Kindred Partners

What Kindred Partners does

Kindred Partners is a privately-held retained executive search firm founded in 2004 and headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut, with a second office in San Francisco. The firm is dedicated exclusively to recruiting senior leadership — CEOs, C-suite executives, VPs, and SVPs — for privately-held, high-growth technology companies across enterprise software, consumer technology, and healthcare technology. Over its 20-plus-year history, Kindred has completed more than 2,000 executive searches for over 1,000 portfolio companies, supporting an estimated $1.4 trillion in client growth across these engagements.

The business model is project-based professional services revenue: each retained search engagement is managed personally by a senior Kindred consultant from inception to completion, with fees structured as a percentage of placed executive compensation (typical of the retained search industry). Kindred does not operate a technology platform; the offering is fundamentally relationship-driven, leveraging two decades of accumulated network equity with founders, boards, and senior technology executives. The firm is structured as Kindred Partners, LLC, a Delaware entity, and is independently owned without external institutional investors.

Go-to-market is sales-led and direct: senior partners engage founders, boards, and leadership teams through established relationships and referrals, supported by a professional website and a curated portfolio of marquee clients including HashiCorp, Ripple, Google, Facebook, MuleSoft, GitLab, Udemy, Bill.com, Asana, BetterUp, and Maven Clinic. The firm reports that 45% of placements over the past five years self-identified with a primary dimension of diversity, which functions as a positioning differentiator. Leadership comprises co-founder and managing director Charlie Walton alongside managing director James Chung, consistent with a deliberately small, partner-led boutique model.

Name

Kindred Partners

Legal name

Kindred Partners, LLC

Website

https://kindredpartners.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2004

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Kindred Partners is a privately-held retained executive search firm that places CEOs, C-suite executives, and senior leaders for high-growth technology companies. Founded in 2004 and headquartered in Stamford, CT, it has completed 2,000+ searches for 1,000+ companies across enterprise, consumer, and healthcare technology.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Stamford

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D

Revenue model

1. Retained Executive Search: Retained executive search services for placing senior leaders (CEO, C-suite, VPs) at technology companies. The company operates as a traditional executive search firm with dedicated senior consultant involvement in each engagement.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels3 records

Core offering

Kindred Partners is a retained executive search firm that places CEOs, C-suite executives, and senior leaders (VPs, SVPs) into high-growth, privately-held technology companies. Each engagement is managed end-to-end by a senior partner at Kindred, delivering highly selective, quality-driven searches for enterprise, consumer, and healthcare technology organizations from early-stage through IPO.

Product overview

Kindred Partners is an executive search services firm specializing in leadership placement for technology startups and innovative organizations. The company does not offer discrete software products or modules; instead, it provides recruitment and talent acquisition services including executive search, leadership placement, and advisory services. The firm has partnered with over 1,000 portfolio companies and completed more than 2,000 searches for enterprise, consumer, and healthcare technology organizations.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Retained Executive Search

Quantifiable outcome

• 2,000+ executive searches completed
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers5 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves3 records

Expansion highlights3 records

Broad incumbents

• Egon Zehnder: Privately-held global executive search and leadership advisory firm with a technology practice serving enterprise and growth-stage clients. Competes for board, CEO, and senior executive mandates with comparable partner-led delivery model.
• Russell Reynolds Associates: Global executive search firm with a dedicated technology officers practice placing CEOs, CTOs, and senior product/engineering leaders. Competes for the same senior tech mandates with deeper sector sub-practices and broader geographic coverage.
• Korn Ferry: Large global organizational consulting firm with a substantial executive search practice covering technology and digital clients. Competes for senior tech leadership mandates while also offering adjacent talent and HR advisory services.
• Spencer Stuart: Privately-held global executive search firm with a strong technology, media, and telecommunications practice placing CEOs and board members. Competes for senior tech mandates with deeper research bench and broader geographic footprint.
• Heidrick & Struggles: Global publicly-traded executive search and leadership advisory firm with a dedicated technology practice serving enterprise and venture-backed clients. Competes for the same C-suite and board mandates but at greater scale, broader geographic reach, and with integrated leadership consulting services.

Emerging players

• IQTalent Partners: Tech-enabled talent acquisition firm offering on-demand recruiting and executive search services to venture-backed and growth-stage technology companies. Represents the emerging technology-enabled model that competes with traditional boutique search on speed and cost structure.
• Glocap Search: New York-based executive search firm placing senior leaders across technology, digital media, and consumer companies. Comparable boutique model serving venture and growth-stage tech clients in overlapping geographies, with a somewhat broader consumer/financial services tilt.

Direct peers

• Riviera Partners: Specialist executive search firm dedicated to technology and digital companies, with retained practices across product, engineering, data, and C-suite roles. Direct competitor for tech executive mandates with comparable boutique positioning and venture-backed client base.
• True Search: Tech-focused retained executive search firm placing C-suite and senior leaders at venture-backed technology companies. Directly comparable boutique model, similar target client base of high-growth tech startups, and overlapping focus on CEO, CTO, CRO, and VP-level placements.
• Daversa Partners: Executive search firm focused on technology and venture-backed companies, placing CEOs, go-to-market leaders, and product executives. Direct peer in the tech-specialist boutique search segment with overlapping enterprise and consumer tech client overlap.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/kindrednews

Compliance1 record

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Kindred Partners