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Recruiting for a first product after Series A funding

Coaching

Recruiting for a first product after Series A funding

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Maxime Barbier

CEO of Timeleft

Less than a month to hire my Head of Product

  • Structuring the product team and defining key roles
  • Selecting the best candidates for admission
  • Participation in technical interviews (peer review)
  • Validation of recruitment criteria

<1

a month to find the right person

Team size
1-20

"What I really appreciated was Stellar's ability to challenge my assumptions with concrete data: salary benchmarks, skills matrices, and detailed profile analysis. It saved me an incredible amount of time and helped me avoid costly hiring mistakes."

Maxime Barbier

CEO of Timeleft

The team

Stellar and Timeleft are working together to select the right product team.

In this assignment, Matthieu Pozza, CPO at Stellar, assisted Maxime Barbier, CEO of Timeleft, in structuring his product team and recruiting his first Head of Product. The goal was to establish the right recruitment process and identify the right candidates in order to select the best fit as quickly as possible.

Maxime Barbier
CEO of Timeleft
Photo by Mathieu from Spendesk
Matthieu
CPO
Matthieu
CPO in residence

Mission

Timeleft has set itself a mission: to combat loneliness by organizing dinners for strangers. Founded by Maxime Barbier, the company has already attracted over 1.5 million participants and 2 million subscribers. Its model: single tickets (€15) or subscriptions (€20/month) give participants access to weekly dinners. In 2024, Timeleft secured a €7 million Series A funding round led by an American venture capital firm, while 50% of its revenue is already generated in the U.S.

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How Stellar Supported Timeleft

Audit

Successful strategic recruitment and a growth-oriented organization

Stellar's support enabled Timeleft to establish its Product organization and successfully recruit its Head of Product amid rapid growth.

  • Product organization strengthened: key positions filled and governance clarified.
  • A better-prioritized roadmap: product decisions are now guided by data rather than impulse.
  • Candidate evaluation: an objective process using skills grids and a precise benchmark.
  • The product's role has been clarified: it is no longer a search for the proverbial "five-legged sheep," but rather a definition of needs aligned with business objectives.
Challenge

From problem to solution: How Timeleft overcame its challenges

Timeleft faced a number of challenges that hindered its growth and development. Here's how Stellar helped them overcome these obstacles to accelerate their growth and achieve their goals.

#1 A fragile product organization

The departure of the VP of Product and the presence of junior staff created a strategic vacuum. The roadmap was steered by the CEO, resulting in unclear priorities and overburdened teams.

Steering Structured Products

Stellar has implemented a structured product governance framework, clarifying the division of responsibilities between the CEO and the product team.

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#2 Candidates evaluated based on intuition

Without any evaluation criteria or framework, product recruitment relied too heavily on intuition, leading to casting errors.

Structured assessment process

Stellar has designed its recruitment process using skills grids and a clear case study to identify the best candidates.

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#3 Recruiting by default

Without a clear vision, the pressure to grow rapidly led to the hiring of available candidates rather than those who were a good fit.

Clear definition of the product's role and business priorities

Definition of priority skills for the role that have an impact on the business: Delivery, Design, Leadership...

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Results

Tangible results:Toward a high-performance product organization

01
Effectiveness > Theory
We don't just hand out PowerPoint presentations. We provide actionable insights, help teams make decisions, and remove roadblocks. If a recommendation can't be implemented within 30 days, we don't make it.
02
Structured Products Team
A dedicated team, led by a Product Director, now ensures that strategy and priorities are coordinated centrally. This fosters better collaboration and the sharing of best practices, with a genuine breaking down of silos among teams.
03
Clarity of roadmaps
A dedicated team, led by a Product Director, now ensures that strategy and priorities are coordinated centrally. This fosters better collaboration and the sharing of best practices, with a genuine breaking down of silos among teams.
04
+10% growth maintained
Deployments are now possible across the entire customer base, marking a turning point in the standardization of the platform.