How a mandate runs.
Searches at this level are rarely lost to the market. They are lost before the first approach, when the role is graded one level too low; between investor and management, who rarely have the same person in mind; and in the weeks after the offer, where appointments most often come apart. The mandate is built around those three points.
Where Julia is most useful
Grading
The most expensive mistake in executive search happens before the first approach: a role graded one level below what the company actually needs.
Alignment
Founders and investors rarely have the same person in mind, and the gap stays invisible until the team's favourite fails with the Board.
Momentum
Searches at this level are lost to slow decisions, unprepared interviewers and processes that let momentum drain away.
Julia is at her most useful when the brief is not yet resolved, the stakeholders are not yet aligned, or the process needs to stay confidential.
The mandate
- 01
Calibrate
Every mandate begins with a written view of what the role is worth in the market, what it costs, and what that means for location and profile. Sometimes the result is that the client is hiring a different role than the one they commissioned.
- 02
Map
The relevant market is mapped completely rather than stopping at the first shortlist; clients also learn who declined and why. People are approached personally and with context; the network makes the conversation possible, but Julia's judgment is what the client is paying for.
- 03
Decide together
Investor and management are prepared separately and decide together, with shared criteria so both sides evaluate the same person on the same terms. Julia tells the team when the investor is right, and the investor when the team is right. The client's own interview process becomes part of the mandate, because that is where most searches are won or lost.
- 04
Close deliberately
Every mandate has agreed review points, a defined end date and a deliberate close: an appointment, a re-scope, or a clear conclusion. Exclusivity, conflicts and who negotiates the final package are agreed at the start, because the weeks after an offer are where appointments most often come apart.
Fund and portfolio
Investment Team Search
Partner, Principal and investment-team appointments for venture, growth and private equity funds. The relevant market is mapped completely and becomes a deliverable in its own right. Timing is measured in months, with agreed review points and a defined end: appointments at this level are built on a standing view of the market, not on a short retainer.
C-Suite and Board Search
Leadership appointments in investor-backed companies, most often in the period after a financing when the company is hiring a role it has never held before. Investor and management are prepared separately and decide together, on shared criteria settled before the shortlist.
Perspective
The market, counted.
Since the founding of Grow Diverse, Julia has mapped the investment teams of Europe's leading venture funds every year: who sits where, at which grade, with which path into the industry. Every search starts from that map, not from a blank page.
Diversity
Broader access, disciplined search.
Grow Diverse started from the conviction that consequential talent markets should include more women. Today it means widening who is considered and improving the quality of the decision, with the limits of any given segment named early rather than discovered late. Every candidate is measured against the mandate: broader access strengthens the field, it never predetermines the appointment.
Working together
What the strongest mandates have in common.
Direct access to decision makers, timely and candid feedback, transparency about internal candidates, and a shared willingness to test the original brief against the market. Julia gives realistic market feedback instead of confirming a brief that cannot be filled as written.
Boundaries
Boundaries.
Mandates are held in confidence; who is looking, and who is being spoken to, stays between the parties to the search. Julia's judgment is informed by working with founders, investors and Boards, by investing privately, and by leading the Evangelistas; these roles stay professionally separate, and none of them creates access, preference or consent in another.