Testimonials

Member TestimonialsClient TestimonialsMembership Partner Testimonials

Member Testimonials

“Bolster has expanded my network by introducing me to people outside the industries where I’ve worked. It’s a credit to them and their process that each referral was a good match of my skills, experience, and interests with their needs. Even when it hasn't led to an advisory role or board position, I could have imagined myself working with the organization, making an impact, and enjoying the experience.”
Linda Choong
Fractional CEO Advisor
“I made becoming a board member a professional goal and within weeks of reaching out to Bolster, they facilitated a match between my skill set and a company that was looking for a board member that had deep GTM expertise. It didn't end there, the Bolster team was incredibly responsive to questions I had and as a first time board prospect, helping me navigate the many different facets of the new role was critical to landing the job. They also have an incredible amount of content which helped me deepen my understanding of where I can provide the most leverage to the new company and CEO.”
Andrea Kayal
Fractional CMO
“Bolster provides so much value to independent consultants and small consulting groups that want to do great work but need assistance connecting with all the potential clients that have a need for their services. It’s also really helpful to the businesses that need a starting point for finding the specific resources they need.”
Lauren Zink
Fractional Chief People Officer
“Working with Bolster has been the perfect way to showcase my work and introduce me to new potential clients. Their process facilitated an introduction with a client that was a great match for both my skills and competencies, as well as the client's needs. Finding fractional work that is a good fit for both parties can be time consuming and challenging, but Bolster's process is efficient and thorough. I look forward to continuing to leverage the Bolster marketplace.”
Sherri Sklar
Fractional CRO
“After 22 years in the marketing and partnerships industry, I was eager to work differently. My hope was to use my broad base of experience without being tied-down to “just” one thing. Within a matter of weeks, Bolster facilitated a match and gave me the chance to serve as a fractional marketing leader, allowing me to leverage my expertise in a tangible way while retaining the freedom and time to work on multiple projects. I believe this way of working will only become more and more attractive to other executives like me.”
Andre Schunk
Fractional CMO
“As an executive coach, Bolster helps expand my reach and perfectly matches me with assignments where I can have the most impact. The membership community also offers a place to network and refer clients who need support from fractional executive talent, board members or advisors. Bolster helps you determine what functional and leadership skills you need and makes finding the right resource for your specific stage easy.”
Lynne Waldera
Executive Coach
“Bolster quickly connected me to a great fractional General Council opportunity that was a clear match for both my skills and interests, as well as the client's needs. The onboarding process was easy, fast, and I felt they really understood my background and how I would best fit with a prospective client.”
Elizabeth Cuccinello
Fractional General Counsel
“I had my first match with a Bolster client a month ago, did a small project, and am now scoping larger projects with them. I am so pleased, and grateful, to have been connected to Bolster. The new client has been amazing from the first call, and I'm doing the kind work I really want to be doing. This thing Bolster cooked up just feels right. Thank you for turning such a great idea into a valuable reality.”
Trisha Ristagno
Fractional CMO
“Bolster has provided an on-ramp for client success… matching members with projects/companies that are a great fit. Bolster provides the people and platform to help members accurately describe their experience, skills, and what we can offer clients, including important characteristics like communication style and leadership principles. I appreciate that Bolster also helped me describe what I don’t enjoy doing that’s often a part of a sales leader’s role. Bolster matched me with a client quickly and efficiently, and we are making an impact in their go-to-market strategy and execution within a few weeks.”
BJ Bushur
Fractional CRO
“Sometimes the hardest thing about moving into a consulting executive role can be finding and filtering the opportunities that fit best; this is where working with Bolster has been extremely helpful. Bolster has let me focus on what I do best: providing positive organizational impact through technology leadership.”
David Bill
Fractional CTO
“As a 25+ year veteran to the world of enterprise technology, analytics, and data science in a wide range of industries, I joined Bolster with the hope of sharing the knowledge and success I've amassed with smaller, earlier stage ventures. In mere weeks, Bolster paired me with a client having a need for advice in my core areas of expertise with the time parameters that fit well with my 'day-job' in consumer products leadership. From the registration process to invoicing, Bolster helped make the introduction of my services simple and painless, bring my career vision to life! Given my early experiences, I'm optimistic that I will be able to repeat this early success with Bolster's help, continuing to augment my traditional career with a portfolio of flexible advisory roles and board participation opportunities.”
Danny Siegel
Fractional CTO
“I've been consulting for a number of years now and partnering with Bolster has been great so I can stay focused on my clients. The team has been very helpful in matching me with companies where I feel I can make high impact quickly. I'm currently with a Bolster company and the experience has been terrific”
Courtney Graeber
Fractional Chief People Officer
“After 25+ years as an operating executive, I’m now launching my own business--Bolster was easy to set up, and quickly matched me with a client whose needs were a perfect fit for my experience. I expect it to be a promising source of well-matched leads going forward.”
Lou Weiss
Fractional CMO

Client Testimonials

“Bolster found us a great engineering advisor with a background leading teams of Product Managers, Engineers and Designers at organizations of various scales. Achal can advise me on concerns at all levels of the organization; he helps me think through my options, provides a consistent approach, and has helped me systematize and automate the operation of a large chunk of the engineering organization while helping create structure and processes that have been appreciated by the engineers and their leaders.”
Abhinav Ajgaonkar
Co-Founder & CTO, CrowdRiff
“As a young company, we needed to find the right fit for a fractional executive role and to find it quickly. Bolster helped us do that quickly and cost-effectively, without any additional overhead.”
Naomi Shah
CEO, Meet Cute
“Working with Bolster was a game changer. It helped me see our executive team in a new light - our strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Their rigorous framework for considering functional, leadership and values skills resonated with how we think about people development. There is a big gap in the market in structured approaches to managing, developing, and supplementing executive teams – and Bolster’s unique access to such a curated group of experienced executives is perfect to help fill out teams and boards. Bolster is on to something.”
Nick Mehta
CEO, Gainsight
“We knew we didn't have a full-time need for a General Counsel, but we wanted someone extraordinary who would also fit with our unique culture and diverse stakeholder population. Bolster listened to our needs, was able to quickly source several strong candidates, and we found an excellent match almost right away. We look forward to working with them again.”
Geoff Hill
CFO, DonorsChoose
“For early stage growth companies, being able to use fractional leadership talent is a great opportunity. Bolster’s unique combination of assessment tools and executive marketplace is a great resource for the startup ecosystem.”
Julie Barker
VP Talent, Zylo
“We were thrilled to find Robert Bertagna on Bolster to add to the Fincura Board of Directors. As a highly respected and seasoned leader with valuable financial services experience, his engagement and assistance has been instrumental in guiding our growth. Bolster’s depth of talent, as well as their advice and support through the search process, made the process fast and easy.”
Max Blumenthal
Co-Founder & CEO, Fincura
“We loved working with Bolster on our independent board member search. They introduced us to phenomenal candidates and offered great advice throughout the process. I can't wait to work with them again.”
Nick Francis
CEO, Help Scout
“Bolster addresses the entire spectrum of building an amazing team by starting with those who could be part-time advisors and mentors in a manner that enables both parties to get to know each other. In addition, Bolster's other services that support a CEO go way beyond transactional value and into long-lasting, company-lasting value.”
Tim Enwall
CEO, Misty Robotics
“Bolster is like a CEO’s best friend. The company’s services team gave me very quick advice on what I needed and instantly found me the right coach for my company’s needs and the right person to help me design and then facilitate an executive team offsite. I added a project-based consultant for a targeted need. The “on demand” talent was truly that – they were able to start work immediately.”
George Bilbrey
CEO, Signpost
“Working with Bolster has helped me significantly accelerate our leadership development efforts at Quizlet. Bolster brings the power of a large, high quality talent marketplace combined with decades of collective wisdom and experience from Matt and his team on scaling an executive team and effectively utilizing the board of directors into an easy to use and simple to apply approach.”
Matthew Glotzbach
CEO, Quizlet
“I am very impressed with Bolster’s work with Zylo to help me assess our leadership team and to prioritize where we could focus adding some fractional talent and coaching as a starting point – with immediate access to vetted talent. What a great resource for the startup ecosystem!”
Eric Christopher
CEO, Zylo
“I valued the time we spent with Bolster. I am impressed with the level of detail that goes into their analysis of talent. They enable you to hone in on the specific skills and experiences that go beyond the resume or typical profile. The upfront work they've put into developing a set of criteria that helps candidates showcase their talents and employers determine suitability for a particular talent need ensures that valuable time isn't wasted on either end. There isn't anything comparable that exists today.”
Carol Mahoney
Chief People Officer, Gainsight
“As a founder and CEO of a rapidly scaling SaaS company, building our executive team is one of my most critical responsibilities. It requires understanding what we'll need to grow from where we are today to $50M ARR. Working with Bolster helped me understand exactly which roles I needed to fill, and what competencies I needed with each role. And the Bolster marketplace came through with fractional executive talent within a week, cutting months off the traditional executive hiring process and helping our team drive success within the first quarter.”
Bryan Helmkamp
Founder, Code Climate
“Our HR and Finance functions were outgrowing our teams’ bandwidth and we needed some part-time, senior support. Working with Bolster helped me to clarify my needs and quickly sourced strong candidates for me, leading to a successful engagement. We will continue to work together as we grow our business.”
Matt Weinberg
Co-founder and President, Happy Cog
“Bolster sounded fantastic, and delivered. Executive roles are critically important, and challenging to find when the need is part-time and imminent. Rather than relying on our network, Bolster delivered a perfect candidate through a simple process. This is a valuable tool to a young company.”
Brian Schiff
CEO, RedRoute
“Thanks to Bolster’s easy and friendly matching process to fit our needs, we were able to meet wonderful and experienced talent in a record time.”
Arturo Duhart
CEO, Sunwise
“As an early-stage startup, it can be challenging to find the right support when building a team. Bolster met us where we’re at and has exceeded all expectations. They provided us highly qualified candidates for our executive coaching needs and were very responsive in helping us as we worked through the selection process. I look forward to working with them in the future as we fill fractional executive roles and build out our board. Bolster is a class act and I won’t hesitate to recommend them to anyone looking to build their team.”
Kevin Saffer
Founder/CEO, OpenA.com
“Bolster gave me a unique insight not just into the abilities of my executive team as individuals, but our ability as a collective team. On top of this, the process didn't just give me clarity based on past performance, but based on future needs for a fast scaling and in a dynamic industry.”
Fayez Mohamood
CEO, Bluecore
“Going to market in 2021 with a strong Board of Directors was one of the most important projects of the last 6 months. There is no way, that on our own, we could have connected with the caliber of candidates that Bolster was able to bring to the table. The team walked us through every step of the process to ensure that everyone made the right decisions and that the fit was right. This will go down as one of the major transformational events for our company. We would recommend Bolster without hesitation, and we look forward to working with them in the future.”
Everett Young
Co-Founder & CFO/COO, Secberus
“Bolster is a game changer in scaling startup leadership teams. The CEO assessment tools provide an objective framework for mapping people and functions against stage-based benchmarks. Where gaps are identified, the marketplace provides access to fractional or full-time experienced and relevant candidates that have been vetted by Bolster and the community. Tying both elements together in a single platform is efficient and effective.”
Scott Petry
CEO, Authentic8
“Bolster conducted a high profile Board search for us and did an excellent job. They instantly surfaced an amazing, highly qualified slate of diverse candidates who were spot-on matches for our requirements, and their guidance throughout the recruiting process was extremely valuable.”
Matt Glotzbach
CEO, Quizlet
“I had the pleasure of working with Bolster to help me find an independent board director. I had a good idea of what I what I was looking for but needed access to candidates outside my network and a partner to help me manage the process. Not only was Bolster fast, but I found them to be an invaluable partner at providing guidance throughout the full process on things like what to look for, interviewing, and compensation. Ultimately, I ended up with a great new board member in place in less than 90 days.”
David Weissman
CEO, Humankind
“One of the best pieces of advice I've received as a first time CEO/founder is to seek smart money - since money is, at the end of the day, a commodity, it's important to raise capital from those that believe in the business, the impact it can make and you personally as well as being committed to take actionable steps to help the company grow as rapidly as possible. It was clear from the start this is how the Bolster team operates.”
Sherisse Hawkins
CEO, Pagedip

Membership Partner Testimonials

“We work with incredible, collaborative partners every day. A few stand out for their full-throttled dedication and thorough attentiveness to an initiative. From the moment we met the Bolster team, they established a consistent and driven cadence of communication. They brought the right contacts and relevant data to the conversation to help elevate our targeted programming for board-destined alumni. Their involvement broadened the support ecosystem for alums and helped deliver a highly successful session for our alumni community. I love it when collaborators exceed expectations, and Bolster did so!”
Desirée Stolar
Managing Director, Management Leadership for Tomorrow
“At 50/50 Women on Boards, the leading non-profit education and advocacy campaign committed to driving the movement toward gender balance and diversity on boards, we educate, advocate, and collaborate with like-minded organizations. Partnering with Bolster ensures our board-ready candidates can advance in their careers and on their board journey by being linked with opportunities that align with their skills and expertise. More importantly, together, we are connecting women and women of color with private companies and VCs to ensure they consider diversifying their boards well in advance of going public.”
Heather Spilsbury
COO, 50/50 Women on Boards
“As an organization focused on improving diversity in corporate America by providing forward-thinking CEOs access to the best talent to strategically grow their business, MCCA is excited to partner with a company like Bolster that is focused on changing the face of leadership at the highest levels. In addition to their approach to business being very aligned with our mission, each member of the Bolster community, from CEO to team, have embodied MCCA’s belief that together we will go farther.”
Jean Lee
President & CEO, Minority Corporate Counsel Association
“The Private Directors Association is committed to creating, sustaining and enhancing the value of private companies through advocacy for excellent practices in board formation and governance. Its more than 2,800 current or former owners, senior executives or board members of private companies, are well-positioned for board leadership, and PDA's affiliation with Bolster has proven to be an excellent relationship that is providing great opportunities for both PDA members and for Bolster clients looking for quality board and senior leadership candidates.”
Budd Berro
CEO, Private Directors Association
“Bolster is perfect for today's talented/forward thinking Diverse talent Pool, that has a portfolio of executive experience and capabilities. We are proud to partner with Bolster to bring this opportunity forward to People of Color and Diverse backgrounds.”
Marc S. Strachan
Head Coach/Founder, Coach Marc Consulting, LLC
“Luminary is working hard to advance women in the workforce and one way is to help provide a path to the boardroom. Our partnership with Bolster will explore additional ways to collaborate and provide the best career advancement opportunities for women in the workforce and change the faces, voices and perspectives around the table.”
Cate Luzio
Founder and CEO, Luminary
“Prospanica’s professionals look to not only advance in their careers but to be part of change from the leadership perspective. Our partnership with Bolster helps with that, by putting our members in front of executive and corporate board service opportunities.”
Thomas Savino
CEO, Prospanica
“Having diverse representation in the C-Suite and Boardroom across the spectrum of business is critical to achieving business sustainability. Ellevate and Bolster are both committed to making this happen.”
Maricella Herrera Avila
CEO, Ellevate
“For CEOs and boards of major institutions to say that they cannot find qualified diverse talent in 2021 is at minimum, unbelievable. The Alumni Society is one of the premier networks of Latino, board ready talent, and we are proud to partner with Bolster to make it easier than ever for companies to find qualified executives from historically underrepresented groups to fill their board seats. Through this partnership, our hope is to provide our members with the opportunities to leverage their expertise to help companies drive strategy and fulfill this critical social need.”
Pedro Guerrero
Co-founder and CEO, The Alumni Society
“We are excited to partner with Bolster and provide opportunities for our DDI database members to join the Bolster platform and be in the hunt for startup board seats. We are especially delighted that Bolster has demonstrated its commitment to diversifying startup boardrooms and management teams by partnering with organizations such as ours focused on increasing board diversity.”
Lissa Lamkin Broome
Head, Director Diversity Initiative (UNC School of Law)
“The incredible talent that has been concentrated in our programs completely obliterates the pipeline myth: lack of diversity on boards is a network problem. We are grateful for our partnership with Bolster, part of the amazing community that has come together to accompany our future directors on their journey to public and private corporate board seats.”
Dennis Lanham
Executive Director of Silicon Valley Executive Center and Co-Founder of the Black and Women's Corporate Board Readiness programs
“We see partnering with Bolster as a win-win to leverage the highly credentialed, senior women working with EvolveMe to navigate midlife career transitions for Bolster’s amazing pipeline of Board, advisory and fractional opportunities. The executive women in our network looking to pivot industries or return to the workforce are perfect for these roles. We’re so excited to be partnering with Bolster and look forward to lifting up women's careers together!”
Judy Schoenberg and Linda Lautenberg
Co-Founders, EvolveMe
“Over the years, we have fostered an amazing community of Latinx in tech founders and leaders. Through our partnership with Bolster, we hope to provide a new pipeline of Latinx tech professionals to serve as advisors and in board roles as we all work together to create a more diverse tech ecosystem.”
Jesse Martinez
Founder, LatinX Startup Alliance
“The Carvir Group has partnered with Bolster because of our expertise in diversity executive search. Since we can’t place every exec ourselves, we’re excited about having a referral partner that can utilize their talents on meaningful projects that leverage their expertise. And it means a lot to us that one of Bolster’s main goals is to bring historically underrepresented executives opportunities – with a big focus on board roles.”
Virgil L. Fludd
Founder and CEO, The Carvir Group
“We are so excited to partner with Bolster to provide Her Product Lab's womxn leaders with even more opportunities! Bolster's platform helps underrepresented execs access Board of Directors/On-demand leadership roles and match them with high-growth VC-backed start ups.”
Lina Bedi and Monica Rozenfeld
Co-founders, Her Product Lab
“The Inter-Organization Network (ION), an organization devoted to advancing women on to corporate boards and into the C-suite, sees Bolster’s platform as an important tool for women to increase their visibility for board opportunities. We are impressed by Bolster’s passion for advancing women and minorities who might not fit the traditional board member profile as well as their emphasis on skill sets as opposed to titles. As president of ION and a C-level leader, I know that having more avenues to gain exposure to different geographical regions and different business segments will only enhance women’s chances to move into these roles.”
Lynne Durbin
President, ION