Sign inStart hiring
All case studies

Case study · Customer support and operations

The fastest ramp
is someone who already
knows your business

How one operator moved into a new department at Acquisition.com and was running independently within a month.

Six daysKia
  1. John sends the role detailsWed, Jul 23
  2. QA interview for the new roleSame day
  3. Fit assessment scores the pairing90 / 100
  4. Endorsement sent to JohnThat evening
  5. Kickoff in his departmentMon, Jul 28

No sourcing round. The match was already inside the account

  • 6days from first email
    to in seat
  • 90/100fit assessment score
    for the pairing
  • 30days to running
    independently
  • 10 moof check-in data
    behind the match
Start reading
Client
John BushnellDirector of Customer Support and Operations
Company
Acquisition.comBusiness education and investment
Unicorn
Kia FormenteraProject Manager
Outcome
Six days to in seatIndependent in 30 days

The story in eight slides

Short on time?
Swipe the highlights

  1. The fastest ramp is someone who already knows your business: how one operator moved into a new department at Acquisition.com
  2. The problem: detailed work with no room for a slow ramp, on SOPs where one mistake travels downstream
  3. The match: Kia had spent ten months as a Project Manager on Acquisition.com's finance team
  4. The proof: a 6/6 engagement scorecard, 10 out of 10 client confidence, and zero performance gaps
  5. The result: 6 days from first email to in seat, a 90/100 fit assessment, 30 days to running independently
  6. The ramp: in seat in week 1, her own automation recommendations by week 2, owning the pre-work chase and workshop processes at day 30, and L2 and L3 processes at day 60
  7. Client perspective: “She's got this. She doesn't need me.” John Bushnell, Director of Customer Support and Operations, Acquisition.com
  8. Why it worked: good talent stays in the account, so Kia's capacity moved to where the company needed it next

Or read the full story ↓

The storyA role that couldn't wait for a ramp

Acquisition.com runs on SOPs, and some of them carry real downstream risk if they're run wrong. When John Bushnell, Director of Customer Support and Operations, needed a project manager to own a set of those processes, he wanted someone in place fast and someone he could trust with the detail.

Assistantly already had that person inside the building. Kia Formentera had spent ten months as a Project Manager on Acquisition.com's finance team. Six days after John asked, she was kicking off in his department.

Where pressure was building

John's department supports customers and member onboarding for a newer Acquisition.com product. Processes were shifting fast, and the team was working to automate core workflows. Earlier in the year, John had paused a hire to get that automation in place first.

By July, he needed someone to run a set of existing SOPs by hand, then help turn them into automation. In his words, the work “could lead to a lot of downstream issues if not completed correctly.”

He was clear about who he needed:

  • Highly detail-oriented
  • A project management focus, with process and business analyst skills
  • First-principles thinking, focused on “why, not what”
  • In place as soon as possible

The real risk was ramp time. A new hire would need to learn the company's tools, people, and pace before they could be trusted with work where mistakes travel downstream.

For a role framed as 90 days, a slow ramp eats most of the window.

What Assistantly put in place

A match from inside the account

01

The match was already in the building

Because Assistantly manages both sides of the relationship, the match was obvious. Kia was already working inside Acquisition.com, and her finance workload had recently moved to a lighter, part-time schedule. She had capacity, context, and a track record.

02

A track record on file, not a resume

Kia's record on the finance team was documented across every check-in: a 6/6 client engagement scorecard, client confidence of 10 out of 10 at her 90-day review, zero performance gaps, and automations she built herself, including an Apps Script tool that organized the team's files.

03

A fit check grounded in real behavior

Before endorsing her, Assistantly ran Kia through a fresh QA interview for John's role. She laid out a specific two-week plan to ramp on HubSpot. The fit assessment scored the pairing 90/100, built from John's own check-in transcripts rather than profile defaults.

04

An endorsement the same evening

John sent his role details on July 23. Kia's endorsement went out that evening, and John booked the intro call for the following Monday. The formal kickoff was July 28.

05

A lighter onboarding

Kia already knew Acquisition.com's tools, culture, and people, so onboarding skipped the basics. It covered three things: closing access gaps, reviewing the SOP doc, and naming her first processes to own. She also kept a small part-time block with the finance team, so that relationship stayed intact.

What changed

Four checkpoints,
each one built on the last

  1. Week 1

    In seat and finding the edges

    • In seat six days after John's first email
    • All system access, including HubSpot, sorted in week one
    • Built her own map of the SOP doc before raising questions
  2. Two weeks

    Working without hand-holding

    • On track to take over the pre-work process after a structured handover
    • Bringing automation recommendations on her own, using AI tools
    • John reported “zero complaints” and said she was operating without hand-holding
  3. Day 30

    Owning the processes

    • Owning the pre-work chase and the workshop processes
    • One minor HubSpot process slip, caught and corrected quickly, with nothing missed
  4. Day 60

    Taking on more

    • Owning L2 and L3 processes, even after the person who trained her was no longer available
    • Raising process gaps and correcting misses directly with John
30
days to running independently

A role John needed filled as soon as possible was matched in a day, with no new sourcing round. His involvement dropped to a couple of syncs a week, and his check-ins shifted from managing the work to planning what Kia could take on next.

★★★★★
“She's awesome. She's doing a really good job deep diving on the stuff, coming up with recommendations, taking ownership of things. I couldn't ask for a better person or partner.”
★★★★★
“She's very thoughtful, very pragmatic about how she approaches things. That's really what I was looking for.”

John BushnellDirector of Customer Support and Operations, Acquisition.com

Why this worked

Context is most of the ramp

Context transfers

Most of a new hire's ramp is learning the business: the tools, the people, how decisions get made. Kia brought all of that with her, so her first weeks went to the work itself.

Proof beats a promise

John didn't have to bet on an interview. Kia's ten months of check-in data at the same company told him how she'd perform before she started.

Knowing both sides makes the match

Assistantly knew what John needed and what Kia could do, because it manages both relationships. That's how a role that could have meant a cold search became a six-day placement.

Good talent stays in the account

When Kia's finance workload got lighter, her capacity didn't leave Acquisition.com. It moved to where the company needed it next.

Thirty days in, John's summary was
“She's got this. She doesn't need me.”

Start with someone
who has already proven it

Tell us the role, and we'll show you who has already done the work.

Start hiringRead the Acquisition.com finance story

More case studies