When a founder needs a senior hire and does not want to run the search alone, three very different routes tend to come up. Two of them are the biggest names in the industry. The third is us. They solve the same problem in almost opposite ways, and the right answer depends entirely on the role in front of you.
Robert Half: the contingency staffing giant
Robert Half has been in the staffing business since 1948, which makes it one of the oldest and most recognized names in recruiting. It runs hundreds of offices, covers finance, accounting, and technology, and works mostly on a contingency basis: you pay a percentage of the hire's first-year salary, and only once someone starts.
Where it wins. Brand and reach. If you need to fill a common, well-defined role and you want a firm with offices almost everywhere and a huge candidate database, Robert Half is a safe, established choice. You pay nothing until a hire lands, and for high-volume or contract staffing that model is hard to beat.
Where it strains. Contingency fees typically run 15 to 30 percent of first-year salary, so on a $300k engineer you are often looking at $45k to $90k, and the recruiter earns more when your hire earns more. It is a generalist built for finance and IT staffing at scale, not a specialist in senior startup engineering, and the experience tends to be corporate and process-heavy rather than embedded in how your specific team builds.
Korn Ferry: the retained executive search standard
Korn Ferry, founded in 1969, is the household name in executive search and organizational consulting. It employs thousands of people across dozens of countries and works largely on a retained basis for C-suite, board, and senior leadership roles.
Where it wins. At the very top of the org chart, relationships and rigor matter more than raw speed, and this is where a retained firm earns its keep. For hiring a CEO, a public-company CFO, or a board member, the depth of Korn Ferry's network and its structured, consultative process are genuinely valuable.
Where it strains. That service comes at a price. Retained executive search fees commonly run 25 to 35 percent of first-year compensation, paid whether or not the search concludes quickly, and engagements often take two to four months. For an early-stage startup trying to land a senior engineer or a first engineering leader in weeks, that is both more money and more time than the moment calls for. It is a Formula 1 pit crew for a job that needs a very good mechanic, fast.
Alexander Chapman: the niche contingency search firm
Alexander Chapman is a global search firm that recruits on a contingency basis, with a specialism in finance and life sciences: quantitative research, risk, trading technology, and data on one side, clinical development and manufacturing on the other. Like most contingency shops, it is paid a percentage of first-year salary when a placement lands, and it runs a high-volume outreach model to keep candidate pipelines full.
Where it wins. If you are hiring a quant researcher, a risk manager, or a specialist for a hedge fund, bank, or life-sciences group, a firm built around that exact niche brings a deep, pre-mapped network you would spend months rebuilding yourself. For those functions, a domain-specific contingency recruiter can move quickly because it already knows the pool.
Where it strains. The focus that makes it strong in finance and life sciences makes it a poor fit for a venture-backed startup hiring senior software engineers. The contingency percentage carries the same incentive problem as any percentage fee: the recruiter earns more when your hire costs more. And a wide-net outreach style is built to fill seats at volume, not to hand you the culture-matched, rubric-vetted short list an early team lives or dies by.
ConnectPath: the flat-fee embedded model
ConnectPath was built for the gap between those two. You get an embedded recruiting function for a flat fee, $25,000 per search or $40,000 for leadership roles above $400k, regardless of the salary. We deliver 15 to 25 vetted candidates in the first week and a first hire in 21 days, or you do not pay.
Where it wins. The fee is flat, so the person advising you on comp never profits from a bigger number. Every candidate is screened and interviewed against your rubric before you see them, so you get a short list instead of a pile. We spend real time inside your company, so fit is designed in rather than left to chance. And it is guaranteed three ways: candidates in 14 days, a hire in 30 or your money back, and a free 90-day replacement.
Where it strains. We are deliberately narrow. We work with venture-backed software and AI startups hiring across engineering, product, design, and go-to-market in the US and Canada, and we cap active searches to protect quality. If you need a high-volume staffing pipeline or a public-company board search, we are not the right call, and we will tell you so.
How to actually decide
Skip the sales pitch and match the route to the role. Choose Robert Half when you are filling common, high-volume, or contract roles, especially in finance and IT, and you want a big-brand firm with pay-on-success pricing. Choose Korn Ferry when you are running a true executive search, a C-suite or board seat at a later-stage or enterprise company, and you have the budget and timeline for a retained engagement.
Choose Alexander Chapman when the seat is a finance, quant, or life-sciences specialist and you want a niche contingency firm that already knows that talent pool, accepting a percentage fee and a volume-driven process as the trade.
Choose ConnectPath when you are a venture-backed founder who needs a specific senior engineer or first leadership hire, the wrong pick would cost you a quarter, and you want it done in weeks on a flat fee with a recruiter whose incentives point the same way as yours. Different companies, different stages, different answers. Pick based on who you are and the seat you are filling, not the logo on the invoice.