FAQ
Questions worth asking.
Ten questions buyers tend to ask about the engagement, the team, the guarantee, and the mechanics. To book a working call instead, the Calendly link is calendly.com/venn-recruiting/intro-call.
Asked often
Ten questions, answered.
What does Venn actually sell?
Venn Recruiting sells experienced fractional recruiting directors. A Venn engagement is a senior search led by a recruiting director who runs intake, sourcing, slate construction, close support, and the 24-month retention window — without handoffs to junior recruiters or account managers. The work is priced as a monthly engagement indexed to the target salary band, billed across 24 months, with a 24-month retention guarantee on every hire. The closest mental model is “fractional CFO, but for senior recruiting.”
How is Venn different from a contingency or retained recruiter?
Three differences hold the most weight. First, the engagement runs across 24 months with the guarantee covering the full window, not 90 days. Second, the same recruiting director runs intake through retention with no handoffs to junior recruiters. Third, the pricing is monthly across the 24 months rather than a one-time fee at hire — which means the firm’s incentives align with the placement working out long-term, not just with the placement happening.
What does the 24-month guarantee actually cover?
If the hire leaves at any point during the first 24 months from their start date — for any reason that is not the role being eliminated — Venn runs the replacement search at no additional cost. Where possible, the same recruiting director, with the calibration already done. The client continues paying the monthly rate throughout the replacement search; rates are not refunded for months when no hire is in seat. Full mechanics on /approach/guarantee.
Who actually runs the search?
A senior recruiting director with functional expertise in the relevant practice area (GTM, Engineering, or Operations). The same director runs intake, sourcing, slate, close, and retention check-ins through the 24-month window. There are no junior recruiters, sourcers, or coordinators behind the scenes; the AI-native delivery model absorbs that work so director time concentrates on calibration and the close.
What are the pricing tiers?
Five tiers indexed to the target base salary band, with the monthly rate = salary × 0.0075 capped at the tier rate. T1 Entry ($65K–$100K): $695/mo. T2 Mid ($100K–$125K): $895/mo. T3 Senior ($125K–$175K): $1,195/mo. T4 Leader ($175K–$225K): $1,595/mo. T5 Exec ($225K+): $1,995/mo. 24-month totals range from ~$14,400 (T1 at midpoint) to ~$46,800 (T5 at midpoint). Full math on /approach/pricing.
How does Venn’s AI-native delivery work?
AI runs the sourcing, enrichment, scheduling, and transcription work that drains a typical recruiter’s time. The recruiting director runs the calibration, the deep interviews, the references, the close, and the retention work — the parts of the search that require judgment. The boundary split is detailed on /approach/ai-native-delivery. AI does not run candidate conversations, references, or close support.
Are Venn engagements exclusive?
Venn engagements are not formally exclusive, but the firm’s model assumes the client is running the search through Venn as the primary channel. Clients are free to run their own outbound or work with other firms in parallel; the firm’s engagement letter includes a 25% anti-circumvention clause that triggers if a candidate Venn introduced is hired outside of Venn’s engagement within 24 months of the introduction. Most clients run Venn as the sole search partner; the exclusivity question rarely surfaces in practice.
Can the engagement be cancelled?
Either party may cancel the search engagement pre-hire with 30 days’ written notice. Payments for months worked are non-refundable; the client has no further obligation after the 30-day notice. Post-hire, the 24-month commitment is mutual — the client commits to the monthly rate for the full window, Venn commits to replacement searches at no additional cost. Two narrow qualifying-events exceptions exist in the engagement letter (acquisition without contract assumption; company dissolution).
How does Venn calibrate a search at intake?
A working session with the hiring manager (and, where applicable, the CEO or relevant C-level peer). Output is a written role brief naming the company stage, the team context, the success definition at six and twelve months, the hard requirements, the soft preferences, and the compensation envelope. The brief is the calibration anchor for every subsequent phase of the search. The recruiting director who runs the intake is the same director who runs the rest of the search.
How does billing actually work?
The first month’s fee is paid at engagement signing, before work begins. Monthly billing continues throughout the engagement. Months 2 through 23 are billed at the full rate on the first business day of each month; the 24th month pro-rates to the 24-month anniversary of the hire start. The full billing mechanics, including accepted payment methods and any applicable surcharges or AP terms, are documented in the engagement letter.
Want to talk through any of this on a call?
A twenty-minute conversation is the fastest way to settle remaining questions and scope a search.
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