It comes down to two things: mindset and fee structure. The mindset is relatively easy because we have been startup founders before. The fee structure is a hybrid of the traditional agency placement fee and the retainer, but with a month-to-month cancel anytime option.
The traditional agency contingent placement fee means you pay a large fee, if/when you hire a candidate sourced by the agency. This creates additional risks for the agency therefore they have to compensate by charging a large fee.
The traditional retainer model can create more aligned incentives, but it requires a large guaranteed retainer. This does not give you any downside protection should you decide to not hire anyone or realize you chose the wrong recruiter.
Our fee structure solves these problems with a hybrid approach of (1) a fixed monthly fee only or (2) a fixed monthly fee and a modest placement fe00e. It is not perfect, but is better than the traditional approaches.2