How Gnosis saved £80K through retained search

About Gnosis.

Gnosis is a decentralised blockchain infrastructure provider building financial, governance and scaling tools across the Ethereum network. Founded in 2015, the business operates products including Gnosis Chain, Safe and CoW Protocol, with Safe securing tens of billions in digital assets.

With multiple products, communities and internal functions evolving simultaneously, Gnosis needed support hiring across marketing, HR and design to strengthen operational capability and support growth across the wider ecosystem.

Scaling teams across a specialist Web3 ecosystem.

The challenge went beyond the volume of hiring required over the year. Each function carried its own requirements, with marketing, HR and design demanding very different talent pools and search strategies.

Hiring in Web3 also brings its own layer of complexity for any recruitment partner. The sector remains specialist, and candidates with relevant experience across blockchain, decentralised finance and crypto-native businesses tend to be highly contested.

Communicating Gnosis's mission, products and culture in a way that resonated with the right candidates was as important as the search itself.

With multiple hires running at once, Gnosis needed a recruitment partner that could deliver consistently while keeping costs under control.

Delivering a retained recruitment partnership across multiple functions.

To support Gnosis through a sustained period of hiring, we partnered on a retained basis across the entire 12-month engagement. This gave Gnosis dedicated focus, predictable cost control and a recruitment partner committed to the long-term success of the hiring programme.

We worked closely with the hiring team to understand Gnosis's culture and the kind of individual who would thrive in a Web3 environment. This understanding sat behind every conversation we had with candidates throughout the engagement.

We ran structured searches across each function, building dedicated talent pools across marketing, HR and design with relevant Web3 experience. Each search was managed against a clear timeline and quality bar agreed at the start of the engagement.

Throughout the partnership, we managed candidate sourcing, engagement, interview coordination and feedback across multiple live searches simultaneously. The retained model gave Gnosis the certainty of dedicated support without the unpredictable fees of contingency recruitment.

28 hires delivered and over £80,000 saved through retained search.

Over 12 months, Digital Waffle delivered 28 strategic hires for Gnosis across marketing, HR and design. The hires supported Gnosis through a sustained phase of growth across multiple products and functions.

Beyond delivery, the retained model produced significant commercial value. Gnosis saved more than £80,000 in recruitment costs over the engagement compared to traditional contingency fees.

The partnership gave Gnosis dedicated support and a recruitment process built around the way the business needed to operate.

Key outcomes:

The partnership gave Gnosis a consistent and cost-effective way to scale hiring across multiple specialist functions while maintaining quality and reducing recruitment costs. Here are the key outcomes:

• 28 strategic hires delivered in 12 months
• Over £80,000 saved on recruitment costs versus contingency
• Hires delivered across marketing, HR and design
• Sustained delivery throughout a 12-month retained engagement
• Delivered through a retained search partnership

"We brought Digital Waffle in on a retained basis to help us scale at Gnosis. Over twelve months they delivered 28 roles, sourcing the right candidates for each one across functions that aren't always easy to recruit for in this space. They showed a deep understanding of our requirements from the start. Happy to recommend them to anyone hiring at scale."

- Talent Acquisition Lead, Gnosis

By working with Gnosis on a retained basis, we delivered 28 strategic hires across marketing, HR and design over 12 months. The model gave Gnosis predictable delivery, dedicated support and cost savings of more than £80,000 compared to contingency recruitment.

If you're looking for a retained search partner that can support sustained hiring across multiple functions, we'd love to help.

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