Series B–C is when the operating model solidifies — and where the wrong hire costs a year.
Series B through C is where most scale-up hiring mistakes compound. The founder can no longer be close to every hire, the VP layer is forming fully, and functional scaling (CS, RevOps, PMM, Finance depth) runs in parallel. We run Series B–C searches with full cross-functional coordination — most of our engagements at this stage cover 4–8 senior hires.
The Series B–C hiring reality.
Series B–C companies run into a specific class of problem: they have succeeded with Series-A-fit VPs who must now scale, and parts of the org that previously ran on founder energy need real leadership (CS, RevOps, PMM, Finance depth, People). Our Series B–C searches run with the explicit awareness that we're not hiring in isolation — each senior hire shapes the scaling org around it. We calibrate for stage-fit aggressively: the VP Sales who crushed at Series A may need to be replaced by a Series-C-fit VP, and that search is a different profile than the original one.
What companies actually hire at Series B–C.
- CFO (first CFO or scale-up CFO replacing VP Finance)
- VP Customer Success (first formal CS leader)
- Head of RevOps (once sales-ops complexity exceeds manual)
- Head of Product Marketing (for multi-product or positioning-heavy companies)
- CHRO / VP People (first formal people leader with compensation sophistication)
- VP Engineering scaling from 40 to 200 engineers
- Staff / Principal engineers (first deep-IC hires)
- General Counsel (first legal hire)
- COO (for companies where scope is already cross-functional)
Where Series B–C searches go wrong.
- Not replacing a Series-A-fit VP who can't scale — the most common Series B failure
- Hiring a CFO without pressure-testing audit / finance-ops discipline
- Bringing in a Head of Growth from a brand company when the motion is actually ABM
- Mis-hiring the first CHRO as HR-admin rather than operating partner
- Skipping the cross-functional reference check on executive hires
How we typically engage at this stage.
Series B–C hiring — questions we hear.
Sometimes, usually not immediately, but the question deserves a direct answer. We have an explicit Series-B scale-up assessment for each executive: can they credibly run the function at 3x–5x current size, or is the growth curve going to outrun them. If the answer is yes, keep. If the answer is no, start the search before the team notices.
Approaching a different stage?
Hiring strategies shift meaningfully between stages. See the adjacent playbooks.