How a scale-up hired its CFO in 27 days
The context
Funding secured, a financial close in three months, and no one leading finance.
Some recruitments are urgent because a position is vacant. Others are because everything depends on the person who will occupy it in the coming weeks. This client case tells the second situation.
When a Lyon SaaS scale-up contacted us, she had just closed a B series. Its financial director, who has been present since the beginning, set out to found his own company. The annual closing came in three months, investors were waiting for a reinforced monthly reporting and the management committee needed a partner, not a management controller promoted in an emergency.
The profile you were looking for had everything to do with it. A DAF who has already accompanied a company of 80 to 250 people. An experience of the relationship with investment funds and banks. The ability to structure a team finances six people, to industrialize reporting and to prepare, in the long run, an external growth operation. And the desire to settle in Lyon, or to be there already.
A post. A city. Twenty-seven days between the first exchange with the founder and the signing of the promise to hire. A term of officeexecutive search conducted in complete confidentiality, each candidate being qualified before being presented.
Our approach
The financial managers that this mission required did not respond to the announcements. They respond to a credible, personal and documented approach, and nothing else. So that's what we built.
We have mobilized all our channels: mapping of the region's scale-up and DAFs, recommendations of our network of leaders and investors, targeted direct approach and personal revivals. No single source would have been enough. Their combination, yes.
Each candidate submitted met the criteria for the position: good seniority, a real fundraising experience, an already managed team, and an verified route prior to presentation. No verification, no interview. In a position where investor confidence is at stake, this step is not negotiable for us.
The approach brings the right profiles into the conversation. The interview determines what you learn from them once they are there, and with candidates of this level, the margin of error is low.
We entrusted the mission to Senior consultant specializing in finance, who adapted each exchange to his interlocutor. With a DAF from a large group, we talk about governance and rigor. With a start-up DAF, we talk about speed and uncertainty. With everyone, we take the time to explain what the founder really expects: someone who tells her not when it is necessary.
Each interview gave rise to a structured report, given to the founder within 24 hours: journey, verifiable achievements, motivations, points of vigilance and pretensions. Not a résumé commented. An argumented recommendation.
This is the part of executive recruitment that does not appear in a tariff schedule. A financial director who has already gone through a fundraiser did not arrive there lightly. He's careful because prudence is his job. A consultant who understands it, adopts the right register and asks him about his decision-making rather than his ambitions gets frankness. A consultant who does not understand him gets politeness. Only one of them is worth your fee.
What we have observed
84 profiles identified. 19 conversations. 4 candidates shortlisted.
The pool was narrower than expected, which surprised our own team. On the area and the profiles ready to settle there, we identified 84 financial managers corresponding to the perimeter. Nineteen agreed to a first exchange. Four met all the criteria and were actually available. When the pool is also tightened, recruitment ceases to be a sourcing exercise to become an exercise of conviction, a credible conversation at once.
It was the candidates' agendas that dictated the pace, not our schedule. These people give their time in fragments, so we adapted to them, not the other way around. The interviews took place at 7:30 a.m., at 7 p.m., on a Saturday morning. A candidate made his first exchange from his car, between two committees. When a leader can give you thirty minutes from a parking lot, you build the process around these thirty minutes.
The biggest risk was silence. Between two interviews with the founder, several days could pass, and for a candidate who has already taken the risk of opening up, the silence is suspicious. Unmanaged, this is where the best profiles discreetly conclude that the project is not serious and withdraws. Our consultant remained in personal contact with each other, kept the deadlines announced and kept the relationship alive. Trust, once established, must be maintained.
The result
An offer signed in 27 days, a start before the financial close, and a stable finance team.
The mission started on a Monday. Twenty-seven days later, the promise of hiring was signed with a financial director from a Parisian scale-up, ready to settle in Lyon. She took up her duties six weeks before the annual closing, with notice negotiated by us.
A year later, she's still on duty. The finance team has grown from six to nine people, reporting investors is produced at J+5 and the scale-up has made its first acquisition. The founder has since entrusted us with the recruitment of her Director of Operations, with the same mechanism: a direct approach, verified candidates and a followed by integration for the first hundred days.
Looking for a hard-to-reach leader?
Rare profiles are not a sourcing problem. It's a problem of trust. The leaders you need do not consult the ads; they respond to a credible, personal and documented approach, and they remain engaged when someone treats their time and prudence with respect. A pool of four candidates and a signature in less than one month may coexist on the same mission. The distance between these two numbers is the work we do best at Cadran Talents.
If there is a profile that your recruitments have been missing for months because you are told that it is not possible, let's talk about what it would take to reach it.
A unique consultant from end to end. Verified leaders. Interviews that get frankness.
Questions on this mission
Why is it so difficult to recruit a scale-up DAF?
Three reasons add up.
Rarity: the financial managers who have already conducted a fund-raising and structured a team form a very thin layer of the market.
Protection: their time is kept by saturated agendas, a duty of confidentiality and a healthy distrust of solicitations.
And the level of demand itself: this mission required an experience of the investor relationship, an already managed team and mobility to Lyon. Cumulate these filters and less than one profile out of twenty identified meets the conditions. It's normal for this type of position, and that's why ad shortcuts fail here.
How do you check the course of a leader?
Before any presentation, without exception. Each candidate for this mission has seen his/her experiences, diplomas and achievements verified, in addition to interviews on the role, scope and results achieved. We then lead a reference checks former executives and investors with whom the candidate has worked. The Cadran Talents rule is simple: no verification, no presentation.
What changes in an interview with a leader?
The register changes, the pace changes, and the definition of a good answer changes. An experienced financial director is prudent because prudence is his job. Our consultants therefore open the exchange with formality, show that they know his universe and ask about his way of deciding before talking about the position. The approach then adapts to the profile: direct exchanges with a start-up DAF, precision with a group DAF, long time with those who hesitate to leave a comfortable job. The objective is always the same: frankness rather than politeness.
