An expert network sells access to practitioners, usually by the hour, and leaves the design, interviewing and synthesis to the client. A research partner designs the inquiry, selects and verifies the sources, conducts the interviews, synthesises across them and delivers a signed recommendation. Expert networks are a sourcing channel; a research partner is accountable for the answer.
What an expert network does
An expert network recruits practitioners, screens them for compliance, and connects you to them for a paid conversation, typically an hour at several hundred to over a thousand dollars. GLG, AlphaSights, Guidepoint, Third Bridge and Tegus are the largest; more than a hundred smaller networks specialise by region or sector. The market was worth about $3 billion in 2025 and is growing around 12 percent a year, according to Inex One. It is the purest measure of what businesses will pay for human knowledge that is not written down anywhere.
What the network does not do is decide who you should talk to, ask the questions, notice when two experts contradict each other, or tell you what it means. Those are your job. For a consulting team or an investment analyst with the time and skill, that is fine. For an operator with a decision to make and a day job, twelve hours of expert calls produce a pile of notes.
What a research partner does
A research partner starts from the decision, not the call list. It defines the question, works out which kinds of people can actually answer it, finds and verifies them, conducts the interviews with a consistent guide, codes and compares the transcripts, and writes a conclusion someone signs. It may use expert networks as one sourcing channel among several. The output is an answer with its evidence attached, not a set of introductions.
The market is telling you something
Two shifts in the expert network data matter here. Corporates are now about 45 percent of clients by number, which means operating companies have discovered direct access to practitioners and are buying it. And the market has fragmented: GLG's share fell from 51 to 24 percent in a decade while specialised networks grew. Buyers value the right expert more than the biggest catalogue. Both trends point toward the same unmet need: someone to design the inquiry and interpret the result for a buyer who is not a professional researcher.
When to use which
| Situation | Use |
|---|---|
| You know exactly who to ask and what to ask, and you will do the synthesis | Expert network |
| You need one fast sanity check from one person | Expert network |
| You have a decision, several stakeholder groups, and no time to run twenty interviews | Research partner |
| The answer will go to a board, a lender or an investment committee | Research partner, with provenance |
| You want an independent view before committing to a vendor | Research partner with no vendor ties |
Cost comparison
Twenty expert network calls at $1,000 each cost $20,000 and roughly 40 hours of your team's time to schedule, conduct and digest. A Theory Intelligence Decision Study with 15 to 30 verified interviews, synthesis and a signed recommendation costs $25,000 to $75,000 and takes none of your team's hours. A Signal Brief with 6 to 8 interviews on one sharp question costs $7,500 to $12,000. See the full comparison.
Sources
- Inex One, Expert network market size, February 2026
- PR Newswire, The expert network industry exceeds $2.5 billion