The One Question I'd Ask Before Hiring an Executive Search Firm
Before you hire an executive search firm, ask them one question:
Who is making first contact with candidates on your behalf?
Most founders never ask this.
The single most useful question to put to any search firm is - who will personally pick up the phone to your candidates? Because most founders assume the person pitching the search is the same person speaking to candidates, assessing talent, and building the shortlist. Often, that's not how it works.
The search is usually sold by a senior partner and delivered by researchers, associates, or internal delivery teams. Founders think they're buying access to senior relationships. In many cases, they're buying a process.
It’s an important distinction in executive search, and almost nobody checks for it before they sign.
What you think you're buying vs what most firms deliver
When you hire an elite search firm, you think you're buying access to the top 1% of finance leaders. The people you can't reach yourself.
What a lot of firms actually sell you is the appearance of that access.
A polished pitch from a senior partner, then a handoff to a delivery team the moment the brief is signed. The relationships you were promised stay with the partner. The work goes to someone you've never met.
That's the difference between a firm that gives you access and one that gives you the look of it.
Why executive search is still a relationship business
The strongest finance leaders aren't actively applying for jobs, and many aren't responding to outreach from someone they've never met. They're selective about who they engage with and how they spend their time.
Executive search is ultimately about access to people.
I've spent the last 15 years focused on one market: finance leaders in investor-backed companies.
In 2009, I spent ten hours a day talking to people in my market. Sixteen years and a wave of AI tools later, the job hasn't changed. I still spend my day talking to people in my market.
No database tells you why a CFO is quietly weighing a move. No tool knows who the market rates right now, or who's one bad quarter from walking. You only get that from conversations, and you only earn those over years.
That's the real market intelligence. Not knowing where candidates are, but knowing who's open, who's just moved, and who's about to.
By the time a founder hires a search firm, that work should already be done. It's one of the reasons search speed is so often misunderstood. The work started long before the brief arrived.
The researcher problem
So when you ask who's making first contact, the answer tells you what you're actually buying.
If it's a researcher or an associate, you're not working with a firm built around execution. You're working with one built around scale.
The best finance leaders don't respond to people they've never met. They respond to people they trust, who've earned the right to call through years of conversations. Hand that first contact to someone three rungs down the org chart and you haven't bought access.
You've bought a name on a contract and a process underneath it.
The geography problem
This is where I have a strong opinion.
A growing number of firms are recruiting in the US market from the UK. I don't agree with the model.
If a firm claims expertise in a market, it's reasonable to expect them to be present in that market. A simple test is whether they can meet you, or a candidate, within the week.
If every important conversation requires an international flight, it's worth asking how connected they really are to the market they're operating in.
I've never understood firms taking an upfront retainer without being willing to spend time with the team in person.
I'm not saying these firms are bad at their jobs. I'm saying distance is a structural problem, and founders are the ones who pay for it. The best search firms don't understand a market from a distance. They're part of it. Speaking to candidates, meeting founders, hearing what's happening in real time.
That's difficult to do from 3,000 miles away.
What real market presence looks like
Theo and I built Ember on the principle: whoever sells the search runs the search. There's no one else.
We lead every assignment ourselves, from market mapping and candidate assessment through to interviews and offers. Nothing gets passed to a delivery team once the brief is signed, and we never hand a candidate relationship to someone who had no part in building it.
We're based in NYC. If we're working together, we'll come and meet you. If we need to meet a candidate, we'll do that too, the next day if that's what it takes. That's not positioning. It's our calendar.
We also cap how many searches we run at once so we can stay close to every one. It's why we have a 100% success rate on retained searches.
Why this matters for getting to the right candidates
The right finance leader for your business is probably not looking at this very moment. They're not in a database waiting to be found, and they're not replying to a stranger.
They'll take a call from someone they trust, in a market that person is immersed in, and they'll make time for a firm that makes time for them.
That's what proximity and founder-led delivery buy you. A straighter line to the people you want to hire.
The questions to ask before you sign
Before you hire an executive search firm, ask who is making first contact with candidates on your behalf. Then ask whether that person could meet you, or a candidate, next week.
The answers will tell you a lot: how the firm operates, how connected they are to the market, and who will be responsible for the outcome of your search.
Most founders spend their time evaluating process. I'd spend more time evaluating people.
Looking for a finance leader?
If you're hiring a finance leader and want to know exactly who'll be running your search, message me on LinkedIn.
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