Sherwood Recruiting / Case study
The AFEELA U.S. launch: 48 hires, no agencies.
A new vehicle brand, a U.S. launch on the calendar, and one recruiter inside the company. This is how the team got built.
A launch date, and no recruiting function
Sony Honda Mobility of America is the U.S. arm of the joint venture between Sony and Honda, formed to launch the AFEELA electric vehicle. When Larry Sherwood joined in early 2025 as the first dedicated recruiter, the U.S. company had about thirty employees and a launch to staff.
Until then, hiring ran through the HR manager and outside agencies, for every role, not only engineering. The applicant tracking system existed, but it was running at its defaults. The roles ahead were not one kind of hire: validation and quality engineers, service and parts leaders, customer engagement teams, marketing, finance, IT, legal, and several roles that needed fluent Japanese.
Every search came in house on day one
The first decision was the simplest: no more agencies. Every open search moved in house, and no agency was used again for the rest of the program.
The second was to make the system work for the hiring managers instead of around them. The ATS was built out around what each manager said a great hire looked like, in their own words, so screening and interviews measured the same thing. Nineteen hiring managers, from vice presidents to team leads, ran their searches through one recruiter and one process.
The first hire started six weeks after Larry arrived.
Direct sourcing, and the whole picture on the first call
- Direct sourcing. Candidates were found and approached directly, including engineers and quality specialists with long, stable careers at established automakers.
- The whole picture, first. Every candidate heard how the company paid, what it could and could not offer, and the honest risks of joining a launch in the first conversation. That is why 48 of 49 offers were accepted: nothing surprised anyone at the end.
- A steady cadence. Hiring managers had weekly video check-ins, prepared shortlists and follow-up between meetings. Larry worked remotely, on site only in the first week to meet the team and for key milestones.
- Speed without shortcuts. On average, 14 days to source a slate, 27 days from first contact to hire, and 42 days from opening a role to filling it.
Every function, not only engineering
Forty-eight hires across nine functions, from hourly showroom roles to Managing Counsel. U.S. headcount more than doubled. About $1.5M in agency fees were avoided over the twelve months, calculated on the first-year salaries of the hires at a standard agency fee.
The clearest signal came from the hiring managers themselves. Five of them had already hired with Larry at Fisker, and chose to do it again. Ten of the company's leaders, including the VP of People Operations, the VP of Engineering and the General Counsel, wrote formal reference letters. Every one of them said location never limited the results.
“Although Larry worked primarily remotely, his impact was no different from someone embedded onsite every day.”
“This was the most effective recruiter partnership I have experienced.”
“What impressed me most was Larry's ability to quickly understand exactly what kind of engineers we needed in a very competitive autonomous and ADAS talent market, and then deliver strong candidates with remarkable speed and accuracy.”
The 48 hires by team
In 2026, Honda wound down its North American EV program, and the U.S. operation with it. The hiring record stands on its own.
The same work, on your calendar
The launch team build
Twenty to fifty hires against a launch date, planned backward from the date, with the agency bill removed from the start.
The stalled-search reset
The specialized role that will not close, reworked with the hiring manager and sourced directly, the way the quality and engineering roles were filled here.
The first hire in talent
An ATS built around how your managers hire, a process that holds, and the first hires made, then handed over working.