Superposition vs a recruiting agency
An agency runs your search alongside six others. An agent runs only yours.
You are paying for attention, and attention is what gets split
- 30 percent of a first-year package.
- Five CVs and no reasoning.
- A recruiter with six other clients.
- Research that leaves when they do.
A contingency agency gets paid only on a placement, so the economics push them to work many roles at once and move fastest on the ones most likely to close. A retained agency takes money up front and gives you more attention, but the fee is large and the same incentive returns at the back end.
Neither is dishonest. It is just the shape of the business: a recruiter's week is a scarce resource split across clients, and your role competes with everyone else's for it.
The other cost is what you keep. When an agency search ends, the research, the rejected profiles and the reasoning leave with them. You paid for a search and kept only the hire.
What changes when the searcher is an agent
No competition for attention
The agent works your roles, at the same intensity in week six as in week one, including overnight.
The fee is smaller and lands on base only
A flat monthly fee per agent while the search runs, plus 15 percent of first-year base salary on a hire. Not equity, not bonus, not a percentage of a signing bonus.
You keep everything
Every profile read, every reason, every message and every decision stays in your account, so the next search starts from what the last one learned.
You see the work, not just the shortlist
Agencies show you five CVs. The agent shows you what it read, who it passed on and why, and the exact email that went out.
Side-by-side
Compare the workflow, not just the feature list.
Pricing and features checked 21 September 2026. Tell us if something is out of date.
Questions.
Answered.
Executive searches that turn on personal relationships, and roles in industries where a specific recruiter has spent a decade building trust. Renting that network is worth the fee.
On a $180,000 base, a 25 percent agency fee on total compensation is materially more than 15 percent of base plus a few months of agent fees. The gap grows on senior roles with large bonuses.
The success fee applies to hires the agent sourced, on the terms in your agreement. There is no surprise claim on candidates you already knew.
They are talking to your company. Outreach goes from your address, and anything the brief cannot answer is routed to you rather than guessed at.
Superposition vs. Retained Recruiters
Same specificity. A fraction of the cost. Ten times faster.
Superposition vs Paraform
One sends your role to a network of recruiters. The other runs the search itself.
Superposition for Founders
You should be building your company, not sifting through resumes.
Run the search and keep it.
Tell us the role. You will see the research, not just a shortlist.