By stage
Hiring your first sales leader at Series A
At Series A the motion exists and needs to be repeated. That changes who you're hiring. The Seed hire found the motion with you in every deal. The Series A leader takes you out of deals and builds a team behind them. Those are different jobs, and they are usually different people.
Who this is for
You have revenue and some evidence of repeatability. You're hiring a first sales leader, or the first pod underneath one. Someone in the company is already doing part of this job informally.
The part founders underestimate
At Seed you're hiring someone to find the motion with the founder still in every deal. At Series A you're hiring someone to take the founder out of deals and hire four people behind them. Those are different resumes and almost never the same human. The part founders underestimate is that they've usually already implied the first role becomes the second one, so the Series A hire arrives as a demotion nobody agreed to.
This is the conversation we have in the kickoff, before we source anyone. It is uncomfortable and it is cheaper than the alternative, which is losing your first seller in the same quarter your new leader starts.
The second uncomfortable conversation is about you. Hiring a sales leader before you're willing to stop closing is the most expensive common mistake at this stage. Every deal the founder closes after that hire lands is a deal that teaches the team nothing.
How we run a Series A leadership search
Leadership searches move on trust in both directions, so we brief both sides seriously. The client gets a written brief and a calibration slate. The candidate gets a written brief on the company, the board, the existing team, and what they're actually inheriting.
A leader who arrives with an accurate picture of the mess ramps faster than one who arrives with a pitch. It also filters early: the candidates who read the real picture and step back were never going to stay.
What you get
Candidates who have been told the truth about the stage, a written record of the gap between your Seed hire and this role, and a search process that treats the internal conversation as part of the work.
What this costs
We run contingent, retained, and embedded engagements, and every search carries a 90 day guarantee. Fees differ by model and are published in full on our pricing page.