Executive search for startups in the UK
Most executive search is built for companies that know what the role is. A startup usually does not, and the honest first job is working out whether the seat being described is the seat the business needs. That is the difference, and it changes the process before it changes the fee.
The UK market charges 25 to 33 per cent of first-year salary for retained search and 15 to 25 per cent for contingency. What sits inside that number is set out openly, which is unusual in this market and deliberate.
What changes when the buyer is startups
The brief is the deliverable before the shortlist is
A large company writes a job description because the role already exists. A founder describes the person they imagine and the search turns it into a scope: what this person owns, what they decide alone, what success looks like in two quarters. Firms that skip this send three impressive people who do not fit, and the founder concludes search does not work when what failed was the brief.
The package is equity-weighted and the candidate is pricing risk
A senior operator leaving a large company for a startup is trading certain cash for uncertain equity, and they will model it. Have the strike price, the option pool, the vesting terms and the last round's terms ready before the first conversation, because a candidate who has to extract them concludes the company is not ready. The cash component is usually below market and saying so early saves everyone a month.
Speed is not a nice-to-have, it is the constraint
A startup hiring a first executive is usually doing it because something is breaking now. A three-month search that produces a perfect candidate who starts in month five has failed a business running at that pace, which is why the fractional route exists alongside this one and why an honest firm will raise it rather than wait to be asked.
One wrong hire is a material event, not a line item
At fifteen people an executive who does not work out costs a meaningful share of the runway, months of momentum and a share of the team's confidence in the founder's judgement. That asymmetry is the argument for a proper process and for a replacement guarantee that means something. It is also the argument against hiring quickly from the founder's network without reference work.
The process, where it differs
What the seat owns, what it decides, and what two quarters of success look like. Written down, agreed, and used as the assessment standard rather than discarded after the kickoff.
The realistic market for that scope at that package, which is a smaller pool than a founder expects and worth knowing before the search rather than after it.
Direct approach to people who are not looking, because the people available on a job board for a startup executive seat are rarely the ones you want.
Against the written scope, with the founder in the room early enough to correct it rather than late enough to reject three people.
Package modelled honestly, references taken properly, and a start date the business can actually wait for.
What to ask a search firm
- Which seat have you filled at our stage, not at our size?
- What would you change about the brief we just gave you?
- How many of your placements in the last two years are still in post?
- What does your guarantee actually cover, and what voids it?
- At what point would you tell us to hire fractionally instead?
Where it goes wrong
- Writing a job description for a company two sizes larger and searching against it
- Starting the search before the equity terms are ready to discuss
- Treating the first shortlist as a verdict on the market rather than on the brief
- Hiring from the founder's network without doing the reference work, because it feels faster
When a search is the wrong instrument
If the seat is part-time, if the need is urgent, or if the company is not sure the role is permanent yet, a full retained search is the expensive way to find out. A fractional executive answers the same question in weeks and converts to permanent if the answer is yes.
Common questions
What does executive search cost for a startup?
The UK market charges 25 to 33 per cent of first-year salary for retained search, and that is the same whether the company is large or small. The number that matters more to a startup is what happens if it does not work: ask what the guarantee covers before comparing percentages.
Is a startup better served by a fractional executive first?
Often, and it is worth asking properly rather than assuming. If the need is under three days a week, or the role is not certainly permanent, a fractional hire tests the answer at a fraction of the cost and converts if it works. If the seat is genuinely full-time and permanent, a search is the right instrument.
How long does a startup executive search take?
Eight to twelve weeks to an accepted offer is the honest range for a C-suite seat, plus whatever notice the person has to serve. Anyone promising materially faster for a permanent senior hire is either lucky or describing a database.
Permanent, or the part-time version first
Retained search runs a full-time appointment end to end. Operator Search answers the same brief fractionally in five business days, which is usually the faster way to find out whether the seat is real. Or browse the bench and approach somebody direct at no cost.