Executive Search by Executives

Bluebird successfully led two CEO searches across our portfolio, and the outcome exceeded expectations on both occasions. Despite highly demanding criteria, including founder-level leadership, deep product orientation, and international location requirements (Dubai-based), they consistently presented an exceptional slate of candidates.

What stood out most was Bluebird’s ability to access executive talent we would not have reached through our own networks or traditional search channels. By the final stages, we were in the fortunate position of choosing between multiple, genuinely hire-ready CEOs, a rare and valuable outcome in a senior leadership search.

Bluebird demonstrated strong judgment, pace, and credibility throughout the process, and proved to be a trusted partner for VC-backed scale-ups navigating critical leadership transitions.

As we started scaling our SaaS business distribution, the VP of Sales position became a critical one. We also knew it would be very hard to find the right person. We needed a partner that could not only help us define the role, but also bring us several high quality candidates. Machiel and his team of former SaaS leaders put their heads together to launch the search at unbelievable speed. Right in line with their value proposition, they introduced us to the ideal candidate seven days after the intake call. He has now been with us for a year and a half and he is the right hire for the role.

We partnered with Bluebird to hire a CRO. Bluebird’s dedication, expertise, and professionalism stood out during the hiring process. From the initial consultation to the final candidate selection, Bluebird demonstrated a deep understanding of our requirements and the industry landscape. Their team’s ability to source and present a diverse range of highly qualified candidates showcased their commitment to finding the perfect fit for our organization. Ultimately, the quality of the candidates they presented to us was exceptional, making our decision to hire a CRO both exciting and challenging. We found our CRO within 3 months. Moving forward, I have no hesitation in recommending Bluebird to other organizations seeking top-tier executive recruitment services.

I am the VP of People at Horizon3.ai, a ~150 person Series C company with a small international team. We used Bluebird to hire a head of our EMEA business (Director/VP level was the mandate) and we interviewed opportunistic AE candidates. We worked directly with Silien and Lydia. We had a fantastic experience – they sent us well vetted, experienced candidates that were right on target from an experience and comp perspective. With each candidate, they sent a very thoughtful summary with all of the details we would need to review a candidate before interviewing them. They were incredibly fast in getting us high quality candidates and the whole process took about 4-6 weeks from kick-off to hire. We would love to work with them again and would consider them for roles at any level.

After securing our Series A funding round we were looking for an experienced Head of Sales. We assigned Bluebird this task; during a short period of time Bluebird introduced us to various high profile candidates. The process was well structured. We’re happy to have Floris Welman on board for several months now and we’ve seen huge steps forward in our Go To Market strategy and execution. As founders of our SaaS business we now have more time for strategic work, which is great!

I have been very impressed with Bluebird, Especially Machiel. He’s a previous VP Sales himself, so knows how to find good sales and sales leadership talent. He’s placed a number of senior roles and also some juniors with me, all of which were incredibly successful. We’ve saved a huge amount of time on screening because his grasp of our brief has been spot on, and that alone has directly translated into more revenue for the company by not tying the team up in recruitment cycles. 100% recommend.

I worked with Machiel and Ash to hire a Global VP of sales at Panaseer. I have worked with many recruiters before but Bluebird differentiated itself with a team of career sales leaders who now focus in recruiting, rather than traditional recruiting career people.

The difference was clear. It meant better candidates (they recruit from a peer perspective and speak their language), better qualification (they could screen like former sales leaders), and better close (they were able to help us close the right candidate). As I have looked for recruiters in other parts of our business, I now look for other using this model of former practitioners.

We worked with Bluebird on filling several sales roles. Since previous experience with recruiting agencies was underwhelming, I was sceptical to say the best. However, Bluebird came highly recommended by an advisor. 2 months later: boy did they deliver. I was impressed by their speed and also the quality of the candidates. We hired 2 sales leaders and 8 AEs in 7 weeks. Ramp for some is still going on and so far it looks very promising for all. We continue to work with Bluebird and don’t plan to stop.