Which search firms work with venture-backed startups?
Executive Search for Startups: What The Shortlist Report Finds
10 firms lead, appearing in 16.4–27.3% of 55 AI responses. The sample cannot separate them, so we do not pretend it can.
No clear leader
No single firm dominates this question. Ten come up regularly and they specialise in different things, so the firm worth calling is the one that fits your situation rather than whoever sits highest.
Dave Partners15 of 55
Conducts retained executive search for venture-backed companies from Series B through IPO.
Recruits Lab15 of 55
Conducts VP/SVP/C-suite executive search for venture-backed technology, AI, and life sciences companies.
True14 of 55
Conducts executive search for technology, growth, and PE/VC-backed companies.
Daversa Partners12 of 55
Serves venture-backed and growth-stage technology companies, particularly when building executive teams during rapid scaling.
Riviera Partners12 of 55
Tech-specialized for product, engineering, AI/data, cybersecurity and design leadership from startup through public-company stage.
+5 more, tiedin the table
Based on 55 ChatGPT responses to this question, collected August 11, 2026–August 19, 2026. Firms are counted once per response. How we measure.
The ranking
| Firm | Responses | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tier 1 10 firms, 16.4–27.3% | |||
| Dave Partnersdavepartners.comConducts retained executive search for venture-backed companies from Series B through IPO. | 15 of 55 | 27.3% | |
| Recruits Labrecruitslab.comConducts VP/SVP/C-suite executive search for venture-backed technology, AI, and life sciences companies. | 15 of 55 | 27.3% | |
| TrueConducts executive search for technology, growth, and PE/VC-backed companies. | 14 of 55 | 25.5% | |
| Daversa Partnersdaversapartners.comServes venture-backed and growth-stage technology companies, particularly when building executive teams during rapid scaling. | 12 of 55 | 21.8% | |
| Riviera Partnersrivierapartners.comTech-specialized for product, engineering, AI/data, cybersecurity and design leadership from startup through public-company stage. | 12 of 55 | 21.8% | |
| Shields Group SearchConducts executive and technical recruiting for venture-backed startups from Seed through Series C. | 12 of 55 | 21.8% | |
| OneWay Recruitingonewayrecruiting.comContingency-only recruiting with no retainer or upfront costs for engineering and product roles at seed-stage startups. | 11 of 55 | 20.0% | |
| Heidrick & StrugglesConducts CEO, C-suite, and board searches for large companies and PE-backed organizations. | 10 of 55 | 18.2% | |
| Spencer Stuartspencerstuart.comConducts CEO, board, and senior C-suite searches for large enterprises and succession planning. | 10 of 55 | 18.2% | |
| Calqulatecalqulate.ioConducts contingency and retained executive search for startup functional leaders and senior roles from Series A through IPO. | 9 of 55 | 16.4% | |
Key findings
- No firm answers “Which search firms work with venture-backed startups?” reliably in ChatGPT. The most-named, Dave Partners, appeared in 15 of 55 responses (27.3%) collected August 11, 2026–August 19, 2026, and 9 other firms scored close enough that the sample cannot put any of them in order.
- Dave Partners, Recruits Lab and True were named most often, in 14–15 of 55 responses. All 10 firms in the leading group are listed with their counts in the table below.
- 10 firms cleared the reporting threshold on “Which search firms work with venture-backed startups?” in ChatGPT as of August 19, 2026; the full table with response counts is below.
- Heidrick & Struggles appears in 7 of the 7 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 Dave Partners, Recruits Lab, True, Daversa Partners, Riviera Partners, Shields Group Search, OneWay Recruiting, Heidrick & Struggles, Spencer Stuart and Calqulate, named in 9 to 15 of the 55 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.
The test is McNemar’s at 95%, applied against the same 55 responses for every firm. The full reasoning, and what happened when we ranked one-to-N instead.
What the sample shows
10 firms lead this question: Dave Partners, Recruits Lab, True, Daversa Partners, Riviera Partners, Shields Group Search, OneWay Recruiting, Heidrick & Struggles, Spencer Stuart and Calqulate. They appear in 16.4–27.3% of the 55 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.
103 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–August 19, 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.