THE TRUE BEGINNING OF YOUR TALENT STRATEGY

Your fractional Head of Talent, from headcount plan to accepted offer.

Zhenesis embeds founder-led talent leadership inside growing SaaS organizations that need to hire well before they are ready to build an internal recruiting team. Zhamese Callaway works as player and coach: personally running priority searches while building the hiring capability your company keeps.

Two client seats. Senior-level work only. No junior handoffs.

6

CRITICAL ROLES FILLED

3

MONTHS, START TO DONE

17

DAYS, LONGEST CLOSE

From recent embedded engagement - full case study below.

WHO ZHENESIS IS BUILT FOR

Founder-led and investor-backed SaaS organizations with roughly 25-150 employees, no dedicated talent leader, and several consequential hires planned over the next two to four quarters - where founders and executives are currently carrying recruiting between meetings.

Engagements most often center on go-to-market - sales, customer success, marketing - along with leadership, operations, and people roles. Zhenesis also runs product and engineering searches with a delivered track record: product managers, senior software engineers, UX designers, and implementation architects have all been hired through the practice.

WHAT PLAYER-COACH MEANS

Zhenesis does not stop at strategy. Every engagement is founder-delivered, which means Zhamese personally owns the work that moves a role from idea to accepted offer:

Headcount prioritization, role definition, and compensation calibration

Sourcing strategy and direct candidate outreach

Screening, pipeline management, and weekly hiring reviews

Interview design, scorecards, and hiring manager training

Offer strategy, references, and candidate closing

ATS workflows, reporting, referral programs, and recruiting documentation

Transition planning for an eventual internal talent hire

One accountable partner: executive-level talent leadership and hands-on execution, from the same seat.

ENGAGEMENT STRUCTURE

MODEL

DELIVERY

CAPACITY

CADENCE

FEES

INVESTMENT

Monthly retainer, paid in advance; initial three-month commitment

Weekly talent operating meeting; monthly leadership reporting

10-15 hours per week, founder-delivered

Two to four active searches at a time - executive-level or niche/specialized, narrow searches reduce concurrent capacity, agreed at kickoff

No percentage-based placement fees

Engagements begin at $6,000 per month, scoped to search complexity, hiring volume, and infrastructure needs

WHY 10-15 HOURS IS ENOUGH

Candidates now use AI to mass-apply with keyword-perfect resumes, and traditional keyword screening is broken because of it. Zhenesis runs an AI-era operating stack so that paid hours go to judgment, not administration:

Market mapping

Natural-language market mapping across platforms - the talent pool is charted in hours, not clicked through over weeks

Researched outreach

Individually researched outreach, drafted from each candidate's actual work and trajectory - never a template sequence

Signal over keywords

Multi-signal, skills-based screening that reads career context, velocity, and whether a trajectory actually makes sense - built to cut through AI-generated resume volume

Zero admin drag

Automated call transcription and structured note capture, so documentation and follow-up never consume search hours

One thing is deliberately not automated: every candidate conversation is with Zhamese. No chatbots screen your applicants. AI carries the mechanics; assessment, counsel, and closing stay senior and human.

These workflows transfer - the AI-era screening and sourcing practices built during the engagement are part of what your company retains.

THE FIRST 90 DAYS

Days 1-30

- take control

Days 31-60

- build

momentum

Days 61-90

- produce

and institutionalize

Review the headcount plan, define priority roles and scorecards, assess the existing process, launch urgent searches, establish the weekly cadence.

Qualified pipelines running, hiring managers trained on structured evaluation, dashboards and documentation in place, conversion and offer risks addressed.

Priority hires closing, repeatable process operating across functions, leadership receiving reliable talent data, dependence on founders and agencies reduced.

WHAT REMAINS WITH YOUR COMPANY

Interview scorecards, hiring-manager training materials, ATS workflows and reporting, sourcing and referral playbooks, offer processes, and documentation for an eventual internal talent hire. Capability, not rented labor.

NOT THE RIGHT FIT IF

You need a single transactional placement, want résumé volume over embedded ownership, haven't approved headcount and compensation, can't give timely hiring-manager access, or want to outsource hiring decisions entirely.

PROOF

Scaling the Team at VETRO

MID-MARKET FIBER-MAPPING SAAS | SERIES B-C

Six critical roles, an inconsistent process, a competitive market.

All six positions filled within three months
Roles closed in roughly 1.5-2 weeks from opened requisition to accepted offer - never more than 17 days
Hiring managers trained on competency-based interviewing; processes standardized; ATS workflows rebuilt for candidate experience

Building the Talent Foundation at a Stealth Climate-Tech Company

PRE-LAUNCH | FOUNDING TEAM

A founding team that needed early talent infrastructure and its first revenue leader.

Recruited the founding Head of Sales, who converted three pre-sold logos within two quarters
Defined hiring principles, onboarding. and referral programs that reduced reliance on outside recruiting

Zhamese does an incredible job explaining the value of our org and opportunities, and getting candidates excited. She built an immense amount of trust and rapport with her hiring managers.

- ELIZABETH MEAGHER, FORMER SVP OF PEOPLE, VETRO

"Highly recommend working with Zhamese - and for candidates, she'll find you a great place to be."

"When I leave town, there is only one person I trust with my clients, and it is Zhamese and Zhenesis."

- KEVIN MCGINNIS - FORMER DIRECTOR OF SALES, DEEL

- ASHLEY LANE BOYLE, FORMER OWNER/FOUNDER, EMPOWERED PARTNERSHIPS

THE TWO-SEAT MODEL

Zhenesis holds two active client seats, by design. The cap keeps every engagement founder-led, embedded, and senior-only - it is not a stage before work is delegated.

Zhamese Callaway - Founder & Fractional Head of Talent

zhamese@zhenesis.com | (708) 312-0279

Request a confidential fit assessment by email.

Next opening: early September 2026.

Most engagements begin through referral. Qualified direct inquiries are welcome.