Quick Start
Go from zero to accepting applications in under 10 minutes — create an account, post a job, brand your career portal, and invite your team.
Why It Matters
Kit’s onboarding checklist walks you through seven steps to get your hiring pipeline operational. This guide covers the critical path — the four steps that get you from sign-up to accepting real applications. You can come back and complete the rest later.
Step 1: Create Your Account
Sign up at the Kit homepage with your name, email, and a password. Kit creates your team account automatically — you’re the owner with full admin access.
After signing in, you’ll land on the dashboard with the onboarding checklist showing your progress. Each step links directly to the right page.
Complete Your Profile
Click Complete your profile to add your first name and time zone. Your time zone is used for interview scheduling and notification timestamps.
Step 2: Create and Publish a Job Posting
Navigate to Hiring > Job Postings and click New Job Posting.
Fill in the Basics
The only required field is Title — everything else is optional but recommended. Add a description, location, department, and salary range to help candidates self-select before applying.
Choose a Process Template
Kit includes three starter templates to get you going:
| Template | Best For | Stages |
|---|---|---|
| Software Engineer - Standard | Technical roles | Application, Code Assignment, Code Review, Technical Interview, Culture Interview, References, Offer |
| Customer Support Representative | Support/service roles | Application, Scenario Responses, Application Review, Video Interview, Offer |
| Product Designer | Design roles | Application, Portfolio Upload, Portfolio Evaluation, Presentation, Culture Interview, References, Offer |
Select a template from the dropdown to pre-populate your stages. You can also select No template and add stages manually, or create your own reusable templates later. See Process Template Configuration for the full reference.
Publish
New jobs start in draft status. Click Publish when you’re ready to accept applications. Your job will appear on your career portal immediately. Copy the public URL from the job posting header to share it directly.
See Creating a Job Posting for the full lifecycle.
Step 3: Set Up Your Career Portal
Your career portal is the public page where candidates browse and apply to your jobs. Navigate to Hiring > Settings > Career Portal to customize it.
Brand It
Upload your company logo and set a primary color to match your brand. Choose between light and dark themes, and optionally select a custom Google Font. The settings page shows a live preview of your changes.
Share It
Your career portal is live at:
https://startupkit.app/careers/your-subdomain
Link this from your company website, social media, and job boards. You can also embed it as an iframe for a seamless experience on your own site.
See Setting Up Your Career Portal for more branding options.
Step 4: Invite Your Team
Hiring works best with collaboration. Navigate to your Account page and click Invite.
Enter the person’s name, email, and choose a role:
| Role | Best For |
|---|---|
| Admin | Hiring managers who need to create jobs, manage settings, and configure templates |
| Member | Interviewers and reviewers who participate in the hiring process |
The invitee receives an email with a link to join. If they’re new to Kit, they’ll create an account. If they already have one, they sign in and join your team automatically.
After inviting your team, assign them as reviewers on specific stages so they get notified when candidates reach their review step. See Inviting Your Team for details.
What Happens Next
Once your job is published, candidates can find it on your career portal and apply. Here’s the flow:
- A candidate submits their application
- You see it in Hiring > Job Postings > (your job) under the applications list
- If screening is enabled, review the application and advance or reject
- The candidate receives a magic link email to track their progress in the candidate portal
- As they move through stages, your team reviews submissions, conducts interviews, and submits feedback
- Advance strong candidates to the next stage, reject those who don’t fit
See Managing Your Pipeline and Reviewing Applications for the full workflow.
Optional: Connect Integrations
These aren’t required to get started, but they’ll make your workflow smoother. Navigate to Integrations from the sidebar.
| Integration | What It Does |
|---|---|
| Slack | Real-time notifications for applications, reviews, interviews, and offers |
| Google Calendar | Check team availability and avoid conflicts when scheduling interviews |
| GitHub | Auto-create private repos from templates for code assignment stages |
| MCP (AI Assistants) | Let Claude or other AI assistants manage hiring workflows via MCP |
Onboarding Checklist Reference
Kit tracks eight onboarding steps. Here’s the full list with completion criteria:
- Complete your profile — Add your first name and time zone
- Create a job posting — Create at least one job (any status)
- Set up career portal — Upload your company logo
- Configure a hiring process — Create at least one process template
- Connect an integration — Connect Slack, Google Calendar, or GitHub
- Invite a team member — Add at least one other person to your account
- Set your availability — Define your interview schedule
- Connect an AI assistant — Set up Claude or another AI via MCP
The checklist appears on your dashboard until you complete or dismiss it. You can restore it anytime if you dismissed it early.