Hunt Scanlon Ventures

Co-CEOs Christopher W. Hunt and Scott A. Scanlon jointly lead the firm. Hunt focuses on buy- and sell-side strategies drawing on relationships with recruitment founders and private equity firms. Scanlon has spearheaded the M&A advisory unit over the past five years and drove the closing of over 25 transactions in that window. Managing Director Drew Seaman handles valuation, financial analysis, and investment marketing material preparation for client engagements.

It operates as a sector-specialist M&A advisory and investment firm, not a single- or multi-family office. It provides sell-side and buy-side advisory services to founder-led human capital companies and also makes principal investments alongside its advisory mandates. The firm does not manage diversified family wealth for an external client base.

The firm has a singular focus on the human capital sector: executive search firms, specialist talent boutiques, recruitment process outsourcing companies, staffing platforms, and recruitment-technology providers. Deals have spanned software recruiting (Bespoke Partners), cleantech recruiting (Hobbs & Towne), cybersecurity recruiting (Alta Associates), and culture-change consulting (Walking the Talk). It does not operate outside the human capital markets.

The firm deploys its own capital as a principal in select transactions while also executing fee-based M&A advisory mandates. Drew Seaman co-manages the firm’s investment portfolio of executive search, talent acquisition, and investment firms. The dual structure aligns the firm’s incentives with deal outcomes.

Hunt Scanlon Ventures is the M&A advisory and investment affiliate of Hunt Scanlon Media. Both were co-founded by Christopher Hunt and Scott Scanlon. Hunt Scanlon Media — launched in 1988 — provides news, market intelligence, public relations, and annual sector rankings that feed proprietary deal flow into the ventures unit.

The firm’s team of six professionals has advised on over $585 million in transaction value, according to its website. It has closed more than 25 prominent M&A transactions in the human capital space in the past five years. No AUM is publicly disclosed, reflecting the advisory-plus-principal hybrid structure rather than a pooled fund model.

The firm focuses on direct M&A transactions for founder-led human capital companies. There is no public indication that it makes fund commitments to external managers. Its capital deployment happens through direct advisory-led acquisitions and principal co-investments alongside private equity firms on a deal-by-deal basis.