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Company Battlecards

On DeckKnow who to contact, what to say, and when to move

On Deck

Know who to contact, what to say, and when to move

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Company Battlecards — Issue 9 | On Deck

Three Engagement States

Every company in your queue is in one of three states. Classify before you tailor.

Probe Now. The role is fresh (under three weeks), you can name the buyer, and your portfolio maps without a new build. Send the smallest complete argument: formal application through the ATS and one direct note to the buyer. Two channels with different failure modes. The application creates a record in the recruiting process. The buyer note tests whether your framing of their design problem lands with the person who owns the mandate.

Build Then Contact. A specific proof object is missing from junochen.com and is gating your pitch — not strengthening it, gating it. The object must be reusable across multiple accounts. Name it, estimate the build time, and weigh that against the role's freshness window.

Process Check. The role is aging past three weeks, or no buyer is identifiable, or the mandate is unclear. One targeted question to confirm the search is live — before you spend tailoring hours on a requisition that may be frozen, filled, or still forming.

Classify your queue right now. Most of it is Process Check. Your outreach list for this week is shorter than the target list.

Three Engagement States

Every company in your queue is in one of three states. Classify before you tailor.

Classify your queue right now. Most of it is Process Check. Your outreach list for this week is shorter than the target list.

TAKE NOTE

Your queue today, classified:

Probe Now — Capital One Director (8 days, Daniela Jorge reachable, Trust essay maps); OpenAI Codex (11 days, Ian Silber's public language on composable primitives gives you the hook); Vanta Director TPRM (4 days, apply + probe Epling on mandate); Headway Provider (15 days, Roland Tiangco identified at scope level)
Build Then Contact — OpenAI also qualifies here: a trust-earning loop artifact would address the growth-mandate vulnerability, and it serves Capital One and Gusto simultaneously. If it's a 1–2 day build and the role is still in its fresh window, build first.
Process Check — Vanta Head (54 days past threshold); Gusto (38 days, 5 from retirement); Midjourney (36 days, no warm path); Stripe (buyer unverified in both postings)

Four companies need a status probe. Four are ready for outreach.

PART ONE

Four Targets Are Ready for Outreach. Here's What's Blocking the Other Sixteen.

OPEN

Twenty companies scanned. Four have everything outreach requires — a qualifying role, a named buyer, and enough positioning signal to draft from. Seven more have live roles but no identified decision-maker. The rest are blocked by stale postings, structural changes, or missing openings entirely. Your daily queue of 3 is achievable this week, but only if buyer-identification research counts as queue-worthy work alongside finished messages. Full classification below, with your send order through Thursday and the two research targets that unlock the most new outreach surface after that.

Four Targets Are Ready for Outreach. Here's What's Blocking the Other Sixteen.

PART TWO

What the Recruiter Filters and What the Buyer Evaluates

OPEN

The recruiter who screens you and the design leader who hires you are running different evaluations. The recruiter filters on title trajectory, keyword match, career legibility. The buyer evaluates judgment, systems thinking, whether you've already been working on their problem. Your path through consulting, enterprise, a product-titled AI role, and back to design wins the buyer — but it can confuse the recruiter who decides whether the buyer ever sees you. This piece maps what each layer filters on, how to read which screen you're walking into, and how the buyer behind the gate changes what the gate is calibrated to find.

What the Recruiter Filters and What the Buyer Evaluates

PART THREE

Vanta's Head Search Hit Day 50. Then a Director Role Appeared Underneath It.

OPEN

Vanta's Head of Design search has been running for 54 days with no public hire. Then a Director of Product Design posting appeared underneath it — scoped to TPRM, carrying an AI workflow mandate that's been looking for a home since February, and naming no reporting line. That omission is the most informative detail in either posting. This piece reconstructs the full posting sequence, identifies what the pattern reveals about Vanta's design org right now, and tells you which role to prioritize this week.