Rebel Webinar: How to Spot Elite Engineers and Avoid Fake Candidates When Scaling Your Post-YC Team

Hiring for a startup has always been hard, but lately, it’s gotten a bit weird.

In a Rebel webinar, Alexandra (Rebel Fund) sat down with Bec Bliss, our Head of Talent at Fonzi AI, to talk about a problem that’s landing in our inboxes more and more: fraudulent candidates. With AI tools, bad actors can now generate "perfect" resumes and even cheat during technical screens at a massive scale. In fact, Bec’s team has found that nearly 10% of applicants in some funnels are using fabricated identities or AI to mask their true skill levels.

If you're building a post-YC team, you don't just need someone who can code, you need someone you can trust with your database. This session is a deep dive into how to protect your time and your tech stack.

Watch the Replay

The Highlights

Beck has spent a decade scaling teams for places like DoorDash, Reddit, and Amplitude. She broke down the new rules of recruiting:

• The "Human" Test: Why you should ask candidates about their college mascot or a local coffee shop recommendation (and why the phrasing matters to trip up AI bots).

• Resume Forensics: How to spot someone claiming they used a technology before it was even invented (like "React in 2012").

• Video-Only Screens: Why backgrounds matter. If a candidate insists on a virtual filter or a "black box" room, it’s a red flag for an interview farm.

• The 2-Week Sprint: The best engineers are off the market in 21 days. If your process takes longer, you aren't just losing to big tech; you're losing to the most efficient startups.

• AI as an Amplifier: Why you shouldn't ban AI in your process, but rather test for "Prompt Quality" vs. "Core Logic" separately.

Resources Mentioned

• VoIP Lookup Tools: To check if that "US number" is actually a burner.

• Identity Verification: Services that cost ~$36 to save you a $100k+ hiring mistake.

• Custom Problems: Moving away from "LeetCode" style questions that AI can solve in seconds.