20%
Every hire was a fifth of the company
With five employees, one wrong seat changes the culture, the velocity and the product. Short-term hires were off the table from day one.
Four senior hires in one month for a team that couldn't afford a bad one
A five-person US AI security company needed senior Python, AI, frontend and product design engineers who would stay. Prometeo weighed three markets, chose Poland, and delivered 4 senior hires in 1 month, taking headcount from 5 to 9.
4
Senior hires, all long-term
1
Month from kickoff to full team
80%
Headcount growth, 5 to 9
3
Markets weighed, one chosen
The constraints
Four reasons a normal search would have failed
At five people, hiring isn't a pipeline problem. It's a precision problem. These were the conditions the search had to hold.
4
Four senior profiles, four disciplines
Python, AI, frontend and product design. Senior in each, and ready to commit for years, not quarters.
1
One CTO, one way of working
German, direct, no-nonsense, with a strong preference for focused, low-noise collaboration. Fit wasn't a nice-to-have. It was the filter.
1×
In the same room, once a year
The team meets in person for annual team-building. Whatever market we chose, travel had to be realistic and attrition low.
Scaling a small team where every hire counts?
Book a free consultation
30 minutes · No commitment
The market decision
Three markets on the table. One fit.
The talent existed in all three. Only one matched the CTO's working style, the attrition target and the annual flight.
Ukraine
Ruled out
Strong engineering talent, but geopolitical risk and travel constraints put long-term attachment and the annual in-person session at risk.
Latin America
Ruled out
Our deepest bench, but higher candidate mobility than the brief allowed and a weaker fit with the CTO's direct, low-noise working style.
Poland
Chosen
Strong technical foundations, lower attrition, and a culture aligned with structured, execution-focused leadership. Two hours from most of Europe.
Latin America is where we place most of our candidates. Recommending against it here is the point of a 20+ country reach: the market has to fit the leader who'll manage the hires, not the recruiter making them.
The engagement
From a five-person brief to a nine-person team
The client builds AI that flags software security risks at the planning and design stage, before development starts. Five employees at kickoff. Four senior seats to fill, and every one of them shaping culture, execution and product quality.
Hire four seniors without diluting a five-person culture
That kind of product depends on a small group of people who think carefully and ship without drama. The CTO wanted more of exactly that: senior Python, AI, frontend and product design engineers who would stay, work with low overhead, and show up in person once a year.
The brief ruled out the usual shortcuts. No contractors, no short-term placements, no candidates who'd move on at the first counter-offer. And any market we chose had to make reference checks workable, since the client treated them as non-negotiable.
Two strategic calls shaped everything that followed: where to hire, and how to handle the one local norm that could stall a closed offer.
Choose the market for the CTO, then move the friction to the front
Ukraine offered the talent but not the stability or the travel. Latin America offered depth but higher mobility and a looser working culture than this CTO wanted. Poland offered strong technical foundations, lower attrition and a culture built for structured, execution-focused leadership. We recommended Poland.
Then, reference checks. Polish candidates are reluctant to involve their contacts early, and a late-stage reference request can stall an otherwise closed offer. So we reframed it: references became a stated entry condition before any interview, not a hurdle at the end. Candidates who accepted the condition self-selected for the commitment the client needed, and nothing surfaced at the offer stage that hadn't been agreed at the start.
Two part-time RPO consultants, structured interviews with the whole leadership team, and one fixed decision meeting every Tuesday.
Two consultants, one weekly decision, four weeks
Rather than one full-time RPO consultant, we assigned two part-time consultants to the account. The client got continuous coverage and two points of view on every shortlist, and neither consultant carried the whole load. Every candidate went through structured interviews with the CTO, the hiring manager and the CEO, with external experts brought in when a profile called for it.
The discipline that made the month possible was a single fixed decision meeting every Tuesday. In a market where strong candidates are usually weighing several offers, waiting for consensus to form loosely across a week costs hires. Tuesday meant every candidate got an answer within days.
One decision day a week
This is some text inside of a div block.
This is some text inside of a div block.
This is some text inside of a div block.
This is some text inside of a div block.
This is some text inside of a div block.
This is some text inside of a div block.
This is some text inside of a div block.
All candidate decisions centralized on Tuesday. Interviews run around it; nothing waits more than a week.
This is some text inside of a div block.
References agreed upfront
Every candidate accepts the reference check as a condition before entering the process.
This is some text inside of a div block.
Two-consultant sourcing
Part-time RPO consultants build and challenge each other's shortlists across the four profiles.
This is some text inside of a div block.
Structured interviews
CTO, hiring manager and CEO, plus external experts where a profile demanded specialist judgment.
This is some text inside of a div block.
Tuesday decision
Go or no-go on every open candidate, in one room, every week. Offers follow the same day.
All four profiles closed within a month of kickoff. The company went from five people to nine.
Four senior hires in one month, and a team that nearly doubled
Python, AI, frontend and product design, all senior, all matching the long-term, low-noise brief the CTO set at the start.
The client ran the whole search through one partner. For a five-person company, that concentration is a risk. It paid off because the market call, the reference-check reframing and the Tuesday cadence were designed together, not handed off between vendors. Relying on one partner turned trust into scale.
What this search taught us
Four insights worth keeping
01
Pick the market for the leader, not the map
Talent depth is table stakes. The market that wins is the one whose working culture matches the person who'll manage the hires.
02
Move the friction to the front
A local norm that stalls late-stage offers becomes harmless when it's an agreed condition of entry.
03
Two part-time beats one full-time
Continuity without burnout, and two sets of eyes on every shortlist for a client who couldn't afford a miss.
04
One decision day wins the candidate
In multi-offer markets, a fixed weekly decision meeting is a speed advantage most competitors don't have.
Need senior hires in a market that fits your leadership, not just your budget?
We recruit across Latin America, Central and Eastern Europe and 20+ countries, and we'll tell you which one is right for your team before you commit to a search.
"Relying on one partner turned trust into scale."