Why do some recruiters close 10 retained searches a year while others stay stuck in the contingent grind?
Matt Rooney figured it out. And it wasn’t by working harder.
Matt is the founder of Coastal Partners. After nearly a decade recruiting across private equity, he made two decisions that completely transformed his business. First, he narrowed his focus to one specific function inside PE business development roles. Second, he shifted from contingent to retained.
The result? He went from 3-4 retained searches in year one to 10 this year. He’s now the recognized authority in his niche, producing original research that didn’t exist before, hosting the Deal Sourcery podcast, and getting invited to speak at industry conferences.
But here’s what makes Matt’s story different. He didn’t want to specialize at first. He resisted the idea. He thought it would limit his opportunities. Then he tried it anyway.
“My initial reaction to that idea of honing in on a specialty, I was against it. I was hesitant, as why would I block myself from business if I’m saying I’m just doing this? What about that?”
In this episode, you’ll hear how Matt overcame that resistance, the practical steps he took to become a true specialist, and how he built three content pillars that feed his business on autopilot. If you’ve ever wondered whether niching down really works or how to make the jump from contingent to retained, this is your blueprint.
Episode Outline and Highlights
- [3:02] How Matt fell into recruitment—working with his mom straight out of university
- [7:11] Why Matt felt stuck as a “utility recruiter” after nearly 10 years in PE
- [12:44] Matt’s honest reaction to narrowing his niche: “I was against it”
- [15:18] Why specializing made Matt feel like a true value-added partner for the first time
- [19:03] The obstacles Matt faced transitioning from contingent to retained
- [20:39] Matt’s first two retained searches—how it felt different from everything he’d done before
- [22:16] Was the “no retained experience” objection real or just in his head?
- [27:40] How Matt mapped the entire market and turned that data into authority
- [34:16] Why Matt started publishing quarterly BD hiring reports and a compensation survey
- [35:25] Launching the Deal Sourcery podcast with a co-host—and why that helped
- [43:03] The three content pillars that now run Matt’s marketing on autopilot
- [50:31] How the podcast led to hosting a live panel at a private equity conference
- [55:56] The advice Matt would give his younger self: specialize sooner
From Utility Recruiter to Retained Specialist
Matt spent nearly a decade recruiting across private equity. He took whatever work came his way. Investment banking hires. Operations roles. Deal sourcing. He was the utility recruiter.
Good years happened. Not so good years happened too.
“It really felt transactional and not like I was adding that much value or like I was a true partner. I felt like I didn’t really know where I was headed.”
When Matt joined our Elevate coaching program, he faced a decision that felt uncomfortable. Narrow his focus. Stop saying yes to every role. Pick one specialty and go all in.
His first reaction? Resistance.
“Why would I block myself from business if I’m saying I’m just doing this? What about that?”
But he tried it anyway. He chose business development roles inside private equity—a function he’d placed before and genuinely enjoyed recruiting for.
The shift was immediate.
“Today, I feel like a true value-added partner in the engagements that I work on. And I think that comes from spending all of my time in one space and learning the market in and out.”
Matt now only talks to people doing the job or hiring for the job. He hears every approach. He absorbs the nuance. He brings insights that only someone living in that space would know.
“That confidence, and just, it’s way more enjoyable for me to be a partner and to be able to bring value than, you know, not to disparage contingent recruiting, but it felt transactional. It felt like the value was just the introduction.”
The lesson? Generalists compete on price and speed. Specialists compete on insight and partnership.
The Retained Transition: Chicken and Egg Problem
Specializing opened the door. But Matt still had to get through it.
Year one in the new niche, Matt closed 3-4 retained searches. This year, he’s on track for 10. The vast majority of his business is now retained.
But the beginning wasn’t smooth.
“I didn’t have those past searches to get the next search. My prior experience was all contingent. And so it took a little bit of encouragement from my end and just really selling myself to firms that were just taking a shot on me.”
Some prospects pushed back. Why should we hire you if you’ve never done retained before?
Matt didn’t let that stop him. He leaned into what he did have—deep knowledge of the role, a database of every candidate in the market, and a specialist positioning that set him apart.
“The fact that I had honed in on the niche and really advertise myself as a specialist for that function, that went a long way.”
His first two retained searches came in the same week. Walking out of his office high-fiving people in his house.
“Someone was going to pay me up front, lock in my time, non-refundable. It was a big, big change.”
The financial predictability changed everything. No more feast or famine. Just clean, profitable partnerships where clients were fully committed.
“Going from the feast to famine of fully contingent to something that’s not only more enjoyable and fulfilling, but that financial aspect makes a big difference.”
Mapping the Market and Building Authority
Matt didn’t just claim to be a specialist. He proved it.
He manually identified every single person doing business development at every private equity firm in the US and Canada. Hundreds of hours on LinkedIn. Building a database no one else had.
Why? Because he needed to know the market inside out. Who the candidates were. Where they came from. What their backgrounds looked like.
But then he realized something. This data was valuable to more than just him.
“I was like, there’s something here that would be interesting for people to see. It’s great that it’s useful for me, but I feel like this is information that people would be interested in.”
So he packaged it. He started publishing quarterly BD hiring reports. Number of hires. Candidate backgrounds. Fund characteristics. Year-over-year trends.
“I’m certain that this is the only data that exists for this area that I recruit within. It feels like something special that I can bring to clients.”
Was the first report perfect? Not even close.
“I was really wrong at the beginning. The first quarter I was off on the total number of people in this job. Over time, now today I feel like I’m very close to 100% accurate. I wouldn’t have gotten here had I not started.”
Next came the annual compensation survey. Then the Deal Sourcery podcast with his co-host Dan.
These three content pillars now run his marketing on autopilot. No more staring at a blank screen trying to come up with daily posts.
“I used to spend a lot of time thinking about what to post on LinkedIn. Now I’m at a point where I don’t think that much about it. The content is there.”
And the ripple effects keep coming. The podcast led to hosting a live panel at a private equity conference. The reports led to inbound inquiries. The content created a flywheel that compounds every quarter.
