Process

How we work

Five steps. The one most agencies skip is the fourth.

1. Recorded kickoff

The kickoff call is recorded and transcribed. Not for our convenience. Because what you say about the role in that hour is the actual specification, and a job description is a lossy summary of it written by someone else.

2. Written brief before outreach

The kickoff becomes a written search brief and a sourcing plan. You see the brief before a single message goes out. If we heard the role wrong, you catch it in week one rather than after three bad slates.

3. Calibration slate

The first candidates we send are there to sharpen the target, and we tell you that rather than presenting them as finalists. Your reactions to them change the search. Agencies who present slate one as a triumph are optimizing for looking good in week two.

4. Written candidate prep

Every candidate who reaches an interview gets a written brief on your company, your interviewers, the format of the loop, and what each round is actually testing.

Most contingent agencies do not do this. It is the piece of our process we would point at first.

Prepped candidates ask better questions, evaluate faster, and decline earlier when it isn't a fit. All three are good outcomes.

5. Reasoned submissions

Every candidate arrives with a written argument for why this profile fits this search, including where they don't match. Unmatched must-haves get stated, not buried. You should be able to decide from the write-up whether to open the resume.

What is an embedded recruiter, and when do you need one?

An embedded recruiter works as part of your team for a period rather than on a single role for a fee — your tools, your standups, your pipeline, reporting to you. The output is not one hire; it is hiring capacity for as long as the engagement runs.

It is the right shape when you have several roles open at once and no talent function, when hiring will be continuous for a stretch rather than a single opening, or when you need someone to build the process itself — scorecards, interview loops, a pipeline that survives after they leave.

It is the wrong shape for one role. A single search does not need somebody inside the company, and paying for time rather than an outcome is worse value when the outcome is well defined.

How should a founder choose a recruiter?

Four questions worth asking any firm before you sign anything, including this one:

• Who actually does the work? In many firms the person in the pitch is not the person running the search. Ask who writes the outreach and who screens.
• What do I see, and when? A search you cannot inspect until a slate arrives is a search you cannot correct. Ask what gets written down and shared with you.
• How many roles will this person run at once? It is the most predictive number nobody asks for. It determines how much attention your role gets in the week it becomes difficult.
• What happens when the first slate is wrong? It usually is. What matters is whether that is treated as calibration or as something to defend.

Scope

We run GTM, sales, and growth marketing searches for venture-backed startups from pre-seed through Series D. We do not run engineering, finance, or executive searches outside of go-to-market. Three people work on your search: Jonny Leighton, Leslie Johnson and Adrienne Campbell.

GTM and sales recruiting → · Growth marketing recruiting →