For executive & retained search
Walk into every pitch the local expert.
Send a brief, upload what you have, or just name the client; a deep market map, a scored talent pool and a ringed target longlist come back within 24 hours, source-linked, ready for the room.
- First month free
- Within 24 hours
- Every figure source-linked
The problem
The pitch goes in before anyone has read the market.
Three to ten firms pitch the same search
That is what the US federal award record counts on a competed mandate. Everyone in the room is working from what they already knew.
A researcher week costs a week either way
Win or lose, the week costs the same, so no bench gets pointed at a pitch. That is arithmetic, not a choice anyone at your firm made.
The market read arrives after the award
By the time the study exists, the mandate has been awarded. The room where it counted is over.
Built for the search
The pool you can hire from, and who got hired last time.
A talent pool you can defend, not a headcount guess.
Every map sizes the realistic pool by ring (bull’s-eye, feeder, adjacent) with a scarcity read on how hard it moves.
Illustrative, from a real sample map (payments-platform CFO, DFW).
Comparable placements: who got the seat last time.
From a real sample · public releases5 of 6 comparable placements went external, every one from a payments-native finance seat, not a generalist. The pattern tells you where to source.
| New CFO | Company | Came from | Type |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brent Coles | Fortis Payment Systems | SVP Finance, Onbe · Clearent · BluePay | External |
| Cassandra Hudson | Alkami Technology | CFO, StackAdapt; earlier CFO, EngageSmart | External |
| Marc Winniford | MoneyGram | CFO, Corp & Investment Banking, Wells Fargo | External |
| Gary Ferrera | MoneyGram | CFO, Driven Brands; earlier Cardtronics | External |
| Robert Houser | REPAY Holdings | Group CFO – Public Sector, Conduent; 7 yrs Fiserv | External |
| Ryan Siurek | EverCommerce | Chief Accounting Officer, EverCommerce | Internal |
The full read on your sector: a scored pool, a ringed longlist, and a named pool from public sources. Those named candidates are drawn from the public record and appear in your own copy of the map. Every figure links to a public source you can open, and estimates are labeled as estimates, so you can defend it in the pitch.
Proof
“No other search firm brings this before a search.”
Our market maps go into live client pitches every week, where a single win pays for the map many times over. Consultants learn a new sector in a day, and take the maps straight to prospects, opening work before a search even starts.
Get one built on your search, free →How it’s possible
How a study like this lands tomorrow.
MergeSearch runs on research agents we built and operate ourselves, one permodule of the map, working the primary record in parallel: filings, registries, compensation data, ownership, press. They read all of it at the same time, which is why the map is finished while the pitch is still being written.
Then it gets checked. A verification gate re-fetches every source we cite and confirms the figures still stand on the page; anything it flags comes to one of us, and every number ships labeled fact, estimate or inference. That is why it is finished by tomorrow, and why you can defend it in the pitch. The Opportunity Monitor runs the same read continuously, on the public filings that predict a mandate, so a shift in your market lands in your portal before a brief ever comes in.
Pricing
Your research desk, on a plan that fits.
Your first month is free, two Market Maps on your own briefs, plus the Opportunity Monitor. No card needed.
Desk
Two prepared pitches a month, and your market watched in between. Nothing is held back on this plan.
- 2 Market Maps every month
- Opportunity Monitor, included
- Your own brand · within 24 hours
Practice
Everything in Desk, with your partners on it, and a lower price on every map you run.
- Everything in Desk
- 5 Market Maps every month · 3 seats
- $780 a map, against $975 on Desk
Firm
Everything in Practice, at the pace a full firm pitches, with your build going first.
- Everything in Practice
- 12 Market Maps every month · 10 seats
- Priority in the build queue
Every map within 24 hours, every figure source-linked. Your first month is free: you see the real work before you ever pay. Every plan is cancel-anytime, no contract.
Questions
For search firms.
Research is our edge. Why would I outsource it?
Your researchers are not idle. They are loaded with the mandates you have already signed, which is where they should be. This is for the ones you have not won yet. Nobody puts a researcher on a pitch they will probably lose, so the pitch has always gone in without the market read. That is the gap this fills, and it takes nothing off anyone’s desk. A name is not a candidate either: you get the map and the longlist, the read on fit stays yours.
We already pay for LinkedIn Recruiter and PitchBook.
Keep them. Those are seats in a platform you operate: the data and the search bar, with the sizing, the sourcing pattern and the write-up still a job on somebody’s desk the week before the pitch. This is the finished document instead, built on your brief. They do not replace each other, so keep the subscriptions and send us the brief.
Can I put this in front of a client?
Yes, it’s built to be. Every figure links to the public source it came from, and estimates are labeled as estimates. Built from public data, nothing private. You can defend any figure in the pitch.
What happens to my brief, and to my pipeline?
Your brief builds your map and nothing else. We don’t resell your work and we don’t build another firm’s map out of it. Your off-limits go in at intake and stay in, and the Opportunity Monitor runs on the public record, never on your pipeline. What you tell us about a live mandate stays with us.
What am I risking?
One brief and a month. Your first month is free: two Market Maps on your own briefs, plus the Opportunity Monitor on your market, no card. Every plan is cancel-anytime. If the first map isn’t worth walking into a pitch with, you stop.
Do you integrate with Salesforce or my CRM?
Not as an automatic push, no. Maps and the Opportunity Monitor land in your portal within 24 hours, with a white-label export, so you drop the finished document straight into whatever you already run, Salesforce included, by hand rather than by API today.
Start
A market map on your next brief, free.
Send us the brief, upload what you have, or just name the client. It lands within 24 hours, and your first month is free, so you see what it’s worth before you pay a cent.