Bespoke Partners, the leading executive search firm for private equity portfolio companies, today announced groundbreaking results from its AI-powered Executive Index, transforming how private equity firms identify and hire portfolio company leaders by slashing search time-to-placement by 30%.

Bespoke’s Executive Index is a proprietary AI-powered talent market mapping platform that is transforming executive recruiting for software and SaaS companies. The Index accelerates how firms source and secure transformational leaders for their portfolio companies, decreasing risk around execution of value creation plans.

Built on advanced data science and AI combined with Bespoke’s deep domain expertise, the Executive Index integrates AI-powered candidate discovery to streamline the executive search lifecycle. From talent discovery to candidate evaluation, the platform empowers clients to reach qualified executives faster than ever before.

“We have always had industry-leading days-to-close in executive search. Now the Executive Index delivers speed, accuracy, and impact at a scale our industry hasn’t seen before,” said Eric Walczykowski, CEO of Bespoke Partners. “Private equity moves quickly, and leadership acquisition needs to move even faster. By integrating AI into our search platform, we’re helping clients place game-changing leaders in record time.”

30% Faster Path to the Right Leadership

Traditional search processes rely heavily on manual sourcing and networking from the bottom up, resulting in haphazard views of only 15% to 20% of the market. This legacy approach must run for weeks before arriving at a viable candidate slate.

The Executive Index changes that dynamic completely with the first comprehensive, top-down view of the entire software and SaaS executive market. It provides a continuously refreshed database of nearly 700,000 proven executives, dynamically matched to each search using AI-powered pattern recognition, leadership success modeling, and sector insights.

The results are clear:

• 30% faster candidate placements than traditional workflows.
• 40% faster delivery of first qualified slates, allowing clients to meet top candidates nearly twice as quickly.
• 44% faster identification of placed candidates, cutting the average time to identify the eventually hired executive to only three weeks.
• 80% faster candidate-pool build times, assembling the universe of relevant executives in less than a week.
• 90% match accuracy to scorecard parameters, enhancing candidate discovery precision and driving faster, more effective executive placements.

Searches utilizing the Executive Index have closed new C-suite leaders in less than 75 days, roughly one-third the time required by other search firms.

Human Judgment, Enhanced by AI

The Executive Index accelerates and streamlines candidate discovery and background analysis, enabling Bespoke’s search teams to excel at the human aspects of recruiting.

Bespoke’s consultants use the Index’s AI-powered insights to rapidly map the total addressable talent market, then apply their deep understanding of private equity leadership to assess cultural and strategic fit. They devote intensive attention to aligning client value creation priorities with candidate skillsets and to facilitating positive engagement.

For example, the Executive Index automates the identification of backchannel reference contacts, the colleagues from a candidate’s previous companies who can provide valuable perspective on the candidate’s track record. Bespoke’s consultants then use these backchannel contacts to conduct in-depth validation of the candidate’s experience and potential for success in a new role.

“The Executive Index isn’t replacing our team’s expertise. It’s amplifying it,” Eric added. “It’s where technology and human insight intersect to create outsized value for our clients.”

About Bespoke Partners

Bespoke Partners is the leading executive recruiter for private equity and the largest firm specializing in recruiting for software and SaaS companies in the United States.

Bespoke-recruited executives have orchestrated more than 200 portfolio company exits totaling nearly $600 billion, creating more than $200 billion in value for their private capital sponsors.

Bespoke Partners is Built Different, with a unique firm structure, functional role focus and deep expertise in 28 software subsectors. Bespoke’s data-driven services utilize the Executive Index, a comprehensive AI-powered talent market mapping platform. The Executive Index enables Bespoke to complete searches in less than half the industry average time with a 95% placement success rate.

The firm has placed more than 1,500 top-performing executives into private equity portfolio companies. Successful searches include CEOs, CFOs, CROs, CMOs, CPOs, CTOs, CIOs, CHROs, Board Members, Operating Partners, Vice Presidents and many more.

Learn more at www.bespokepartners.com.

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