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Plain-text copy sheet

15 MINUTES OF FORME · ISSUE #7 · 8 OCTOBER 2026

Attracting the top talent, wherever they sit

The inside track on leadership, go-to-market, and finding the people who move the needle.

OPENING NOTE

What does it take to attract top talent, wherever they sit in the world?

When we were mandated this year to find Sokin's chief revenue officer, the task was clear: attract the best talent the US market has to offer. The service and technology offering and advantage of Sokin landed well – the story is everything.

Larger incumbents are catching up with scale-ups like Sokin. So how do you attract leaders away from businesses that are performing well and nearer an exit? Companies like Sokin are willing to pay for top tier talent.

Read the opening note: [LINK NEEDED — set published base URL]

THE WORKING DESK

What are we really hiring for?

A commercial-leadership search, with the identifying details taken out.

A bigger title will not build the engine. A growing business needs a commercial leader who can build the processes as well as lead the team. The question is not simply who has held the CRO title. It is who wants to do the work this stage requires.

The question: “What would this person have to build, not just inherit?”

An anonymised, adapted search example. Details have been generalised to protect confidentiality. Questions and margin notes are editorial prompts, not a verbatim account of the search.

Open the working desk: [LINK NEEDED — set published base URL]

FOLLOW THE CONVERSATION

Elina Berglund, co-founder of Natural Cycles, in conversation with Kate Zatland.

Kate Zatland: Having partnered with Oura and Apple, what have you learned about brand and go-to-market working alongside these exceptional companies?

“The biggest learning experience is in their attitude to trust and long-term advocacy.” — Elina Berglund

Also in the conversation: entering new markets and hiring for the mission.

From the published interview, 26 March 2026. Selected original answers, not a new interview.

Choose your way through the conversation: [LINK NEEDED — set published base URL]

THE NUMBERS DON'T LIE

Three signals from our October work

29% — Only 16 of 55 C-level go-to-market executives gave concrete detail on how their functions use AI. 29 of 31 more junior interviewees did.

37% — 45 candidates in a recent GTM pool cited a lack of upward mobility. Several pointed to the same ceiling: a founder holding the chief title.

3.2% — Nscale CEO Josh Payne's base and bonus (a bit more than $722k) was 3.2% of a $23.2m package. The rest was equity.

Read all three signals: [LINK NEEDED — set published base URL]

TIER 1 TALENT

Acquisition & retention

Gone are the days when the market was a buyers one. Make sure that your processes are even more water tight than before, not dragged out.

Work at speed to reference and move your preferred candidates through the process. Benchmarks are fine to refer to but the outliers we are placing sit high above this.

Read on retention and remuneration: [LINK NEEDED — set published base URL]

CLIENT NEWS

Moves, money, momentum

Omnea is 11th in the Sifted 250 for 2026, with a two-year CAGR of 644.83%.

Sokin's MCP connector lets finance teams arrange cross-border payments from tools such as Claude, ChatGPT and Perplexity.

Limbic is the first AI-led mental healthcare company in the FDA's TEMPO pilot.

Client news in full: [LINK NEEDED — set published base URL]

FROM THE ARCHIVE · ISSUE #5, 31 MARCH 2026

Succession or a ceiling?

In March, we wrote about planning for the next phase of leadership. October's observations raise the other side of that question: when does a lack of room to grow make good people leave? Read the earlier passage alongside this issue's 37% signal.

Read the March passage: [LINK NEEDED — set published base URL]

A FORME GAME

Build a business. Keep it standing.

A short fictional challenge. Same pressure, different structures.

Play the Forme challenge: [LINK NEEDED — set published base URL]

CLOSING NOTE

Keats, 'To Autumn'

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;
To bend with apples the moss'd cottage-trees,
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease,
For summer has o'er-brimm'd their clammy cells.

Until next time,

15 Minutes of Forme

Thinking about your own next move? Work through what your next leadership role needs to look like.

Explore your next-role blueprint: /membership

Editorial checks before sending

• 3.2% / Nscale: recheck the $23.2m total, the ~$722k base and bonus and the S1 source before any reissue. Claims not independently audited.
• Opening note: "interesting, emerging and opportunities" reads as a missing word.
• Opening note: "throw benchmark salaries comp out" is ambiguous wording.
• Opening note: "Christopher Morris, of the billion-dollar, listed business Corpay joined" — sentence order is ambiguous.
• Retention: "see the demise of many, rather than legacy technology" is ambiguous.
• Retention: "executive leadership – whatever the title will have a messy middle" is missing a closing dash or comma.
• Client news: "cross-border payments and and estimate" has a doubled word.
• Signals heading: "(ai)" lower case as in source.
• Clean source URLs needed for Christopher Morris, Vroon Modgill, Omnea, Sokin and Limbic.
• All email excerpts, shelf lines, the archive framing and the game copy are new editorial condensations and need approval.
• Working desk and conversation lenses are proposed Forme copy; desk is anonymised. Check no identifying details have crept in.
• Before a fresh edition: replace the archived Elina conversation with that issue's approved interview.