Industry
E-Commerce
Location
Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, China, Vietnam, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, and Spain.
Number of Employees
60
CLIENT OVERVIEW
Our client is a Switzerland-based longevity startup founded in 2021, focused on making science-backed health and wellness solutions more accessible to everyday consumers. Operating at the intersection of e-commerce, preventative healthcare, and the rapidly developing longevity sector, the company offers high-quality supplements developed around transparent ingredients and the latest scientific research.
With approximately 60 employees worldwide, the company has grown from its headquarters in Zug, Switzerland, into an increasingly international business. As part of this expansion, Avomind has supported the organization across a diverse range of hiring markets, including Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, China, Vietnam, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, and Spain.
Malaysia represented a particularly important step in this international growth journey. Rather than adding to an established local organization, the company was preparing to make its first hire in the country. The Venture Development Associate would therefore take on considerably more responsibility than a conventional commercial or marketing position. Working fully remotely without a physical local office, this individual would help establish the foundations for the company's presence in Malaysia while operating with significant independence from the wider international team.
Avomind was engaged to find a candidate who could combine analytical and commercial capabilities with the entrepreneurial mindset required to succeed as a first hire in a new market.
CHALLENGE
The search quickly demonstrated that the difficulty was not simply finding candidates with relevant experience. The greater challenge was identifying someone with the right combination of analytical ability, commercial potential, independence, and genuine motivation to build a market from an early stage.
Initially, the candidate pool naturally included professionals with strong marketing backgrounds. While many brought relevant experience, the hiring process revealed that traditional marketing expertise alone did not fully match what the client needed. The role required someone who could approach problems quantitatively, work methodically with data, structure ambiguous questions, and translate analysis into commercial decisions. The ideal candidate needed to think more broadly than a conventional marketing remit.
The nature of the position created an additional layer of complexity. As the company's first employee in Malaysia, the successful candidate would not join an established local team or office. They needed to be comfortable operating autonomously, taking ownership of problems without extensive local infrastructure, and helping shape how the business developed in the market. Some candidates who were otherwise qualified were ultimately less comfortable with the uncertainty and responsibility associated with being the first person on the ground.
The employment setup also required careful candidate management. As the company did not yet have a local entity or physical office in Malaysia, the successful hire would initially be employed through an Employer of Record. For some candidates, this created questions around the employment contract, salary payment process, and overall stability of the arrangement. The fully remote setup presented a similar consideration, particularly for candidates who preferred the structure and social environment of a hybrid or office-based workplace.
Motivation for the industry itself also had to be assessed carefully. Longevity is an emerging category that sits between consumer health, wellness, science, and e-commerce. While this presented an exciting opportunity for candidates interested in the future of preventative healthcare, not every candidate was equally convinced by the sector or comfortable moving into a relatively young category.
Finally, long-term commitment was an important consideration. Some candidates had moved frequently between agencies or companies, creating uncertainty around whether they were looking for an opportunity they could build over time or simply another short-term career move. For a first-country hire with significant responsibility, the client needed someone prepared to develop alongside the business rather than treating the position as a temporary stepping stone.
Together, these factors made the mandate significantly more nuanced than a standard Venture Development search. Success depended on understanding the underlying capabilities the company needed and continuously refining the candidate profile as the search progressed.
SOLUTION
Avomind worked closely with the hiring manager throughout the process, treating candidate feedback as an opportunity to continuously recalibrate the search. Rather than remaining fixed on the initial profile, we used insights from early interviews to build an increasingly precise understanding of what success in the position would actually require.
One of the most important adjustments was moving away from an overly marketing-focused candidate profile. The early stages of the search demonstrated that several candidates had strong marketing credentials but did not consistently display the quantitative, analytical, and structured approach the hiring manager expected. Avomind therefore broadened the talent pool and began prioritizing underlying problem-solving capabilities over conventional functional experience.
This opened the search to candidates from areas such as consulting, strategy, business analysis, finance, data and analytics, and engineering. Instead of requiring several years of direct marketing experience, we evaluated how candidates approached unfamiliar problems, interpreted information, worked with numbers, and translated their thinking into practical commercial actions. This significantly expanded the potential talent pool while bringing the search closer to the client's actual requirements.
Academic background also became a more relevant indicator. Avomind placed greater emphasis on candidates who had studied quantitative disciplines such as economics, mathematics, statistics, finance, engineering, and physics. These backgrounds were not treated as rigid prerequisites, but they helped identify individuals who were more likely to demonstrate the logical and methodical thinking required for the role.
The assessment process consequently shifted toward transferable capabilities. Candidates were evaluated on structured problem-solving, numerical confidence, commercial thinking, learning agility, and their ability to work independently. This helped distinguish between candidates who simply had relevant titles on their CVs and those who could realistically succeed in an ambiguous, high-ownership environment.
At the same time, Avomind placed greater emphasis on first-hire readiness. Candidate conversations explored not only whether individuals were capable of performing the role, but whether they actively wanted the responsibility that came with it. We focused on professionals who were energized by autonomy and the opportunity to build something from the ground up, rather than candidates who depended on an established local structure to perform effectively.
The remote and EOR setup was addressed transparently throughout the recruitment process. By setting clear expectations around the employment structure, working environment, and realities of being the first Malaysian hire, Avomind could identify concerns earlier and concentrate efforts on candidates who were genuinely comfortable with the model. This helped reduce the likelihood of misalignment emerging at a later stage of the process.
Career motivation and long-term potential were also examined more closely. Where candidates had moved frequently between employers, Avomind sought to understand the reasons behind those transitions rather than relying solely on CV tenure. The objective was to distinguish reasonable career progression from patterns that might indicate limited commitment, ensuring shortlisted candidates had a credible motivation for joining and growing with the company.
Crucially, the search remained highly collaborative. Regular communication between Avomind and the hiring manager created a continuous feedback loop, allowing search parameters to evolve as the client developed an increasingly precise view of the ideal candidate. Rather than repeatedly presenting similar profiles that did not address earlier feedback, Avomind translated those insights into changes in sourcing strategy, target backgrounds, and candidate assessment.
OUTCOME
Through this iterative approach, Avomind transformed a relatively broad Venture Development mandate into a highly targeted search for the capabilities the company actually needed to establish its Malaysian presence.
The recalibration significantly improved alignment between the candidate pipeline and the client's expectations. By looking beyond conventional marketing profiles, Avomind created access to a more diverse talent pool of analytically strong professionals who could bring structured thinking and commercial judgment to the position while quickly developing any function-specific knowledge required.
Just as importantly, the process helped ensure that candidates were evaluated against the realities of the opportunity rather than the job title alone. The focus on autonomy, ambiguity, remote working, EOR employment, and first-hire responsibility meant that candidates progressing through the process had a much clearer understanding of what joining the company in Malaysia would entail.
For the client, the engagement demonstrated the value of a recruitment partner capable of adapting as a search develops. Rather than treating the original brief as static, Avomind continuously incorporated market feedback and hiring-manager insights to refine the target profile and improve candidate relevance.
The result was a recruitment strategy designed not simply to fill a position, but to identify the type of person capable of becoming the foundation of a new market. By combining targeted talent mapping, continuous calibration, transparent candidate management, and a strong focus on transferable capabilities, Avomind supported the client in taking an important step in its international expansion and establishing the talent foundation for its growth in Malaysia.