A Quick Comparison of Talent Teams in Venture Capital and Private Equity
We examine the structures and backgrounds of talent teams in five tier 1 VC funds and five PE firms and how they've evolved over the past few years in an unstable hiring market.
A January 2025 study by Spencer Stuart indicates a significant rise—20% over five years—in PE’s investment in portfolio talent leaders. This shift highlights how both VC and PE firms increasingly see talent teams as crucial for value creation. Typically, these specialists concentrate on improving talent acquisition, development, and retention within portfolio companies.
In this article, we examine the structures and backgrounds of talent teams in five VC funds and five PE firms (listed below), reviewing over 100 talent profiles. We also look at how these teams have evolved over the past few years in an unstable hiring market.
Who’s on These Teams?
We focused on whether team members have prior experience directly related to talent—recruiting, staffing, or broader talent management—and looked at similarities and differences between VC and PE:
Overall Talent-Related Experience: 81% of VC talent professionals had prior experience in recruiting or staffing, compared to 66% in PE.
External vs. In-House Backgrounds:
VC: 50.7% with external (staffing/recruiting) backgrounds; 79.4% with in-house experience.
PE: 60% with external backgrounds; 51.4% with in-house experience.
Combination of External + In-House: 30% in VC vs. 11.4% in PE.
Those firms without direct recruiting experience often hired individuals from consulting (e.g., McKinsey) or HR roles focused on compensation and rewards. The higher proportion of talent-related experience in VC is likely a reflection of the nature of work being heavily focused on acquiring talent.
Executive Search Experience
Many talent professionals in both VC and PE come from the executive search world:
Prior Exec Search: 39.7% in VC vs. 35.8% in PE.
Major SHREK Firms (Spencer Stuart, Heidrick & Struggles, Russell Reynolds, Egon Zehnder, Korn Ferry): 42% of VC talent professionals vs. 52.6% in PE.
Other Exec Search Firms: 48.4% in VC vs. 47.4% in PE.
In-House Executive Search: 25.8% of VC talent professionals vs. 15.8% in PE.
Exec search expertise typically means strong networks, access to “passive” top talent, and the ability to guide and troubleshoot strategic hiring processes.
Differences in Background & Career Trajectory
PE and VC talent professionals diverge significantly in their broader professional histories:
Years of Experience: Average of 16 years (PE) vs. 13.4 years (VC).
Tech Experience: 75.6% of VC talent staff previously worked at tech companies, whereas only 5.6% of PE did.
Banking/Finance: 5% in VC vs. 60.4% in PE.
Prior background in investment funds: 21.8% in VC vs. 28.3% in PE.
Male/Female split: 42.3%/57.7% in VC vs 17%/83% in PE
Experienced an internal promotion: in VC run at 20.5% vs. 26.4% in PE.
Tenure: Professionals in both VC and PE stay an average of 5.6 years (!)
From 2023 to 2025, both VC and PE firms saw relatively low churn on their talent teams (12.8% in VC, 18.9% in PE across these two years). This stability is notable given broader hiring slowdowns across tech since mid-2022. Most firms have taken a long-term view and kept the teams fairly stable, shifting responsibilities from purely acquisition-related tasks toward deeper development, engagement, and broader portfolio support.
Conclusion
Not surprisingly, talent teams are predominantly made up of recruiting professionals, with a good chunk also having prior executive search experience.
Interesting to note is how VC and PE talent teams diverge in backgrounds, with the former favouring operational experience in technology companies and the latter prioritising finance/banking experience. There was also a stark difference in the gender split in our sample size, although it’s hard to pinpoint why.
What surprised us the most was the long average tenure of 5.6 years, underscoring the stability and longevity of these teams, even while the overall talent market contracted heavily since mid-2022.
If you like this article, then you’re in luck! We have a few more interesting pieces lined up for the rest of the year!
Don’t miss out—subscribe to our Substack.
If you wish to access our exclusive data file with over 100 talent people at VC and PE firms, simply drop a message in the comments, and we’ll send it to you. 📥