Testimonials

Our Clients Are Our Best Salespeople

Please read a sample of our client testimonials.

“Exceptional People brought us a key lever to our success in providing a recognized leader in the display world. Our requirements may have over-whelmed another search person, but you have brought us a wonderful mix of strong business ability, vision, and a portfolio of 42 patents invaluable for credibility at our young stage. My thanks!”

Frank Sinton | Chairman | Holox Technologies, Inc

“Stacy, you have done an outstanding job for us, bringing not 2 or 3 but 5 extremely capable CIO candidates, making it a hard choice. I am happy to give you my endorsement for your careful work, well done! You are always accountable, your reports to me have always been thorough and I enjoy working with you.”

Bruce Fram | Entrepreneur | Professional Executive for Early Stage Companies

“You can use me as a reference anytime. You were extremely helpful to Corio by helping us recruit key members of Corio’s management, including our CTO, CIO and VPs who are making major contributions at Corio. In some cases your turnaround time has been not months, but weeks! Thank you!”

George Kadifa | Managing Director | Sumeru Equity Partners

“Stacy Made it Difficult to Choose
Stacy Holland and Exceptional People were integral to our success in the very daunting process of finding a very senior sales executive. Stacy’s timeline was accurate and the presented candidates eminently qualified. Our concern that we wouldn’t be able to find anyone we liked who would meet our culture and goal objectives ended up being an exercise where we found ourselves in a position of having multiple candidates from which to choose. It was a great experience and I highly recommend Stacy Holland and Exceptional People.”

Lisa Partridge, CEO, XYPRO’

“I was very fortunate to be introduced to Stacy Holland of Exceptional People when Straus Family Creamery embarked on a retained search for a Vice President of Manufacturing and Operations. Stacy did a thorough investigation and review of the Company, the team, our plans for the future, and the attributes of the ideal candidate for the position. She then began a market review of potential candidates and brought us a group of individuals that each met the technical, experiential, and personal characteristics identified during the first portion of the engagement. As we narrowed down our search to the two finalists, Stacy helped keep Straus and the candidates fully informed about next steps, important considerations, and any questions. Her process delivered the ideal candidate, perhaps even a “unicorn”, who has propelled the Operations team and entire Company forward very, very quickly. I can wholeheartedly recommend Stacy the next time you have the need for a retained search.”

Robert McGee | President and CEO | Straus Family Creamery

“I thoroughly recommend Stacy and the team at Exceptional People for senior executive searches. I had a fantastic experience working with them and their very thorough approach ensured that they really understood our needs as a company, and bought the detail required to find fantastic candidates for education technology. Look forward to working together again in 2018 as we continue to grow!”

Scott Brogi | EdTech COO | The Teaching Channel

“When moving to Autodesk, my first priority was to build a world-class product management team. Stacy and her team played in irreplaceable role in helping identify, screen, arrange interviews, recruit, and then close deals with top-notched talent. In almost every area – client service, attention to detail, access to talent, integrity – Stacy and her team exceeded expectations.”

Andrew Mackles | Director Marketing Strategy & Technology | Autodesk

“I have found that Exceptional People exercises excellent judgment when screening candidates and is extremely competent at understanding our needs and bringing forward candidates in a timely manner. The firm is totally accountable for driving the search forward and is always willing to go the extra mile to get the search successfully completed. As an internal corporate recruiter in San Francisco for more than 10 years I’ve worked with literally hundreds of agencies. Of those, there are only a handful that I would recommend to others, and Exceptional People is definitely one of them. I strongly recommend Exceptional People not only for their ability to locate great talent, but more importantly for the way they do it.”

Phil Haake, Principal Recruiter | Signia Venture Partners

“I cannot speak highly enough about Exceptional People. They took time to understand my needs; work with me through my tough schedule and enabled me to stop worrying about the ideal candidate. Every resume sent was applicable to the position, the candidates I interviewed were all ideal and I had the biggest dilemma in choosing one. Stacy helped me at every step of the way and I’ve been incredibly happy with the results. Stop here, Stacy will be my first call.”

“I have been totally impressed with the search process and the caliber of candidates brought to us by Exceptional People. They located stellar talent within our timeframe, and minimized my effort. Top members of management include our CTO, CIO and an exceptional V.P. Sales for our Asia Division who is making a substantial contribution to our organization Aside from being great to work with, they understood the experience and qualities we seek and consistently deliver to high standards.”

Fred Angelopoulos | CEO | PureDepth | Partner | Sharepoint Capital Management

“Stacy Holland and the Exceptional People team are the best I’ve seen in the industry. Rather than the typical headhunter “let me unload my inventory on you” model, Exceptional People takes the time to truly understand your business and in a collaborative way clearly define the type of candidate that will best succeed in the role you are looking to fill.
I’m certain the vetting process is highly effective because every candidate introduced to us was worthwhile speaking with. From start-to-finish the Exceptional People team is professional and responsive. I will use their results oriented services again.”

Evan Green | Chairman | ASEC Interactive

“Please allow me to introduce you to Stacy Holland, an excellent executive recruiter that I have worked with in the past. If you’re contemplating a retained search, she is a good person to work with.”

Eric Ver Ploeg | Founder | Recursive Capital LLC | Former Managing Partner | VantagePoint Venture Partners

“Stacy Holland is authentic. Stacy’s interest in pairing the right talent with the right position is genuine. From the first communication with Stacy, it was evident that Stacy is a mindful and results-oriented talent finder. Stacy’s approach to locating talent is distinct and unique. Her questions demonstrated that she had invested the time and energy to understand the talent requirements of the business need. In addition, understanding that a company hires the whole person, Stacy expressed interest in discovering my hobbies. By building a personal rapport, Stacy created the sense that she and I were a team working together to accomplish our mutually aligned objective: pairing the right talent with the right opportunity/company. Stacy then, step by step, mapped the path to a successful talent/company pairing. Stacy’s overall approach to contacting me for a talent opportunity stood out from hundreds of other emails and inspired me to follow up with her. For example, what impressed me most about Stacy was that in order to have the initial face-to-face meeting, Stacy drove several hours out of her way. Stacy goes the extra distance, literally. I recommend that when Stacy presents a talent need opportunity, whether actively seeking a new opportunity or not, the opportunity is well worth your exploration. To work with Stacy is delightful.”

Jake Lackey | Manager | Zuora