The process is the same every time; the answer never is. Every engagement starts with a working conversation about your wants, needs, and what is not working now — and the recommendation is built from your answers, not a template. The founder runs each one personally, which is why we take only a small number at a time and why most clients arrive by referral.
Tack launched in January 2020 to build a different kind of recruiting firm — one that did not disappear after the offer letter. The standard model is a placement and a handshake: the search closes, the invoice clears, the firm moves on. We wanted the opposite. Support through the hire and well past it, and coaching and consulting for the operators a client already has, so retention is not left to chance. To tack is to turn the bow through the wind: a deliberate change of course that keeps the boat moving forward.
Meagan has spent the last decade in recruiting and the last six years building companies. She came to the field from hotel management, and it shows in how she runs her work: hospitality teaches you to anticipate a need before it is spoken, and to treat service as a discipline rather than a posture. That same instinct separates a good executive assistant from an indispensable one.
She founded Tack Advisors in 2020 and has since worked with over 100 retained search and coaching clients in the US, UK, and Canada. She runs every engagement personally: intake, outreach, calibration calls, hard feedback, and the offer conversation. Clients have one number to call. Candidates hear back from the person who read their note.
She previously built eaRISE, a membership community for executive assistants, and she co-founded The VC Shortlist, a platform connecting venture firms with the non-investing talent that keeps them running. Her operating philosophy across all three is people, process, profit, in that order, always. Investing in the people first makes the right processes easier to build, and profit follows.
Executive-operations seats: executive assistants, executive personal assistants, chiefs of staff, executive business partners, directors of operations, operations managers, and estate managers. If the role exists to create leverage for a leader, it is probably in scope.
Yes. Searches run across the United States, with the heaviest concentration in San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, Miami, and Austin. We have also run searches for clients in the UK and Canada. Hybrid and fully remote roles are common and welcome.
The nuances of an executive-operations seat are not obvious from the outside. A specialist knows what the role pays, how it differs across a family office, a venture firm, and a growth-stage company, and which people are worth approaching even though they are not looking. A generalist rebuilds that understanding on every search. We start with it.
Both of our models are priced as a percentage of first-year compensation, billed in stages across the search. The exact structure depends on the seniority of the seat and the market it sits in, and we quote it in writing before any work begins. Onboarding support through the first ninety days is included — it is not a separate engagement.
Because it buys committed time. A firm working with no deposit hedges by carrying many roles at once and working whichever is closest to closing. A deposit removes that incentive: your search gets worked because it is funded, not because it is the likeliest to pay this month.
Yes, in both directions. We source proactively, and we review every application that comes through the careers page for a current search. We keep strong candidates in mind for future briefs, even when a particular role is not a fit.
Discretion is the default. A sensitive search can run without the client being named until a candidate reaches an agreed stage, and nothing from a candidate conversation reaches a current employer.
