The Challenge

The company had reached scale on the back of product quality alone. A B2B SaaS platform founded in Amsterdam and backed by a €10M Series A raised in 2022, it had grown to more than 10,000 users. Its platform sat at the centre of the private markets intelligence world, with 100% of MBB and Big-4 advisory firms on it and clients representing more than $1 trillion in PE capital under management.

That kind of growth, achieved without a proper commercial infrastructure, creates a specific problem. The product had earned its position. The go-to-market function had not been built to match it. Two hires were identified as the priority:

• Build a proper marketing function for a subscription platform selling into the world's most demanding institutional buyers
• Protect and grow a revenue base that included the firm's most complex, highest-value accounts

Neither profile was standard. The client base is PE firms, M&A advisors, hedge funds, law firms, and global consultancies. A marketing leader without fluency in that world, or a CS leader without experience managing enterprise relationships inside financial data businesses, would not last in the role. Both searches had to go into a narrow slice of the market.

Overview of the two executive searches

Between May 2024 and December 2024, The Big Search partnered with this private market intelligence platform to place two commercial leaders: a VP of Marketing and a VP of Customer Success. The searches were designed as sequential interventions, first building the go-to-market function, then securing the revenue base. We closed both searches.

Phase 1: Building the Go-to-Market Function — VP Marketing

May 2024 → September 2024 | Commercial Infrastructure Phase

At the point of this search, the business had achieved product-market fit and a client base any B2B SaaS company would envy. What it lacked was a mature marketing function capable of taking that product to a wider institutional audience. The mandate was to hire a VP of Marketing who could build a proper demand generation engine, own the brand, and operate with the authority of someone who understood the PE and M&A world, because that is who they would be marketing to.

This was not a brief that could be filled from the generic B2B SaaS talent pool. The audience, the language, the buying cycles, and the competitive signals inside private markets intelligence are distinct. A VP of Marketing coming from a standard enterprise SaaS background would have struggled on day one. The search had to target people who had built marketing functions specifically inside financial data and intelligence businesses.

Executive Search in UK Financial Data and Intelligence

The hunting strategy targeted marketing leaders at B2B financial data and intelligence companies in London, specifically those with:

• Experience building marketing functions for subscription platforms selling to institutional financial services clients
• Track records inside PE-backed data businesses at growth stage
• Direct audience overlap with the client's buyer profile: PE firms, M&A advisors, investment research houses, and management consultancies

Target company archetypes included global investment research and expert network platforms, PE-backed financial data providers, M&A intelligence services, and subscription analytics businesses serving institutional buyers. Specific companies mapped included Third Bridge, AlphaSights, RFi Global, PEI Group, Acuris, Mergermarket, S&P Global Market Intelligence, and Preqin, among others.

We undertook an exhaustive mapping exercise across the UK financial data and intelligence market, identifying 152 candidates.

⏱ Days to first shortlist: 37 days from kick-off

⏱ Days to first shortlist: 37 days from kick-off

Twenty-five recruiter interviews from 152 mapped profiles is a high conversion rate at that stage, but the compression that followed tells the real story. Of 25 people who made it to interview, only 7 reached the client. The brief required financial data domain knowledge, subscription marketing experience, and enough seniority to own a function from scratch. Most candidates had two of those three. The 37 days reflect the time it took to find the seven who had all of them.

The Placed Candidate: A Profile in Financial Data Marketing Leadership

The placed candidate brought 15 years of B2B marketing leadership built entirely inside PE-backed financial intelligence platforms. At a global investment research firm growing at 30-40% per year, they led a full rebranding project, built the product marketing function from scratch, and managed a team of 12 with a GBP 1.5m budget. Before that, at a PE-backed financial data platform serving institutions across 19 markets, she led a global team of 13 across digital, PR, events, and editorial and drove the brand and digital transformation that supported consistent double-digit revenue growth.

They had spent her career building marketing programmes for the client's audience.

Why they fit:

💼 Financial data DNA: 15 years building marketing functions exclusively inside PE-backed financial intelligence businesses

🏗️ Built from scratch: created product marketing functions at two separate businesses with no inherited infrastructure

📊 Subscription model expertise: proven demand generation for platforms serving institutional financial services buyers at scale

🌍 Audience fluency: deep familiarity with the PE, M&A, and investment research world the client's users operate in every day

Phase 2: Securing the Revenue Base — VP Customer Success

October 2024 → December 2024 | Commercial Infrastructure Phase

With the marketing leadership in place, the second hire addressed the other side of the commercial equation. The client's revenue base included the most demanding accounts in financial services: global PE firms, top-tier M&A advisors, hedge funds, and international law firms. Managing those relationships is not a standard customer success function. It requires someone who has operated at the level of those clients before, and who understands what they expect from a financial intelligence provider.

The brief was specific. The VP of Customer Success needed to bring enterprise account management experience from inside a financial data or intelligence business, the commercial maturity to own revenue retention at scale, and the ability to build and lead a CS team as the business grew.

Executive Search in UK Financial Data and Intelligence

The hunting strategy targeted CS and relationship management leaders at financial intelligence and data businesses in London, specifically those with:

• Enterprise account management at scale inside financial data, analytics, or intelligence businesses
• Revenue accountability across institutional clients: PE firms, investment banks, hedge funds, and advisory firms
• Proven ability to lead and grow customer success teams
• Track record inside PE-backed or high-growth data businesses

Target companies included Acuris, Debtwire, ION Group, GLG, Evalueserve, S&P Global, PitchBook, Refinitiv, and similar financial intelligence platforms operating at enterprise scale.

We undertook an exhaustive mapping exercise across the UK financial data and intelligence market, identifying 170 candidates.

⏱ Days to first shortlist: 11 days from kick-off

⏱ Days to shortlist: 11 days

Fifty-six candidates made the initial Tier 1 paper sift from 170 mapped profiles. Six went to recruiter interview. Three reached the client. The targeting was precise enough that the filtering happened before the first conversation, not during it. By the time the shortlist landed, the client had already been shielded from everything that didn't fit. Eleven days from mandate opening to shortlist delivery, and a decision followed within a single round of interviews.

Client NPS: 9/10

The Placed Candidate: A Profile in Enterprise Financial Intelligence Leadership

The placed candidate spent nearly two decades inside the exact client universe this business serves. At a leading financial intelligence platform covering M&A, PE, hedge funds, and law firms globally, she spent 15 years rising to Global Head of Relationship Management, leading a team of 75 across EMEA, APAC, and the Americas, managing 5,000+ accounts, and carrying $300M in revenue responsibility. Customer retention under her leadership reached 96%. Following an acquisition, she moved to a global expert network where she built the Munich office from scratch, scaling it to 38 people.

They had operated inside the client's world for two decades.

Why they fit:

💰 Revenue at scale: $300M revenue responsibility and 96% customer retention across 5,000+ enterprise accounts

🏢 Domain depth: 15 years at the closest competitive reference point to the client's own business model and customer base

👥 Team builder: grew and led teams of 75 and 38 at two separate businesses, both from scratch

🤝 Client universe fluency: entire career managing the exact buyer profiles (PE, M&A, hedge fund, law firm) the client serves

‍

At that stage, the commercial infrastructure needs to match what the product has already built.

This platform got it right. Two mandates, seven months, two commercial leaders hired from the narrow slice of the market that actually fits: people who had spent their careers inside financial intelligence businesses, managing the exact clients the platform serves. The VP Customer Success search closed in 52 days and received a client NPS of 9. The VP Marketing search took longer because that combination of private markets knowledge and subscription marketing leadership is genuinely rare. Both delivered.

The lesson here is not about speed. It is about targeting. When the brief is precise enough, the right candidates are visible quickly. And when they are not visible quickly, it usually means the market is thinner than it looks, and the search has to go wider before it can go deep.

If you are scaling a founder-led platform and the commercial leadership layer has not kept pace with the product, let's talk.