First-to-Know Chair
The competitive advantage of learning about a hiring need or candidate availability before anyone else — the most valuable position in recruiting.
What is the First-to-Know Chair?
The First-to-Know Chair is the competitive position of learning about a hiring need, candidate availability, or market shift before competing firms. Coined by Adam at Eighty20 Consulting, the term captures what every staffing company wants: to be the first call, not the fourth. In recruiting, being first to make contact via a warm introduction is worth more than being the best pitch in a competitive process.
Why It Matters
Adam put it directly: "Every staffing company wants to be in the first-to-know chair."
If a CFO moves companies and you find out from WarmPath signals today, you call tomorrow. If you find out from LinkedIn in two weeks, you're the fourth call. The opportunity hasn't changed — but your competitive position has collapsed.
Even a small improvement in speed-to-know produces outsized results. Being first to a warm intro with evidence doesn't just improve conversion — it often eliminates competition entirely.
The Connection to Evidence
The First-to-Know Chair depends directly on solving Evidence Blindness. Without real-time intent signals connected to your network, you're relying on LinkedIn updates, industry gossip, and luck. Firms that systematically monitor job postings, funding rounds, and leadership changes — and connect those signals to their network — sit in the first-to-know chair by default.
How WarmPath Enables It
WarmPath continuously monitors intent signals and maps them to a firm's collective network. When a signal fires — a target company posts three new roles, a former client joins a new company, a funding round closes — the system alerts the recruiter who has the warmest path in, with the evidence and a draft introduction ready to send.
Frequently Asked Questions
The First-to-Know Chair is the competitive position of learning about a hiring need, candidate availability, or market shift before competing firms. In recruiting, being first to make contact — especially via a warm introduction — is worth more than being the best pitch in a competitive process.