Axel Case Study | Howdy Success Stories

Quick overview

The partner: Axel, a YC-backed AI travel agent
The bottleneck: Every full-time hire took weeks of Harrison’s and the CEO’s time away from shipping.
The solution: Two senior Howdy engineers work remotely as full-time members of Axel’s team, each owning a whole product surface.
The result: Hires in about two weeks instead of about five, at 30 to 40% of the cost of hiring and vetting in house.

The partner: Axel

Axel is an AI travel agent that books flights and hotels at competitive, private, and negotiated rates. The YC-backed startup comes from Gordian Software, a travel technology company led by CEO Stephen Grabowski, formerly of Skyscanner. In the last eight months, Axel has grown to book millions of dollars in travel every month.

Axel works in the background, comparing the market and negotiating better pricing. Travelers can book by chatting with Axel’s agent, or they can bring their own AI agent to pull Axel’s live flight and hotel prices directly.

The problem: Hiring was a bottleneck

Axel moves like an AI company, taking projects from idea to live within days. A typical in-house hire took about five weeks, long enough to stall the team.

“Hiring and vetting took weeks of my time and weeks of our CEO’s time,” says Harrison Porter, Axel's Head of Marketing and Operations. “That’s unacceptable with the pace at which we want to grow.”

Harrison sees two problems with hiring engineers today: reach and volume.

"Top-tier talent is aggressively recruited by big AI labs," Harrison explains. "There's also a glut of talent that's difficult to sort through."

The solution: Pre-vetted talent through Howdy

Axel CEO Stephen Grabowski had already worked with Howdy at Gordian, Axel's parent company. When Axel needed an engineer to own its frontend in early 2024, Stephen went back to Howdy.

Axel hired two developers through Howdy: Jesus, a frontend engineer based in Uruguay, followed by Juliana, an iOS developer based in Brazil. According to Harrison, the new engineers hit the ground running.

Pre-vetted talent is a primary reason Axel chose Howdy.

"A solution like Howdy's, where the talent is filtered down, saves you a ton of time," Harrison says.

Seniority is another reason. "The expertise level is so high that they don't need handholding," Harrison notes.

Time zone alignment made the Latin America-focused partner a natural fit. Axel works on Pacific time and tends to run late, so Jesus in Uruguay and Juliana in Brazil keep normal working hours.

"I consider them full-time members of the team," Harrison says. "The only difference is that we communicate exclusively over Slack."

The outcome: Two engineers who own the product

Today Jesus, who joined as effectively a founding engineer, still owns Axel’s frontend. Jesus maintains all of helloaxel.com, the site behind millions of dollars in monthly bookings. His work covers landing pages, the animations of Axel's axolotl mascot, checkout flows, and the Stripe integration.

In an AI-first workflow where code moves fast and breaks often, Harrison credits Jesus with "keeping us in check." Jesus also tracks what the latest models can do, shares articles in Slack, and puts the ideas into practice.

"No matter what changes come up, even in the middle of the night, Jesus is able to handle them," Harrison says.

Juliana, for her part, has built Axel's iOS app on her own ahead of its launch and keeps it in parity with the web product.

"She can claim the whole thing as far as I'm concerned," Harrison says.

Partnering with Howdy cut Axel's hiring time from about five weeks to two. Hiring and vetting through Howdy cost 30 to 40% of what the same process costs in house.

The time saved goes back into the product. Harrison and the CEO stay focused on growth, partnerships, and shipping. Meanwhile, Jesus and Juliana cover the web and mobile surfaces. Harrison calls both of them permanent parts of the team.

"It's hard to imagine the home team without them," he says.

What's Harrison's advice for other founders? If a full-time hire won't be in the office or in your area, "heavily reconsider whether you can bridge that gap, especially with the quality of talent that's out there on a platform like Howdy."

How to hire with Howdy like Axel

Step 1: Decide on your role. Pin down the skills, seniority, and scope. Axel first needed a frontend engineer, then added iOS capacity as the app grew. Bring your requirements to a call with Howdy. Howdy opens the search.

Step 2: Meet pre-vetted candidates within 24 hours. Howdy presents the first candidate within 24 hours of kicking off a search. Every candidate has passed a four-stage vetting process run by recruiters trained as psychologists. Fewer than 5% make it through.

Step 3: Interview and hire in one to two weeks. Axel hires through Howdy in about two weeks, compared with about five for a typical in-house hire. Howdy offers COR, EOR, direct contract, and custom hiring structures.

Step 4: Enjoy ongoing support. Howdy engineers get performance coaches with 10+ years of experience, AI training, and English programs. If a hire doesn’t work out, Howdy finds a new candidate from its pre-vetted network of LatAm’s top 1%.

Frequently asked questions

How long does it take to hire an engineer through Howdy?

Across Howdy's partners, the first candidate is presented within 24 hours of opening a search, and the role is typically hired in one to two weeks.

Axel hires through Howdy in about two weeks. A typical in-house hire takes Axel about five weeks.

How much does hiring through Howdy cost compared with hiring in house?

Across Howdy, a mid-level engineer costs roughly half as much as a fully loaded US software developer at the national median, and a senior engineer costs 30 to 45% less, based on Howdy’s 2026 salary data and US Bureau of Labor Statistics wage data.

For Axel, hiring and vetting through Howdy costs 30 to 40% of what the same process costs in house.

Does the time zone difference with LatAm cause problems?

No. Axel works on Pacific time, which runs four hours behind Uruguay and southern Brazil for most of the year and five hours behind from November to March, when the US is on standard time. Because Axel's team tends to work late, its day overlaps with the afternoon in Uruguay and Brazil, so Jesus and Juliana keep normal working hours. Harrison calls the overlap "completely fine."

How long does onboarding take?

Both of Axel's Howdy engineers hit the ground running with no formal ramp-up. Harrison credits their senior expertise.

Can LatAm engineers keep up with AI-first development?

At Axel, yes. Projects ship in days, and Jesus has kept pace as AI tools raised the team's output while keeping the frontend free of broken releases.

Do Howdy engineers stay long-term?

Jesus has been with Axel for more than two years. Juliana has outlasted some of Axel's full-time hires. Harrison calls both of them permanent parts of the team.