How Flatiron Search Partners Cut Time-to-Fill by 37% Without Changing Who They Hire
FSP is a Nonantum-backed executive search firm working with high-growth consumer brands and their PE and growth equity sponsors. The network is their asset, and it was also the hardest thing to use.
We couldn’t actually search our old system. It was a repository.
— Laura Englander, Partner, Flatiron Search Partners
FSP, a team of 50, switched to Stardex in February 2026. Andrea Laxton, who led the evaluation and built the scorecard that decided it, put the shift in blunt terms a few months later: it moved the team “from gut-feel to data-driven decision-making… like using a scalpel rather than a saw.”
Six months in, the data backs up the metaphor.
The Results
Searches are closing 37% faster. Comparing closed, confirmed-filled searches opened before the migration to those opened after (in the stable window from mid-March onward), median time from search open to close dropped from 92 days to 58 days — 34 days faster. This isn’t a self-reported estimate: it’s measured directly off job open and close dates in Stardex.
Slates come together in about two days. Across a sample of recent searches, the median time to build out a full 10-candidate slate is 47.9 hours — under two business days.
Over half of interview-stage candidates are now coming from FSP’s own internal database, not new outreach. Of the candidates who’ve reached interview or offer stage in searches opened since the migration, 52% already existed as a person record in Stardex before that specific search even opened — sourced during a prior search, now surfacing again for a new one.
That’s the payoff of a behavior change Andrea described from the old system:
Before, we were only adding people who responded, because it took so much time to pull one profile into our previous system. Stardex is one click of a button.
— Andrea Laxton, Flatiron Search Partners
The team now logs candidates broadly instead of narrowly, and it’s already showing up as reusable pipeline six months later — exactly the bet Andrea made when she called Stardex a “sidekick” rather than a database.
Why FSP’s Process Changed with Stardex
The mechanics, in the team’s own words:
Search that actually works. “Prior CRM systems were just repositories without search capability, making candidate sourcing slow,” per Laura. Natural-language search across resumes, notes, transcripts, and emails replaced Boolean queries that depended on a recruiter remembering to tag things correctly.
Outreach beyond LinkedIn InMail. FSP used to default to InMail because it was the easiest channel to track. Now the team picks whichever channel — email, text, or a call — actually works for the candidate.
The smoothest adoption Andrea’s seen. Onboarding ran through FAQs, calls, and a dedicated Slack channel, with data audits up front so the team trusted the migration hadn’t lost anything. “Even critical, experienced users reported this as the smoothest tool adoption they’ve seen.”
Built for a Market That’s Moving Faster
Alexis Devaiah, who joined FSP recently, has watched client mandates get shorter and more exacting — three-month operator searches instead of long-cycle investor ones, with clients holding out for exact-fit “purple unicorn” candidates. Meeting that pace is what an AI-native system is for: multi-variable search and instant answers instead of manual spreadsheet work.
Andrea’s advice to other firms considering the switch has stayed consistent from her first review of the market to now: AI-native isn’t optional.
None of what Stardex unlocked for us would be possible in a system that wasn’t entirely AI-native. That said, we’re not handing our work over to AI. We’re working alongside it. It helps our recruiters win more business, do better business, close faster, and truly leverage the firm’s intelligence holistically. It doesn’t replace what we do, it makes us much better at it, and that’s what AI should be doing.
— Andrea Laxton, Flatiron Search Partners
What’s Next
Given how seamless FSP’s transition to Stardex was on the ATS side, they were also keen to migrate their CRM business development workflows over to Stardex. FSP migrated their BD contact tracking off of Monday.com and into Stardex about two months after moving off their old ATS. FSP has begun leveraging Stardex’s automation tooling, particularly the Stardex API and webhooks, to automate all the manual tracking and bookkeeping involved between a partner tracking down potential new business and kicking off a live retained search.
We’re excited to keep growing alongside the FSP team for years to come!