A vertical SaaS company at $40M ARR needed to replace a founding CTO who had signaled an exit within the next two quarters, without disrupting the engineering org or tipping off competitors that a transition was coming. An internal candidate was a plausible successor but hadn't been formally evaluated against the external market.
The board wanted a genuine build-vs-buy comparison — a real external shortlist run in parallel with a structured internal evaluation, not an external search used to rubber-stamp a decision already made.
Rivago ran a confidential retained search in parallel with the board's internal evaluation process, briefed directly by the CEO and board chair. An eighteen-month off-limits agreement was negotiated with the client before sourcing began, given the sensitivity of approaching competitor CTOs.
Seven external candidates were mapped, screened and calibrated against the same scorecard used to evaluate the internal candidate, giving the board a genuinely comparable shortlist rather than two different evaluation standards.
“We got a real comparison, not a search designed to confirm what we already thought. That changed the decision we actually made.”
The board extended an offer to the strongest candidate from the combined pool 42 days after the brief was signed, at $420K total comp. The transition was announced on the company's own timeline with no leak to the market beforehand.
Send the brief and a partner in the right practice comes back with a written plan within one business day.