Competitive report · 6 September 2026
The second-act market
Who is already selling experienced professionals into fractional and interim work, what they charge, and the gap none of them are standing in.
The one that matters
Closest to what you are building, and running today.
SecondActPro
secondactpro.org
Positioning“You’re not done, you’re just getting started.” Also: “Connecting experience with opportunity.”
Who for15+ years experience required. Veterans, retirees, career-changers.
Work typeProject consulting, interim leadership, mentoring, knowledge transfer. 3 to 12 months, 10 to 30 hours a week.
Pricing: organizations pay a platform fee only on a successful engagement. No upfront cost, no subscription. Professionals keep “the majority” of earnings. No dollar figure is published anywhere on the site.
The read. This is your business model, already live. Employer pays, candidate free, revenue shared with the professional. That is not a reason to stop; it is confirmation the model is sound and somebody has tested the legal shape of it. Two real weaknesses: not one number is published, so a buyer cannot self-qualify and has to book a call to learn anything. And they lead with 15+ years of experience, which is an age proxy, on a platform whose entire purpose is beating age filters.
The premium end
Where the money actually is, and it is not subtle.
Bolster
bolster.com · “Rethink Executive Search”
Who forVP and C-level, mostly venture-backed and high-growth companies.
Who paysThe hiring company. Never the executive.
First search $90,000. 50% upfront, 50% on close.
Additional searches on a 12-month partnership: $75,000.
Sourcing only, three months: $30,000.
Independent board director: $10,000 to $40,000, scaled by revenue.
On-demand fractional or interim: $2,500 upfront plus a 20% markup.
Mentor or coach: $1,000 upfront plus $1,500 on selection.
The read. This is retained executive search with a platform on the front. Ninety thousand dollars a search is the number worth carrying into any pricing conversation, because it establishes what the top of this market bears. Their fractional line, $2,500 plus 20%, is the closest analogue to an introduction fee and is a defensible reference point.
The job-board end
Where the volume is and the margins are not.
Fractional Jobs
fractionaljobs.io
ModelA job board for fractional work. Employers post, candidates apply.
Rates shownRoles listed at $120, $150, $200, $250 and $350 per hour.
The read. They withhold the employer’s name by default, which is their product, and it is the mirror image of what you are doing: they anonymise the employer, you anonymise the candidate. Their published hourly bands are useful evidence for what a fractional operations or finance leader can credibly ask.
Hire A Fractional
hireafractional.com
ModelScreened consulting, interim leadership and project work.
Paid plans from $99 per month. No pricing detail published on the pricing page itself.
The read. Subscription rather than placement. Predictable revenue, far lower ceiling, and it puts the cost on whoever subscribes rather than on the transaction.
Also in the field
Go Fractional · Toptal · FlexJobs · Shiny · Maestro (Australia, New Zealand, Singapore)
Go Fractional and Toptal both block automated access behind Cloudflare, so their pricing needs checking by hand. Toptal covers fractional CFO, COO and CMO alongside its main marketplace. Shiny is C-level only, for startups and small business, and handles contracts, invoicing and payment. FlexJobs is a vetted listings subscription. None of them are nonprofit-focused.
What nobody is doing
Every platform above is employer-first. The employer states a need and the platform finds people. Even SecondActPro, closest to your model, still works that way: professionals join a pool and organizations search it.
Not one of them lets the professional author the offer. Nobody publishes a candidate-written description of the work they want as a findable, indexable page. That is the actual invention, and after reading the whole field it is still unoccupied.
And nobody is in nonprofit. Every one of these is venture-backed startups, technology and corporate. The nonprofit sector runs on interim executive directors, fractional finance leaders and consultants, and it is served by nobody on this list.
Where you would sit
| Platform |
Who pays |
Price |
Sector |
Who writes the listing |
| Bolster |
Company |
$90k / search |
Tech, VC-backed |
Employer |
| SecondActPro |
Company |
Undisclosed |
General |
Employer |
| Hire A Fractional |
Subscriber |
From $99/mo |
General |
Employer |
| Fractional Jobs |
Employer posts |
Per post |
Tech, startup |
Employer |
| Opportunity Brief |
Company, on introduction |
To be set |
Nonprofit and mission |
The candidate |
Three things I would take from this
1. Publish a number. SecondActPro publishes none and it is their weakest point. Bolster publishes everything, including $90,000, and looks confident for it. Whatever the introduction fee is, put it on the page.
2. Bolster’s $2,500 plus 20% is your anchor. That is the market’s price for a fractional or interim introduction from a credible source. You do not have to match it, but you should know it before you price.
3. Do not fight on fractional. Fight on nonprofit. Fractional and interim are crowded and well funded. Nonprofit interim leadership is not served by any platform on this list, and it is the sector where you have twenty-eight years, an employer list, and a job board. That is where the combination is defensible.
Sources checked live on 6 September 2026: secondactpro.org, bolster.com/pricing, fractionaljobs.io, hireafractional.com. Go Fractional and Toptal returned 403 to automated requests and need manual checking. Semrush was unavailable during this research; the account showed as disabled and has since been upgraded, so competitive keyword and traffic data can be added.
