Chasm Launches New Solution to Help VC and PE Investors Evaluate Leadership 

March 23, 2021 – Rowayton, Conn-based executive search firm Chasm Partners has introduced ChasmDILIGENCE, a new service designed to provide insights to help private equity and venture capital investors perform human capital diligence at deal stage. The offering builds on Chasm’s expertise in evaluating executive talent for high-growth healthcare organizations. “Since 2015, Chasm has helped our clients in venture capital and private equity scale by placing top-tier talent in their healthcare organization investments,” said Matt Dumas, founder and managing partner at Chasm. “Leveraging our unique approaches to psychometric testing and candidate evaluation when making placements for our clients, we have developed ChasmDILIGENCE to provide a more practical alternative to human capital due diligence than traditional approaches have offered.”

All ChasmDILIGENCE engagements are managed by experienced experts in human capital, led by a former chief human resources officer, said the search firm. The deliverable to clients consists of reports and a presentation to investors providing an assessment on the individuals as well as the team to help investors determine the existing capabilities and what changes, if any, need to be addressed to maximize the value of their investment when it comes to human capital. The reports also help investors identify development areas on how to help further improve leadership impact of the executive team post investment.

Due Diligence

ChasmDILIGENCE was originally developed as an answer to travel restrictions put in place due to the COVID-19 pandemic. “Investors could no longer meet face-to-face with executive teams of potential investments to gauge the chances for success,” said the firm. “Yet due diligence still needed to be performed, so clients turned to Chasm asking for help.”

Chasm introduced the first iteration of ChasmDILIGENCE last April. The service uses a combination of one-on-one interviews and highly predictive psychometric assessment tools along with proprietary models developed by Chasm to perform its evaluations. Chasm experts then deliver custom reports covering two areas:

Individual leader assessments. These reports assess the potential performance of individuals against the specific role they are currently in and the business need as defined by the investor. They detail the strengths and gaps in core leadership attributes needed to succeed as well as factors such as judgment, decisiveness, resilience and emotional intelligence.

Team evaluation. Chasm takes the information gained through the individual leader assessments to help investors better understand the leadership team’s effectiveness as a whole, the dynamics within the team and the corporate culture. These aspects are then used to evaluate the risks and the team’s chances of succeeding in achieving the investor’s stated business objectives.

“One particularly appreciated attribute among early customers has been the speed with which an evaluation and report can be completed,” said Chasm Partners. “While exact times can vary, typically Chasm only requires one week’s lead time versus the three or four for a traditional due diligence approach. From there, most evaluations take a week to 10 days versus the four to six weeks needed for a traditional approach.”

Related: Talent Challenges Facing Mid-Market Private Equity Backed Companies

In designing ChasmDILIGENCE, the firm said it set a goal of putting industry-leading quantifiable data into the hands of experienced professionals who could then deliver deep insights that explain what the data is showing.

Driving Results

Founded in 2015, Chasm Partners is an executive search firm and talent development organization exclusively focused on healthcare, leveraging proprietary processes, tools and economic models that drive results for its clients. The firm works with prominent, innovative and growth-oriented companies focused on disrupting healthcare and helps them achieve sustainable organizational scale through human capital. The firm also has locations in San Francisco and Salt Lake City.

Mr. Dumas has more than 20 years’ operating experience in new ventures and turnarounds, with an expertise in healthcare technology, analytics, and interactive media. He is focused on applying best practices and talent capital management to help investors scale businesses in the healthcare technology and services space. As managing partner, Mr. Dumas helps drive HCIT enterprise value growth through innovative talent capital models working as partners with venture capital and private equity investors and their portfolio companies.

Kristy Lindquist is co-founder and partner. She has over 20 years’ experience in turnarounds-operations, marketing, and sales. Her expertise is in leadership, organizational development and delivering P&L results. As an international business leader throughout her career, Ms. Lindquist evolved as an accomplished leader and management consultant following eight years at Procter & Gamble. While at P&G, she managed the P/L and growth strategies of several global brands in Western Europe and Southeast Asia, with particular focus on consumer health. She also led her organization through the Thai currency crisis. Subsequently, she took on leadership roles as chief operating officer of Axicorp Pharma and chief purchasing officer of ACA Mueller, both of which were privately held European pharmaceutical distribution companies based in Germany.

Related: Leadership Dilemma Unfolding at Private Equity Firms

Contributed by Scott A. Scanlon, Editor-in-Chief; Dale M. Zupsansky, Managing Editor; and Stephen Sawicki, Managing Editor – Hunt Scanlon Media

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