This page is for the business development lead whose best contact just posted a new title, bounced an email or sent a farewell note. The move is a reason to check, not a reason to send.
One move, two separate questions
A move changes who you can reach and who can decide, and those change differently. The CEO authorizes a company's licensing discussion. Your contact was useful because they could reach that CEO and be heard. After a move, check both again.
| What happened | What changed for a referral | Whom you now need |
|---|---|---|
| Your contact left the company you meant to introduce | You lost your path there, unless someone else there knows you | Someone who can ask that company's current CEO |
| Your contact joined another company | A possible new lead, at a company nobody has screened | That company's CEO, and its fit facts |
| Your contact was promoted to CEO | They now hold the authority | Their yes, asked again in the new role |
| Your contact moved to a sister company in the same group | A different company with its own CEO, under one group reward cap | The sister company's CEO |
| A founder-CEO became chair or adviser | Someone else holds the CEO seat | The new CEO; the chair can introduce, the CEO decides |
Read the clue and its date before you act
Every clue about a move has a publisher and a date, and most describe only one side of it. A bounce says the old mailbox changed. A farewell email says they left, and sometimes where they are going. A profile update says what the person chose to post. A press release says what a company announced. Write down which side each clue describes and when you saw it.
Then look at the relationship itself. It was with a person, so ask two things: does the person want to hear from you in the new role, and does anyone at the old company know you well enough to take your call? If the moved executive still knows the old company's CEO well, they may be better placed than you to make that introduction. A former employee can introduce a former employer under the program, and only one partner is credited per company, so agree who asks before anyone does.
The current-role verification process
Six steps, in order. Stop at any step that fails.
- Date the clue. Record what you saw, who published it and the date.
- Find a company-side record. The company's own leadership page or announcement. For companies that report to the SEC, Form 8-K Item 5.02 covers the departure of directors and certain officers and the appointment of certain officers, and an 8-K report is generally due within four business days of the event. For UK companies, GOV.UK says changes to directors must be reported to Companies House within 14 days, and the duty extends to company secretaries.
- Ask the person. Their current employer, title and start date, and whether they want to be involved or named at all.
- Name the CEO at each company. At the old company, who holds the seat now. At the new one, who holds it and whether your contact can reach them.
- Screen the new company from what it says. Full-time headcount at peak, years of its own records, who owns them and any earlier contact with SourceX, from the company itself and never from what your contact knew in the old job.
- Record the path and date it. Who will ask which CEO, and when.
The rule of thumb: act on a move only when the person has confirmed it and one company-side record agrees. Each source answers a narrow question:
| Source | What it can confirm | When it appears | What it cannot confirm |
|---|---|---|---|
| The person's own message | Their employer and title, as they describe them | When they tell you | Authority, or any fact about the company |
| Bounce or auto-reply | That the old mailbox changed | At once | Where they went, or why |
| Company leadership page | Whom the company currently lists | Whenever the company edits it | That the page is current |
| Press release | The announced role and effective date | Can come before the start date | That the person has started |
| SEC Form 8-K, Item 5.02 | Departures of directors and certain officers, and appointments of certain officers, at SEC-reporting companies | Generally within four business days of the event | Executives outside the item, and private companies |
| Companies House filing | Changes to UK directors and company secretaries | Due within 14 days of the change | Executives who are not directors |
| Networking profile | What the person chose to post | Whenever they edit it | Anything they left out, or a verified start date |
The two filings are the only rows with a legal clock, and both are narrow. Most private companies, and most executives below the board, appear in neither. When the person's word and the company's own page agree, that is usually enough to decide whom to ask. Tracing a person back to the business behind them, rather than a role, is the job of finding the business behind the executive in your network.
What you saw, and what you are guessing
A move produces confident guesses. Keep them apart from what you actually saw. For a contact who moved to a distributor:
| Statement | Observed or inferred | Who can confirm it |
|---|---|---|
| She joined a 300-person distributor in September | Observed, on her own profile | She can; the company's page may agree |
| She is head of operations there | Observed, as she describes it | The company's leadership page |
| She can get the CEO's attention | Inferred | She can, once asked |
| The distributor keeps years of dispatch records | Inferred, from its trade | The company, through its CEO |
| Her old employer's records would suit SourceX | Not yours to assess any more | The old company's CEO, if someone asks them |
The last row is where moves go wrong. What she learned about her former employer's records belongs to her former employer. Do not ask her to describe them, and keep anything she volunteers out of every introduction. Rights in the end rest on documents the company itself holds, which SourceX's review examines; the main site's guide to the documents that show a right to license explains what those are.
Three moves, followed through (Illustrative)
Illustrative. Generic companies and people; no outcomes are implied.
| Case | Public clue | Confirmed facts | Old company | New company |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A. A vice president of operations leaves a 400-person freight broker for a 90-person software company | A farewell email, then a profile update | She confirms the move; the software company's page lists her | No one else there knows you: marked no path, revisit if a new contact appears | Most stored data belongs to its customers: marked no fit for now |
| B. A CFO you have advised for years becomes CEO of a 220-person engineering firm | The firm's announcement | He confirms; the announcement names him CEO from 1 October | Same company: his new seat carries the authority | Not applicable |
| C. A general manager moves between two subsidiaries of a 1,200-person services group | A trade newsletter | She confirms; the sister company's site lists her | Her former subsidiary needs a new path to its own CEO | The sister company's CEO decides; she agrees to raise it |
Case A closes two rows in one move, and each closes for its own reason: no path at the old company, no fit at the new one. Neither row is a failure; both are dated, so they can be reopened. Case B is the easiest move a partner gets, but the earlier conversation was with a CFO, so the question is asked again and the CEO's yes is written down with its date. Case C stays inside one corporate group, which shares one reward cap. Whether earlier dealings by one subsidiary, or another partner's introduction of its sibling, touch credit for the other is not set out in the terms; SourceX resolves it from dated records in duplicate review, so tell nobody what the answer will be.
Ask first, then introduce only what still holds
- Ask the moved executive whether they want to be named, at either company. Some will not want their name used at a former employer.
- Never trade on the old title. "Your former VP suggested this" opens nothing and uses a name without leave.
- Get the current CEO's yes. An introduction the decision maker knows nothing about is, in SourceX's screening guidance, usually a poor fit. If the new CEO is serving on an interim basis, read interim CEO authority before assuming they can commit the company.
- Ask about earlier contact. SourceX checks its own records, and if they show any earlier application, relationship, lead, account or email correspondence with the company, the introduction is a duplicate that earns no credit, whoever the new contact is.
- Sign first. The SourceX Channel Partner Agreement is signed before any submission. Partners who signed the earlier Channel Partner Non-Circumvention and Non-Disclosure Agreement are held to the text they signed.
- Keep to metadata. No files, samples, exports or logins pass through you.
When two introductions compete, the earliest valid one made inside the 90-day attribution window takes the credit, once the company files a verified application. If an introduction was already under review when your sponsor moved, see when the executive sponsor leaves during review; if the company now has a new CEO, briefing a newly appointed CEO covers the handoff. For roles in general, finding the right decision maker is the starting point.
Where role checks go wrong
- Narrow filings. The 8-K item covers directors and certain officers, and Companies House covers directors and secretaries. A head of operations at a private company may appear in neither, ever.
- Titles that do not map. President, managing director and general manager mean different things at different companies. Ask who the CEO is, by name.
- Announced is not started. An announcement can name a future start date; until then the old holder may still be in the seat.
- Other countries. Registries outside the U.S. and UK have their own rules and deadlines; check the local one before treating a gap in it as news.
- A seat is not a fit. Verification tells you who sits where. It says nothing about headcount, records, rights or whether the CEO will say yes.
- Not measured. How soon after a move a contact becomes useful again has not been studied for this program. Record each move you track, the date you asked and the outcome, and you will have your own answer within a year.
More sourcing guides sit in the guides hub.
Next step
Refer a company. No cap on rewards. Default reward on a company's first qualifying transaction: the greater of $50,000 plus 5% and 15% of Actual Supplier Payout, with no cap; further qualifying transactions first agreed within 12 months of the first Closing pay 15%. Eligibility and payment conditions apply, including the USD 100,000 Minimum Transaction, and a signed Schedule A or addendum can differ. A lead, meeting or signature alone does not trigger payment.
Once a move is verified and the current CEO wants the conversation, set up your partner link on the registration page, compare the company with who qualifies and read the program terms before you submit.