Updated October 2026
Selling executive search firm data for AI training: what it's worth and who buys it
Only 715 US executive search firms had 10+ employees in 2022, and 259 had 30+, a small field where buyer size floors matter.1
A retained search is a consulting engagement that ends in a hire. The firm interviews the board or CEO and writes a position specification, maps the market, approaches sitting executives who are not looking, conducts long interviews and writes detailed assessments, presents a slate, checks references in depth, and helps close the offer. Each mandate produces a thick file of careful prose about leadership, fit and risk.
That writing is closer to a management consultant's than a recruiter's, and in our reading it is the kind of expert judgment AI developers say they want. It is also the most sensitive material in staffing: confidential searches, named executives who never applied, and candid references. The frameworks, spec templates and assessment methods a search firm wrote for itself can be separated from any individual's file.
This page is for retained and contingent executive search firms and leadership advisory boutiques with ten or more staff. It explains what a week of mandate work produces, which buyers fit a firm in a field of only a few hundred, what is usually excluded, and the questions to raise before licensing anything.
Worth
What a search firm's data may be worth
Set for a typical search firm, 18 staff and 15 years of records. Move the sliders to match yours. Our estimate, not an offer.
Buyers
Which buyers want this data
Buyers whose own published rules fit executive search firms. We can introduce you to the ones we work with.
Featured partners
micro1
Names recruiting firms and consulting businesses, and asks for templates and operational frameworks, which is what a search firm's spec and assessment templates are.6,2
- $100K to $2M+, micro1 says8
Watch out for: Says it removes personal details only "when relevant", so ask exactly how.11
Polyshares
Names professional services, sets no headcount floor beyond real operating history, and excludes data held on behalf of clients.12,13,3
- $100K to $2M+, Polyshares says9
- None, Polyshares says14
- An offer in 1 to 2 weeks, then paid in 30 to 60 days15
Watch out for: Exclusive by default, and every deal it lists is exclusive with no end date.16,17
Everyone else we reviewed
By score, with full reviews. We have no referral agreement with these companies, so we do not link out to them.
Who wants this
Do buyers want executive search firms?
No buyer publishes prices by industry, but their own intake forms show which industries they rate higher.
- Troveo puts something else (staffing is not listed) in its third of four demand tiers: "Standard buyer demand for your industry."25
- Polyshares takes staffing and recruiting, without marking it premium.26
- VMS, a broker, gives staffing or bpo standard weight when it estimates value.27
Which buyers take a search firm your size
Shown for 18 staff, a typical search firm. Ask whether contractors and part-time staff count.
micro1
Polyshares
No headcount rule; the length and texture of the record matter more29
Mode
20+ full-time US office staff (accounting firms 10+, law firms 6+)30
Pewter
20+ staff and 3+ years; by industry, from 10+ (healthcare) to 50+ (manufacturing, finance)31,32,33
Grepped
No headcount minimum stated34
Ventra
30+ US employees and 3+ years of records35
Mercor
None stated36
Troveo
No minimum stated; its estimator starts at 2037
Nyne
20+ US W-2 employees and 3+ years38
Endless
Roughly 30+ employees39
Supersoniq
50+ employees and 5+ years40
What buyers value
What in a search firm's records buyers value
What buyers look for in your records, and what to talk through with your buyer before anything leaves your systems.
| Data | Where it lives | Why a buyer values it | Raise with the buyer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Position specifications | Word, shared drive | A board's needs translated into a written role, competencies and a pitch to candidates. | Client names on confidential searches. |
| Candidate assessments | Search CRM (Invenias, Clockwork, FileFinder), Word | Long, structured judgments of leadership against a spec, the richest writing a search firm does. | Every named executive in every assessment. |
| Market maps and target lists | Excel, search CRM | How a firm decides where a candidate is likely to be found. | Named people at named companies. |
| Proposals and engagement letters | Word, email | How a search is scoped, priced and staffed, matching the SOWs Mercor names. | Client fees and terms. |
| Assessment frameworks and interview guides | Knowledge base, templates | The method the firm built for itself, separable from any person's file. | Nothing specific |
A week of records
A week of data at a search firm
- Monday: a kickoff with a board chair, written up as a draft position specification.
- Tuesday: a market map of 120 executives at 30 target companies, with notes on likely interest.
- Wednesday: two in-depth interviews, each written up as a five-page assessment.
- Thursday: the slate report for a CFO search, with a recommendation and its risks.
- Friday: three referees called on the finalist, with notes typed up for the client.
Process
How it works with each buyer
In each buyer's own words. Where a buyer publishes nothing, we say so.
micro1
- Internal docs, SOPs and playbooks, knowledge bases, project management workflows, internal comms, templates, CRM and workflow metadata, task histories2
- 30 to 200 employees28
- $100K-$2M+ per data package; over $1M for unique data8
- PII removed "when relevant"11
- The company keeps ownership of its data and reviews samples before release41
- Not published
Polyshares
Selling or closing
Selling or closing your search firm? License its data first
When a search boutique is built around a few partners, one retirement can end the firm. The method library, spec templates and anonymised assessment frameworks are worth raising with a buyer before that happens. Ask each licensing company whether it will take a package with no candidate or client material at all, and what it would pay for that compared with a fuller archive.2,3
FAQ
Executive search firms: questions, answered
Yes, and in our reading that is often the right first package for a search firm. micro1 lists templates and operational frameworks among the data it wants, and an assessment framework contains no candidate data.2
Polyshares says it excludes data held on behalf of clients, and an assessment written for a client may fall under that. Ask it directly which parts of a mandate file it would include.3
Every business is different, so this one is best talked through with the buyer you're working with. Their team goes over it with you before anything is signed.
Every business is different, so this one is best talked through with the buyer you're working with. Their team goes over it with you before anything is signed.
Before you sign
Questions to talk through with your buyer
Every business is different, so these are best talked through with the buyer you're working with. Their team goes over them with you before anything is signed.
Questions for this kind of business
- Which engagement letters make search materials the client's, and are they excluded?
- How are named executives, referees and their employers removed?
- Can we bar recipients from using the data to recruit our clients' leaders?
- Who owns this data: the company, an estate, or someone else?
- How do CCPA, GDPR, UK GDPR and state privacy laws apply, and is de-identified data still personal information?
- Do customer, vendor or platform contracts, NDAs or API terms restrict this?
Questions for any buyer
- Is the license exclusive, and for how long?
- Can you sublicense the data, and to whom?
- Which AI labs will receive it, and will you tell us?
- How long do you keep it, and how is it deleted?
- What is your liability cap, and who indemnifies whom?
- Will the contract ban re-identification of people in the data?
- Who removes personal data, by what method, and do we approve it first?