Notch Partners works with private equity firms to maximize their returns by connecting them with C-level executives who can assist them across the full spectrum of private equity investing activities – from deal origination and due diligence to portfolio company management and operating advisor programs.

We are not executive recruiters in the traditional sense, in that the majority of our work with executives is explicitly for the purpose of driving buyout deals for our private equity clients.

Regardless of the deal specifics, Notch brings a deep understanding of the private equity process to everything we do. Our values are central to our day-to-day execution. Operating with the highest degree of integrity, professionalism, and confidentiality, we employ a flexible, creative approach that allows us to respond swiftly and nimbly to meet our private equity clients’ needs.

Deal Sourcing
Given our strategic orientation and transactional experience, we are able to identify and screen for backable Deal Executives who have viable and, proprietary deal ideas. Leveraging our backgrounds in operations, M&A, and strategy development, we work with top-tier executives to vet their ideas and, when appropriate, to develop an investment thesis that can be shared with our private equity clients.

Deal Enablement
We help our clients to achieve a competitive advantage by finding and connecting them with executives who bring relevant knowledge and skills to proprietary deals and auction situations. Value-added intelligence from executives can consist of specific industry or company knowledge or relevant connections to suppliers or customers. Additionally, we present experienced executives with difference-making ideas for post-acquisition value creation and strategic growth. Notch makes appropriate introductions and cultivates these relationships quickly and flexibly within the ever-changing and fast-moving environment of a private equity deal.

Functional/Industry Experts
We help our private equity clients to access industry expertise and deal-specific intelligence by connecting them with executives who have deep and specific industry, company, and/or functional knowledge. Our introductions are highly discreet and we maintain the strictest levels of confidentiality as required on a deal-by-deal basis. These interactions can take the form of informal networking or be structured within a more formal advisory relationship with an executive.

Executive Program Development
We recognize that each private equity firm is different. As such, we help our clients to develop and execute an executive program or improve an existing one, which is tailored to each firm’s specific approach, while leveraging tried and true best practices in relationship cultivation. We believe that a robust executive program, thoughtfully executed, can provide for proactive and opportunistic involvement with executives across multiple situations, resulting in relationships that can be productive over many years. Notch helps private equity clients to leverage, creatively and flexibly, an executive’s talent and experience during any and all phases of the investment cycle to maximize the probability of success.

CEO and Executive Team Recruiting
Working within the context of long-term strategic relationships with a limited set of top-tier buyout firms, we provide executive search services, with a focus on C-level executives. At Notch, we understand that private equity investors have unique requirements that often necessitate a non-traditional approach to executive search. For example, in addition to recruiting leaders for portfolio companies, we also recruit CEOs, CFOs and other highly strategic C-level executives into deal situations prior to the completion of an acquisition. Though this is often after a client has the “exclusive” on a deal, it still requires a great degree of sensitivity and subtle understanding of deal dynamics, including deal cycle timing and confidentiality considerations. Additionally, our revenue model is tailored to allow our fees to be associated with deal closing costs and to minimize broken deal expenses when a deal fails to complete. Our process is characterized by frequent and fluid interactions with our private equity clients and a high level of transparency. As a result, our candidates are highly relevant to specific deal or portfolio situations and we consistently complete our search work in a very rapid timeframe.

For a more detailed overview of our services, please see our Notch Partners Service Overview presentation.