For candidates
Small companies, early. Read the difficult parts first.
Every role below is a second or third hire at a company under fifty people. That means more room and less scaffolding. We will tell you which one you are getting.
Open now
Six roles we are working on
Company names come in the first conversation, not before. Salaries are the band the company has actually approved, not an aspiration.
First engineer, hardware startup
Eleven people. You would be the second technical hire and the first who has shipped anything to a factory. The founder writes firmware and will not stop, so you need to be able to argue with him.
From 00
Operations lead, logistics
Thirty-four people, profitable, growing faster than the spreadsheets. Nothing is documented. The first six months is writing down what the company already does.
From 00
Second designer, health software
Nine people. One designer who is tired and good. You would take the whole product side while she takes brand. Regulated work, so slow release cycles.
From 00
Head of finance, first in role
Twenty-two people using an accountant and hope. You would build the function from nothing. The founders are honest about the numbers, which is rarer than it should be.
From 00
Third commercial hire, data tooling
Sixteen people. Two salespeople who sell by knowing everyone. You would be the first who has to sell without that. Long cycles, technical buyers.
From 00
Workshop manager, furniture
Seven people, one workshop, a waiting list. The owner wants to stop running the floor and go back to making. Hands-on, and the commute is not negotiable.
From 00
After you write
What happens, in order
No portal, no assessment platform, no video interview you record alone at midnight.
We reply within two working days
A person reads your message. If there is nothing for you right now we say so in that reply rather than leaving you in a database.
An hour with one of us
What you have done, what you want next, what you will not accept. We ask about money in this conversation because pretending otherwise wastes everyone's month.
We put you forward, or we do not
If we do, you see the full brief first, including the parts the company would rather we left out. You can say no and it costs you nothing with us.
Two conversations with the company
One with the founder, one with whoever you would work beside. We push back on any process longer than this. For a company of twelve, five rounds is a sign of something wrong.
A paid piece of work, sometimes
Half a day at most, on a real problem, paid at your day rate. If a client asks for unpaid work we tell them no before we tell you about it.
Offer, and an honest read of it
We tell you what we think of the offer, including when we think you should turn it down. We are paid either way and we would rather you stayed.
Questions we get
The ones that arrive by email
How long does the whole thing take?
Nineteen days from first conversation to offer, on the median. The fastest was six. The slowest ran to eleven weeks because the company kept changing the brief, and we told the candidate that was what was happening.
What if I am not right for anything open?
We say so, once, clearly. We keep your details for a year if you want us to, and we write to you only when there is a specific role, never with a newsletter.
Do you work with big companies too?
No. Above fifty people the hire stops being a second hire and we are no better at it than anyone else.
Will my current employer find out?
Not from us. We never send your details anywhere without asking you first, per company, by name.
Do I pay anything?
No. Candidates are never charged, for anything, at any stage. The company pays us.
The salary band is lower than I want. Is it negotiable?
Sometimes, and we will tell you honestly which. At this size the band is usually a real constraint rather than a bargaining position, and we would rather not put you through four weeks to find that out.
People we placed
Two years on
They told me the company had nine months of runway and that the founder had never managed anyone. I took the job anyway, with my eyes open. Nobody else in that process mentioned either thing.
Operations leadPlaced 2024, still thereI was turned down for the role I applied for and offered a different one at a smaller company three weeks later. That second one was right and I would not have found it.
DesignerPlaced 2023
Nothing above fits?
Write anyway and say what you are actually after. Half our placements start with a message about a role we had not opened yet.