H1 2025 Newsletter

H1 2025 Wrap Up

We are closing the first half of 2025 on a real high.

That’s not to say that H1 hasn’t been without its challenges - economic uncertainty, geopolitical tension, tariffs and elections all made for a turbulent start - but we’ve gotten so good at adapting, we’re thinking of listing ‘geopolitical plot twists’ under team hobbies.

We’ve closed nearly 30 searches, launched FK LAB—our Leadership & Benchmarking Assessment for high-growth companies—and begun partnering with VCs on pre-deal referencing, a natural extension of what we do, powered by our deep connectivity across the Founders Forum ecosystem.

I’m incredibly proud of my team, for consistently delivering with pace, quality, and deep market insight.

It now takes us just 25 days on average to introduce the lead candidate who ultimately gets hired - fully vetted, motivated, and already plugged into our network.

We’ve loved bringing the community together through brilliant events with functional leaders, and a personal highlight was attending my 11th Founders Forum, celebrating its 20th anniversary.

It was fantastic for me, together with fellow partners Stephen Rosenthal and Hannah French, to see a record number of our clients there, including InPost, Unipaas, Mews, ANYbotics, Luminance, Pleo, Kinnevik, Just Eat Takeaway.com, and Metaphysic.ai.

A huge thanks to our exceptional team.

We love what we do, and none of this would be possible without them all, our trusted clients and candidates, and the ongoing support from our trusted advisors.

Thank you all

Ric Segal