Hooked on Search Partners, Part 2 - Issue 27

Part two of a three-part series on executive search engagement.

"In hiring and partnerships, look for three qualities: integrity, intelligence, and energy. And if they don't have the first, the other two will kill you." Warren Buffet  

If you hadn’t given much thought to how a great leadership recruiting partner (also known as an executive recruiter or search partner) can be a strategic advantage to your startup journey, we served up a stark reminder in last week’s issue. If you’re still thinking about search partners as vendors who throw bodies at your open roles, you’re going to get what you ask for. As a founder, you need to create a search partner council — a handful of search partners you can call first when you want to understand the marketplace for talent. Once you’ve committed to developing these search relationships, you’ll need to figure out who the best recruiters are in order to get introductions to talent and access to competitive insights through these partnerships. Since there is no barrier to entry in the recruiting field, every recruiter you meet will sound pretty good. Recruiters are good at pitching their services, and they say all the right things. This means you need to tune your BS radar to volume 11.   

What's going on?  
If you're having flashbacks of painful transactional search experiences from a former life — clear your mind of that right now. Executive search is a totally different beast. In this world, the right partners are those who approach your startup's success with a long-term perspective, much like investors do. But it’s hard to separate the best search partners from those who just tell you what you want to hear to get your business. "We can totally get you that unicorn leader." The reality is, you need a search partner who will tell you the truth that that particular leader will only look at your role if your business is at 100M in revenue and experiencing 300% growth with a massive opportunity upside for them. While this may sound dramatic, many of the candidates you start out thinking you want to recruit are not gettable for you at the early stage. The right search partner will risk not being chosen for your project in the interest of being candid with you.

There will be search partners who try to dazzle you with their long legacy of name-brand VCs, logos, and marquee hires. But this only holds weight if these things were recently earned by the recruiter who will be working on your search. Recruiters love to brag about searches that may have been completed ages ago or by others on their team. Other recruiters will skip the hyperbole and get down to transacting by sending you a list of names they'd recruit before they have context on your business or the problem you're trying to solve. But newsflash — everyone has access to the same lists — including you! What you need is a search partner whose approach is nuanced. Someone in your corner who is brutally honest and possesses a sophisticated understanding of your business and the spectrum of talent in that ecosystem. All that coupled with a relentless drive to get the job done and not leave you high and dry if something goes sideways. And because of this, you must work with absolute diligence to validate this DNA as early as possible.  

Why does it matter?
When you're pushing 1M in revenue, you're not just looking for the best leader; you're looking for the best leader who can get you to the next milestone in your journey. It's easy to get over your skis on big-shot talent, but that's not who you need right now. And you need a search partner who will help guide you through these realities while still prioritizing your best interests. And this is what the right search partner does, acting as a true advisor to introduce the right talent for your startup's specific goals and growth stages. With every interaction, you should build confidence that this partner gets you. They are pacing ahead of you — knowing what you need before you even need it. They aren't looking to max out their search bandwidth, sell you the wrong leaders, or make promises they can't deliver. They're measured on their ability to deliver — their brand reputation depends on it. When the goal is building trust, all these micro-interactions are the steps that either promote success or detract from it.   

What do others think?   

"Unless you're a multi-time IPO founder who has developed a proven view on recruiting, you need a trusted consigliere as a recruiter. When you look at this person in the same vein of expertise as you do other CEO and board level advisors, they can have a huge impact in your business." — Jasper Hopper, Partner at true   

What do we think?
As you build your arsenal of trusted advisors — your board, advisors, peer CEOs, and mentors — do not make the mistake of foregoing trusted search partners on this panel. We like search firms whose recruiters are methodical, hands-on, and who personally talk to every candidate before you do. We discourage a leveraged approach where the big-name search partner pitches the business and then shows up for the weekly calls until the retainer burns down — while five other people on the backend do all the candidate interface work. Run from this model. You've heard the phrase, No one gets fired for giving a leadership search to "a big-name search firm." Wrong. You should fire yourself for thinking that way.  

A strong track record matters more than ever as the market gets increasingly noisy with an influx of leaders on the move and recruiters hoping to take their piece of the search pie. To separate those who can deliver from the rest of the pack, show up to your meetings with search partners as if they are your dream candidate for the job. The best recruiters turn down many more search projects than they accept (probably 80% of the time, they say "not for me"). They will only engage if a founder shows up with an open and curious mindset. Be a truth-teller who doesn't pull any punches and you will attract the right search partners and candidates.   

What do YOU think?  

Take Action  

• Repeat success: Your VCs' endorsements matter but search partners who have successfully executed executive searches for the same company repeatedly will provide an excellent measurement of success. You don't get hired back two, three, four times if you aren't delivering. Company endorsements are critical.  

• Benchmark: Ask each partner the same set of questions to normalize your data set and score accordingly. "Show me your top five noteworthy placements." From there, gather data and stack rank.

• Calibration profiles: Jasper recommends digging into how partners navigate/articulate the "goldilocks" spectrum of talent. Ask them for three profiles, available or not. One is a stretch — almost impossible to get but someone to take a swing at, one is a bullseye, and one is an aspirational step up. How they describe the differences in these archetypes is very telling. You can get a great signal of how fresh the recruiter is in your category, how much of a truth teller they are, and gauge their interest to partner with you.

Tools, Events, Insights
Founder Search Toolkit Executive Search Interview Outline & Executive Search Scorecard
Madrona Events → Announcing the Second Annual Intelligent Applications Summit
Investment News → Unstructured.io
How to create a tight spec → Hooked on Leadership Role Specs - Issue 14
Hooked on Search Partners, Part 1