Why We Built ExactSearch.AI
We’ve spent decades leading executive search practices at top firms. We’ve worked across industries, partnering with ambitious companies and talented executives at every stage of growth. But over time, we started to hear the same concerns, over and over again:
- “The fees are too high”
- “We paid a full fee and still didn’t hire”
- “Search takes too long”
Eventually we had to ask a simple question: Why hasn’t executive search evolved?
For over 75 years, the traditional retained search model has barely changed. Back in the early days, that fee structure made sense. Before the internet, if you wanted to hire senior talent, you had no choice but to pay for access. You needed a firm with powerful relationships built through years of face-to-face networking. That was the value.
But today? Every executive is findable. Between LinkedIn, ChatGPT, investor decks, public bios, interviews, and Google, there is no longer a discovery gap. And yet the fees are still the same.
Instead of adapting to the digital world, traditional search firms doubled down on client acquisition. Today, many of the largest firms spend half of your fee on sales commissions and another 25 percent on overhead and marketing. That leaves just a fraction of your investment going to the actual search work.
We saw an opportunity to do it differently.
What if we did what should have happened when the internet changed everything?
What if we lowered fees, eliminated bloat, and reinvested in what matters most: expert search and better results?
So we built ExactSearch.
What We Saw And Why We Acted
The Model No Longer Serves the Client
Paying a third of total compensation in fees, often before a hire is even made, creates unnecessary risk. The economics don’t reflect the reality of modern search. We created a more aligned, efficient model that delivers faster results, at lower cost, without sacrificing quality.
The Internet Made Talent Discoverable, Search Should Have Gotten Better
Every leader is online. The value is no longer in who you know, but in how well you search, how precisely you assess, and how effectively you entice. Traditional firms never adjusted. We did.
AI Is Transforming Search
We use AI to make search better, not just cheaper. Our proprietary tools help us automate processes with far more speed and precision than legacy methods allow. Where traditional firms use AI to increase margins, we use it to reduce cost and improve outcomes.
No Black Box. No Junior Hand-Offs. No Guesswork.
Traditional search often feels opaque. After a kickoff, weeks pass and then a shortlist appears, often misaligned. We changed that. With our Collaborate to Calibrate process, we give you visibility and input from day one. And your search is always led by experienced partners, not passed off to junior staff.
Modern Leaders Must Be AI Fluent, So We Built a Way to Measure It
We created the AI-LQ™ framework to assess a leader’s ability to understand, implement, and govern AI effectively. In today’s world, that matters in every industry. We apply this lens to every search we lead.
