Elisna Van Zyl

The Growth Recruiter ๐Ÿš€ Sourcing the Top 1% of Growth Marketers for High-LTV iGaming, Fintech & SaaS | Award-Winning Copywriter turned Recruiter ๐Ÿ†

South Africa

About

The most valuable growth leaders in iGaming, Fintech, and Enterprise SaaS rarely apply for jobs. The brands worth joining rarely advertise their most strategic opportunities. Both operate within a private, closed-loop ecosystem. Known in the market as ๐“๐ก๐ž ๐†๐ซ๐จ๐ฐ๐ญ๐ก ๐‘๐ž๐œ๐ซ๐ฎ๐ข๐ญ๐ž๐ซ, I specialize in connecting high-LTV technology businesses with the elite commercial leaders responsible for customer acquisition, retention, and revenue scale. Operating across South Africa, Europe, UK, US and Australia, I partner exclusively with founders, CMOs, Managing Directors, and VPs of Growth. ๐ˆ๐ง ๐ญ๐ก๐ข๐ฌ ๐ฐ๐จ๐ซ๐ฅ๐, ๐œ๐ฅ๐ข๐ž๐ง๐ญ๐ฌ ๐š๐ง๐ ๐œ๐š๐ง๐๐ข๐๐š๐ญ๐ž๐ฌ ๐š๐ซ๐ž ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐ฌ๐š๐ฆ๐ž ๐ฉ๐ž๐จ๐ฉ๐ฅ๐ž. The VP building a team today is tomorrow's candidate; the CMO exploring a confidential move is a future hiring client. This creates a trusted network built on reputation, performance, and deep industry relationships. I help businesses secure the exact leadership and specialist expertise that drive measurable commercial outcomes, identifying high-impact passive operators across: โ€ข Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) & VPs of Growth โ€ข Heads of CRM, Retention & Lifecycle Marketing โ€ข Heads of Performance Marketing & Affiliate Directors Before moving into recruitment, I spent years as an award-winning copywriter. That experience fundamentally changed how I evaluate marketing talent. I ignore polished CV buzzwords and interview theatre; instead, I look straight at commercial judgment, strategic thinking, and unit economics. Can they improve cohort retention? Optimize acquisition economics (LTV:CAC)? Deliver payback on day one? Lead in high-stress, fast-scaling environments? Those are the only questions that matter. ๐ˆ ๐ฌ๐ฉ๐ž๐š๐ค ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐ฅ๐š๐ง๐ ๐ฎ๐š๐ ๐ž ๐จ๐Ÿ ๐ฎ๐ง๐ข๐ญ ๐ž๐œ๐จ๐ง๐จ๐ฆ๐ข๐œ๐ฌ ๐›๐ž๐œ๐š๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ž ๐ญ๐ก๐š๐ญ ๐ข๐ฌ ๐ก๐จ๐ฐ ๐ฆ๐ฒ ๐œ๐ฅ๐ข๐ž๐ง๐ญ๐ฌ ๐ญ๐ก๐ข๐ง๐ค. ๐”๐ง๐๐ž๐ซ๐ฌ๐ญ๐š๐ง๐๐ข๐ง๐  ๐ฉ๐š๐ฒ๐›๐š๐œ๐ค ๐ฉ๐ž๐ซ๐ข๐จ๐๐ฌ, ๐œ๐จ๐ก๐จ๐ซ๐ญ ๐š๐ง๐š๐ฅ๐ฒ๐ญ๐ข๐œ๐ฌ, ๐š๐ง๐ ๐ฌ๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ญ๐š๐ข๐ง๐š๐›๐ฅ๐ž ๐ซ๐ž๐ฏ๐ž๐ง๐ฎ๐ž ๐ž๐ฑ๐ฉ๐š๐ง๐ฌ๐ข๐จ๐ง ๐š๐ฅ๐ฅ๐จ๐ฐ๐ฌ ๐ฆ๐ž ๐ญ๐จ ๐œ๐จ๐ง๐ฌ๐ฎ๐ฅ๐ญ ๐š๐ญ ๐š ๐ฉ๐ž๐ž๐ซ-๐ญ๐จ-๐ฉ๐ž๐ž๐ซ ๐ฅ๐ž๐ฏ๐ž๐ฅ ๐ฐ๐ข๐ญ๐ก ๐ก๐ข๐ซ๐ข๐ง๐  ๐š๐ฎ๐ญ๐ก๐จ๐ซ๐ข๐ญ๐ข๐ž๐ฌ. ๐Ÿ” Specialist Focus & Ecosystem Keywords: โ€ข Sectors: iGaming, FinTech, Enterprise SaaS, Web3, High-LTV Digital Businesses. โ€ข Core Placements: Chief Marketing Officer (CMO), VP of Growth, Head of CRM, Performance Director, Affiliate Director, Growth Lead, Retention Architect, Fractional CMO. โ€ข Methodologies: LTV:CAC Optimization, User Acquisition, Player Retention, Cohort Analytics, MarTech Automation, Lifecycle Marketing.

Experience

  • Salt (Full-time ยท 2 yrs 6 mos)
    • Practice Lead
      Jan 2026 - Present ยท 6 mos

      As Practice Lead, I oversee a high performing recruitment team while driving strategic growth, operational excellence and revenue expansion within our division. I remain actively involved in full cycle talent acquisition, partnering with senior stakeholders to deliver data driven, insight led hiring strategies aligned to long term business objectives. I lead business development initiatives, identifying new market opportunities, expanding client portfolios and negotiating commercial terms, SLAs and contracts to ensure sustainable revenue growth. My approach combines consultative selling, market intelligence and competitive benchmarking to position our practice as a trusted strategic partner. Internally, I am responsible for team leadership, performance management and capability development. I mentor consultants, implement structured training frameworks and build high accountability cultures focused on delivery, quality and client satisfaction. I design and refine SOPs, optimize recruitment workflows and ensure compliance with industry regulations and data protection standards. A strong advocate for innovation, I spearhead AI implementation within the recruitment lifecycle, integrating automation, advanced sourcing tools and recruitment analytics to improve efficiency, candidate engagement and time to hire. I leverage ATS, CRM systems and talent intelligence platforms to drive pipeline strategy, workforce planning and KPI tracking. My expertise spans stakeholder management, employer branding, offer negotiation, talent mapping, succession planning and building scalable recruitment infrastructures. I focus on balancing commercial performance with long term relationship building, ensuring both client retention and team growth. Practice leadership for me is about combining strategy, people development, operational rigor and commercial acumen to build a resilient, future focused recruitment function

    • Senior Principal Consultant
      Jan 2024 - Present ยท 2 yrs 6 mos

      โ€ข Drive strategic talent acquisition initiatives for a diverse portfolio of clients, aligning recruitment strategies with their unique organizational goals and culture to ensure optimal talent outcomes. โ€ข Spearhead the development and execution of innovative sourcing strategies, leveraging advanced techniques, including AI-powered tools, to identify, attract, and engage top-tier talent across various sectors. โ€ข Cultivate and manage robust client partnerships, acting as a trusted advisor to understand their evolving business needs and provide tailored talent solutions. โ€ข Proactively identify and pursue new business development opportunities within the talent acquisition space, building and nurturing relationships with prospective clients. โ€ข Develop compelling proposals and presentations that articulate the value proposition of SALT Recruitment's services, aligning solutions with client-specific challenges and objectives. โ€ข Provide expert guidance on offer negotiations and compensation packages, ensuring alignment between client needs and candidate expectations to maximize successful placements. โ€ข Analyze recruitment KPIs and performance metrics to derive actionable insights for both client engagements and internal process optimization, driving continuous improvement. โ€ข Conduct comprehensive market analysis and competitive benchmarking to inform recruitment strategies and position clients as employers of choice in a dynamic talent landscape. โ€ข Mentor and coach junior recruitment team members, fostering a culture of continuous learning, collaboration, and professional excellence.

  • Recruitment Specialist at Network Recruitment
    Feb 2022 - Jan 2024 ยท 2 yrs

  • National Recruitment Manager at International Hotel School
    Dec 2020 - Feb 2022 ยท 1 yr 3 mos

  • Marketing Executive at Development Promotions
    Jan 2017 - Jun 2020 ยท 3 yrs 6 mos

  • Sales and Marketing Coordinator (Contract for global rebranding) at Beachcomber Hotels
    Apr 2016 - Dec 2017 ยท 1 yr 9 mos