Forget Pipelines. Think Private Access.
Marlin is a retained executive search firm built for PE/VC firms and high-growth companies that can’t afford slow, generic recruiting. We deliver precision, speed, and senior-level access for VP-C-suite hiring.
Marlin wasn’t built through the lens of standard recruitment. It was forged from a decade of direct work with senior executives - branding them, earning their trust, and gaining unfiltered access. That’s why our network isn’t public. It’s private, proven, and we already have insights built in. That's a network of leadership talent that other firms simply can’t reach.
Marlin is senior-led from start to finish, no junior handoffs, no keyword-matching, and backed by a deep understanding of business strategy and the real outcomes a hire must deliver.
Most firms place a hire and walk away. We turn the hire into leverage with post-placement PR that positions leadership and accelerates company value and visibility.
our network spans the brands that shape industries
Access
Amplification
Others fake
Others don't GET
Strategy
No one else offers
“I thought I was hiring a search firm.
Turns out, I hired a secret weapon.
Marlin didn’t just find me a leader – they changed the trajectory of our company.”
— TREVOR P, MANAGING PARTNER, PE
We don’t do volume hiring. We focus on high touch VP-C-suite search for companies at inflection points where the next hire isn’t filling a seat but changing the firms trajectory.
Private Equity & Venture-Backed Firms
We partner with investment teams, operating partners, and portfolio CEOs to place leaders who know how to build, fix, or exit.
Whether the mandate is growth, turnaround, or transition, we find operators who know how to lead with limited runways and high expectations.
WHO WE WORK WITH
Roles placed: CFO, COO, GTM/Revenue Leaders, Presidents, Growth Heads, Chief People Officers, and post-acquisition operators.
Scaling Companies That Expect More
Tired of being just another search in a recruiter’s pile? Of junior teams blasting cold outreach while “career recruiters” who’ve never led anything pretend to understand your business?
So are we.
Marlin is intentionally different. We go deep on-site with your executive team to understand why the open role exists, what success looks like after the hire, and how this leader will be expected to drive your next phase of growth.
Roles placed: Heads of Product, VP Engineering, GMs, CMO, COO, and Chief of Staff.
Succession Planning & Confidential Upgrades
We run quiet searches for boards, CEOs, and founders navigating high-risk leadership moves; before it's out in the open. We protect confidentiality, ensure alignment at every level, and secure leaders who command trust.
Roles placed: CEO, CFO, Division Presidents, and successors to retiring or underperforming leaders.
Post-Investment Leadership Builds
After capital lands, pressure increases. We help build leadership teams that are ready to deliver - from systems and scale to culture and investor trust.
We find the operators who’ve seen it before and can move quickly without breaking what’s working.
Roles placed: VP Product, VP Revenue, COO, HR/People Leaders, and Functional Heads across growth-critical areas.
WHAT YOU WANT / WHAT YOU WANT / WHAT YOU
We run a low-volume, senior-led model built for precision. Every search is high-touch and strategy-driven, so while we embed with your leadership team and handle the search end-to-end, you stay focused on driving portfolio growth, not chasing candidates.
When you partner with Marlin, you're not getting recruiters juggling a hundred roles. We dive deep on site with your ELT to understand the "why" behind the hire and the growth it’s meant to unlock. Then we deliver operators who fit the role, the culture, and the value-creation plan.
Why Most Recruiting Firms Fall Short
Recruiters trawl the same LinkedIn pools and stale databases. The true targets - the ones who move the needle - aren’t applying or answering cold recruiter calls but we’re already in their circle.
Senior partners sell the search, then vanish. Execution lands on junior associates with no context and no skin in the game.
Titles don’t build enterprise value, outcomes do. We dig into the “why” behind every hire, aligning leadership to the growth plan and not a generic job description.
High-volume recruiting burns weeks. Endless sourcing and candidate churn. While they scramble, momentum dies. Our model is senior-led, low-volume, and surgical because speed isn’t a luxury, it’s value.
The hire’s made. The recruiter disappears. No onboarding support. No positioning strategy. No follow-through.
Why Firms Are Choosing Marlin
We don’t chase transactions and volume, we hunt partnerships.
The deeper we work with you, the sharper our impact becomes. Over time, we learn your portfolio, your operators, and your playbook so every search gets faster, tighter, and more aligned to the value your investors expect.
Our network is built over a decade of direct, one-on-one relationships with senior executives who are a rare catch. Every search is senior-led, high-touch, and focused on measurable outcomes, not resumes.
With Marlin, you don’t just get a placement but a partner who knows your world, anticipates your needs, and turns hiring into a strategic advantage.
If you're tired of recruiters, you're ready for marlin.
if you're tired of recruiters, you're ready for marlin.
What You Should Know
Fees are simple and transparent.
We work on a retained model, 30-35% of first year comp, split across three stages: kickoff, shortlist, and placement. No admin add-ons or salary padding incentives.
We guarantee what we place.
If a hire doesn’t stick within the agreed window, we re-engage and make it right because our work isn’t about transactions, but outcomes.
Speed, because we stay small.
We run a handful of searches at a time, each senior-led and strategy-driven so we move fast without cutting corners. We don’t start from LinkedIn but from a private network built over 10+ years, which is why our first calls happen on day one, not weeks.
