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Client Testimonials
We worked with Matt on our recent VP of Sales search. Matt was a pleasure to work with. He took the time up front to really understand not only the experience and knowledge set required for the job but also what the right cultural fit would be. I was impressed with the caliber of candidates he presented and he was also very helpful in the end getting the right candidate to accept and onboard. Jon Kondo Matt and the Oak Technology Partners team did a great job on our VP Sales search. Matt really took the time to fully understand our special requirements. During the search, the team moved at a rapid pace and we had a very good working relationship, and most importantly we got great results! Michael Lynch I would recommend Matt Raggio’s team at Oak Technology Partners to fast growing technology companies looking for ‘the right fit’. Matt worked with me and my executive team to profile the ideal candidate based on our company’s specific needs, chemistry and culture. Then Matt worked the process efficiently across his broad network ultimately finding our new VP Sales within our planned timeframe. Matt’s advice and experience throughout the search was invaluable. Eric Olden Oak Technology Partners proved to be the right combination of professionalism, perseverance, and best practices for executive recruiting. The professionalism ranged from Matt’s personal knowledge and network to Jill’s operational skills and tenacity, and they were focused and committed partners in a very difficult search. The profile of the sales executive we were seeking was difficult given the transition in our business model and market focus, and finding an individual with the appropriate expertise in both traditional and new sales models as well as the chemistry to join an established team with a long history was a significant challenge for us. Matt did an exceptional job understanding the peculiarities of our situation and the subtleties of our team and was very successful in developing a pipeline of candidates to select from. We concluded a difficult search with an outstanding candidate, a conclusion that was possible because of the professional team at Oak. I would not hesitate to partner with them again. Steve L. Adams Matt and his team did an exceptional job for Clickability. We're a rapidly growing software company, and finding the right head of sales candidate is one of our three most significant accomplishments of the year. The candidate that has signed with the company is a perfect fit from an experience and culture standpoint. Matt recognizes the importance of the work he does for his clients, and is masterful at helping the CEO and executive team navigate an incredibly critical process. I recommend him enthusiastically, and would gladly work with him again. John Girard Blue Vector is an emerging growth company that needed specific and experienced sales management talent to drive global growth thru partner and channels. This was a difficult task complicated by the need to move quickly. As CEO, it was a top priority of mine and I wanted to retain a firm that understood our unique needs, help us craft a targeted specification and focus on filling this position expeditiously. Oak Technology and Matt Raggio convinced me that they understood the requirements and could mobilize the recruiting process quickly. Following an extensive candidate screening and an exhaustive interviewing process the position was filled in 60 days Mike Gardner Matt was hired to recruit our VP Sales from a referral. I would highly recommend Matt for any VP Sales or Marketing search – he is the best I have ever worked with. Matt ran the search with integrity to the point that he seemed to challenge if a candidate was right for a position as much as we did versus ‘sell’ the candidate. His industry experience was invaluable to us in the search. Matt has an incredible ability to quickly compare and contrast the strengths and weaknesses of candidates and to “crystal ball” their success in different situations. His judgment was spot on. Most importantly, we hired a fantastic VP of Sales thanks to Matt. I would not hesitate to work with Matt or Oak Technology Partners again in the future. Ronald Hildebrandt Matt was highly recommended to me. I quickly saw why and now I highly recommend him. We partnered to hire our VP Sales in less than a month from engagement commencement. Matt ran the search himself and with vigor. He sourced candidates from what seemed to be an endless rolodex. He then screened several candidates and narrowed the pool to the ones he knew I would prefer. I only needed to see three candidates that were all very qualified with differing specific areas of strength. I expeditiously hired the one Matt knew I would. Great job! Oak Technology Partners is a class act. Professional and thorough from start to finish, you get far more than just the best connections to top talent. They put in almost as much work defining and preparing the search as they do on the search itself. The result is a crisply executed and focused engagement that requires everyone to be on the same page prior to the first outbound call. Our expectations were greatly exceeded, both with the quality of the candidates they brought to us, as well as their advice and counsel on the process in general. I also want to especially recognize the superb job that Matt Raggio has done along every aspect of this entire search process. Many of you have had a few touchpoints with Matt along the way; I can assure you I have daily touchpoints with Matt. At every step Matt has proven himself to be professional, energetic, and thoughtful about how to realistically assess and achieve our objectives. He did an exceptional job about working with the candidate prior to our meeting to set her objectives in line with what we can do, and we had no mis-set expectations at any point along the way. Matt really spent time understanding our business, brought in well qualified candidates in a timely manner, and delved into the motivations of both parties which facilitated alignment discussions on important issues. Matt goes beyond the practice of most recruiters and his openness and honesty, brings a refreshing approach to the recruiting process and a great result. I retained Matt to recruit a VP of Marketing for ClickShift, an online marketing optimization company. Matt quickly met all the board members, developed a clear spec, and started delivering qualified candidates. Despite our company’s changing requirements during the search, Matt was able to routinely present candidates that met our objectives. I interviewed at least a half dozen candidates that were above the bar which gave me the opportunity to choose among several highly qualified people. Late in the search, after our pipeline had run dry because we were expecting a close that didn’t happen, Matt was able to restart the pipeline immediately and fill the spot with an absolutely ideal candidate. CollabNet had the simultaneous requirement to hire two seasoned executives to fill both our VP of Sales and the VP of Marketing positions. We needed to hire executives with the proven track record and leadership in driving successful companies through the rapid stage of growth and “industry flattening” opportunity which CollabNet is experiencing. This was a complex recruitment in that it was imperative that these executives had the skill set, the vision match, and the cultural match both with CollabNet as well as each other. Oak Technology Partners was a trusted and valued partner in making this happen for CollabNet. At Primus Knowledge Solutions we had a critical need for a highly effective and experienced Senior Vice President of Sales. I was referred to Matt Raggio through one of our board members, who had worked successfully with Matt in the past. We selected Matt amongst a number of other referrals and am pleased that we made our decision. Matt spent the time necessary to understand our requirements and culture, presented excellent candidates quickly and helped close our preferred choice, a seasoned enterprise sales executive that added great value to our business. I look forward to working with Matt again in the future. Matt Raggio and Oak Technology Partners has been a trusted partner for several executive searches at Voyager Capital. In my experience, Matt has demonstrated an efficient, knowledgeable approach in securing the best possible candidates for my portfolio companies. I value and trust Matt's judgment and would use his services again without reservation. What stands out in my mind about you are two key factors: Matt Raggio’s encyclopedic knowledge of sales and marketing execs in the tech space, especially in the Bay Area. This is most easily proven when I call him in the car, and I know he doesn’t have his computer in front of him, and he STILL know who everyone is, and where they worked before, and what their best skills/issues are, etc. It really amazes me. I call Matt sometimes when I’m just doing due diligences on a management team for a new deal, BEFORE I even have a search to worry about! Secondly, his unusually astute powers of observation about what style of exec a company really needs relative to their stage of development and corporate culture. More so than with anyone else, I think Matt grasps the nuances of each individual company and structures the search with those subtleties in mind. He “gets it” with the things that others don’t get or can’t articulate. This is a big point in my book because so often I feel that other recruiters just focus on software vs. hardware and early vs. late stage and license vs. ASP, and that’s all they need to know to fill the spot. Matt Raggio did the VP Sales search for me at KnowNow.
About the 10th search I have done with him.
I strongly recommend him for your portfolio companies. He is smart, extraordinarily well-connected, very deep on "the industry and players,"
and thoughtful about various need scenarios.
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