Retained search firms
Compress the research phase and widen the field. Deliver a defensible shortlist in days — and spend your time where judgment actually matters.
Retained executive search
Win more mandates. Deliver better slates.
Indole Search is the AI research partner for retained executive search — it surfaces new business across your network and target markets, then maps, assesses, and reaches the right leader for every engagement.
See how Indole works — the research engine behind every search.VP Engineering — shortlist214 mapped · 9 qualified · ranked by fit + reachability
LiveDKDana OkonkwoVP Eng · Series-C fintech2ndvia your CTO
MRMarco RétiDirector of Eng · scaled 30→2602ndvia board member
SHSofia HaddadHead of Platform · ex-infra lead3rdvia an investor
Win the engagement
Originate mandates from the network you already have.
Indole works on your firm’s own ground — your clients, your relationships, your target industries and geographies. Not a generic lead list: the business that is genuinely within your reach, surfaced before a competitor calls first.
Catch the trigger events
CEO and CFO moves, fundings, M&A, and board changes are the signals that a search is coming. Indole resolves them as they happen across your target markets — so your partners reach out at exactly the right moment.
Map who you already know
For any company on your target list, Indole traces the warmest path in through the relationships your firm already holds — the alum, the former placement, the board contact who opens the door.
Prioritize where to originate
See your industries and geographies as a live map of opportunity — where demand is building, where you have a right to win, and where to spend your business development time first.
Deliver the engagement · the problem
A search is only as good as the map you start with.
Most retained searches spend the first month rebuilding a picture of the market that should have existed on day one.
01
Weeks to a longlist.
The clock starts and nothing moves — the first weeks go to assembling the field by hand, role by role, before anyone is even contacted.
02
A rolodex, not a market.
You see the people one firm already knows. The strongest candidate is often the one outside that network — and not currently looking.
03
Conclusions without evidence.
A shortlist arrives as a set of names and assertions. When the committee asks why these five, there’s no trail to show how the work was done.
The solution
Map the whole market. Reach the right person through the warmest path.
Indole Search resolves the full field of qualified people, then traces the strongest real-world route to each one — so the first contact comes through someone they already trust, and every name carries the evidence behind it.
The whole field
Every qualified person across companies and geographies — including the ones who aren’t on the market.
The warmest path
The strongest route in, traced through the people and signals that actually connect you.
Real intelligence
A complete picture of each candidate’s track record, trajectory, and what moves them.
A defensible case
Every ranking sourced and explained — ready to take straight to the committee.
How it works
Six steps from mandate to shortlist.
Each step builds on the last — the same sequence a great search firm runs, compressed from months into days.
01
Discovery
Define the mandate
We translate the role, the constraints, and the must-haves into a precise definition of who you’re looking for — so the search targets the right person from the first query.
02
Research
Map the market
Indole resolves the full field of people who fit — across companies, geographies, and the ones who aren’t looking. The map is the whole market, not a rolodex.
03
Vetting
Qualify against the bar
Each candidate is checked against the mandate’s hard requirements — tenure, scope, track record — before they ever reach your desk.
04
Candidate intelligence
Know them before the first call
A complete picture of each person — what they’ve shipped, how their career has moved, and what would make this the right next role. No cold reads.
05
Relationship mapping
Find the warmest way in
We trace the strongest real-world path to each candidate, so the first contact comes through someone they trust — not a cold note from a stranger.
06
Presentation
A shortlist you can defend
Every name arrives ranked, sourced, and explained — with the evidence behind it. When the committee asks why these five, the answer is already on the page.
Who it’s for
Built for the people who own the hire.
In-house talent teams
Run board- and C-level searches yourself, with the same market map a top firm would build — and keep the relationship in the house.
Founders, boards & investors
Find the operator a portfolio company needs and reach them through a path that’s already warm — before the role is ever posted.
Get started
Tell us who you’re trying to find.
Indole Search rolls out by request. Open the product to start your first search, or get in touch and we’ll follow up within two business days.