Building a team inside a startup is a different challenge entirely. The brief is harder to sell, the competition is fierce, and the margin for error is small. You're going up against agencies with established brands, bigger commission structures, and track records that do the heavy lifting in the room.
When Sestra People came to us, they needed someone who would genuinely buy into what they were building, not someone who would take the path of least resistance and go to the biggest name on their list.
We spent time with the Sestra People team getting under the skin of their vision, their culture, and the kind of person who would thrive in a startup environment. Not every strong recruiter is built for it, and placing the wrong person in a business at this stage can do real damage.
We mapped out what made Sestra genuinely compelling as an opportunity: the autonomy, the ownership, the chance to shape something from the ground up. And we identified the profile of a candidate who wouldn't just accept the role, but who would choose it.
We found that candidate, and then we managed the process with precision. At the time of placement, they had active interviews and offers on the table with more than five other recruitment agencies. Keeping them engaged, informed, and genuinely excited about Sestra required constant candidate management.
Sestra People secured a cornerstone hire who had every reason to go elsewhere, and chose not to. That candidate is now helping to shape what Sestra becomes, and the business has a team being built on the right foundations.
In a startup, the first few hires define the culture. Managed made sure they got it right.