Recruitment for Scaling & Founder-Led Businesses

Growing a business changes the people you need around you.

For founder-led businesses, hiring isn't always as straightforward as replacing someone who has left or recruiting against an established job description. As the business scales, new responsibilities emerge, founders need to delegate, and sometimes entirely new roles or functions need to be created.

That's where we can help.

Searley Owen works closely with founders and leadership teams to understand the business first — where you're going, what's holding you back and what you need the next hire to achieve.

Sometimes that means refining a role. Sometimes it means helping you define one from scratch. And sometimes it means challenging whether the person you thought you needed is actually the right hire for the next stage of the business.
How we support growing businesses

Defining new roles
You don't need to come to us with a finished job description. We can start with the problem you're trying to solve and help shape the responsibilities, seniority and profile of the person you need.

Key & senior hires
As founders begin to delegate more responsibility, the right senior hires become increasingly important. We help find experienced people who can take genuine ownership and become an important part of the next stage of the business.
 

Building new functions
Growth often means hiring expertise that hasn't previously existed within the business. We can support your first hire into areas such as sales, operations, finance, marketing or HR, helping you understand both the role and the available talent.

Scaling existing teams
When growth creates demand for several new hires, we can help you build capacity without losing sight of the culture, values and standards that helped make the business successful.

Culture-led recruitment
In a growing business, every hire matters. We take time to understand how you work, what you value and the environment you're trying to create — assessing the individual, not simply the CV.

An ongoing recruitment partner
The best recruitment conversations don't always start with a vacancy. By understanding your wider growth plans, we can help you think ahead about the people and skills you'll need as the business develops.