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Executive Search · Personal & Founder-Led Brands

Executive Search for Personal & Founder-Led Brands

The Quantum Club builds the teams behind founder- and personality-led brands: the operators who turn a name into a business. From full launch teams to CFOs and growth leaders, on exclusive mandates and a No Cure, No Pay model, with confidentiality by default.

Hiring for a brand built on a name

A personal brand can't hire generically: the team has to match the person's standards, discretion, and pace, often under public scrutiny. The right operators are proven, discreet, and rarely looking. Reaching them takes trust and a network, not a listing.

What changes when the founder is the brand

In a founder-led house the hire works close to the principal. They inherit the founder's standards and pace, represent the name in rooms the founder is not in, and carry decisions that land on a public reputation. That changes what a search screens for: judgement and discretion count as much as the CV, and the hire has to protect a name, not just fill a role. It is why the Club matches each hire to the exact DNA of the brand rather than to a generic job description.

A direct line to the principal

The Club takes the brief from the founder, the owner or their closest team, not through an HR inbox, and every approach to a candidate is confirmed with the principal before it is made. That keeps a founder in control of who learns about the search and when, and means candidates only ever hear about a mandate that is real and endorsed. Stealth, NDA-backed searches are the default, with identities protected on both sides until trust is established.

What to settle before you brief

Three things decide a founder-led search: how close to the principal the seat sits, what the hire may decide without them, and what must never be said in public. A founder who names these up front gets a slate screened for them, rather than discovering the gaps after the hire. The Club works through them with the principal at the brief, under NDA where needed.

Hiring ahead of an announcement

Founders sometimes need a team before the world knows there is a venture to staff. A stealth search fits that case: the brand stays undisclosed until a candidate is serious, conversations are NDA-backed, and nothing is posted. Because every approach is confirmed with the principal first, a founder decides who hears about the venture, and when.

Founder-led houses beyond the spotlight

Not every founder-led brand belongs to a celebrity. The Club placed creative, retail and growth leadership for Merrachi, the modest-fashion house founded and creatively directed by Nada Merrachi, which set up a new HQ on a new continent with the Club. It built a team of fifteen-plus for Meroda Cosmetics, the Dutch beauty brand its founder named after himself and his parents. And it placed a Head of Growth and a CFO for Bob Verlaat and Nick Nijhof, the founders behind Dore & Rose and Hears.

Proof with world-class names

The Club built the full launch team for Mike Tyson's TYSON 2.0 flagship in Amsterdam, a team that is still in place today, and, won on that referral, staffed Snoop Dogg's Tha Dogghouse to open. When a legacy is on the line, the hire can't be generic.

Seats the Club has filled

  • Finance Director / CFO

    Gives a name-led business the financial discipline to scale beyond the founder's own oversight.

    Placed for TYSON 2.0 Dore & Rose Meroda Cosmetics How to Hire a CFO

  • Head of Operations

    Runs the business day to day so the founder can stay the face of it.

    Placed for TYSON 2.0 Tha Dogghouse

  • Head of Growth

    Turns the attention a name attracts into a business that compounds.

    Placed for Dore & Rose Meroda Cosmetics

  • Marketing Manager

    Carries the founder's voice into a new market without diluting it.

    Placed for TYSON 2.0 Tha Dogghouse

  • Creative Director

    Translates a founder's vision into a house language others can execute.

    Placed for Merrachi

  • Head of Retail

    Makes the store feel like the founder is in the room, even when they are not.

    Placed for Merrachi

Selected work

TYSON 2.0

A full launch team for Mike Tyson's Amsterdam flagship, still in place today

Tha Dogghouse

Snoop Dogg's flagship, staffed to open · won by referral

Merrachi

200% annual growth · featured in Vogue Business · the first modest-fashion store in Amsterdam

Meroda Cosmetics

15+ roles placed for a CrossBorder Top 30 breakout

Dore & Rose

Head of Growth and CFO placed for the founders' group, shared with Hears · stocked by 150+ luxury retailers, including Nordstrom

How the search runs

  1. Brief with the principal

    The mandate is scoped with the founder or their closest team within 24 hours, in confidence: what the brand stands for, what the hire must protect, and how the principal works.

  2. A DNA-matched search

    Candidates are approached personally and off-market, each approach confirmed with the principal first, and screened for discretion and fit with the founder as much as for track record.

  3. A short slate

    You meet a short list of proven, discreet operators. Each has a Talent Concierge for the length of the process, so the founder's time goes on the decision, not the logistics.

  4. Place and protect

    The Club runs the offer and the close and supports the hire through onboarding. The fee is owed only when your chosen candidate signs, backed by a guarantee laid down in your agreement.

Terms of engagement

The model
No Cure, No Pay. Nothing is owed for the search itself: no retainer and no upfront payment.
When a fee is owed
Only when a candidate you chose signs. Every further hire of a candidate the Club introduced, even for a different role, is its own placement with its own fee.
The fee
25% of the agreed gross annual salary, holiday pay included and variable bonuses and one-off payments excluded, unless your agreement fixes another rate. Partner rates are agreed per engagement. Amounts are exclusive of VAT.
The guarantee
Its terms are laid down in your agreement. It is honored as a free replacement search or as a credit against your next placement, never as a cash refund, and is claimed in writing within fourteen days of the employment ending.
Payment
Invoices are payable within 14 days of the invoice date, unless your agreement says otherwise.
Ways in
Club Promo, a complimentary slate of five candidates for one mandate; Club Partner, the flagship engagement with a dedicated strategist; Elite Partner, by invitation, at a reduced fee.
First reply
Within 24 hours of a brief, in confidence.

The full terms are set out in your agreement and the deposited General Terms & Conditions (in Dutch).

Frequently asked

Do you hire for celebrity or founder-led brands?

Yes. The Club builds discreet, high-calibre teams around founders and public figures, including Mike Tyson's and Snoop Dogg's ventures.

Can you keep a search confidential?

Yes. Stealth, NDA-backed searches are the default. No public listing, and identities are protected until trust is established.

Do you build whole teams or single hires?

Both: from a single CFO to a complete launch team across finance, operations, and marketing.

Will the founder be involved in the search?

As much as they want to be. The brief is taken with the founder or their closest team, and every approach to a candidate is confirmed with the principal first, so nothing happens in the founder's name without their knowledge.

Can you staff a flagship store opening?

Yes. The Club placed the full launch team for TYSON 2.0's Amsterdam flagship, still in place today, and the team that opened Snoop Dogg's Tha Dogghouse.

What does executive search for a founder-led brand cost?

No Cure, No Pay: nothing for the search and no retainer. A fee is owed only when a hire you chose signs: 25% of the agreed gross annual salary unless your agreement fixes another rate, with partner rates agreed per engagement. The guarantee is as laid down in your agreement, honored as a free replacement search or a credit against your next placement, never as a cash refund.

Sources

Cited by the case studies under Selected work

Hire through the Club.

A partner strategist replies within 24 hours, in confidence.

Request a brief See the work