Executive recruiters can be a great option for companies looking to hire executive-level talent in your average, high functioning enterprise, providing a helpful bridge between employer and employee. However, when it comes to private equity and venture capital firms, they may not be the best suited solution due to the precious time and cost limitations. Fortunately, the emergence of Flywheel offers an ideal solution that can help save time and money without sacrificing quality of applicants.
The main issue with utilizing executive recruiters for private equity and venture capital firms is speed. When a vacancy arises, these firms may have a very specific skill set or criteria that needs to be filled quickly. The timelines for recruiters can vary, depending on the impact of the position and the availability of potential hires, many of which are already happily working in high-impact roles. This could range from a few weeks to up to six months, leaving PE and VC firms struggling to staff their portfolio company's operating team. Furthermore, hiring a recruiter can become expensive, with fees eating away a sizable amount of the potential hiring budget, and within the lower middle-market, these are fees that they cannot afford to be frivolously spending on.
Platforms such as Flywheel have provided the perfect alternative for private equity and venture capital firms looking to identify and secure expertise. The process starts with investment-backed portfolio companies that are struggling to quickly fill certain roles. Firms can browse a curated selection of deeply experienced talent, all sorted by expertise and industry to ensure a perfect initial fit, lowering the amount of diligence time required in a full-scale hiring. The platform allows them to identify verified candidates quickly, allowing them to be ready to make an offer within days instead of months, which, when investor's money is on the line, these firms want to squeeze out every last bit of IRR that they can.
Posting job vacancies on something like LinkedIn may be quicker than the former approach, but it’s not particularly effective in the long run. When there are only a few experts in a certain area available, it's not always easy to find them on a platform like LinkedIn, and it’s even harder to do so in a short time period. Moreover, a lot of people have multiple gigs, and once the job is posted, a company must wait for people to apply individually, further lengthening the process, as well as having the investment team wasting time sifting through hundreds of mediocre candidates to find the one needle in the haystack, which is a full-time job in and of itself.
To summarize, executive recruiters are not the most cost- and time-efficient option for private equity and venture capital firms, due to their lengthy timelines and hiring fees. Fortunately, Flywheel provides a solution that ensures firms can find the perfect talent quickly, without costing themselves additionally by way of time or fees. LinkedIn is a good option for job postings, but it is still relatively slow, and the pool of potential candidates can be limited. Overall, Flywheel is the best solution for private equity and venture capital who seek to recruit experts on demand and in a timely manner. If you are interested in working with the Flywheel team and our curated and deeply vetted group of Operators, get in touch with us below.
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