From €50M to €100M ARR: Building the C-Suite Team That Enabled Scale for A Private Equity-Backed B2B SaaS Company

The Challenge

The company had reached ~€50M ARR through a series of strategic acquisitions, but growth had outpaced the organisation. The technology stack was fragmented across the acquired products, the commercial function was decentralised, and the leadership team hadn't been built for the next phase.

The PE sponsor needed to act on three fronts:

• Unify the platform: consolidate the acquired products into a single, scalable architecture
• Install executive leadership: bring in operators who could run at PE pace
• Accelerate revenue: set a credible path to €100M+ ARR

They turned to The Big Search to fill two of the most critical seats on that agenda: the CTO and the CRO.

Overview of the two executive searches

Between November 2024 and January 2026, The Big Search ran two C-suite mandates for the business: a Chief Technology Officer to unify the platform, and a Chief Revenue Officer to scale commercial performance. The hires were sequenced deliberately, technology first, commercial second, matching the PE firm's value-creation roadmap. Both searches closed. Client NPS came in at 9/10 and 10/10.

Phase 1 - Building the Technology Foundation: Chief Technology Officer

• November 2024 → March 2025
• Private Equity Value Creation: Technology Foundation Phase

At the time, the company had ~250 employees across 10+ countries, running a multi-product portfolio of data and analytics tools for energy professionals. Several acquisitions in the preceding years had each brought their own stack, team, and architecture. Technology had become the layer everything else depended on, and it needed a single owner. The PE sponsor needed someone who combined engineering leadership with a commercial, organisational mindset, capable of pulling a fragmented technology org into one product platform.

Executive search in DACH, UK and Nordic B2B SaaS & DaaS

The hunting strategy targeted VP Engineering and CTO-level profiles at B2B SaaS and data intelligence companies:

• Experience leading post-acquisition technology integration
• Engineering leadership at scale (50–150+ FTE)
• Platform architecture and modernisation background
• B2B/DaaS product DNA, not enterprise IT or infrastructure

Target archetypes included B2B media intelligence platforms, financial data businesses, digital marketplace operators, and DaaS companies at growth stage across the Nordics, DACH, and the UK.

We mapped 79 candidates across DACH, the UK, and the Nordics.

First shortlist

24 days from kick-off

Of the 79, 30 were contacted and 17 reached consultant interview. The client added candidates of its own, so 23 made the shortlist; 5 went to client interview, and 1 was hired. The client's HR Director called out the efficiency of coordinating multiple senior stakeholders who were frequently travelling as a standout of the process. The one gap flagged was sourcing diversity at CTO level, acknowledged as a structural market constraint rather than a search failure.

Client NPS

9/10

The placed candidate: a Nordic-native technology leader with multi-acquisition integration experience

15+ years scaling engineering organisations inside B2B SaaS and data businesses.

• Platform integration — led 3 acquisitions in 6 years as VP Engineering, folding the technology teams into one coherent product platform
• Engineering at scale — managed a 130+ FTE engineering org through sustained M&A and growth
• Nordic-native — based in Oslo, with formative years at a major Nordic media group before scaling global SaaS and publishing platforms
• PE-ready — the organisational maturity and change management credibility to turn a fragmented group into an investable business

Phase 2 - Drive Commercial Scale: Chief Revenue Officer

• October 2025 → January 2026
• PE Value Creation: Commercial Acceleration Phase

With the CTO in place, the business needed a revenue leader to unify the commercial organisation and own the roadmap and targets through the final stretch of the value creation plan.

This was a repeat engagement, built on trust from the CTO search. The client's HR Director, in the industry over 25 years, described the relationship as "partner-like rather than transactional."

The mandate: hire a commercial leader capable of unifying and scaling a ~75–100 FTE organisation across Sales, Marketing, Customer Success, and Partnerships, with the geographic focus on DACH and the Nordics.

Executive search in DACH and Nordic B2B SaaS & DaaS

Two dedicated hunting grounds were built: Nordic CROs at B2B SaaS and data intelligence companies (energy analytics, fintech data, logistics intelligence, subscription software), and DACH CROs at DACH-headquartered or DACH-focused SaaS and data companies. Profile criteria:

• CRO / CCO / VP Sales with B2B SaaS or DaaS revenue experience
• Track record scaling recurring revenue from €20–100M ARR
• Multi-product GTM leadership across international markets
• Experience leading a 50–130 FTE commercial organisation in PE-backed companies

We mapped 126 candidates across the Nordics and DACH.

First shortlist

~2 weeks from kick-off

Of the 126, 65 were contacted, 30 reached consultant interview, 12 made the shortlist, 8 went to client interview, and 1 was hired. The client noted that any of the 8 interview-stage candidates could realistically have been hired, the final call came down to personality and team fit, not capability. The HR Director called completing the process, with full interview coordination across multiple stakeholders, in roughly 90 days "an absolute miracle," and singled out a mid-search team handover as "flawless, well-coordinated, and professional."

Client NPS

10/10

The placed candidate: a profile in revenue leadership for the DACH region

25+ years driving revenue growth and managing large-scale enterprise accounts across Europe.

• Revenue at scale — built and led DACH commercial operations for 17 years through a PE-backed growth cycle that took the business from €300M to €3B in value
• DACH & European footprint — deep market expertise across Germany, Austria, and CEE
• Data intelligence DNA — entire career inside financial and commercial data businesses, closely mirroring the company's DaaS/SaaS model
• PE-ready — the operating discipline and board-level credibility to lead a commercial organisation through the final stretch of a value creation plan

Most PE-backed companies underrate how much leadership sequencing matters to their investment thesis. This business got its technology and commercial leadership right, in the right order, fifteen months apart, closing both searches at 9/10 and 10/10 NPS.

If you're approaching a similar inflection point in a portfolio company, let's talk about how we'd sequence it.