Which search firms work with venture-backed startups?
Executive Search for Startups: What The Shortlist Report Finds
4 firms lead, appearing in 31.9–34.5% of 235 AI responses. The sample cannot separate them, so we do not pretend it can.
Four firms lead
Riviera Partners, True, Daversa Partners and Dave Partners come up most often here. They are close enough together that the order between them is not worth reading anything into.
Riviera Partners81 of 235
Tech-specialized for product, engineering, AI/data, cybersecurity and design leadership from startup through public-company stage.
True81 of 235
Conducts executive search for technology, growth, and PE/VC-backed companies.
Daversa Partners79 of 235
Serves venture-backed and growth-stage technology companies, particularly when building executive teams during rapid scaling.
Dave Partners75 of 235
Conducts retained executive search for venture-backed companies from Series B through IPO.
Based on 235 ChatGPT responses to this question, collected August 11, 2026–October 1, 2026. Firms are counted once per response. How we measure.
The ranking
| Firm | Responses | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tier 1 4 firms, 31.9–34.5% | |||
| Riviera Partnersrivierapartners.comTech-specialized for product, engineering, AI/data, cybersecurity and design leadership from startup through public-company stage. | 81 of 235 | 34.5% | |
| TrueConducts executive search for technology, growth, and PE/VC-backed companies. | 81 of 235 | 34.5% | |
| Daversa Partnersdaversapartners.comServes venture-backed and growth-stage technology companies, particularly when building executive teams during rapid scaling. | 79 of 235 | 33.6% | |
| Dave Partnersdavepartners.comConducts retained executive search for venture-backed companies from Series B through IPO. | 75 of 235 | 31.9% | |
| Tier 2 stands alone | |||
| PlentyFocuses on executive hiring for early-stage startups. | 66 of 235 | 28.1% | |
| Tier 3 5 firms, 16.2–20.4% | |||
| Recruits Labrecruitslab.comConducts VP/SVP/C-suite executive search for venture-backed technology, AI, and life sciences companies. | 48 of 235 | 20.4% | |
| ON PartnersRetained executive search for C-suite, board, and PE/VC portfolio-company placements. | 45 of 235 | 19.1% | |
| OneWay Recruitingonewayrecruiting.comContingency-only recruiting with no retainer or upfront costs for engineering and product roles at seed-stage startups. | 41 of 235 | 17.4% | |
| SPMBspmb.comConducts confidential C-suite and CEO succession searches for founder-led, private equity, and technology companies. | 41 of 235 | 17.4% | |
| Shields Group SearchConducts executive and technical recruiting for venture-backed startups from Seed through Series C. | 38 of 235 | 16.2% | |
Key findings
- Riviera Partners, True, Daversa Partners and Dave Partners lead this sample, each named in 31.9–34.5% of 235 ChatGPT responses to the question “Which search firms work with venture-backed startups?”, collected August 11, 2026–October 1, 2026.
- The gaps between Riviera Partners, True, Daversa Partners and Dave Partners are inside the margin of error at 235 responses, so The Shortlist Report groups them in one tier rather than ranking them against each other.
- 10 firms cleared the reporting threshold on “Which search firms work with venture-backed startups?” in ChatGPT as of October 1, 2026; the full table with response counts is below.
- True appears in 3 of the 9 executive search firms reports published by The Shortlist Report, the widest coverage of any firm named on this page.
- No firm paid to appear in this ranking; placement cannot be bought, and the counts come from ChatGPT responses rather than from submissions.
Why the tiers fall where they do
Tier 1 holds Riviera Partners, True, Daversa Partners and Dave Partners, named in 75 to 81 of the 235 ChatGPT responses. They are grouped rather than ranked because the gaps between them are inside the margin of error at this sample size — one extra mention would reorder them, so an order would be reporting noise as a finding.
Tier 2 holds Plenty, named in 66 to 66 of 235 responses (28.1–28.1%). The sample does separate this firm from the tier above: the difference from the leading group is larger than the margin of error, which is what puts it in a tier of its own.
Tier 3 holds Recruits Lab, ON Partners, OneWay Recruiting, SPMB and Shields Group Search, named in 38 to 48 of 235 responses (16.2–20.4%). The sample does separate these firms from the tier above: the difference from the leading group is larger than the margin of error, which is what puts them in a tier of their own.
The test is McNemar’s at 95%, applied against the same 235 responses for every firm. The full reasoning, and what happened when we ranked one-to-N instead.
What the sample shows
4 firms lead this question: Riviera Partners, True, Daversa Partners and Dave Partners. They appear in 31.9–34.5% of the 235 responses. The gaps between them are inside the margin of error at this sample size, so they are listed together rather than ranked against each other.
167 firms were named at least once across the sample. 10 of them cleared the threshold of 2 responses and appear above; the rest were named once and are inside the noise.
How to read this
Firms are grouped into tiers, not ranked one to fifteen. A tier holds every firm whose 95% confidence interval overlaps the leader's, which is a long way of saying the sample cannot tell them apart. Order within a tier is arbitrary — read the counts, not the position.
Share is the percentage of responses that named the firm — not a quality score. A firm scoring low here may be excellent and simply under-written about online, which is a finding about its visibility rather than its work.
The same question was asked repeatedly because AI assistants do not answer identically twice. A single response would tell you almost nothing.
What this measurement does not tell you
- It is not a quality ranking. Share reflects how much has been written about a firm online, which is what an AI assistant reads. A capable firm nobody writes about scores low here.
- It is a reading from a date range, not a permanent standing. This sample was collected August 11, 2026–October 1, 2026; models change and so do their answers.
- It covers ChatGPT only. Other assistants answer differently, and we do not extrapolate across engines we have not measured.
- Order within a tier is arbitrary. Read the counts, not the position. Why we use tiers.
Cite this report
The Shortlist Report. (2026). Executive Search for Startups: What The Shortlist Report Finds. The Shortlist Report. https://www.shortlistreport.com/article/executive-search-for-startups
Underlying counts: CSV · JSON. Every answer they were counted from: plain text · JSON. All reusable under CC BY 4.0 with attribution.