About Us We work with forward
Thinking Clients

We have placed entrepreneurial executives in roles including business development, CxO, engineering, finance, marketing, operations, product management, professional services and sales.
Our Process

Talk Your Talk

We engage extensively with our clients to gain an analyst’s perspective and become the informed and trusted intermediary between company and candidate.

Build Quality Queue

You gain a recruiting firm that understands complex business models and can identify and vet executive talent to build a qualified search queue that allows you choice.

Measure Progress

We meet all candidates and we meet you on a weekly basis to discuss candidates and search milestones.

Hiring good people is hard.
Hiring great people is brutally hard.

Jack Welch

…what we wanted to do was create an environment where not only were the people talented–and I think that is very important, so I can rely on your competence and your industry to do your part of the job, so we can work together as a team, so I can trust you.

Larry Ellison

Lou Sarto

Founder

Lou Sarto, founder of executive search firm Sarto Associates.


After completing his Chemistry Ph.D. at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Lou immediately joined high-tech startup, Chromatix. In his corporate career, he has held management positions in applications research, product management, worldwide marketing, North American sales, and executive recruitment. Lou’s employers, including Chromatix, Pacific Scientific, and NexTag, experienced liquidity events with significant EBITA multiples and aggregate valuation exceeding $2B.

Entrepreneurs in high-growth IT startups and their venture capital/private equity investors choose Sarto Associates for executive search because Lou shares the same ethos. High-tech at the core, Lou has lived the life of an entrepreneur and understands the attributes that define executive intelligence, managerial competence, and functional excellence. Trustworthy in delivery, Lou and Sarto Associates have completed hundreds of successful executive searches.

Lou has made angel investments since 2000, is a member of the angel investing group, Silicom Ventures, and is Limited Partner in a Bay Area Venture Capital Firm.