How SpaceX’s Competition with Boeing Directly Relates To The Success of Your Startup – PLUS How You Can Avoid Blowing Up Your Next Executive Search While More Easily Hit Your Stretch Goals.

SpaceX launched it’s fourth Starship test flight this morning. Once again they managed to achieve their pre-set objectives for this mission. However, what most don’t not realize is Boeing got $4.2 billion to develop their astronaut capsule while SpaceX only got $2.6 billion. Yet SpaceX finished 4 years sooner. A true demonstration of the power and impact you can have by hiring the right GTM leaders for your team.

This launch got me thinking about the many things that had to go PERFECT for SpaceX to have achieved their milestones for this 4th mission.

Similarly, thousand of little things must go perfectly for YOU to find, attract, and ultimately hire the best GTM leaders for your team.

How many hours would you guess it takes ME to run an Executive Search for one of my early-stage CEO clients to ensure their mission is a success?

50 hours?

75 hours?

100 hours?

150 hours?

According to my dashboard, over the last 7 years, my average is ~206 hours, end to end.

Clearly, you shouldn't benchmark off that metric. But those are my real numbers of what it takes to get the job done right. And I'm meticulous about tracking.

Mission critical roles require most CEOs (who run the search themselves) to meet with ~20 deeply researched target candidates to get the hire right. Ideally, you're ~80% sure ahead of time you'd hire each person, based solely only on what you can see online.

However, what you might not realize is it'll require sifting through thousands of targeted profiles to get a solid list of ~100 you can deeply research. You'll then end up with ~50 you'll need to source contact info for and do custom outreach. Half will reject you which gets you to your ~20 interview cycles to end up with 1-3 finalists.

And don't forget. You'll be simultaneously selling AND vetting these passive candidates, HOPING you'll be able to afford them AND get them to join your organization within your target hiring window.

Like SpaceX did this morning, thousands of little things must go right, or the project will blow up and you'll have even bigger problems that'll take more time and cost a lot more money.

The best early-stage CEOs understand the value of their time.

They carefully consider the risk/reward ratio of what to do themselves vs. what to farm out, to whom, and when.

The best CEOs know by collaborating with a trusted external talent partner to set the right search strategy up front, they can go back to focusing on the business while their partner does the heavy lifting for them and brings back 3-5 pre-sold & pre-vetted candidates they get to choose between.

Makes sense, right?

But how much SHOULD this partnership cost?

Easy.

You've already got the budget to hire this GTM leader, right?

Expect to invest *approximately* the same amount monthly you'll pay the person you hire. You'll just start paying that amount today to your partner, then reallocate it once the job is filled.

This reframe should lessen the sting, knowing you'll get tremendous value end-to-end while staying focused on hitting your stretch goals.

Bottom line? Don't be Boing. Be SpaceX.