Ledgerline
The senior designer they couldn't find in New York, hired in five weeks from Buenos Aires.
The situation
Ledgerline builds accounting tools for freelancers. They'd been trying to hire a senior product designer for four months. The few good candidates in their budget in New York had three other offers; the ones they could afford weren't senior enough to own a design system solo.
They didn't want a contractor for this — they wanted someone permanent, on their payroll, in the room for the long haul. They just couldn't find that person through the usual channels.
What we did
This was a direct-hire search, so our job was to find one person and get out of the way. We opened up the geography and surfaced designers who'd built financial products before — a higher bar than 'good portfolio.'
We ran our normal screen: a portfolio review, a take-home rooted in a real Ledgerline problem, and reference checks with people who'd actually worked alongside them. We sent Ledgerline three candidates. They hired the first one they interviewed.
We'd looked at probably eighty portfolios ourselves before we called them. They sent three people and every one was someone we'd have happily hired. I still don't fully understand how the first three were that good.
How it turned out
The designer they hired had spent three years on banking products in Buenos Aires — exactly the background they couldn't surface locally. She's been with Ledgerline ever since, now leading their design system. Because it was a direct hire, Ledgerline pays us nothing ongoing; the relationship is entirely theirs.