May 1, 2024 – Flatiron Search Partners (FSP) has assisted in the recruitment of Heather D’Agosta as the new CEO of Exaltare Capital Management – GF Venture Group Inc. “Congratulations to Heather D’Agosta on her new role as CEO at Exaltare Capital Management, LLC- GF Venture Group, Inc.,” Flatiron Search Partners said in a LinkedIn post. “This platform is a leading franchisee of Good Feet Worldwide, the custom orthotics brand, with best-in-class manufacturing operations, strong unit growth, and 200+ stores across the U.S. Over the past few years, we’ve partnered with Omar Simmons (managing partner at Exaltare Capital Partners) and his team on a number of critical engagements across several brands, and appreciate their tremendous partnership on this one.”
Throughout her career, Ms. D’Agosta been recognized for the ability to innovate, design, and execute strategic initiatives that scale global organizations. She most recently served as senior vice president, store operations and customer experience at David’s Bridal. In this role, Ms. D’Agosta led a team of 50+ in supporting 300 stores across 49 states, Canada, the U.K., and Mexico-based franchises. She led operations, budget, visual merchandising, store development, alterations, payroll, productivity, and events.
Prior to her time with David’s Bridal, Ms. D’Agosta was vice president of the East Coast division with Jenny Craig. During her tenure, she was consistently promoted through local and regional leadership roles to become division vice president, leading 3K staff across 250 stores throughout the East Coast.
Exaltare Capital Partners is a private equity firm that makes investments in profitable, niche-leading businesses. The firm focuses on owner-managed, family-controlled businesses and corporate divestitures. Exaltare’s flexible structure allows them to invest in both control and minority positions. The firm is headquartered in Boston, MA, and was established in 2011.
Established in 2018, Flatiron Search Partners is a boutique executive search and growth advisory firm with offices in New York City and Denver. The firm leverages a cross-industry network to focus on key sectors: beauty, business services, consumer products/ services, consumer healthcare, education and training, experiential/ specialty retail, food and beverage/ restaurants, franchising, health and wellness/ active lifestyle, hospitality and nightlife, and technology and SaaS. Flatiron leads recruitment efforts for CEOs and presidents, as well as executives and functional leads overseeing operations, customer experience, sales/revenue, marketing, training, HR, finance, product, technology, and real estate/development.
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Bill Stauffer is co-founder and managing partner with Flatiron. He has spent the past 20 years scaling brands at various growth stages across the consumer, food and beverage, and healthcare sectors. He has experience working with founders, boards of directors, executive teams, and private equity/ venture capital sponsors.
Joe Miller is also co-founder and managing partner with the firm. He has spent the last 10 years driving scalable business strategies for high-growth companies in the branded consumer space. He has a background in cross-functional management and financial analysis, and a track record of attracting and managing winning teams, driving operational execution, and achieving growth targets.
Past Acquisition
Last year, Flatiron acquired technology-focused search firm Bigfoot Search. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Bigfoot Search was founded in 2019 by Jeff Bruce, who previously spent a decade partnering with founders and executive leadership teams of emerging and growth-stage businesses backed by top-tier venture capital and private equity firms. A trained front-end engineer and interactive designer, Mr. Bruce has led hundreds of searches ranging from the C-suite, VP and director levels through key individual contributors, across product, data, design, and technology.
“Our clients are moving decisively to invest in mission-critical talent at the executive level, and we’ve experienced a surge in requests for technology roles over the past year,” said Joe Miller, co-founder and managing partner at FSP. “In the past, we’ve declined because we pride ourselves on only engaging in searches for which we have a distinct competitive advantage. Now, with the addition of Jeff’s team and expertise, we do.”
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Contributed by Scott A. Scanlon, Editor-in-Chief; Dale M. Zupsansky, Executive Editor; Lily Fauver, Senior Editor – Hunt Scanlon Media
