 412
shortlisted · with evidence
Imports · ATS export · B of 2
Method B · ATS export

Any ATS export. The model maps the columns.

Drop the .xlsx or .csv your ATS or sourcing tool spits out. The model reads the headers and a sample of rows, infers what each column means, and saves the mapping per shape — next time the same export lands, it's mapped automatically. Optional LinkedIn enrichment after import.

Drop export
candidates_q3_export.xlsx
1,284 rows · 14 columns · 312 KB
Reading headers + sample rows…
Detected · Greenhouse export · 96% confidence
Mapping preset · saved for this column-shape
Column mappingSource · Shortlistr field
Spreadsheet column
Canonical field
Candidate Name
full_name
LI Profile
linkedin_url
Current Role
current_title
Company
current_company
City, Country
location
Notes
notes
1,002 / 1,284
Step 03 of 06BriefTue · 2:18pm

Every line carries its receipts

Tuesday afternoon. “Why this person?” — the question you answer five times per shortlist. Each sentence in the candidate's brief links back to the CV, the rec, the portfolio.

In plain words

For each candidate, Shortlistr writes a one-page brief in the recruiter's voice. Every sentence has a footnote that points to the exact CV bullet, LinkedIn line, or portfolio page it was drawn from — nothing is invented.

Open questions · drafted with the brief3 raised

The honest questions a sharp reviewer would ask — and the answer already in the file. You stop being the bottleneck.

  • ?Has she managed a team in the last 4 years?
    Not directly. Last people-management was 2021 (team of 3) — flagged so you're not blindsided on the call.
  • ?Comp is 8% over the band — known?
    Yes — she's flagged it explicitly. Range to discuss: £165–175k.
  • ?Why two short stints in 2023?
    Acquisition + earn-out exit. Both documented in references.
In plain words

For every candidate, Shortlistr drafts the case against them — the awkward question your client would have raised on the call. Each one comes with a one-line answer from their own evidence, so the question lands with the answer beside it.

Why it matters

The doubt you'd have had on the call is already on the page — answered.

§ 03

Answer it once. The brief answers it forever.

Step 04 of 06CompareWed · 10:30am

Three candidates. One screen. Risks already written.

Wednesday morning. Your hiring manager is opening LinkedIn behind your back to second-guess the slate. The compare view ends that — every candidate sits next to the open questions you'd have answered on the call.

In plain words

A side-by-side table puts every shortlisted candidate against the same must-haves, with a verdict pill and a one-line open question per person — the honest things a sharp reviewer would ask, written down so your client doesn't have to.

§ 04

They stop interviewing your shortlist.

Step 05 of 06ReviewerWed · 6:41pm

Inside the Briefing Room, three things happen

Wednesday evening. The hiring manager opens the link, asks the questions you'd expect, finds the answers already written down, and forwards a PDF that carries your firm's name — not ours.

In plain words

Your client opens one private link — no login. They can ask follow-up questions (answered from the brief), see pre-written risks, and download a PDF that carries your firm's branding, not ours.

Verdicts arrive while you're still at your desk.

Reviewer · Ask the brief · 1 of 4
1 · They ask, the brief answers

Answers come from the candidate's own evidence — never invented.

You're not on the call to relitigate the slate. Your client types the question, Shortlistr answers it from the candidate's own evidence — every claim links back to the exact source line. No hallucinated wins, no late-night Slack from you.

HM
Has Candidate A actually shipped checkout at scale?
Brief
Yes — but with a caveat worth knowing.
SMB checkout shipped to 14 markets (+18% conv vs legacy).
Embedded onboarding GA'd in 2017 — smaller surface, similar regulatory weight.
Caveat: she hasn't owned a checkout flow since 2023.
Resume p.2LinkedInPortfolio
Reviewer · Reactions · 2 of 4
2 · They highlight, they react — you see it live

Reviewers underline the sentence that landed — and you see which one.

Any line in the brief can be highlighted, agreed with, or challenged — right there, no comment thread to dig through. You watch in real time which sentence convinced them, and which one they pushed back on. Sales calls used to give you that signal. Now the room does.

  • · Inline text highlights
  • · 👍 / 👎 / ❓ reactions per line
  • · Visible to you, not to other reviewers
Why-fit · Candidate A

She's done the exact 0→1 motion this role requires — twice, in regulated fintechHM · 👍 — once for SMB checkout, once for embedded onboarding.

She has not owned a checkout flow since 2023R2 · ❓ — last principal role was platform-side.

2 reviewers · 2 reactions · live
Reviewer · Info requests · 3 of 4
3 · They ask for something specific — it lands as a task

"Can you confirm notice period?" — straight into your inbox.

When a reviewer needs something the brief doesn't cover — a salary confirmation, an availability window, a writing sample — they click Request info. You get a tracked task tied to the exact candidate, not a forwarded email you'll lose by Friday.

HMHiring Manager · in the room

Can you confirm Candidate A's earliest start date? We're tight on a Q3 deadline.

Candidate A·Requested info · just now
Your inbox · new task
linked · Candidate A

Info request from Hiring Manager — start date for Candidate A

Reply in roomMark answeredSnooze
Reviewer · Export · 4 of 4
4 · They forward it — as PDF or .docx

Export as PDF or Word — both branded as your firm, not ours.

Every room is co-branded — your firm × your client's. Download the slate as a print-ready A4 PDF or an editable .docx that opens cleanly in Word. Your hiring manager forwards it to their CEO without editing a thing.

PDF + Word (.docx)Your logo, your company nameHide names if you need to
Brief №PR-2026-014 · APDF · Page 1 / 3
Candidate A
Why-fit

She's done the exact 0→1 motion this role requires — twice. a top EU fintech SMB checkout, an embedded banking co. onboarding.

Evidence
"Led the 0→1 SMB merchant checkout from blank Figma to GA across 14 markets."
Resume p.2
Your firm×Client A
.docx · opens in Word
Shortlist — Staff Designer
Candidate A — Advance
Candidate B — Hold
Candidate C — Pass
Editable · tracked styles match your firm
Step 06 of 06EngagementThu · 8:55am

You see the Briefing Room the way they read it

Thursday standup. “Any word from the client?” — gone. Live opens, verdicts, the chase queue sorted by silence, the polite nudge that goes out only when it helps.

In plain words

An engagement dashboard shows which reviewers opened the room, who voted Advance / Hold / Pass, and who has gone quiet — with a one-click polite nudge for the silent ones. You never have to ask “any word yet?” again.

§ 06

Faster decisions. Fewer candidates lost to silence.

00 ·Built for confidential search

The room is private by default — and stays that way.

Most of your searches are confidential. Shortlistr is built around that — every room is token-gated, every reviewer is named, and nothing leaks to the open web.

  1. 01
    Anonymised mode

    Hide names, photos and current employer until the reviewer commits to advance — useful for sensitive moves and competitor searches.

  2. 02
    Per-reviewer links

    Each reviewer gets their own token — no shared URL, no “I'll forward it.” You see exactly who opened what, and you can revoke any link in one click.

  3. 03
    Confidentiality banner

    A sticky banner names the authorised reviewer on every page — “Confidential — do not forward. Authorised for {name} only.” Editable per room.

  4. 04
    No login, no tracking pixels

    Reviewers never create an account. No marketing pixels, no third-party trackers in the room — just a private page with a clean URL.

  5. 05
    Auto-expiring rooms

    Set a close date when you send. After it passes the link 404s, the brief is sealed, and decisions are archived. Nothing lingers on the open web.

Who this is for

Built for the people sending the shortlist themselves.

Boutique retained search.

Two to twenty consultants. Your judgment is the product; the room makes it visible.

Solo & founder-led recruiters.

One person, premium clients. Send something that looks like a team wrote it.

In-house TA at design-led companies.

Skip the ATS hand-off. Send the room internally; decisions land same-day.

Try it yourself

Open a sample Briefing Room.

Shortlistr is in invite-only beta. Walk through a real briefing room first, then open the recruiter app and build your own.