For capital partners
A talent layer across your portfolio.
PathwaysX partners with venture and private equity firms as the talent function their portfolio companies can't yet afford to build. We run searches, calibrate roles and report patterns back at the fund level.
One talent partner, shared across every company that needs one.
Portfolio companies don't each need a recruiting function. They need the two or three hires a year that decide the next round. We run those searches with the same framework we bring to any company team.
Because we sit across the fund, every search makes the next one smarter: comp bands, market maps and evaluation learnings compound at the portfolio level.
- Shared intelligence
- Comp data, market maps and learnings move across the whole fund.
- Preferred capacity
- Portfolio companies go to the front of the queue.
- Fund-level reporting
- A quarterly view of where hiring is easy, stuck and expensive.
Four movements, from fund map to placed hire.
The partnership starts at the fund level, not with a single urgent search, though it usually starts with one.
- 01
Map the portfolio
We build a hiring map across companies: who's hiring into AI-adjacent roles this year, where the gaps cluster, where the risk sits.
- 02
Triage hiring needs
Each company gets a calibration pass: which searches are urgent, which are design problems first, which can wait for the right market.
- 03
Deploy capacity
Searches run through the same framework and pricing as direct engagements, with portfolio terms and priority scheduling.
- 04
Report at fund level
Partners get a quarterly read: time-to-fill, comp movement and role-family demand across the portfolio. It's intelligence no single company could see alone.
Every search produces intelligence the whole portfolio can use.
The reporting layer turns individual searches into a view of demand, compensation and hiring friction across the fund.
Every two weeks
Open and closed role status, market response, compensation signals and recommended changes.
Every quarter
A fund-level research report on how AI is changing the work, roles and pay across the portfolio.
Across searches
Reusable market maps, evaluation learnings and adjacent talent paths that make the next mandate faster.
Portfolio memo · Q3 · Fund II
Specimen
Active searches
11
across 7 companies
Median time to finalists
17 days
down from 23 last quarter
Shared candidates
6
routed between portfolio cos.
| Role family | Base band (Series A–C) | Time to offer | Market |
|---|---|---|---|
| Applied AI engineering | $210–260k | 19 days | Tight |
| AI product leadership | $240–310k | 24 days | Tight |
| Platform & MLOps | $195–240k | 16 days | Balanced |
| AI ops & adoption | $160–205k | 13 days | Open |
Recommendation: two companies are writing near-identical AI product roles. Run one calibrated search and share the finalist pool.
The hire that matters changes with the stage of the company.
We map portfolio demand by stage, because a seed company and a PE-owned operator are solving different talent problems.
| Stage | Typical mandate | Risk it removes |
|---|---|---|
| Seed / Series A | Founding AI Engineer · First Applied Scientist | Getting the core product built by the right first technical hire. |
| Series B / Growth | VP / Head of AI Product · Head of Platform | Scaling the team, productionising models, building evaluation. |
| PE / mid-market | AI Transformation Lead · Operating Partner, AI | Modernising established workflows without stalling the business. |
| Across the fund | Fractional AI Architects · EIRs | Shared senior capacity for companies not ready for a full-time seat. |
One agreement at the fund level. Every portfolio company benefits.
Searches use our standard commercial models. The fund agreement adds the mechanics that only make sense across a portfolio.
- Priority routing
- Portfolio searches are scheduled ahead of the queue.
- Shared pipeline
- Strong finalists not hired can be introduced to sister companies.
- Pooled search credits
- Commit across the fund; companies draw down as they hire.
- Quarterly fund memo
- Comp, time-to-offer and demand by role family.
We'll walk through your portfolio map and where hiring risk is concentrated before any commitment.
Start a conversation
Give your portfolio a talent function it couldn't justify alone.
One conversation with the operating partners is enough to map where the hiring pressure will land this year.