FICTIONAL DEMONSTRATION · FOUNDER ADVISORY
The first 30 days of a fractional recruiting advisory engagement
A first-month advisory plan with decisions, owners, deliverables, a 20-hour example limit and clear scope boundaries.
Download PDF · 3 pages ↗I'd use the first month to settle hiring priorities, clarify decision authority and establish a review the founder can use. The engagement below is deliberately bounded. It gives the company a working decision process and a recommendation for the next month, with execution responsibilities agreed separately.
The assumed engagement
A fictional founder-led software company has two possible hires, a staff backend engineer and a solutions engineer. One vacancy is funded. An internal recruiter can run the agreed search, but the founder and technical lead disagree about which hire matters first. The company, assumptions, schedule and outputs are invented. No actual client, contract or hiring outcome is represented.
| Advisory work included | Example limit for this month |
|---|---|
| Kickoff and priority decision | One kickoff of up to 60 minutes and one written comparison of the two proposed roles. |
| Role calibration | One role brief and scorecard for the approved vacancy, with one consolidated revision. |
| Weekly review | Four reviews of up to 45 minutes and a maintained decision log. |
| Recruiting process review | One review of the selected role's stage definitions, aged work and decision handoffs. |
| Month end recommendation | One written recommendation and a 45-minute discussion of the next scope. |
Capacity and communication
Reserve up to 20 advisor hours across the 30 days, including preparation, meetings and written work. This is an illustrative scope, not a fee quote or a promise of unlimited support. Use one shared workspace for questions, reviewed on two agreed working days each week. Urgent work needs an explicit agreement; an immediate response is not assumed.
Dependencies before the month begins
Name the founder sponsor, technical lead and recruiting owner. Confirm the funded vacancy, the next business milestone, interview capacity and access to a limited role brief and recruiting export. Use only the information needed for the review. Agree on data handling and meeting times before access is provided.
Decisions and outputs during the month
| When | Decision owner | Advisory output and acceptance |
|---|---|---|
| Days 1 to 5 | Founder | Role comparison tied to the next milestone. Founder approves one vacancy and names coverage for the other work. |
| Days 6 to 10 | Technical lead | Brief and scorecard for the approved role. Lead confirms required evidence, interview ownership and what can be learned after joining. |
| Days 11 to 20 | Recruiting owner | Weekly review with stage definitions, open decisions and aged work. Owner confirms the records and assigns next actions. |
| Days 21 to 30 | Founder | Month end recommendation states what changed, what remains open and whether the next month needs advisory, execution or a different scope. |
The four weekly reviews run across the month, including the priority and calibration weeks. The day ranges organize the proposed work; they are not hiring deadlines. If the vacancy decision is late, record the delay and agree on what to defer rather than compressing the remaining work silently.
Completed example decision entry
Decision D01. Assumed finding: customer onboarding work is waiting for solutions coverage, while the technical lead can temporarily cover backend design. Proposal: prioritize the solutions engineer. Owner: founder. Due point: before the role brief is drafted. Required confirmation: customer delivery obligations, temporary backend capacity and the funded compensation range. Status: proposed, awaiting sponsor decision.
How I would run the review
Begin with changes to the milestone or approved role. Review decisions carried forward, then look at evidence gaps, aged work and available interview time. Finish with an owner and due point for each open action. The recruiter updates candidates and runs the process; the advisor records questions and checks whether decisions are being resolved.
Acceptance is about usable work
An output is ready for review when it explains the decision, supporting evidence, open questions and responsible owner. The named company owner accepts it or returns one consolidated set of comments. A role brief is not accepted merely because a meeting occurred.
Keep scope decisions visible
| Request during the month | How I would handle it |
|---|---|
| Source and contact candidates for both roles. | Separate execution scope. Agree on roles, research depth, outreach responsibility and capacity before starting. |
| Add another role brief. | Propose a written swap or added scope. Founder chooses what changes; the existing hour limit still applies until revised. |
| Repair historical ATS records or build integrations. | Provide the finding and owner recommendation. Implementation requires its own access, testing and agreed scope. |
| Attend every interview or approve each candidate. | Confirm the company interview and decision owners. Additional interview work needs a specific capacity agreement. |
Measures for the month end review
Check whether the vacancy has an approved owner, the role evidence is agreed and open decisions have owners and due points. Report resolved decisions alongside those still open. Review aged work only where timestamps are reliable. Do not claim faster hiring from a short month with incomplete records or treat a hire as a guaranteed deliverable.
If access or decisions are delayed
Record the missing input, its owner and the effect on the plan. Offer a useful alternative, such as working on the decision brief with supplied material. If the dependency remains unresolved, agree on deferral, a revised scope or a pause under the actual engagement terms. This example does not establish billing, refund or cancellation terms.
Handoff at the end of the month
Give the founder the approved brief, scorecard, decision history, open action list and next-month recommendation. Confirm who maintains each item. Recommend continued advisory only where decisions still need it; propose execution support separately if the team lacks recruiting capacity.
Next step
Review the proposed outputs, hour limit and responsibilities with the founder. Agree on scope, price, communication times and engagement terms in writing before work begins. This demonstration can support that discussion; it is not an offer or a signed service agreement.