Persimmon AI (ex-Kollektiv.ai) Early-Stage AI Startup Landed 5 Unicorn-Grade Engineers Who Had Offers from FAANG

AI Team Setup
Eastern Europe
Hard-to-Find Tech Skills

HQ: USA
Company size: 11-50
Funding raised: Undisclosed
Lead investors: Undisclosed
Team location: Europe

Cooperation time: since 2025
Product: AI platform for dental revenue cycle management
Clients: Not yet disclosed

PERSIMMON: 5 Unicorn-Grade AI Engineers in 13 weeks

Persimmon AI (ex-Kollektiv.ai) is an early-stage US AI startup on a mission to automate dental revenue cycle management – one of the most complex and consistently underserved administrative functions in healthcare. Its AI platform handles the full billing workflow autonomously, from insurance eligibility checks and pre-authorization to claims management and payment reconciliation.

Issue:

Persimmon AI had a clear vision and a high bar. To build an AI platform that could genuinely automate dental revenue cycle management at scale, the company needed engineers who had already solved hard problems.

The challenge wasn’t knowing what they needed. It was finding it.

Early-stage startups compete for the same top-tier AI talent as every well-funded AI startup in the US. Without a recognized brand, a polished careers page, or an established engineering reputation in the market, the best candidates have little reason to respond – and every reason to stay where they are.

Standard recruiting approaches don’t work at this level.

Eastern Europe had the talent density and the engineering caliber Persimmon AI needed. What it lacked was a partner who could headhunt at the top of that market, sell an early-stage opportunity to candidates with better-known options, and deliver a pipeline precise enough that leadership time wasn’t wasted on irrelevant CVs.

Solution:

Alcor assigned 7 recruiters and researchers to the search, with a sourcing strategy built for the top 10% of the market.

The approach centered on a targeted list of high-caliber tech companies, with short, precise outreach and structured follow-ups that consistently outperformed standard InMail response rates. The result was a pipeline where every candidate was genuinely worth the client’s time – including profiles sourced directly from Google and NVIDIA.

Persimmon AI’s requirements went well beyond a strong tech stack – Master’s degrees, FAANG pedigrees, research publications, and proven experience on complex, high-ownership engineering projects. Every profile that entered the pipeline had already been filtered for technical depth, seniority, and the problem-solving mindset Persimmon AI needed.

Alcor is a reliable partner that meets our hiring needs. We finally hired experienced software engineers in Eastern Europe with strong tech skills and business acumen. Account Managers are awesome!

Andrii Akselrod CTO People.ai

SOLUTION

5 senior AI engineers in 13 weeks

Alcor built a team of 5 senior AI engineers in 13 weeks – Master’s degrees, FAANG backgrounds, LLM production experience required. With an average of 8 CVs per hire, that’s not a timeline volume recruiting can deliver.

Google and NVIDIA in the pipeline

Alcor’s tech recruiters reached engineers at Google and NVIDIA – profiles that don’t respond to standard outreach. Targeted messaging with deliberate follow-ups made the difference.

2 hires from 6 candidates

Drawing from its 325K-candidate pool, Alcor ran a full end-to-end recruitment process for both Senior ML Research Engineer roles and produced just 6 candidates. Both positions were filled. No pipeline noise, no wasted interview cycles.

"Insane" candidate quality

Andrey Akselrod described Alcor’s candidate quality as “INSANE levels.” For the Backend Engineer role, he skipped initial screening entirely and went straight to a full technical interview. The candidate’s profile made it an easy call.

Beat a FAANG Offer

One top ML Research Engineer had multiple competing offers, including one from a FAANG company. Alcor and the CEO ran a coordinated engagement push that clearly articulated the candidate’s potential impact at Persimmon AI. He chose the startup over the tech giant.

Hired experts in:

Python PyTorch TensorFlow HuggingFace LLM Tooling RAG Architecture AWS Docker Kubernetes Kafka

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Clients Love Us. Teams Do Too.

“The Alcor team has always been supportive and approachable whenever assistance was needed. Rather than feeling like an external resource, engineers working through Alcor are able to integrate closely with the client’s teams. This creates a more collaborative environment and allows engineers to have a greater impact.”

Germán Parodi Senior QA Automation Engineer

“My overall experience has been outstanding. Alcor’s model offered the right balance — strong operational support combined with genuine ownership and long-term collaboration. In this model, I am a core member of the team. Rather than rotating between projects, I can invest meaningfully in improving the product and establishing processes that deliver lasting value.”

Oleksandr Artemenko Senior QA Engineer

“Whenever I’ve had tricky bank requests or needed extra documentation, Alcor has resolved everything rapidly. I also love their support with business trips and expense tracking—it’s incredibly convenient. Their team is always available via messenger and ready to help. Highly recommended for anyone who wants a hassle-free professional life!”

Yevhen Kochetkov Staff Software Engineer

“Alcor has been a reliable partner throughout, especially in complex situations. Issues are resolved quickly — often within minutes or hours. Their ability to adapt and support us in complex situations has made a real difference for our team.”