The CFO/COO, the sole non-investment leader in the firm, saw that the firm had hit a point in their growth that he would require an addition to his team that could provide him with leverage across a wide variety of functions and responsibilities. This typically happens when a firm hits 15 people and closes in on $1b AUM.  He was playing the role of CFO and COO and everything else in between, as the firm expanded he needed a multi-faceted, very talented and well rounded “unicorn” hire to take the day to day blocking and tackling off his plate and allow him to spend more time in the bigger more strategic aspects of the firms growth.

Yes, this person couldn’t just be a “doer”, they needed to also be able to think on their feet, and execute strategically in a rapidly evolving environment with shifting priorities. This person needed to have strong technical/financial skill and strong soft skills as it required very heavy interaction with the deal teams and senior leadership. Additionally, as a small firm, culture fit was vital and this hire’s personality needed to fit right in.

The firm worked with 2 contingent recruiters for 5 months and weren’t able to make this hire.  The contingent firms brought them a number of 1 dimensional “Controller-types” who lacked the broad based skill set required or the personality/soft skills required to interact effectively with the deal teams.

The ideal candidate would have operational experience around process improvement and efficiency development but also have financial acumen to support reporting and much of the day-to-day financial aspects. In addition, this person would be quarterbacking with external vendors such as fund admins and need to be organized and able to direct these teams. 

Lastly, this person was also working heavily with the deal teams to support their deal processes, pull in key resources to support the DD process at just the right times and provide an integrated support function to their efforts.

We have a depth of experience supporting both CFO and COO’s and building their teams, so we had a good understanding of the mix of experience required .

The team is in office 4 days a week so we started by mapping a long list of local Bay Area PE firms. We systematically mapped the relevant team(s) targeting the appropriate level(s) of each one with. We have deep existing networks in the space so tapped many of our existing contacts for referrals and insights into what the best target firm’s might be.

Working with the hiring manager we developed a compelling Employer Value Proposition and some ideal targets that would be most intrigued by it. However, what was most important here was personality and soft/communication skills and the best way to assess that was getting on the phone and talking to each person in the target list looking for that energetic response and engaged conversation. 

Each candidate in the long list was assessed against a scorecard we developed with the hiring manager, but was also interviewed twice by our team to dig into each of the relevant areas and to gain a strong understanding of the person’s motivations and strengths.