The searches, the timelines, and what came out of them — across EU and UK fintech.
How we approached specific hiring challenges, and what came out of it.
The challenge: A licensed EMI had been searching for six months through two agencies. Every candidate either lacked the regulatory depth for a Bank of Lithuania licence holder, or wanted a package well outside the budget. The role was blocking their next funding round.
Our approach: We mapped every MLRO-qualified professional across the Baltic and Central European fintech market, then filtered hard for people who had actually scaled a compliance function, not just maintained one. We benchmarked salaries against real market data and told the client upfront their range needed adjusting by 12%.
The challenge: A Series A neobank needed to triple its engineering headcount in under a year while entering two new EU markets. Internal recruiters were drowning, and generalist agencies kept sending fintech-naive profiles who failed the technical screen.
Our approach: We ran it as a rolling engagement rather than a series of one-off searches. Talent mapping across Lithuania, Poland, and Romania, salary benchmarking per market, and a structured shortlist rhythm the client's CTO could plan around. We turned down two roles that were better filled internally.
The challenge: A UK lending platform asked us to find a VP of Sales to fix a revenue problem. On the discovery call, it became clear the issue wasn't the sales leadership. It was an unclear ICP and a product positioning gap no hire would solve.
Our approach: We told them. We recommended they pause the search, spend six weeks on positioning, and revisit the hire afterwards. It cost us the fee that quarter.
People we helped land roles they actually wanted.
Tell us about the situation in your company or the role you want to hire.
