How Pinnacle Security hired its first integrator using EOS

Executive overview

Growing a security company from zero to 100 employees without operational structure eventually catches up with you. Chad Perez, founder of Pinnacle Security, discovered the visionary/integrator framework through EOS and Rocket Fuel — but first tried to fill both seats himself, then promoted the wrong person internally, before hiring externally via a search firm.

The investment was the highest salary in company history. The payoff was sleeping better, a lighter inbox, and finally stepping fully into the visionary role.

The real cost of staying in both seats is not money — it is bandwidth, and it compounds.

Chad's path to finding an integrator

• Founded Pinnacle Security in 2014 with zero employees; first contract came after eight months
• Scaled to ~100 employees without formal structure, succeeding "despite" lack of process
• Discovered EOS and Rocket Fuel about two years before this episode; immediately recognised the visionary/integrator model as an "aha moment"
• Initially assumed he could hold both seats simultaneously — it did not work
• Promoted an internal candidate to integrator; team and Chad both noticed within months it was the wrong fit
• Moved her back to a different seat (right person, wrong seat); she stayed another year but never fully recovered from the experience
• Chad stepped back into the integrator role himself for roughly three months before committing to an external hire
• Used Titus, a professional search firm, specifically to avoid candidates actively job-hunting

The search and hiring process

• Sourced 10–15 qualified candidates; Chad interviewed five or six
• David Myers was reached via LinkedIn three times before responding — he was happily employed at the world's largest security firm after 16 years
• Integrator role was explained to David as equivalent to a COO: bringing all the pieces together
• Four recruiter conversations before Chad and David's first sit-down; roughly five in-person meetings total, including a three-hour dinner at Ruth's Chris
• Offer accepted approximately two months after engaging the search firm
• Chad found two months too slow — internal operational fires made every week feel extended

Cost and ROI calculus

• Salary was the highest in company history, more than Chad was paying himself
• Decision framework: cash reserves could fund the role for one to two years; treat it as a capital investment, not an expense
• Key question Chad asked: "What is the return and how long does it take to get it?"
• Breaking even was not the goal — freeing Chad's bandwidth to drive growth was

First weeks: trial by fire

• Within two weeks of David starting, all existing operations personnel had either been let go or left
• Chad and David ran operations themselves, working until 10–11 pm for the first few weeks
• David had read Rocket Fuel before his start date at Chad's request
• Early focus: identify the most critical operational gaps and determine who on the remaining team could help fix them

What a working visionary/integrator relationship looks like

• Weekly same-page meeting every Monday, one hour, off-site over lunch — protects the conversation from office interruptions
• David delivers bad news during the same-page meeting, never coupled with more bad news, always paired with how the team is addressing it
• Chad's clearest signal that it was working: a 30-minute client call where he logged in, said nothing, and David ran the entire meeting
• David's confidence to make decisions without seeking Chad's approval was the defining difference from the failed first attempt
• Chad's inbox shrank; he stopped being the default answer for every internal question

David's perspective: what surprised him

• Moved from a global firm where his opinion was less valued to a company where the founder actively deferred to his judgment
• Biggest aha: being trusted to make decisions and having those decisions supported even when wrong
• EOS rocks-and-sand framework gave structure to filter the constant operational noise common in security services

Advice for visionaries still on the fence

• Chad: "Just do it. It will change things for you personally, not just the company."
• Specific benefits named: better sleep, lighter inbox, stronger one-on-one relationships with department heads once they stop routing everything through the visionary
• Warning: there is a learning curve for the leadership team — they default to the visionary for answers and have to unlearn that
• If you enjoy ideating in a meeting but do not want to own the follow-through, that is a strong signal you need an integrator
• David: slow down at the start, assess the structure, lean on EOS to surface the rocks that matter most

Advice for potential integrators in corporate roles

• Look at the processes and structure you are operating within — understand what is working before changing anything
• EOS gives integrators a shared language and cadence to align leadership teams around the highest-priority goals
• Right people in the right seats is the leverage point: once that is in place, the integrator can confidently delegate and elevate
• The integrator does not just execute — they hold the thread connecting all departments toward the same destination