A Note from Ken: What Building Ascentria Taught Me About Teams, Timing, and Trust

Ascentria Search Partners Co-Founders — Year One

About a year and a half ago, I wrote myself a letter.

In it, I outlined three possible futures for my professional life. I’d close the business. I’d run it alone, back to how I started in 2007. Or something I couldn’t yet see would drive the next chapter.

What I couldn’t see was Ascentria.

May 1st marked one year since Seann Richardson and I completed the merger of TurningPoint Executive Search and Collabrie. Two firms. Five decades of combined experience. One shared belief that recruiting done right isn’t transactional — it’s transformational.

How We Got Here

The year leading into the merger wasn’t easy. The recruiting industry hit a wall, and like many firms, we felt it. I faced some of the harder decisions of my career, the kind that force you to ask not just what you’re building, but why.

That period clarified something important: I wasn’t just looking for a business solution. I was looking for the right partner.

In Seann, I found exactly that. She brought 25 years of experience grounded in analytical rigor, with deep expertise across accounting, finance, operations, and HR.

I came from a relationship-driven executive search background focused on sales, marketing, and leadership.

Different instincts. Different strengths. Different approaches to the same problem.

That’s exactly why it works.

Designing the Team Before Filling the Seats

Before we ever opened our doors, Seann and I spent months having the kinds of conversations that feel uncomfortable but matter enormously: What do we each believe about hiring? How will we make decisions when we disagree? Are we aligned on the eventual exit strategy? What does the team need from us that they’ll never think to ask for? What are we not willing to recreate just because it was familiar? How will we ensure that our friendship doesn't suffer?

Those conversations didn’t slow us down. They built the foundation.

One of the biggest differentiators at Ascentria didn’t come from a process or a platform. It came from restraint. We resisted the urge to hire quickly just to feel complete. We asked harder questions:

What does this role actually need to own?

What kind of judgment matters here?

Who makes the team better, not just bigger?

This mirrors exactly what we tell our clients every day: the most important hiring decisions aren’t made at the offer stage. They’re made in the design stage, before the role is posted, before the résumés arrive, before the pressure to fill a seat overrides the discipline to fill it right. It's a principle we've written about before, and one we come back to constantly.

Teams aren’t static. They’re living systems. If you don’t tend to them, they drift.

The Milestone Inside the Milestone

In March, we welcomed Lauryn Horn to Ascentria Search Partners as our newest Recruiting Manager, our first new hire since the merger.

It would be easy to frame that as a growth announcement and move on. But it’s more than that.

We held ourselves to the same standard we always hold our clients to. We didn’t rush. We asked the same questions we ask in every search. And we found someone who met that standard.

Your first post-merger hire is a signal, to your team, to your clients, to the market. It says: we know who we are, and we’re ready to grow from that foundation.

A Quiet Reminder for Leaders

This isn’t a victory lap. It’s a pause, and an invitation.

Last November, five months into the merger, I wrote about what I lost and what I clarified during the incredibly difficult time in 2024. If you missed it, it’s worth a read.

If you’re in a season of uncertainty right now, stay with it a little longer than feels comfortable. The clarity usually arrives right after the point where most people grab the first available exit.

Don’t wait for a crisis to evaluate your team. Don’t wait for turnover to ask whether roles still fit. Don’t wait for burnout to realize you’ve been asking the wrong people to carry the wrong load.

The best teams aren’t built once. They’re revisited, refined, and respected over time.

A year and a week in, I’m proud of what we’ve built. Grateful for everyone who took the leap with us. And more convinced than ever that intentional hiring and honest partnership aren’t nice to haves.

They’re the work.

I opened that letter not long ago. The third option, the one I couldn’t see, turned out to be the best one.

-Ken Schmitt, Partner & Co-Founder, Ascentria Search Partners