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Honeypotbusiness model

Change the model, not the funnel

Growth work on a transactional model was pushing water uphill. The real lever was structural: move clients to subscription, redesign activation around it, and let retention compound.

Role
Head of Product
When
2020 — 2024

  1. signup-to-live

    50%

    70%

    Signup-to-live: profile complete, approved, and visible to recruiters.

  2. time-to-hire −20% via AI-assisted matching

  3. ops ratio

    1:2

    1:5

  4. talent activation +25%

  5. Spanish market = 12% of new signups

Instead of
more funnel optimisation
We bet on
a business-model transition.
Outcome
the decision that took the company to profitability

The funnel wasn't the constraint.

Honeypot was Europe's largest reverse recruiting platform. I owned the portfolio through an acquisition and the restructuring that followed.

The growth work at the time was funnel work — optimise the steps, lift the conversion. It was pushing water uphill. The real constraint wasn't the funnel, it was the transactional model underneath it.

Change the model, and retention starts compounding.

So we changed the model. Clients moved to subscription, activation was redesigned around it, and retention compounded instead of restarting.

That transition is the decision that took the company to profitability.

Transactional

Growth means more funnel optimisation.

Subscription

Retention compounds

Activation redesigned around the model.

Activation rebuilt around the new model.

Changing the model meant changing what the funnel was for. The step that mattered was getting a candidate from signing up to actually being live — complete, approved, and visible to recruiters — because that is the point at which the subscription has something to sell.

Downstream, the number that settles it is the hire rate.

  1. Signup

  2. 50%

    70%

  3. Live

    Profile complete, approved, and visible to recruiters.

  4. hire rate — the outcome metric

  5. Hire

Rebuilding the org after the acquisition.

After the acquisition I rebuilt the product organisation: six people across product and design, with ownership organised around problems.