While most firms sell access to a database…

We Sell Certainty.

That the right leader will be found, fast, and will change your company forever.

Our Customers Have Spoken

"Your level is above 99% of recruiters because of the obsessive detail you go through to truly understand both the candidates and the role. Most firms say they go deep, but Bearhug actually does. That’s why we got the outcome we wanted, in the timeframe we needed."

Brett Moyer
"Bearhug’s process was absolutely thorough. From market coverage to real-time visibility, nothing was left unexamined. We landed the perfect person for the moment. 10/10."

Brett Carlson
"The Bearhug team is one of the top executive search firms in the nation. They have a very unique perspective on building and scaling companies and I highly recommend their work!"

Spencer Dusebout
“I want to commend the Bearhug team for being such excellent partners to our entrepreneurs and the larger PeakSpan team. We really appreciate and value our relationship with you!"

Phil Dur
“Bearhug helped one of our portfolio companies hire almost their entire US C-level team, that enabled the business to scale from 1 to 20M+ over the last 4 years. They are truly awesome.”

Anton Fedorov
"I’ve worked with dozens of search firms, and Kraig and the Bearhug team are truly something special. They put more thought into their work than almost anyone I’ve met in business."

Jay Potter
“Kraig and the Bearhug team are one of the best startup recruiting firms I have ever met.”

Gaurav Manglik
"Kraig, we are thrilled to formally finish the process. Congratulations on your helping us get an amazing new executive to our company!"

Vangelis Mihalopoulos
"Having seen Bearhug from both sides, as a candidate & client, their approach is unmatched. Radical transparency and hands-on coaching delivered results that felt like a miracle."

Jon Kerry-Tyerman
“Bearhug’s outreach stood out immediately — specific, contextual, and focused on real impact. The process was collaborative, transparent, and the most thoughtful I’ve ever experienced."

Amit Shrivastava
“Bearhug’s approach was refreshing — transparent, knowledgeable, and focused on adding value from the start. Their approach turned a high-stakes role into a smooth, confidence-building experience.”

Nick Ezzo
"Bearhug is the recruiting partner high-growth businesses need — experienced, transparent, and realistic about what’s possible in senior searches. They bring urgency and deep preparation to every step."

Colin Parker
"Bearhug does things differently. The process was thoughtful, transparent, and executed with a level of rigor and insight I didn’t expect."

Doug Brown
"I was initially skeptical, but Bearhug quickly proved different — down-to-earth, empathetic, and thorough. They exceeded all expectations and delivered a great outcome for both sides.”

Matt Fox
"Bearhug’s process was extremely structured, efficient, and effective. Unlike anything I’d ever experienced. The level of detail and organization gave me total confidence at every step."

Jason Murante
"Getting to know the Bearhug team through such a thoughtful, structured process was a standout experience. Any high-growth startup needing specific executive hires should expect not just results, but a process that makes candidates want to join."

Walter Rowland

A-Players Build With Other A-Players

The leaders capable of moving a company through a true scale-up inflection point are not casually browsing job boards.

They are building. Operating. Shipping. Fixing. Carrying weight inside organizations that matter.

The problem is not visibility. It is resonance.

Average outreach gets ignored. Generic recruiting narratives get dismissed. The leaders you actually want to hire evaluate who is reaching out just as closely as they evaluate the opportunity itself.

If your recruiting partner lacks credibility, judgment, and market fluency, the right people will never engage.

At Bearhug, we do not approach leadership hiring as a transactional search. We approach it as architecture. Timing, sequencing, context, and narrative must all align before outreach begins.

That is what earns attention.

That is what opens conversations with senior digital, commercial, product, GTM, and C-level leaders across Human Performance Brands and Environmental Technology.

And yes, there are dozens of structural reasons why a trusted third party dramatically outperforms direct founder outreach when engaging high-caliber leaders. The market responds differently when the messenger carries weight.

Explore Our Recent Leadership Placements:

My name is Kraig Ward

My Mission: To Bring the Right People Together to Build a Better Future, Faster.

I started my first business at 19. By 22, I had my first exit after selling my second company, Executive Wellness Group. We built and promoted a curated network of wellness providers, chiropractors, massage therapists, yoga teachers, and nutritionists, serving busy, high-performing C-suite executives.

That was my first real exposure to what I now think of as Human Performance Brands, businesses focused on helping people operate at a higher level physically, mentally, and professionally.

At 26, I began licensing my high-performance marketing systems to wellness entrepreneurs around the world. That chapter pulled me deep into online publishing, digital marketing, and software, and eventually into venture capital and executive search.

Over time, my work expanded into supporting environmental technology companies, enterprise software startups, and now more deliberately, founder-led Human Performance Brands navigating scale.

Why?

Because we all get to choose who we work with and what we build in this life.

I want to work alongside people who share my values and are building products and brands that elevate human potential or solve meaningful environmental challenges.

Over the years, I’ve sold more than $12M of my own products, hosted 1,200+ live group training sessions, built and delivered dozens of webinars viewed by more than a million people, and created lead generation and recruitment marketing systems that have driven measurable growth.

More recently, my team and I helped three U.S.-based startups raise early-stage venture funding, build out their leadership teams, and accelerate revenue in ways that materially changed their trajectory.

But the story of Bearhug started long before any of that…

Bearhug’s Early Beginnings

Our Roots Run Deep

I was born the tenth of eleven children in a devoted Mormon family in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Seven sisters. Three brothers. Two parents who are still alive and deeply in love.

If you know anything about Mormonism, you know persuasion and conviction are not abstract ideas. My childhood revolved around belief, conversion, and certainty.

But on the way to my baptism, just before my eighth birthday, I stopped my father and asked:

“Why do Mormons believe they’re right and everyone else is wrong?”

I’ve been a contrarian ever since.

As I grew up, I found real energy in asking uncomfortable questions, challenging assumptions, and synthesizing large amounts of information into something people could act on. Pattern recognition became second nature. So did persuasion.

Before founding Bearhug, I built an online education company that grew to over 120,000 early-stage founders. We taught sales, marketing, and positioning. I sold more than $12M of my own products. I hosted over 1,200 live sessions. I built systems that helped founders translate belief into revenue.

Those skills did not disappear. They evolved.

When you recruit senior leaders, especially at inflection points, you are not filling seats. You are reshaping belief systems. You are persuading high-performing leaders to leave certainty for risk. You are rewriting the trajectory of a company.

Most founders underestimate how dangerous it is to “wing” an executive hire.

Even strong CEOs make predictable mistakes. They target the wrong market. They mis-sequence the role. They pitch poorly. They lose conviction halfway through the process. And by the time they realize it, time and momentum are gone.

That is why structure matters.

As I entered my 40th year, I became increasingly aware that time is finite. I care deeply about people, entrepreneurship, human performance, environmental progress, and the systems that determine whether companies scale or stall.

Bearhug became the vehicle that allowed me to combine all of it.

Today, we partner with founder-led Human Performance Brands and Environmental Technology companies navigating real scale-up inflection points. Not vanity growth. Real structural transitions.

I’ve had countless opportunities to scale Bearhug into a larger firm. For now, we deliberately remain small and focused. Focus creates depth. Depth creates signal. Signal earns trust.

Fulfillment, for me, comes from clarity of vision and daily progress toward it. Bearhug is the current manifestation of that vision.

If you see overlap between where you’re headed and what we’re building, reach out. The best part of this work is meeting serious builders and exploring whether we can help each other move faster.

Don’t Wing Your Next Executive Hire

Most founders underestimate how much damage a poorly structured executive search can cause.

Even strong CEOs repeat the same predictable mistakes: targeting the wrong market, mis-sequencing the role, pitching the opportunity weakly, or losing momentum midway through the process. The result is wasted time, stalled growth, and losing the right candidate at the finish line.

That’s why we created a concise report outlining the 27 most painful and expensive mistakes CEOs make before launching an executive search, along with the corrective steps that prevent them.

Get the setup right from the start, and your search becomes materially easier. You attract better leaders, move with more conviction, and in some cases, may not need outside help at all.

Free Report: The 27 Most Painful & Expensive Mistakes Tech Startup CEOs Make Before Launching an Executive Search — and How to Avoid Them

Download Your Free Copy Instantly

While most firms sell access to a database…

We Sell Certainty.

That the right leader will be found, fast, and will change your company forever.

"Your level is above 99% of recruiters because of the obsessive detail you go through to truly understand both the candidates and the role. Most firms say they go deep, but Bearhug actually does. That’s why we got the outcome we wanted, in the timeframe we needed."

"Bearhug’s process was absolutely thorough. From market coverage to real-time visibility, nothing was left unexamined. We landed the perfect person for the moment. 10/10."

"The Bearhug team is one of the top executive search firms in the nation. They have a very unique perspective on building and scaling companies and I highly recommend their work!"

“I want to commend the Bearhug team for being such excellent partners to our entrepreneurs and the larger PeakSpan team. We really appreciate and value our relationship with you!"

“Bearhug helped one of our portfolio companies hire almost their entire US C-level team, that enabled the business to scale from 1 to 20M+ over the last 4 years. They are truly awesome.”

"I’ve worked with dozens of search firms, and Kraig and the Bearhug team are truly something special. They put more thought into their work than almost anyone I’ve met in business."

“Kraig and the Bearhug team are one of the best startup recruiting firms I have ever met.”

"Kraig, we are thrilled to formally finish the process. Congratulations on your helping us get an amazing new executive to our company!"

"Having seen Bearhug from both sides, as a candidate & client, their approach is unmatched. Radical transparency and hands-on coaching delivered results that felt like a miracle."

“Bearhug’s outreach stood out immediately — specific, contextual, and focused on real impact. The process was collaborative, transparent, and the most thoughtful I’ve ever experienced."

“Bearhug’s approach was refreshing — transparent, knowledgeable, and focused on adding value from the start. Their approach turned a high-stakes role into a smooth, confidence-building experience.”

"Bearhug is the recruiting partner high-growth businesses need — experienced, transparent, and realistic about what’s possible in senior searches. They bring urgency and deep preparation to every step."

"Bearhug does things differently. The process was thoughtful, transparent, and executed with a level of rigor and insight I didn’t expect."

"I was initially skeptical, but Bearhug quickly proved different — down-to-earth, empathetic, and thorough. They exceeded all expectations and delivered a great outcome for both sides.”

"Bearhug’s process was extremely structured, efficient, and effective. Unlike anything I’d ever experienced. The level of detail and organization gave me total confidence at every step."

"Getting to know the Bearhug team through such a thoughtful, structured process was a standout experience. Any high-growth startup needing specific executive hires should expect not just results, but a process that makes candidates want to join."