We fill C-suite and senior management roles for companies across Europe. Data-led research, a personal approach, one point of contact throughout the mandate.
Executive search since 2017
Replacement within 180 days
Leadership roles that carry responsibility for results, from division head to managing director.
Europe. Searches run in German and English.
Exclusive. The completion fee is payable once the role is filled, with the engagement fee credited against it.
Targeted, personal and discreet approaches to qualified candidates.
We open the market digitally: databases, B2B platforms, trade publications and public registers. AI-assisted analysis reads structures, career records and signs of movement out of them.
The selection is ours to make by hand. We approach every person ourselves and hold the interview before you read the first name.
A network built up over years at senior level and kept warm.
B2B platforms such as LinkedIn and Xing, plus further specialist platforms.
Talks, papers and trade publications.
Associations, trade fairs and working groups where an industry's decision-makers meet.
With AI-assisted analysis of network platforms such as LinkedIn and Xing, specialist platforms and public registers, we capture far more executives than a manual search, including those who never respond to a job advertisement: currently employed, often at competitors. The larger pool allows stricter criteria and therefore better candidates.
The basis is the requirements profile from the detailed briefing with you. Language, region, position and professional fit are checked digitally before any conversation takes place. Digital where reach and precision count. Personal where people decide.
Good executives are contacted regularly. That is why we approach each one individually and discreetly, with a message written for the person, their situation and your position. In the interview we clarify interest, willingness to move, salary range, leadership competence, availability, the individual agreements from the briefing and the references.
Whoever meets the requirements and convinces in the interview is recommended for the shortlist: with candidate profile and letter of recommendation, within 14 days.
From the start of the mandate to the signed contract, expect 20 to 60 days, notice period excluded. That is the pace we work to.
We work through the role, the team, the target market and the requirements behind the job description.
The step ends with a list of the companies that give people comparable responsibility, of the executives who hold it there today, and of those we approach.
The approach comes from the person who took your briefing. No mass mailings are sent.
Every candidate we recommend comes with a profile. It sets out the responsibility they hold today, their reason for moving and the points where we see friction. Approved by the person it describes before you read it.
Gross annual target earnings are the base salary plus the agreed variable pay at 100 percent of target, plus benefits in kind.
The first year of employment is what counts.
It covers the base salary, the agreed variable pay at 100 percent of target and benefits in kind such as a company car.
It leaves out signing bonuses, relocation and expense reimbursements.
If the candidate leaves within 180 days of starting, no matter who ends it, we run one further search at no additional fee. If that search does not succeed within 90 days, we refund the fee less the engagement fee. Redundancy, removal of the role and insolvency are excluded.
on Google
Executive search since 2017The newly created head of sales role at bestbion dx GmbH had been open for several months. Two searches by another provider had ended without a result. We rebuilt the search, identified 105 potential candidates and contacted each of them personally.
„Pragmatische Macher-Mentalität. Keine Automatisierung, die viele Kandidaten ohne Substanz liefert. Gerne wieder!“ Translated: a pragmatic, hands-on approach. No automation churning out candidates without substance. Happy to work with them again.
David Stammelbestbion dx GmbH
Three further searches followed the first mandate.
Four patterns that hold up an appointment for months, with the figures behind them.
Read → VacancyThe bill the team pays, and a finding that argues against haste.
Read → MarketFewer open roles, more managers available, and why filling one is still hard.
Read →
StartOne runs few mandates at a time. The person who takes your briefing also interviews the candidates and presents them to you.
The research runs on specialist platforms, trade publications and our own sources.
29 percent of gross annual target earnings, plus VAT. The engagement fee of €5,000 is payable when the mandate starts and is credited in full on placement. There is no interim fee when candidates are presented. That makes two invoices per mandate and nothing in between.
20 to 60 days from the start of the mandate to the signed contract, notice period excluded. That is the pace we work to. After the briefing we give you a figure for your role.
If the candidate leaves within 180 days of starting, no matter who ends it, we run one further search at no additional fee. If that search does not succeed within 90 days, we refund the fee less the engagement fee. Redundancy, removal of the role and insolvency are excluded.
The candidate approached hears about the role first. Your company is named in a confidential conversation once there is serious interest. We agree in the first call how far confidentiality goes beyond that.
Covering a search field systematically takes weeks of research and conversations. We put that work into your mandate when it sits with us alone, so all research time, every source and the budget for outreach go into that one role.
C-level, division heads and senior roles that carry responsibility for results. Anywhere in Europe. Where a role sits in the salary structure matters less.
We go through the job, the market for that profile and the timeline.
Our services are for companies with open roles. We cannot process enquiries from private individuals.
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