Enquirer Consulting Group

Reachable Buyer Map

Prepared for Todd Merrill · TechCXO · United States · August 2026
In this market first contact usually happens through somebody's career: a partner already knows the chief executive, or a finished engagement produces a referral. That channel reaches the part of the market that overlaps a network already, and it is silent about the rest. This map is the rest of it across the United States. The company segments that buy fractional executives, who signs inside each one, and roughly how many sit there. It describes the market rather than your business, and there is nothing to buy at the end of it.
Private equity sponsors and their portfolio teams
The group where one relationship reaches furthest, because it covers a portfolio rather than a company. Sponsors also buy on a schedule the company itself does not control: diligence, the first hundred days, and the year before an exit.
Who signs: operating partner, head of portfolio operations, deal partner, and the chair or lead director placed on the board.
3,500 to 4,500
United States private equity firms actively making platform investments; the adviser register mixes fund families with management companies, so this band is deliberately wide
Venture and growth investors
Smaller checks, faster seats. A company that has just raised is buying leadership it cannot yet justify hiring outright, and the investor is often the one who says the word out loud first.
Who signs: partner, platform or talent partner, chief of staff to the fund, and the portfolio chief executive on the other end.
2,500 to 3,500
active United States venture and growth equity firms; each carries a portfolio, so the company layer reachable behind them is many times larger than this count
Founder-led companies, twenty to ninety-nine people
The band where a finance or technology leader is a first hire rather than a replacement, and where the founder is still the whole executive team. Short decision, one signature, and the highest volume of any segment here.
Who signs: founder, chief executive, president, or the owner operator who is all three.
480,000 to 560,000
United States employer companies with twenty to ninety-nine people on payroll; the register counts employer firms, so owner-only businesses are outside it
Established mid-market companies, one hundred to four hundred and ninety-nine people
Large enough to carry a full leadership team, which changes the sale. Here the work is a gap, a transition or a capability the incumbent team does not have, and the buyer is usually the person the seat reports to.
Who signs: chief executive, chief financial officer, chief operating officer, board chair, and the head of human resources running the search.
85,000 to 95,000
United States employer companies at one hundred to four hundred and ninety-nine people on payroll
Boards and independent directors
Not a segment so much as a switch. A board sees the gap before the company admits it, and the same director sits on several boards, so one credible relationship travels further here than anywhere else on the page.
Who signs: board chair, audit or compensation committee chair, lead independent director, corporate secretary.
A named layer, not a register
board seats are disclosed only for public and filing companies; on private and sponsor-backed boards the seats are assembled from filings and announcements rather than pulled from a list
Companies in transition
The buying moment itself, cutting across every segment above. A funding round, an acquisition, a restatement, or a chief financial officer leaving on short notice. The need is urgent, the window is weeks, and it closes.
Who signs: whoever owns the number that week: chief executive, board chair, or the sponsor who put the money in.
An event, not a population
senior finance and technology seats turn over often at this size, and most of those openings are visible publicly for a short window or not at all

Where the openings are

1
A network reaches the companies that already know somebody. The two employer bands on this page come to roughly 565,000 to 655,000 United States companies. In firms built this way, referral reaches whichever slice of that has already crossed a partner's career. The remainder is not unqualified, it is simply unaware, and it grows every year as new companies cross into those bands.
2
The buying moment is a seat going empty. Senior finance and technology roles turn over often in growth companies, and the replacement conversation happens in the first fortnight. A channel built on named roles catches it in the week it happens. A channel built on relationships hears about it after the decision was made.
3
Sponsors buy for a portfolio, not for a company. One operating partner can open several companies at once, and those seats are few and named. That is a list you can work exhaustively in a quarter, which is not true of any other segment on this page.
4
Five practices do not share one buyer. Executive leadership and finance answer to a chief executive or a board, product and technology answers to a different room again, human capital sits with the founder, and revenue growth sits with whoever owns the number. One channel keeps returning to the same door. Several named audiences is a different reach problem, and a solvable one.
Built from public United States business registers and investment adviser filings, current to the latest published year. Counts are banded deliberately. Employer company counts exclude owner-only businesses, which are not published in this data. Investor counts mix fund families with management companies, so those bands indicate scale rather than a clean account list.
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