Leadership in start-ups: how executive search enables growth

Start-ups stand for energy, innovation and the courage to do things differently. Qualities that attract ambitious leaders and investors alike. Over the past decade Europe’s start-up ecosystem has professionalised: many young businesses have become scale-ups, operate internationally, face new governance standards and compete for global talent.

As they grow, the leadership and organisational requirements change. The personal networks and intuitive hiring that work in the founding stage reach their limits. Founders who once recruited from their immediate circles must now build leadership structures that are durable and scalable.

Executive search brings the expertise and rigour required to fill key roles. Start-ups operate by their own rules, rapid, complex and entrepreneurial, and from Odgers’ experience across growth environments we identify seven key insights.

1. Agility is both an asset and a risk

Start-ups thrive on speed: decisions are made fast, hierarchies are flat and hiring often happens via networks or opportunistically. That flexibility lets teams seize opportunities, attract unconventional talent and shape roles dynamically.

But agility has a cost. Lack of structure can leave responsibilities unclear, mean stakeholders are involved too late, or lead to rushed decisions. At leadership level this can materially affect culture, investor relations and team stability.

Executive search restores balance: it preserves vital agility while adding methodological precision and strategic oversight.

2. Investors at the wheel: experience meets complexity

Investors play a far more active role in start-ups than in corporates. They bring expertise, market knowledge and networks, which can raise the quality of leadership decisions.

This also adds complexity. Where founders, advisory boards and investors disagree on seniority, compensation or cultural fit, consensus is not guaranteed. The famous “too many cooks” scenario is common.

Leaders joining start-ups therefore need an additional competency: confidently managing investor relations. Strategic thinking, financial literacy and board-level communication are essential.

An experienced executive-search partner can act as a neutral broker, ensuring clarity, transparency and decision-making that takes all perspectives into account.

3. Personality before CV: cultural fit is key

Few environments value personality as much as a start-up. The “start-up spirit”, energy, optimism, determination, shapes day-to-day life and determines success.

In corporates, established structures can provide stability. In start-ups the people themselves are the stabilisers. Leadership is visible, direct and personal. Those who rely too heavily on formal authority or rigid processes will have limited impact.

What matters is not only past achievements but how someone handles pressure, uncertainty and change. Motivation, adaptability and mindset are the true selection criteria. Particularly after the turbulence of recent years.

At Odgers, personality assessment and cultural fit sit at the heart of each assignment, based on our evidence-based competency model. That way we ensure the company DNA matches the leader’s DNA and vice versa.

4. Rethinking remuneration: equity alone is not enough

Many start-ups attract leaders with equity. While equity can be a powerful motivator, it does not replace a fair base salary.

Experienced executives carrying team, investor and strategic responsibilities need financial security as a foundation. Equity is an incentive on top of that, not a substitute.

A well-designed compensation package signals professionalism, maturity and long-term commitment. Relying solely on a future exit risks losing strong candidates or creating conflicts at renegotiation.

The right balance of base salary, performance incentives and equity aligns individual motivation with company interests.

5. Trust through transparency: honesty pays dividends

Joining a start-up means accepting uncertainty. Business models change, funding rounds can be volatile, markets move fast and competition never sleeps. For seasoned executives this can feel like a leap into the unknown.

Being candid about financing, governance and exit scenarios does not put candidates off; it creates trust. Candidates who join after transparent conversations do so from conviction.

Executive search can translate between founders, investors and candidates. Clear, honest communication builds durable relationships and a strong employer brand.

6. Once you’ve tasted start-up life, you rarely go back

A recurring pattern: executives who move from corporates into start-ups often stay. Not because they failed elsewhere, but because the direct influence on strategy, the responsibility and the creative freedom are compelling.

For many, leading in a start-up is a career reorientation rather than a stopgap. Those who make the move do so out of conviction, not curiosity. Start-ups that communicate this clearly win in the talent market. The opportunity to grow with the company is a major draw for leaders.

For start-ups this creates a duty: they must offer credible development paths and genuine scope for impact to retain these leaders. Mentoring from investors, access to entrepreneurial networks and varied challenges make the proposition attractive even when base pay isn’t at corporate levels.

7. Time-bound leadership: interim, advisory and project solutions

Not every leadership role needs to be permanent. During periods of change - scaling, restructuring or international expansion - interim or advisory solutions can be more appropriate.

Senior leaders with broad experience bring concentrated know-how for a defined period: building teams, implementing systems, supporting founders or preparing for the next funding round.

We see a clear trend toward interim management as a flexible bridge between founder mentality and corporate maturity. Fast, effective and experienced.

Conclusion

Start-ups have a unique appeal: the energy of the new, the will to change and the sense of doing something meaningful. But enthusiasm alone is not enough. Growth requires structure, clarity and courageous leadership. The right leaders connect strategy, cultural understanding and excellent stakeholder management.

This is where executive search adds value: it blends entrepreneurial spirit with methodological rigour to ensure leadership decisions enable sustainable growth.

At Odgers we see our role as more than filling positions. We help build leadership capacity for the next generation of businesses. Ultimately, a start-up’s success depends not only on the idea, but on who leads it.

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Get in touch. Follow the links below to discover more, or contact our dedicated search experts from your local Odgers office here.