Hires that hold.
For founder-led companies done holding steady. We hire the sales and revenue teams that take you to the next horizon — leaders, operators, and the integration to make them work — without losing what got you here.
$5M to $50M. Founder-led to PE-ready. Regional to national. We run sales and revenue searches at every level the leap requires.
Every engagement runs through someone who's carried a bag, missed a quarter, and rebuilt a pipeline. We've sat in the chair we're hiring for.
Most firms move on after the placement. We stay through the first six months — coaching the new hire, supporting the founder, making sure the hire holds.
You didn't build this to plateau. We didn't either.
Most firms sell the placement. We sell the team that takes you to the next horizon — which means we own the work before, during, and after the offer.
The work isn't the hire. It's the system that takes you further.
A search alone doesn't hold. The system holds.
If the role moves the topline, we run it. Leadership Search, Commercial Talent, and Build Programs — three practices, one operator-led firm.
The full commercial owner. Sales, marketing alignment, customer success, RevOps. Most often a founder's first sales leadership hire.
The sales-only leader. Right when marketing and CS already have leadership, or when the founder isn't ready to hand off the full revenue function.
Quota-carrying enterprise and mid-market sellers. The first three sales hires after a VP Sales is in seat — sourced and vetted by operators.
Build the outbound function from scratch. Hire 3–6 BDRs, build the playbook, set comp and quotas, run the first 90 days of ramp.
Half of CRO hires fail within eighteen months. We were built around the other half.
The hire is not the win. The first six months are. Landing is our integrated coaching engagement — included with every Ruori leadership placement.
Days 1–30
The hardest 30 days for both the founder and the new leader. Joint sessions weekly to make the implicit explicit.
Days 31–90
The new leader makes moves. The founder second-guesses. We coach both sides through the friction.
Days 91–180
The leader owns the number. The founder owns the company. The relationship has settled.
What we keep when we're underway. Field notes from running sales searches for founder-led companies pushing into bigger water.
The sales team that got you to $20M is rarely the team that takes you to $50M. The motions change, the comp plans change, and the leaders you need are often not the ones in seat.
When a search fails, the founder usually blames the firm. More often, the role itself was scoped wrong — built for a stage the company hasn't reached.
Founders spend three months on the search. Then they spend the next three months unable to let go of their biggest accounts. The hire doesn't fail because the leader is wrong.