Our Unique Approach

For over a decade and a half, MatchStar has successfully placed hundreds of VP, Director and C-level executives into core leadership positions at the most innovative, venture backed companies in the world. We are a semi-retained, performance driven executive search firm that overcomes the limitations of the fully retained search model – expensive fees, large deposits, limited candidates, and long lead times. MatchStar “de-risks” the process for fast high growth tech companies by:

  1. Employing a unique search methodology called “Iterative Profiling”™ – which combines state-of-the-art email targeting with traditional research based headhunting – resulting in a 90% agency placement rate.
  2. Leveraging a flexible “Fee for Performance” model, which minimizes upfront costs, pays on success, and eliminates replacement risk.
  3. Understanding the intimate challenges uniquely faced by earlier stage, high growth company CEOs and their Boards.

We are both functionally and domain agnostic, with a client base equally distributed across the United States. Additionally, MatchStar has conducted numerous engagements for overseas companies looking to establish a U.S. business footprint, as well as those looking to source U.S. based executes for overseas assignements.

Our Competitive Positioning

ContingentRetainedMatchStar

Business Model

Business Objectives


Candidate Sourcing Pool


Candidate Marketing


Exclusivity

Research

Niche Focus - I.e. VC Backed / MidMkt / F500
Source companies for available candidates

Short list of available candidates

Some public domain advertising

No

Very Limited

Broad to Narrow
Source candidates for company engagements

Extensive client database and headhunting

Full public domain advertising

Yes

Very Extensive

Broad to Narrow
Source candidates for company engagements

Extensive client database and headhunting

Industry referrals only, complete confedentiality

No

Very Extensive

Narrow - venture backed / early stage / tech

Service

Customer Service Process

Candidate profiling to Absolute Requirements

Time to Present Candidates

Time to Close
Low

Low


7 - 14 Days

21 days, then search droppped
High

Extremely High


30 - 60 days

90 - 180 days
High

Extremely High


7 - 10 days

30 - 45 days

Fee Model

Structure

Fee Percentage

Deposit Per Search

Total Position Compensation Calculation

Multiple positions discount

Funding Rebate Program
“Pay for Performance” only

15 - 25%

None

Salary + conservative bonus / commissions

Varies

No
Guaranteed payment - search filled or not
30 - 33%

None

Salary + conservative bonus / commissions

Varies

No
“Pay for Performance” only

20 - 25%

Very Small

Salary + conservative bonus / commissions

Yes

Yes