About

I care about this. I also know how to get it done.

The short version

I started in Serbia, at a nearshoring company, building development teams for Swiss startups. Three years of that. I was in rooms with founders and C level people from the beginning, earlier than most people get to be, and it set how I work. You learn quickly what a founder actually means when they describe the person they want.

Then I moved to Germany. Six years in-house. Babbel, Delivery Hero, SellerX. In the team meetings, on the headcount plan, living with every hire afterwards. This year on my own.

Embedded is not a new format for me. It is the only way I have ever worked.

I set up an office in Manila with my team and the Chief of Staff, and we hired a hundred people into it in twelve months. I co-built an EVP at a company that needed one. I moved a company off Greenhouse onto Ashby and built the reporting so hiring decisions could be argued with numbers instead of opinions.

That is the CV part.

The rest of it

I do not think recruiting is admin. I think it is the most consequential thing a growing company does and the thing it is most likely to do badly, usually in a hurry.

I have made the offer and I have been the person telling someone it did not work out. Both of those stay with you. The second one is why I coach.

I like the people part, and I mean both sides of it. The candidate working out what they actually want, and the hiring manager trying to describe someone they have not met yet. When the match is right, when the person and the team genuinely fit, that is the whole thing. I am a connector by nature. This is just the version of it that pays.

I notice things about people. It is the same skill underneath the interviews, the writing I do, and the photographs I take. One skill wearing three different outfits. Sport is the fourth, and the one that keeps the rest working.

I will tell you when the role is wrong, or the salary will not clear the market, or the person you like is not the person you need. That is not me being difficult. That is the job.

Recruiting puts me near people who inspire me. That is why I am here, and why I am still here. It matters to me.

How I am set up

I work as an independent partner through my own registered business in Berlin. Embedded on a day or weekly basis for volume hiring, retained for senior and leadership roles, and standalone for coaching. We work out which one fits on the first call.