Commerce Executive Search
COMMENTSOLD
ACQUIRED | Permira ·2021
INVESTORS | Dragoneer Investment Group · ZMC Capital
Some of the fastest-growing retailers on the internet sell live, in a comment thread.
CommentSold built the software behind that: inventory, invoicing, social selling, and web and mobile storefronts for businesses whose customers buy by commenting on a video. Founded to serve a selling motion that did not exist a decade ago.
the engagement
CommentSold came to 33eleven Partners in 2019, early in its growth. We ran three searches across people operations, marketing, and customer success as the company scaled, and it was later acquired.
3
Searches completed
3
CANDIDATES PLACED
94
avg. days to close
600+
executives evaluated
PLACEMENTS
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The first hire of the three, and deliberately so. A company growing this fast breaks on hiring and retention before it breaks on anything else.
111 days. 128 executives evaluated.
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Marketing to small retailers who found CommentSold through each other rather than through a funnel.
Closed in 85 days. 343 executives evaluated.
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CommentSold's customers run their entire business on it. Support failure is revenue failure, immediately and visibly.
Closed in 86 days. 193 executives evaluated.
PARTNERSHIP INSIGHTS
People operations first, before marketing and before customer success.
That order is unusual and it was right. CommentSold was early and growing into a selling motion nobody had staffed for before. The binding constraint was not demand. It was whether the company could hire and keep the people to serve the demand it already had.
The first executive hire at a fast-growing company should address the constraint, not the org chart. Most companies hire the role that feels most senior. The better question is which one, left unfilled for six months, does the most damage.
RELATED WORK
33eleven Partners places VP through C-suite leaders at Private Equity and Venture-backed AI and technology companies.