ProxenoExecutive search introductions
Both sides of one market, held at the same time. A search firm with a free slot this quarter, and a company that has had a C-suite or VP seat open too long. We charge a fixed fee for the introduction. We do not recruit, and we take no cut of the hire.
01What we do
A search firm with a free slot this quarter is losing money on it quietly. A company with a seat open past ninety days is losing more. Neither has a way to find the other, so both work inside the small piece of the market they can already see.
We carry both lists at the same time, so we can see the pairs neither side can.
25–35% of first-year pay, billed by a retained search
On a two-hundred-thousand dollar seat that is one invoice between fifty and seventy thousand dollars. Which is why a partner's open capacity is the most expensive thing in the business, and the least visible.
Standard retained fee range, verified across eight independent sources, July 2026.
If you run searches
Companies already carrying an open requisition, described properly before you spend a call finding out whether it is real. You decide what you take. We never ask for a cut of the placement, because we did not do the placement.
If you have a seat to fill
Not the one that answered fastest. Firms with room for your search right now, in your sector. You brief them directly, we are not in the room for it, and we take no cut of the hire.
The quiet cost
It cannot be advertised without sounding like the business is thin. So it sits there, unspoken, while a company two calls away briefs whoever answered first.
02The fit
Wrong sector, wrong stage, wrong commercial floor, no capacity this quarter, or an exclusion neither side would have mentioned. Hover a card to see what it actually pairs with.
Illustrative, not live data. Solid border means a viable pair; dashed means nothing on the other side this quarter.
Where the name comes from
In the Greek city states, a man appointed by a foreign city to look after its people and its interests inside his own. Not their ambassador, and not on their payroll. The appointment was cut into stone in public, so everyone could see who had vouched for whom.
πρόξενος03How it works
01
Thirty minutes. What you want more of, what you will not take, your commercial floor, geography, exclusions. Written down and read back to you.
02
We carry your brief against the other side of the market. You hear from us when there is something worth hearing about, not on a reporting cadence.
03
Both sides get twenty-four hours notice and the right to decline. Then one thread, one paragraph of context, and we step out of it.
04
Anything clearly outside your brief is replaced. There is no argument about whether it counted.
04What we will never do
Terms
Plainly
05Who runs it
Proxeno is Ismael Ruiz. He takes the intake call, decides which pairings are worth making, and writes the introduction himself. There is no account manager to be handed off to, and no team behind a shared inbox.
It is also why this only works at small numbers. One person can hold so many markets in his head properly and no more, and an introduction made carelessly is worse than none.
If the timing is live on your side, that is the next step. If it is not, we will say so on the call rather than sell you a window that does not exist.
Book the 30-minute brief