You guys do a great job, and I can’t tell you how grateful I am for your understanding of our business, your ability to find and assess great people, and your tireless efforts to make sure the project gets done right.

Kevin Walker
CEO
SimpleTuition

Venator Partners has recruited two thirds of Carbonite’s Marketing and Product Management teams. The quality of our experience with Venator Partners has made them our de facto exclusive recruiter. We see no need or value in retaining other firms. There are three reasons for this…

Venator’s Insistence that Recruiting become a Core Competence

When we began to ramp our recruiting efforts two years ago, we were unable to reliably close A-player candidates. That wasn’t due to a lack of compelling opportunities, but rather because of an undisciplined recruiting effort. Through its “Hire Octane” program, Venator trained us (top to bottom) to become highly proficient at identifying, vetting and closing solid candidates. The result: not only do we now have a team of A-players but also an appreciation for the critical importance of disciplined recruiting that is now a core competence of our business.

Venator’s Focus on the “unteachable” Drivers of Performance

For each of the positions Venator has helped us fill, the Venator team was very careful to make sure they clearly understood what would drive performance. This means going well beyond the position’s “to-do list” and the usual laundry list of required skills and experience. Venator understands that “unteachable” qualities are often the ones that really drive performance. By helping us look beyond candidates’ prior experience and knowledge, Venator has helped us fill positions with A-players from a relatively small talent pool (consumer online marketing in the Boston area) in a competitive market.

Venator’s Desire to Build a Long-term Partnership

I never thought I’d say this about a recruiter. Venator has consistently put our interests ahead of theirs. Recently, during the course of a search that had taken a long time to execute, Venator recommended we pass on a candidate who was highly qualified, but whose attitude suggested a poor fit with the team. The easiest thing to do would have been to close the candidate, collect a fee and move on. When we began working with Venator a couple of years ago, they told us that their objective was to build a long term partnership. Time and again, their actions have been consistent with those words.

Swami Kumaresan
VP, Marketing
Carbonite

“Venator Partners brings three highly differentiating elements that drive results. They are sensitive and comfortable
around the chaos at small, high growth companies and they spent the time to understand our evolving business and to effectively navigate the whole organization (company, employees, recruits, managers, and shareholders). Finally, the firm is highly adaptable and capable to fill most searches from sales and BD to senior management and engineering positions.”

Seth Birnbaum
CEO, Verdasys

“Finding the best talent takes skill, finesse, focus and energy, and few firms can find the right balance of each. Venator just happens to be one of the few that has. This is the partner you always wish you had, and the company that just ‘gets it’.”

Dave Balter
Founder/CEO, BzzAgent

“The most effective search firms are those that clearly understand their client’s needs and bring depth and insight to assessing the quality and fit of the candidates under consideration. In my experience with Venator Partners, they have proven to be very insightful and effective in both of these critical areas.”

Jeff Bussgang
General Partner, IDG Ventures (now Flybridge Capital)

“I truly enjoyed working with Venator Partners on this project. Your firm’s systematic process, good judgment and passion are unique. I look forward to working with your firm again.”

Yochi Slonim
CEO, Identify Software

“I have now worked with Venator Partners for over a year and they have been instrumental in helping me build almost my entire senior management team. They added value at every stage of the process and helped me think through the issues of building an effective and cohesive team. Building the team is a CEOs most important job and clearly one of the most difficult. But as any CEO of a start-up company knows there are a multitude issues that need to be managed. I never had to worry about Venator driving the process and meeting their deliverables. That made a major impact on my ability to do my job effectively and I am very pleased with the team we have built.”

Yoram Salinger
CEO, Red Bend Software

“When I was working with Venator Partners, I never felt like I was dealing with just a recruiter. Randy operated as a part of our team with the mutually aligned interests of placing the best possible candidate at our company. He conducted the entire process effectively and with integrity.”

Harmeet Singh
CEO, Optovia Corporation

“We began speaking with Venator Partners while we were finalizing our Series A funding round. We had a critical need to bring in a VP of Marketing and Business Development that would lead the go-to-market activities of the company. PanGo Networks has the capability to deliver multiple applications to multiple verticals that each will require the formulation of a different value proposition. We are also creating a new technology category. We retained Venator Partners, in part, because they were able to quickly understand the complexities of our situation and our business model and translate that into a tangible strategy for conducting the search and defining the desired outcome. Venator’s approach is very consultative and was oriented toward the long-term good of the company, not just on filling the position. They were very committed to the project and really drove the process and the deliverables. I also came to really value the depth of their ability to understand and assess candidates. Ultimately I think what impressed me most was their work ethic, the tenacity demonstrated when things got tough and the discipline they brought to the execution of the project. Venator was absolutely instrumental in helping us recruit a great candidate that is the right fit for the company.”

Michael Campbell
CEO, PanGo Networks

“I enjoyed working with Randy and Eric on the search for our new CEO. Their diligence, focus and involvement made me feel like partners sharing one goal. The team worked very professionally, justifying the excellent reputation I heard prior to hiring Venator Partners.”

Amnon Yacoby
Chairman, Aternity

“Dear Randy:
I felt that it is very important for me to tell you how impressed I was by you. It isn’t often that one finds the combination of a ‘real’ human being and a ‘pro’ in the proportions that make for a successful personal and business relationship. Your dedicated efforts and perseverance in finding the right person for the job, in my mind, means that the Virtue 3D, Inc.’s U.S. subsidiary is now being headed by a superbly qualified individual. You have our deep appreciation for this accomplishment.”

Eyal Zagagi
President and CEO, Virtue 3D

“Randy,
I believe the company’s buildup of our U.S. sales organization was a great success. The team I met at the sales meeting in New York last week is of high calider in both experience and potential. I want to thank you for Venator Partners’ considerable contribution to this buildup, and I look forward to contuining our partnership.”

Gideon Rottem
CEO, Extricom