The Bearhug Network: A Better Answer to "Who Do You Know?" for CEOs, Investors, and Executives
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How 10 Years Trying to Improve Executive Search Finally Clicked When I Locked Myself in My Office for 21 Days With 7 AI Agents and Built Something for You That Doesn't Exist Anywhere Else.
Strategic Networking
May 29
Written By Kraig Ward
I need to tell you how this happened. Not the polished version. The real one.<br>The short version is that my partner Mike Martin and I just launched the Bearhug Network, a two-sided marketplace that connects the people who hire executives with the executives who are either actively looking or are open if the right opportunity were to come knocking.<br>Anonymized profiles. Vetted by the Bearhug team. Browse, filter, request an introduction, and we handle everything from there.<br>If you've ever been asked "who do you know" for a critical hire and wished you had a better answer, or if you've ever wanted to quietly explore what's out there without broadcasting it to the world, this is what we built and why.<br>The longer version is that this thing has been living in my head for a decade. I tried to build it twice before and stopped short due to the enormous effort and expense, and then it accidentally came into existence over 21 sleepless days in May 2026 as a side effect of a completely different project. Roughly 350 hours managing 7 coding agents in tandem (a very different experience than managing humans, I must say), about $5,000 in total investment, and somewhere north of 75,000 lines of production code later, here we are. I've never written a line of code in my life, and do NOT consider myself technical (at all).<br>But I need to start at the beginning.<br>Why This World Captivated Me<br>From the very first time I learned about executive search, I was hooked. A small niche cottage industry built on trust and relationships, where a service provider like me could be handsomely compensated for the value of helping make an executive placement. Obviously intriguing. But the thing that was far more important was the actual work itself.<br>My entire career as an entrepreneur since the age of 19 had been in marketing, business development, and sales. Not executive search. But the work hit the bullseye for me in a way that checked nearly every box for my personal interests and genetic wiring.<br>I've always been fascinated by why businesses succeed or fail, how teams are built, how products find product-market fit, how capital is raised and managed, and how ultimately business can be a positive force for good.<br>In executive search, I saw a chance to insert myself into the most interesting conversations at the board level and play a key role at a pivotal moment where the right hire could determine whether the business reached its next stage of growth.<br>This is why "Topgrading" by Brad Smart sat at the top of my favorite books list long before I knew executive search was even a thing, and why "Who" by Geoff Smart (Brad's son) dethroned it once I got into the business. It was validating to find the subject matter and see my place in the world through that lens. That validation gave me the tenacity to jump in without any formal training or prior search experience.<br>Every top performer I interviewed before starting Bearhug told me there was zero chance anyone could succeed without first joining one of the top five firms for at least five years. Yet despite everyone saying I'd fail, here I am still standing a decade later, and the lessons from that decade are baked into every feature of the network you're about to see.<br>10 Years, 18 Unique Experiments, and the Lessons That Led Here<br>Having come in with a fresh perspective rather than inheriting the established playbook, I questioned everything. The way searches are conducted. The way models are commercially structured. The way candidates are screened and managed through the process. And how to make use of all the incredible people I'd meet during a search who wouldn't make it to the presentation stage, people often discarded with nothing to offer them.<br>Not to mention the thousands who come inbound every year hoping we can help them land a job, despite our job being to find people for jobs, not jobs for people, as we headhunters say behind the scenes. That reality pains every one of us. If you're one of those people, this story is especially for you, because the network we built is designed to finally give you a seat at a table that's been invisible until now.<br>Over the past decade, I've attempted no fewer than 18 distinct models to shape and evolve how executive search is conducted. I'll name three.<br>CEO Flow was a subscription recruiting model for early-stage venture-backed CEOs. Instead of a one-time placement fee, CEOs would pay monthly and get multiple fully-managed candidate pipelines with no placement fees attached. Reduce their risk, increase their capacity, create a continuity-based partnership rather than a...