Topliner — run like a global firm, keep your own

You went independent for the craft. Not to run the back office.

The craft is the part only you can do — building relationships, winning trust, and closing the deals that matter.

Sunday night researchScheduling across calendarsLast-minute client decksConstant data entryChasing invoicesAI strategy

You didn't go independent for any of that.
We take all of it — and hand you back the work you love.

The firm behind your firm.

An AI research platform, a senior delivery team, and the systems to run a search end to end — the reach of a global firm, on demand.

AI research platform

Agents that map a market in a morning — sourcing, mapping and longlists at a scale you could never staff.

Human-verified research

Senior researchers behind every name. The AI does the reach; people do the judgement.

Executive assistants, on demand

Scheduling, candidate care and coordination — the week-eating admin, off your desk.

An ATS built for search

Built for executive search, not recruiting — pipeline, clients and back office in one system.

Executive search is changing faster than it has in a generation.

The firms that moved early on AI are already delivering in days what used to take weeks — with deeper information, at lower cost.

The work around the work — mapping a market, building the longlist, the outreach and the admin — is being automated. Judgement and relationships are not. Topliner gives independent firms that edge without the overhead of a global firm.

0h

From brief to a researched longlist

0%

Less time to a client-ready shortlist

0%

More capacity per partner

0+

Client NPS across mandates

Independent. Not alone.

Topliner is also a private network of elite independent search firms — firms like yours — sharing the work, the standards, and the upside.

The mark of a Topliner firm

Referrals

When a mandate isn't yours to run, it goes to a partner you trust — not a competitor.

Community

A room of exceptional search professionals: offsites, shared standards, and peers who get it.

Ownership

As the network grows, partners share in what we build together.

Our vision

Learco Finck, Co-Founder of Topliner and The Big Search — Learco Finck, Co-Founder of Topliner & The Big Search

Independent firms hold the relationships and the judgement that the biggest appointments turn on. What they have lacked is the machine underneath — the research, the systems and the reach of a global firm.

Topliner is that machine. We take the work around the work, so partners spend their time where only they can: advising clients, reading people, and closing the hires that shape a company.

We are building more than a product. With a small group of exceptional independent firms, we are building the standard for how executive search is run — where technology carries the load and small firms compete with the global names on depth and speed.

A firm the size of a boutique, with the reach of a giant — and the people who do the work keep the upside.

Run like a global firm.Keep your own.

You went independent for the craft. Not to run the back office.

The firm behind your firm.

Executive search is changing faster than it has in a generation.

Independent. Not alone.

Our vision

Build the firm that comes out ahead.