Many of the companies that hire through Leopard start the same way:
a member of the community introduces us to their hiring team.
If you’ve met great people in Leopard and want your company to tap into this network, here’s a simple guide to making that happen.
Why members introduce their companies to Leopard
The Leopard community includes 3,000+ senior women and non-binary engineers working across startups, scale-ups, and large tech companies.
Many members introduce Leopard to their company because:
They’ve met impressive engineers through the community
They want their team to meet candidates from this network
They want to help expand & diversify their engineering pipeline
Often the intro starts with something simple like:
“I’m part of a community called Leopard and have met a lot of great engineers through it. Might be a good network for us to tap into as we keep hiring.”
Why Companies Choose Leopard as a Hiring Partner
A More Diverse Pool of Senior Candidates:
Because Leopard is built as a community for women and non-binary engineers (& allies), companies can access strong candidates they often struggle to reach through traditional channels.
The Leopard community is heavily weighted toward Senior, Staff, and Founding-level engineers, which are the hardest roles to hire through traditional pipelines.
Companies can also engage the community through events, AMAs, and introductions, helping them build their engineering brand more over time.
Simple, Success-Based Partnership Structure:
Leopard has built out a lot of semi-automated processes into slack to make it very easy to collaborate. So small or stretched recruiting teams can add Leopard as an additional sourcing channel without needing to build new processes.
Leopard focuses on a few strong introductions instead of dozens of weak leads, and specifically collaborates with the hiring team to optimize workflows, collect feedback and improve conversions over time.
Companies only pay if they hire, so they can keep the bar high and prioritize and only pay if someone is at their ideal level of experience, skills, etc
Leopard Does the Legwork:
Every candidate in Leopard talks to someone on the Leopard team about their compensation goals, timeline to move, location preferences, role scope, technical background and timeline, which helps Leopard match the right candidates and companies quickly.
Leopard also helps candidates understand the company, role, and team upfront which leads to more thoughtful conversations and stronger mutual interest and alignment.
50% of Leopard candidates come through referrals, which improves candidate quality and response rates generally and helps companies tap into a hard-to-reach group.
Finding the Right Stakeholders:
If you're thinking about introducing Leopard internally, the best person to start with is usually someone directly involved in engineering hiring. Common points of contact include:
Head of Talent or Recruiting Lead: Often the best first stop, especially at startups or scaling companies. Their main pain points tend to be: finding strong senior candidates for the teams they support, reducing time spent reviewing low-signal applicants, supporting hiring managers with hard-to-fill roles, and managing multiple open roles with limited recruiting resources
Leopard can help by acting as another high-signal sourcing channel, particularly for senior engineers, and also helps them diversify their pipeline (which they often care about but don’t have time to do).
Engineering Manager or Director: Engineering leaders are often closely involved in hiring for their teams.Their typical frustrations include spending too much time interviewing weak candidates, difficulty finding experienced engineers who are aligned with the role, long time-to-fill for senior positions and balancing hiring with their actual engineering responsibilities. They also are often sick of having a homogenous candidate pool and like the idea of having a more diverse team but don’t have the bandwidth or resources to make it happen.
Founder or CTO: At earlier-stage companies, founders and CTOs often drive hiring decisions. Their main challenges are usually hiring the first few key engineers, finding candidates they trust through networks, and maintaining a high hiring bar while moving quickly
Because Leopard is built around a community of engineers, introductions often feel closer to referrals than traditional recruiting pipelines.
3 easy ways to introduce your company to Leopard
1. Send a quick Slack message to your hiring team
Often the easiest path is simply flagging Leopard internally.
Example: I’m part of a community called Leopard (~3k senior women & nb engineers) and have met a lot of impressive people through it. Might be a good network for us to tap into as we keep hiring. Happy to intro you to the founder, Lexi Lewtan, if helpful!
2. Make a quick intro email
If your team is interested, you can introduce your company directly to Leopard's CEO Lexi via email. Example:
Subject: Intro — Leopard
Hi [Name],
I wanted to introduce you to Lexi Lewtan, founder of Leopard.FYI. I’m part of the Leopard community and have met a lot of great engineers through it.
I’d love for our team to meet candidates from the network as we keep hiring.
Lexi — this is [Name], they run [Talent / Engineering] at [Company].
Best,
[Your Name]
3. Submit a referral via the employer signup page
You can let us know about a company and why it's a good fit for Leopard by nominating them on this page. We'll reach out to them from there and try to book a call!
👉 https://leopard.fyi/employer-signup
What happens after an intro?
Once we connect with your hiring team, we’ll usually:
Learn about the roles you're hiring for and what strong candidates look like
Walk through how companies meet candidates through Leopard
Put a simple hiring agreement in place
Build a company bio that we share with candidates upfront
Introduce engineers from the community who are aligned with the role
We can usually get all of this done in a couple business days!
FAQ your hiring team may ask
When you introduce Leopard internally, you might hear a few questions. Here are some quick answers:
“Does partnering with Leopard cost money?”
Companies only pay if they hire. Many teams simply start by meeting a few candidates and seeing if the model works for them.
“We already have a lot of candidates applying”
That’s great! Most hiring teams we work with are getting hundreds of applications per role, but are also filtering out candidates using AI to mass apply and end up with lots of early screens that don’t move forward.
Leopard focuses on introductions to candidates who are aligned with the role. The goal is simply to introduce candidates who are genuinely strong fits for the role, so your team can spend time evaluating the right people rather than screening large numbers of applicants. For many teams, that can save a lot of time.
“Diversity recruiting unfortunately isn’t a priority for us right now, we just need to quickly hire great people”
That’s okay. Many companies initially partner with Leopard because they simply want another strong pipeline for senior engineers. The diversity aspect often ends up being a positive outcome of the network, rather than the main reason companies start working with Leopard.
Most hiring managers are primarily focused on finding strong engineers, filling hard roles, and improving candidate quality. Leopard helps with those problems first. The fact that the community includes many women and non-binary engineers is often a valuable additional benefit.
“We already have recruiters internally”
Totally fair, most companies do. Leopard usually works alongside existing recruiting channels, not instead of them. Most teams already have a mix of internal recruiters
job boards, employee referrals, outbound sourcing and outside agencies.
Leopard is really just another high-signal source of candidates. Many teams find that Leopard works particularly well for roles that are harder to fill through traditional pipelines, especially
“We should run this by recruiting first”
Many engineering leaders want to involve their recruiting team before exploring new hiring channels. This is completely normal.
Often the easiest approach is simply to introduce Leopard to the recruiting lead, and let them evaluate whether it’s useful for current roles. Recruiting teams typically appreciate additional sources of strong candidates, especially for senior rolesSenior, Staff, and Founding engineers.
“How is this different from a recruiting agency?”
Traditional recruiting agencies typically cold source candidates, send large candidate pipelines, and charge upfront retainers or high fees
Leopard is different because it’s built around a community of engineers. Over 50% of the candidates come through peer referrals, which means companies often meet candidates who aren’t actively applying elsewhere.
“We don’t have any room for junior candidates right now only really senior folks”
That’s completely fine! Leopard is heavily focused on Senior, Staff, and Founding-level engineers, and we aim to introduce candidates only when there’s a strong potential fit for the role.
Companies are never expected to hire someone just because they meet through Leopard. The goal is simply to connect your team with strong candidates from the community and see if there’s alignment. If someone isn’t the right fit, that feedback helps the Leopard team refine future introductions.
“I’m not sure we’re allowed to use outside vendors”
That’s also very common. Most companies already work with external recruiting partners in some form, whether that’s agencies, contract recruiters or sourcing platforms. Leopard usually fits into the same category as a contingency recruiting partner.
If vendor approval is required, the Leopard team can typically work with your recruiting or legal team to get everything set up. But often the first step is simply a short intro conversation to see if it’s worth exploring.
"I think we’ll have to go through a vendor approval processes"
No worries! Many companies require approval before working with outside partners. This might involve procurement, contract/legal review and vendor onboarding. In most cases, the first step is simply a conversation to understand the roles you're hiring for. If there’s alignment, the Leopard team can help navigate any vendor setup required.
“Do we still control the hiring process?”
Yes. Leopard simply introduces candidates. Your company still runs the entire interview process and decides who to hire.
More Templates:
Email Template:
Email: Intro to Lexi at Leopard
Hi [Name],
I wanted to introduce you to Lexi Lewtan, founder of Leopard.FYI. I’m part of the Leopard community, a network of 3,000+ senior women and non-binary engineers focused on mentorship, interview prep, and supporting each other’s careers.
I’ve met a lot of impressive engineers through the community and would really love for us to meet candidates from this network as we continue hiring. Lexi runs the hiring side of Leopard and can walk through how companies work with the community.
If you’re open to it, you can grab time with Lexi here: [calendar link]
Lexi — this is [Name], they run [Talent / Engineering] at [Company].
Looking forward to you two connecting.
Slack Templates
I’m part of a community called Leopard (~3k senior women & nb engineers) and have met a lot of impressive people through it. It would be amazing if we could tap into that network as we keep hiring. The founder Lexi Lewtan runs their employer partnerships, I can intro you to her if you want to learn more!
I’m part of a community called Leopard (~3k senior women & nb engineers), and I’ve met a lot of impressive people through it. I think our engineering pipeline could probably use a little more diversity, so it might be worth partnering with them. Happy to intro you to the founder, Lexi Lewtan, if you want to learn more!
Our engineering pipeline could probably use a little more diversity. I’m part of a community called Leopard (~3k senior women & nb engineers) and have met a lot of great engineers through it — might be a good group for us to connect with. Happy to intro you to the founder, Lexi Lewtan, if you're curious.
We’ve talked a bit about wanting to broaden the engineering pipeline. I’m part of a community called Leopard (~3k senior women & nb engineers) and have met a lot of impressive engineers through it — could be a great network for us to tap into. Happy to intro you to the founder, Lexi Lewtan, if it’s helpful.
Feels like we’re always looking for stronger engineering pipelines. I’m part of a community called Leopard (~3k senior women & nb engineers) and have met a lot of impressive people through it — might be worth connecting with them. Happy to intro you to the founder, Lexi Lewtan, if helpful.
Not sure if you’ve heard of Leopard, but I’m part of their community (~3k senior women & nb engineers) and have met a lot of impressive engineers through it. Could be a helpful network for us as we keep hiring. Happy to intro you to the founder, Lexi Lewtan, if you’re interested.
