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About

Fewer clients.
Deeper markets.

Honeypot exists because the industry's default settings are broken: pay on speed, reward volume, and hope nobody checks the twelve-month retention numbers. We built the opposite, and we publish ours.

340+PLACEMENTS SINCE LAUNCH
92%STILL IN SEAT AT 12 MONTHS
78%CLIENTS WHO COME BACK
9CONSULTANTS, DELIBERATELY
The short version

We got tired of
sending thirty resumes.

Contingent recruitment pays whoever gets there first. So everybody sprints, nobody researches, and the client ends up reading thirty near-misses to find one maybe.

That model works fine for the agency. It's terrible for the person doing the hiring, and it's insulting to the candidate whose resume got fired at six companies before breakfast.

So we built a firm around the opposite incentive. Retained where retained makes sense. Embedded where you need volume. Contract where you need speed. Small headcount, deliberately — nine consultants who each own a market properly, rather than forty who own a target.

The name is the joke and the strategy at once: build something good enough that the right people come to you. A honeypot doesn't chase.

What we won't do

  • Send a resume to a client you haven't approved by name
  • Take a retainer for a role we don't think is fillable at that number
  • Approach anyone we've placed with you, ever
  • Run a search we don't have the market knowledge to run well
  • Pay consultants a commission that rewards a fast bad hire over a slow good one
How we operate

Four rules we don't bend.

01

Say the hard thing early

The salary is too low. The brief is two jobs. The team has churned three times. You'd rather hear it in week one than month four, and we'd rather say it.

02

Write it down

Scorecards, market maps, weekly progress, candidate feedback, off-limits agreements. If it matters, it exists in writing and you have a copy.

03

Treat candidates like clients

Same response times, same honesty, same respect for their time. Today's candidate is next year's hiring manager, and they remember.

04

Turn work down

We say no to roles outside our markets, briefs we think are unfillable, and clients who want a resume blast. Capacity is the product.

Published, not polished

The numbers we're judged on.

Reviewed quarterly across all completed engagements. When one moves the wrong way, it stays on the page anyway.

MeasureHoneypotTypical marketWhy it matters
Shortlist-to-hire ratio3:110–15:1How much of your time we waste
Brief to shortlist21 days28–45 daysHow long the seat stays empty
12-month retention92%~70%Whether the hire actually worked
Offer acceptance rate89%~65%Whether we manage expectations honestly
Client repeat rate78%~40%The only review that counts
Candidate feedback within 48h100% targetNot measuredBasic decency

Market comparisons are drawn from published industry benchmarks and our own client-side experience; they're indicative rather than audited. Our figures cover engagements completed in the trailing 24 months.

The first thing they did was talk us out of the salary we'd budgeted. They were right.
Chief People Officer · Healthcare group
Four years and eleven hires later, they still send me a market map before they send me a person.
Managing Director · Mid-market private equity
Work with us

Sweet doesn't mean soft.

If you want a firm that will tell you the truth about your brief and then go and fill it, we should talk.

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