Post by Stuart Rowland

Year one. Win or Learn. Repeat 🎯 A little over a year ago, Matthew and I started Cypress Talent with a simple idea: Be the kind of search partner we would have wanted when we were building teams ourselves. The more founders, CROs and operators we spoke to, the clearer the gap became. They weren't looking for multiple different recruiting partners. They wanted one trusted partner who could help them hire the leaders, then build the teams around them. Operators helping other operators scale. California 🇺🇸 ↔ London 🇬🇧. GTM Leadership hires and GTM team build-outs. Year one by the numbers: ✅ 20+ leadership searches delivered ✅ Multiple GTM team build-outs ✅ Hires across: - Founding GTM - CRO - VP Sales - VP Revenue Operations - VP Partnerships - VP Professional Services - Solution Architecture - Enterprise Sales & Solution Consulting - HR Leadership ✅ Clients spanning Series A to post IPO across Agentic AI, Cybersecurity, Workflow Automation, oCFO, Fintech, FinCrime/AML/KYC, Platform ✅ Delivering our first mandates in Germany 🇩🇪 and Switzerland🇨🇭 ✅ Proud to have played a small part in changing the trajectory of some brilliant careers ✅ Added exceptional former operators from Cyber and AI to the Cypress team   What we learned: ⚡ Building a business is the most brutal feedback loop you'll ever experience. ⚡ The searches we thought we'd win - but didn't - taught us more than any win ever could.  ⚡ Product-market fit isn't something you decide. It's something your clients show you. ⚡ The more work we've done, the clearer our lane has become. Founders and CROs increasingly want one trusted growth partner who can help hire the leaders, then build the teams around them. Year one is in the books 🎯. We're grateful to every client, candidate, founder, operator and friend who helped us get here. Onto year two.