Brennan Group Client Testimonials

Founder and Partner at WestWave Capital; Former General Partner at Foundation Capital; 4-time startup CEO; Notable Investments - ForgeRock, Visier, Solo.io, ThetaLake, Secuvy, TugBoat Logic, Supply Chain SW Security start-up “The Brennan Group brought a slate of new candidates to the search that we had never met before. Kate did a terrific job of understanding our company’s business, which enabled us to recruit the best person for the job.“ LinkedIn

CEO at Sandhill East; Board Member at Zscaler, Pure Storage, Digital Asset; CTO In Residence at Fintech Innovation Lab; Advisor at CYGNVS, Alphy, DoControl, Winn.Ai, and Cutover; Former Board at Guidewire & Moogsoft “I have known Kate since early 2000 as a Client, Candidate, and Partner. I have referred Kate to several companies I work with, and the feedback is amazement at her ability to find candidates that others can’t find while ensuring a strong cultural fit.“ LinkedIn

Board member at Big Panda, Sila Nanotechnologies Inc. & Medallia Inc.; Former Parametric Technology CEO & Chairman of the Board
“We hired Kate as a sales rep in 1992 at Parametric Technology (PTC). PTC cultivated some of the best CROs in the world. Kate was one of the few who cold-called CEOs versus Engineering leaders. She secured meetings no one else could. Her drive, fortitude, and grit made her the top performer, and one of the first women promoted. She can get to anyone not looking and will deliver the unrecruitable.” LinkedIn

Founder/Chairman of the Board at Visier; 17 yr Board Director Synopsys; 14 yr Board Director Teradata; 13 yr Chairman Avast Software; Former Executive Board Director SAP & Board SuccessFactors; Former Symantec President & COO
“The Brennan Group acted for Visier in hiring our CMO. We appreciated Kate’s strong sense of urgency, constant follow-up, and focus on results. She produced a very credible list of candidates and successfully managed the project to win.” Linkedin

18-year Board Member at Salesforce; Board at Nutanix & Paylocity, Strategic Advisor at EQT; Past Board positions at Guidewire, AMD, Unisys, Sitecore, Pegasystems, eMeter, Kazeon, Success Factors
“Kate is the best "boutique" executive search professional I've worked with. Interestingly she had a long sales career in the software industry before starting a search firm. What distinguishes her from larger Agency firms is her sole focus on only your search, first-hand knowledge of the software space, and ability to get through to literally anyone in the world.” LinkedIn

Board at Matrixx Software & Electric; Former CEO at ServiceMax; Former Board at Model N & VidSig
“I would retain Kate again for any executive search, she is terrific, relentless and gets to everybody.” LinkedIn

Board at Directus, Onymos, and Zelros; Advisor at Celesta Capital, Baffle Inc., and ZaiNar Inc.

Managing Director at 10X CEO; Board at ServiceMax,& ProntoForms; former CEO & COO at ServiceMax I’ve known Kate for 6+ years. She ran several successful executive searches for us at ServiceMax. I first met Kate through a referral, at a time when traditional recruiting firms were not helping me fill a CRO role. Kate is the most thorough and strategically minded recruiter I’ve worked with. Her personal network of GTM leaders is very high quality and she has a few people who are currently looking for CRO opportunities. Kate’s approach is very hands-on. She will invest the time to really understand you, what you’re looking for, and the opportunity offers to the candidates. In my experience, Kate becomes such an expert in your company and message that she is able to find and align candidates to the role much more quickly than the usual big Bay Area recruiting firms. Linkedin

Iconiq Growth General Partner; Former CEO & Chairman at Coupa Software; Former VP at SuccessFactors; Former Director at Siebel Systems Kate was referred by people I respect because of her unique background and success in sales at tech companies. They were right, it clearly differentiates her. I worked with many Executive Search firms in my career – both as a candidate and as a client and her approach is impressive. In two months, Kate placed our EVP of Sales who has been game-changing and critical to the success of our growth and sales organization. Head of Sales is one of the most critical to get right and most often done wrong. She brings candidates we never knew or thought we could meet. She identifies them through the most successful Tech Exec’s in the business; they know Kate and respect her. She really gets our business, and value proposition…. her message is compelling and candidates listen. Kate goes beyond the resume and gets to the heart of whether someone is truly good and the right cultural match. She tells us the truth about a candidate, even if it isn’t what we want to hear. She exhibits the highest ethics and is a great human being to know. Making a career change can be an emotional process for a candidate and Kate is a huge asset in ensuring everything comes together successfully. LinkedIn

Chairman & Co-Founder at Guidewire Software; Partner at Battery Ventures; Advisor at Vesta Technologies & KAV; Director at Fairmatic, Hyperexponential, Bloomreach, Checkr, & Bestow Life Insurance; Former Director at Clearwater Analytics Kate evinces all the most important qualities for a great executive recruiter: creativity, persistence, persuasion, and detail orientation. She did an excellent job on several important searches for Guidewire. In each case, she undertook copious research and background work and delivered outcomes considerably faster than expected. LinkedIn

Chairman of the Board at One Door; Former Partner at Spring Lake Equity; Former Board at MATRIXX, BlueConic, Zylo & Gravy Analytics Kate is the best executive search professional I've worked with. She placed executives in several Spring Lake Portfolio companies where she recruited four Heads of Sales and a board member that later became the CEO at Matrixx. In addition to being very easy to work with, Kate has found us, great candidates, every time. I like the way she runs her process – it’s very efficient and she’s an expert at navigating the interview process and identifying candidate role alignment. Linkedin

Co-Founder & CEO at Digital Asset; Former CEO/Founder at Hesta Home (exit) We met Kate through our long-term, highly trusted network who have worked with her on several searches with great success over the years. The CRO search was a critical one for us. 7 Ridge and Eldridge led our $120M raise in series D in May of 2021 and took part in evaluating firms. Although Kate competed with a firm we all knew for years, it was clear to each of us that she had the right background and energy. Her advice on the profile was impressive and she delivered only top-notch talent out of the gate. She literally only made our job tough when it came to narrowing down the candidates. Brennan Group is in it with you and is nothing short of an invested strategic partner when it comes to building a killer executive team. I will recommend Kate to any CEO, and she will be our “go-to” for future searches. LinkedIn

Strategic Advisor & Former CEO at SiteCore; Former CEO at MarkMonitor & Clarivate CompuMark I had the pleasure of working with Kate Brennan when she conducted a very successful search for a Chief Customer Officer for us at Sitecore. She has a reputation for taking on tough assignments and delivering outstanding results. I can attest that Kate went above and beyond in her search, getting to know our company and the role we were looking to fill. I knew that this would be a challenging search since it’s a newly emerging position and we had very specific requirements. She applied an enormous amount of effort in crafting a customized description of the company and the role as well as a compelling value proposition for candidates. With her amazing, focused, passionate, industrious work ethic, Kate created a remarkable pipeline of candidates, while staying close to the interview process, all the while gathering input and course correcting as needed. Working with Kate, you’ll get an exceptional executive recruiting partner – and thanks to her, we now have one of the best CCOs in the world. LinkedIn

Sr. Advisor at Ten VC, TruStage & Private Family Investment Office; Board at FRDM & The CareVoice; Former Board at Happy Money; Former Founder, CEO & Chairman at Trōv As soon as I met Kate I knew that she’d work harder and be more effective than any other recruiter in the Valley. Indeed she proved tireless, fearless, tenacious, and dove into her work with single-minded determination. She delivered multiple, very qualified candidates who were well-vetted and prepped for our hiring process. And when we adjusted our expectations mid-stream, she graciously rolled with the changes bringing us a new slate of candidates equally qualified for the revised role. In the end, Kate found a remarkable contributor who has brought an immediate positive impact to our org. I cannot recommend Kate more highly. LinkedIn

Board Member at LeaseLock, GreenFig, Tuition.io & doxo; Founding Partner at Wildcat Venture Partners; General Partner at Mohr Davidow Ventures; Investor at Reserve & People Pattern; Former Board at Coupa Kate has a long successful background in big-ticket sales — a common background for many of the most successful recruiters, as the skills are very similar. Kate is exceptionally hard-working, focused, and creative. She builds and develops effective and often out-of-the-box networks to find and qualify the best candidates. She has done outstanding work with great results for two of my companies. She is appropriate for any executive-level search, with particular skills in the sales and marketing suite, CEO, and CFO. LinkedIn

Co-Founder/CEO at Blooma; Board Member at The Sandbox San Diego, Mooring Ventures, NeuraLace Medical, GovX; Former Founder/President at MaintenanceNet I worked with Kate on filling a couple of our senior executive positions. There is no one better, or more connected, in the technology executive search business than Kate Brennan. Most recently, I brought Kate in to help find our new VP of Product. The caliber of candidates that she brought to the table would have taken us a year, or more, to capture on our own. If she doesn’t know someone, she knows someone that does. She goes above and beyond to contact, and raise interest, with the exact candidates that you need to be speaking with. I would highly recommend Kate to any organization that is looking to recruit the best of the best executive team. LinkedIn

Former SVP at JFrog Security; Co-Founder at Vdoo (a JFrog Company); Founder & Former Co-CEO at Cyvera Ltd. (acquired by Palo Alto Networks, Inc.) We relocated our company, Cyvera, to San Francisco, understanding that one of our biggest challenges would be to find the best people to join us and build our US operations. After working with a few consultants, we met Kate and it became clear how exceptional she is in comparison and retained her for this role. Kate has a sales leadership background at Technology companies so she understands what the needs are. She quickly grasped our value proposition, composed a compelling opportunity description, and pitches the overall story in a way that attracted the best sales leaders out there to join us. LinkedIn

CEO of PageUp; Former CEO at Stova, formerly Aventri; Former Board at Vcheck Global; Former President & CEO at Steele Compliance Solutions, Inc. & AchieversKate’s work ethic, intuition, and ability to pitch our value prop have been invaluable in rapidly finding and placing (in less than 3 months) our SVP Sales, who wasn’t looking to make a move. She’s sensitive to the importance of cultural fit in a performance-driven organization. You’ll be hard-pressed to find anyone with a deeper commitment to your company’s success.

Founder, Chairman & Chief Scientist at Matrixx Software; Former SVP at Oracle; Founder, Former CEO & CTO at Portal Software We recently worked with Kate to recruit a key executive within our leadership team. Because the position plays a vital role in the growth of our company, it was imperative that we had a robust pool of candidates. From day one, Kate was prepared. She went the extra mile to form a complete understanding of the position, our needs from the candidate, and our company culture. From Kate’s vast network of connections, she presented us with several qualified candidates within a few short weeks. Each candidate understood our goals, appreciated our vision, and had already completed a thorough vetting process. In addition to her professionalism and resources, she is accessible, trustworthy, and respected throughout the industry. LinkedIn

CEO & Board Director at BriteCore; Former President at Quartic.ai;

Former President, COO & Board Director at Reflektion; Former President & COO at Virtana Kate is a special executive recruiter, very thorough and strategically minded. I have been both a candidate and a client of hers over the years. She recently placed me as the CEO of InsurTech SaaS company BriteCore, and we subsequently retained her to find our world-class CRO. Her personal, national network of tech GTM leaders, CEOs, and board members is of the highest quality. As a former software sales executive herself, she has a unique ability to connect with top executives who are not actively looking. One of Kate’s most powerful attributes is that she will look beyond the job specification to smoke out candidates’ work ethic, character, and team fit. She is very direct and will tell it as she sees it. Kate is extremely thorough. She spends considerable time proactively educating herself on the company, portfolio, and position. She pre-qualifies candidates using an intense and proprietary process to ensure that the individual is qualified for the role. When she pitches the role to potential candidates, she is usually as good as or better than someone on the executive team. This enables her to bring in top candidates who are not only qualified but a strong cultural fit. I have worked with dozens of top recruiters from boutiques to very large firms and can confidently say that Kate is in the elite class. She is very connected and will always deliver. LinkedIn

Sr. Advisor & former President/COO at Guidewire Software; Board at Xerox, Waystar, Veeva Systems & Ethos Life; Former Board at Human API, Vonage, ContractRoom & Trov I have the pleasure of working with Kate on two recent executive searches. She was able to fill the positions in the company in a very short period of time. Not only the assignment was completed with flying colors, I am thrilled to have met someone so unique and impressive in what she does. Due to her background in sales, she is able to bring a fresh perspective in recruiting. Rather than following the usual procedures, her approach is very creative and out-of-the-box. Rather than using the standard ‘recruiting tools’, she tabs into her wide network of contacts. She identifies candidates through solid recommendations from investors (board members, VCs, PEs), and former managers/colleagues/subordinates. LinkedIn