We Need to Hire a Leadership Team But Have Never Done It Before – Forward Achieve

First-Time C-Suite Hiring

Every founder who's been here knows — hiring your first C-suite isn't a sourcing problem. It's a design problem you've never solved before.

The company is past 10 people, maybe past 50. The board wants a VP of Sales by mid-year. You think you also need a CMO. Or maybe a CRO covers both. You're not sure if it's a VP of Engineering or a CTO. You don't know what to pay any of them, and you've never run an exec process before.

And every senior person you talk to has a different opinion. Half are pitching themselves. The other half are pitching their candidates. Recruiters keep sending the same five people.

This is a harder problem than "we need to recruit better." When you've never built a leadership team, you don't know what shape the team should be, what the right scope per role looks like, what comp these levels actually take, or how to run the exec process — never mind close the people you want.

Here's what doesn't fix it: an executive search firm you don't know how to brief. An offer template you found online. Another inbound exec coffee where you're being recruited by the candidate.

What fixes it is three operators who've designed and hired leadership teams before — people who've structured the org, run the GTM exec searches, and built the comp and leveling that holds the team together once they're hired. People who give you architecture, not introductions.

That's a Personal Advisory Board. And when you're building your first leadership team, it might be the most consequential 10 hours you spend this year.

"Your first leadership team is the most expensive hiring decision you'll ever make. It's also the one with the least scaffolding — unless you build the scaffolding intentionally."

Three operators. One leadership-team unlock.

We don't match you with generalists. We match you with people who've built first leadership teams before.

Talent Architect

Paige Harazin-Masi

Builds talent architecture and leadership structures for Series B companies.

Before you hire the first VP, you have to design the team — what shape, what scope per role, what reporting line, what handoffs. Paige builds the talent architecture for first-time scalers: the org chart that holds up for the next 24 months, the role definitions that don't overlap, and the leadership scaffolding (peer norms, decision rights, calibration loops) that lets a new exec team function. She's the operator you bring in before you brief a single search firm.

Fractional CRO

Andre DeRussy

GTM team design and executive hiring expertise.

Most first-time founders hire GTM execs the way they hired engineers — and lose the search at the closing stage. Andre runs the exec hiring motion for GTM: search brief, calibration interviews, structured loops, reference depth, and the close. He's the operator you bring in when you don't know what "good" looks like at the VP/CRO level — and you need someone who's hired and managed those roles to help you design and run the search.

Comp & Leveling Specialist

Shelly Michaels

Designs compensation, leveling, and org structure for first-time scalers.

First-time C-suite comp is a minefield — exec equity that won't hold up at the next round, base bands that don't match the market, leveling that breaks the org chart the moment you hire the second VP. Shelly designs the structure that holds: comp bands calibrated to your stage, leveling rubrics that scale beyond the first hire, and equity that survives the next round of dilution. She's the operator you bring in before the offers go out.

From diagnosis to motion in weeks — not quarters.

How it works.

You tell us what's happening.

A 20-minute intake. The honest picture of where things are breaking — no polish required.

We build your board.

Our matching engine selects three operators from a vetted pool of 175+ — people who've solved your exact problem before, not advisors who've read about it. You review the profiles and confirm.

Your first board session happens within 2–3 weeks.

All three advisors. Your situation on the table. By the end of session one, you'll have a shared diagnosis, a prioritized fix sequence, and three operators who are invested in the outcome.

Twelve weeks of structured support.

Monthly group board sessions. Bi-weekly 1:1s with the advisor most relevant to your current bottleneck. Async messaging when decisions can't wait. Forward Achieve facilitates everything — you just show up and execute.

What a first-leadership-team problem actually requires.

You don't need one fix. You need three operators — and they need to challenge each other.

A search firm runs a process. A board member offers introductions. An HR consultant delivers a leveling doc. An advisory board gives you real-time pattern recognition across architecture, hiring motion, and structure — and the power of the PAB is that they see the same first-team build from three completely different angles.

Talent Architect

Sees the org-design gap.

Fractional CRO

Sees the GTM exec hiring motion.

Comp & Leveling Specialist

Sees the retention structure.

When they push back on each other's diagnosis in your board session, that's where the real insight lives — the tension between their perspectives is the most valuable thing in the room.

This isn't a retainer. It's not a six-month engagement. It's the leadership team you don't have yet — assembled for the moment you need it most.

What this takes from you.

~10 hours over 12 weeks.

Monthly Group SessionsOne per month with your full board.

Bi-Weekly 1:1sOne or two per cycle with the advisor most relevant to your current bottleneck.

Async MessagingFor when decisions can't wait.

Forward Achieve HandlesMatching, scheduling, facilitation, and follow-through.

Your only job: show up with honest data, stay open to uncomfortable diagnoses, and execute on what your board helps you see.

Your Personal Advisory Board is waiting.

Building your first leadership team isn't a sourcing problem. It's a design problem — and it's solvable.

The founders who hire great leadership teams the first time around don't do it by interviewing more candidates. They do it by designing the team intentionally — scope, comp, structure, leveling — before they take a single intro call.

Request Your Board → Talk to our team — schedule a 15-min scoping call →

Internal: Sales playbook — ICPs, Apollo search & 5-touch sequences ↗