Use case
Executive and leadership hires
Last reviewed:
The short answer
A VP or C-suite appointment is the highest-stakes hiring decision a scale-up makes: the right CRO or CFO changes the trajectory of the next 18 months, and the wrong one costs a year. Executive Search at Saiyō is a discreet, retained process led by a founding partner: client-calibrated market mapping, proactive multi-channel headhunting, structured interview and risk management, an eight-week cadence, a pre-agreed fixed fee and a 180-day replacement guarantee.
The situation
The board has agreed the next chapter needs a new leader: a CRO to build the revenue engine, a CFO ahead of the next raise, a CPO to professionalise the product org. The candidate you need is not looking, is well looked after where they are, and will only move for a conversation worth having. Confidentiality matters, because the market talks.
The failure modes are well known: a contingent process that sprays the role around the active market, a generalist search firm that hands the work to a junior delivery team, or an internal process that interviews whoever applied and calls it a search.
How Saiyō approaches it
- Week 1: calibration and market mapping, built with you, defining what good looks like and where those people sit today.
- Weeks 2 to 5: proactive, multi-channel headhunting across the mapped market, led by a founding partner rather than handed down.
- Weeks 5 to 7: structured interviews, feedback loops and risk management, including references taken early rather than at the end.
- Weeks 7 to 8: offer, close and notice-period management, with full transparency through Slack and your ATS throughout.
Shared risk, in writing
The fee is pre-agreed and fixed, typically retained in three stages, so there are no surprises. The search carries a 180-day replacement guarantee: if the hire does not work out in the first six months, we run the search again at no additional cost. For a hire this important, we share the risk.
When this is not the right answer
- If the role is below VP level, a retained search is more process than you need. RaaS or a CVaaS sprint will deliver faster for less.
- If you need the leader's whole team built as well, that second phase belongs in RaaS rather than in the retained search.