What the Search Actually Looks Like

VP of Product — Austin, TX

Employed, passive

The Situation

A VP of Product at a mid-size SaaS company had been passed over for a Chief Product Officer promotion twice in three years. He wasn't desperate — but he was watching a ceiling form above him.

The Challenge

His resume read like a feature list. Fourteen product launches, three platform migrations, a team he'd grown from six to thirty-one. None of it was framed to answer the question that mattered: what would he do in the first 90 days at a new company? His LinkedIn profile had received four recruiter inbounds in the past year — all below his compensation floor.

The Process

The 10-Dimension Fit Score session surfaced two constraints he hadn't named: he needed a company with an existing data infrastructure (not a greenfield build) and a CEO who had operated at scale before. That ruled out 60% of the open VP Product roles on the market before we ran a single search. The Right 30™ Method produced 29 qualified openings in the first engagement period. We submitted 11 applications with tailored cover letters and direct recruiter outreach. He approved every one through the HITL interface in under 90 seconds per review.

The Result

Three first-round interviews in week five. Two second-rounds. One offer in week thirteen — $40,000 above his walk-away number after a two-round counter we ran together. He did not miss a day of work at his current role during the search.

Director of Engineering — Seattle, WA

Employed, confidential

The Situation

A Director of Engineering at a publicly traded company needed to leave. His manager had changed twice in eight months. The strategic direction of his division had shifted under him. He wanted out — but a single misstep and his search would become office gossip before he'd taken a first call.

The Challenge

He had tried running the search himself for two months. He'd sent six applications through his personal LinkedIn. On month two, his skip-level pulled him into a meeting that seemed, in retrospect, like a fishing expedition. He stopped everything and went dark.

The Process

We rebuilt the search with zero digital footprint attached to his name. No application touched a recruiter inbox he hadn't already approved. We used blind outreach — reaching out on his behalf without identifying him by name until the company had agreed to a confidential first screen. His LinkedIn profile was not touched. His current employer saw nothing.

The Result

Fourteen confidential first screens over eleven weeks. Seven second rounds. Two final rounds. One offer — a Director of Engineering role at a Series C company, 18% above his current base, with an equity package that vested over three years. He gave his current employer two weeks' notice on a Tuesday. No one had known he was looking.

Chief Operating Officer — Chicago, IL

Recently separated

The Situation

A Chief Operating Officer was separated from a PE-backed portfolio company following a change of control. She had four months of runway and a strong track record — but hadn't run a job search in eleven years.

The Challenge

The executive job market had changed completely since she'd last navigated it. ATS systems, LinkedIn algorithm changes, the rise of direct sourcing — none of it mapped to her mental model of how searches worked. Her network was strong but concentrated in one vertical. She had sent eight applications through her network in the first three weeks and received two polite rejections and five non-responses.

The Process

The 10-Dimension Fit Score session was her inflection point. She had been applying to COO roles. The session revealed that what she actually wanted was a role with full P&L ownership and the autonomy to rebuild an operations function from scratch — which is a very different search than 'COO at a large company.' We reoriented the search toward PE-backed mid-market companies in the $50M–$250M revenue range, pre-exit, where her specific operational profile commanded a premium.

The Result

First offer in day 61. She accepted on day 68 after a two-round counter. Final package: $30,000 above her stated target, with a meaningful equity stake and a seat at the management committee. She later said the 10-Dimension session told her things about what she actually wanted that she hadn't articulated in twenty years of working.

VP of Sales — Denver, CO

Employed, proactive

The Situation

A VP of Sales at a bootstrapped SaaS company loved his team and hated his cap table. The company had no institutional path to an exit. He was watching peers at funded companies vest equity he'd never see. He started the search with no urgency — which turned out to be an advantage.

The Challenge

Without urgency, he'd been passive for two years — responding to inbounds, taking coffee chats that went nowhere, interviewing occasionally when something interesting crossed his desk. His biggest risk wasn't desperation — it was that he didn't know what he was actually optimizing for. He'd turned down two roles that looked right on paper and couldn't fully explain why.

The Process

The 10-Dimension session identified the unstated blocker: he needed a company where the VP of Sales had a defined path to Chief Revenue Officer within 24 months, and where the CRO reported directly to the CEO. That constraint eliminated every company where Sales reported through a COO or General Manager. We used that filter upstream — before we ran the scan — so the Right 30™ only surfaced roles where the org chart matched his trajectory. We also mapped his compensation floor against his equity position and recommended he not leave for less than $X in base plus a specific minimum equity percentage.

The Result

One offer after 108 days. He was selective — passed on two earlier offers that didn't meet his CRO trajectory filter. The final role: VP of Sales at a Series B company, with a written succession agreement (CRO pending 18-month performance review) and an equity package that modeled to $380,000 in net value at a conservative 3x exit.