The first Chief Revenue Officer
Tier-one institutions live, the market opening, and the founders still the only people selling. A first CRO in seat fifteen weeks after the first conversation, chosen from forty leaders Brian spoke to himself.
- Situation
- Regulated infrastructure for private-market securities, embedded inside the systems of tier-one banks and a major asset manager. Live, and sold so far by the founders.
- Mandate
- First Chief Revenue Officer at a founder-led company.
- Result
- Forty discovery calls, nineteen written assessments, three candidates in front of the chief executive, one offer, accepted.
- Pace
- Fifteen weeks from first conversation to first day in seat, three interview rounds included.
The market the company had been built for was opening: the first tier-one institutions were live and the next had to be won at enterprise scale, repeatably, by someone other than the founders. The seat was a first Chief Revenue Officer at a founder-led company, where the wrong hire costs a year the market will not give back. Referred by the Chief Operating Officer of a company Brian had built the executive bench for, the founders retained Bennett Search Group.
Brian had the conversation with all forty revenue leaders who had scaled regulated financial infrastructure before, so the chief executive met three. Each of the nineteen he put forward came with his written assessment of fit for this stage and these founders. The Chief Revenue Officer was in seat fifteen weeks after the first conversation, and is now building the commercial organization.