Ray Browser partnered with Troi Search on a retained recruitment search for a critical role. Ray is the Next Generation gaming browser.
What is Ray Browser?
Ray Browser is building a next-generation gaming browser specifically for gamers. Think of Google Chrome or Apple Safari, but focused on creating the best gaming experience imaginable for everyone, everywhere. The business is seed-funded and pre-launch.
How did they find out about Troi Search?
They actually approached one of our employees they’d previously worked with. She was working with one of our embedded clients but recommended our team of agency-style recruiters, Troi Search, to discuss the potential fit. That’s one of the great things about Troi: We offer different types of models depending on what people are looking for.
What were they looking for?
It was an incredibly critical hire for the CEO and CTO. The role was a Senior C++ Engineer, specifically with experience of Chromium. This experience means they have a deep understanding and knowledge of web browsers and how they’re made.
What were the next steps?
We knew how important this role was for them. It wasn’t a case of ‘let’s see what the market’s got to offer’. It was a ‘we need this person’ scenario. As it was such a unique search, we felt the best option was a retained search. That means you have a dedicated person committing their time to the search. We take a third of the fee up front, a third of the fee when the first shortlist of candidates is accepted, and the final third when we have an offer accepted.
It’s putting a lot of trust in us, and we knew we had to deliver for them, so we got to work finding potential candidates immediately.
How did the search go?
It started off great. We set up a spreadsheet for the CEO, CTO, and others in the company to have real-time insight into what we were doing and who we were looking at. In our initial search, we found around 200 profiles across the globe that fit and narrowed it down to 12 who we thought would fit culturally and technically. A cultural fit to this small team was as important as a technical match.
The initial search took around a week, and we had a call to run through the 12 candidates who fit the bill. They decided there were two or three they wanted to interview due to time zones and other challenges. It went slightly downhill as although skill-wise they were spot on, the communication and cultural fit just wasn’t there. So we had an in-depth conversation and took on the feedback to ensure we hit the mark next time and knew exactly what they wanted.
The following week, we presented them with three more candidates. One of them was successful. The candidate was offered 19 days from the initial discovery call.
And more than just successful, the client said, “it was the best technical interview they’d ever done”.
What did we learn from this retained search?
So, for us, and often in recruiting, it can be difficult to find the perfect person. But if you have a good relationship and communication, you really can go far.
It wasn’t an easy search and we knew that would be the case because of the complexity and uniqueness. We also think it proved that retained was the right solution for them because after finding 12 candidates you might not continue to try if the fee wasn’t guaranteed. For us, there was no other option. We had to deliver, and we did.
