The CEO was very interested in my work experience at a direct competitor. During the first chat with him, he immediately asked for a 30-60-90 day plan which I agreed to put together as long a he would commit to an intake session. I provided him with the comprehensive intake questions. After reviewing the detailed plan I produced, he then asked for a budget and headcount plan which I also produced. Apparently satisfied, he asked for references which I provided. The only reference call he made was with the direct competitor. My second reference then got a note indicating the call was no longer necessary as the company "got all it needed". Circling back with the lead recruiter, I was told the CEO decided to look for a more junior person which of course would be micro managed by the CEO with the detailed plan I provided. It's clear this CEO does not know how to hire / work with execs - which is why he has none in the US. Maybe it's a culture thing, but attempting to extract competitive intel vs hiring people that can actually execute, and then thinking he can manage and get the same results out of a junior marketer is a recipe for failure. Having now read the other reviews on this site, I am convinced I dodged a bullet and would advise anyone else considering working with this CEO to do the same. Definitely do not spend time putting a plan together for him. Before references were given, a salary, stock options, and bonus amount was verbally agreed to. All of a sudden, before references were called, I was offered a one month trial period. I countered with a 3 month engagement at my consulting rate which of course would be higher than than the salary rate. They then agreed to the original salary rate but had resistance on paying the bonus quarterly basis vs annually. Another red flag that this was all an exercise to extract maximum benefit in a short amount of time with minimal commitment. My reference at the direct competitor confirmed all went well during the call but he did find many of the questions to be more about what he was doing to help scale the company vs what it was like to work with me. I do feel bad for the executive recruiter who had just agreed work with him two weeks prior. He informed me there was no other candidate in the pipeline. He was great to work with so I just hope he is not being used in the same way to simply gather intel.