"XX"
Courtney, XX title, Axena Health
Case study · Axena Health
17 hires.7 months.No HR department.
How Spencer Rigby embedded with Axena Health's team and built their US commercial function from the ground up.
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- hires in 6–7 months
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- average time to hire
- 0 weeks
- fastest hire, a record for us and for Axena
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- offer declined
14 hires through our embedded partnership, 3 through retained search.
About Axena Health
Axena Health is a women's health start-up bringing a non-invasive, at-home treatment for incontinence to US physicians. Their Leva® Pelvic Health System is FDA-cleared, prescription-only and backed by peer-reviewed clinical evidence.
Stage: XXTeam size when we started: XXPartnership: XX (ongoing / completed)
The challenge
A new category, an unknown brand, and no one to run hiring
Axena was moving into commercial ramp-up and needed a team of Technical Account Managers and Area Sales Directors across the East and Central US.
01
Clinical selling
Leva is prescription-only, so every rep had to win over physicians with evidence. That's a narrow talent pool.
02
No brand recognition
We were asking top performers to leave established companies for a start-up most hadn't heard of.
03
No HR function
With no in-house HR, there was no one to own the process from first call to signed offer.
An extension of their team
We didn't work for Axena.We worked as part of it.
We acted as their HR
We ran all interview scheduling, held a call every two weeks, and worked from a shared ATS and target tracker with full candidate feedback.
We promoted their brand
We ran marketing campaigns across our network, advertised the open roles, and fed back market-mapping insight on how candidates saw the company and the roles.
We advised beyond recruitment
We guided offers and negotiations, ran unbiased internal promotion interviews, gathered anonymous feedback when the commission structure changed, and checked in with placed hires as they settled in.
The setup: XX monthly fee covering XX, over a XX month term.
How the partnership developed
It got better every hire
Learn
The early hires taught both sides what worked and what didn't.
Widen
Together we broadened the candidate profile and rethought who could succeed.
Accelerate
Shared visibility and a shared goal meant roles filled faster. Time to fill went from XX weeks to XX weeks.
Axena's clear commitment to hiring gave candidates confidence in the opportunity.
Results
The team we built
17
hires
XX%
offer acceptance
16 of 17
retained
XX
hires now leading their own teams
TAMs and ASDs across the US
Central USXX roles
East USXX roles
XX
The one placement that didn't work out was replaced under our guarantee.
In their words
Christina, XX title, Axena Health
"XX"
Dan Cortez, XX title, Axena Health
Embedded vs paying per role
What 17 hires cost, two ways
Paying per role
17 roles at XX% average fee
$XX
Embedded with Spencer Rigby
$XX per month for XX months
$XX
Axena saved XX%, and got an HR function, brand campaigns and hiring advice on top.
Is this right for you?
Built for start-ups with big hiring plans and small teams
- No in-house TA or HR capacity
- Moving into commercial ramp-up or a new market
- Investment-funded with milestones to hit
- Planning XX+ hires in the next XX months
Meet Nathan
Nathan Rigby
Co-Founder & Director, Spencer Rigby
Nathan leads our embedded partnerships, working with life science start-ups to build the teams that move them through their next milestone.
Talk to Nathan