Case Study
How Sunset scaled its customer success team with Contrario
Sunset had been trying to fill a critical customer success role since January. The problem was not a shortage of candidates. It was finding ones good enough to hire, fast enough to matter.
Arya Marwaha
Co-Founder & CEO
May 16, 2026
2 hires
from a single opening
80%
of first candidates worth interviewing
51 days
from opening to hire
Sunset helps venture-backed startups wind down, handling the legal, tax, and operational work of shutting a company down so founders and investors can move on to what's next. Founded by Brendan Mahony and Grant Rheingold, the company was scaling to keep pace with rising customer demand.
Vishnu Thyagarajan, Director of Customer Success at Sunset, owned the search for a customer success role that had sat open since January. It was not a role Sunset could leave empty: without it filled, the work landed on people who should have been building the product.
The Problem
Months open, high volume, no quality
Sunset had spent months working through other agencies and recruiting platforms without a hire to show for it. The issue was never a lack of candidates. It was that the volume came without the quality, and the recruiters could not calibrate to what Sunset actually needed.
"We tried other agencies and platforms. The quality just wasn't there despite the volume, and they couldn't calibrate with us."
— Vishnu Thyagarajan, Sunset
The role made it harder. It was a hybrid position that did not map cleanly to a standard job description, and the recruiters Sunset had tried could not translate that into the right people. At one point Vishnu was effectively doing the recruiter's job himself.
Every week the role stayed open carried a cost. Customer demand was high, and with the seat empty, engineers were pulled into customer success work instead of building — exactly the kind of team load Sunset's model was designed to avoid.
The Solution
Boutique recruiting, delivered through technology
Contrario paired high-quality recruiters with a real technology platform, and that combination is what set it apart. Rather than push volume, Contrario's recruiters calibrated quickly to Sunset's bar, while the platform, with its fast Slack integration, ATS sync, and AI tooling working behind the scenes, kept the process moving.
The quality showed up immediately. Of the first ten candidates Contrario submitted, Sunset wanted to interview eight.
"Their technology is better than any company we've ever worked with. They have high-quality recruiters who know what they're doing, empowered by AI tooling."
— Vishnu Thyagarajan, Sunset
Contrario invested in the relationship directly, too. Arya Marwaha visited the team in New York, met the new hires in person, and spent an hour with founder Brendan Mahony.
The impact
One opening, two hires
Sunset had set out to fill a single role. The candidates were strong enough that they hired two, expanding the opening rather than letting either go.
"We set out to hire one and ended up hiring two. They were both too strong to lose."
— Vishnu Thyagarajan, Sunset
Both hires closed in under two months, after a search that had been open since January. With customer success finally staffed, Sunset's engineers went back to building instead of covering support.
The partnership is now expanding well beyond that first search. Sunset plans to run more than 15 roles through Contrario across go-to-market, including account executives, SDRs, BDRs, and growth marketers, along with engineers both in person and remote.
"We're going to use Contrario for more than 15 new roles across go-to-market and engineering. They do boutique recruiting, but deliver it through a real technology advantage."
— Vishnu Thyagarajan, Sunset
Sunset's advice to other teams is straightforward.
"Anyone who wants an intentional approach to hiring, a partner that actually cares about building your team, should work with Contrario. They want your company to succeed, not just collect recruiting fees."
— Vishnu Thyagarajan, Sunset
Contrario will continue to partner with Sunset across its go-to-market and engineering hiring as the company scales.
Sunset
AI-Native Growth Agency
Industry
Startup Wind-Down Services
Headquarters
New York City
Employees
10+ for now
Stage
Series A
FOUNDERS
Jaisal Kothari
Founder
Vishnu Thyagarajan
Director of Customer Success
Roles Hired via Contrario
Customer Success Managers
1+ roles ongoing…
See how Contrario can build your team
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