How we define the role, how we find people who aren't looking and how we close the hire.
SRE team from scratch603 → 22 → 13 → 10
10 SRE
ML team from scratch341 → 48 → 16 → 6
6 ML
C++ in a narrow nichereservoir modelling
45offers
Hands-on CTOafter 6 months of own search
2 months
Go → Distributed Systemspromoted to Staff Engineer
Rust
Stop listfirst CPO · market picture
110+
First Head of Marketing150 → 10 → 1 · 4 months
LatAm
Staff Platform Engineer3 presented → 1 hire · 6 weeks
London
Chose not to hire outside128 → 8 → pre-offer
In-houseCMO
CPO in a monthcompany prepared for sale
Top 1
C++ browser engineerfound via contributor lists
Chromium
Product vs engineering6 finalists → 1 hire · 3 months
CPO
CMO in MarTech90 → 7 → 1 · 3.5 mo
Counteroffer
First CMO in FinTech54 → 11 → 3 → 1
1 month
Senior Ruby on Rails493 → 71 → 25 → 4
4 Ruby
Confidential CPO search100+ → 9 → finalist
Noswap
Head of Analytics, big tech67 → 36 → 13 → 1 · 6 mo
1offer
Product Analyst6-year partner · 12 hires
Newhead
AI startup, relocation157 → 38 → 15 → 3
3frontenders