Technology only, at every stage.
A mature read on one market, built the slow way: years inside it, and hundreds of searches delivered by our Practice Heads.
Practices
That’s how we keep the bar high and the shortlist early.
What we do
Leadership success in five different contexts.
C-level and board appointments for technology businesses, from the first VP a founder hires through to the board of a company that has already listed. Partner-led throughout, with the research done in-house on our own platform.
For investment funds. We introduce operators whose track record matches what you are actually buying, whether you are building a bench in a domain you are moving into or need to move on a critical role at short notice. The point is time: the person is already known to you when the need arrives, instead of being searched for after it.
We do not run the diligence ourselves. We put you in front of an operator who has run the business you are buying, at the size you are buying it: someone who can tell you whether this management team can deliver this plan and which assumptions to challenge.
Structured assessment for the people we place and for the team already in seat, on one scale. What you get is a read on each person: where they are strong, where they will need cover, and what to watch in the first year. Coaching for leaders stepping up a level, which in technology usually means ensuring your team is growing as fast as your company.
A hire is not a placement until the person is delivering. We stay in through the first hundred days: agreeing what good looks like before they start, checking in with both sides separately so each says what they would not say in the room, and surfacing the small problems while they are still small. It is also how we find out whether we were right.
Who we build with
The common denominator is accelerating growth.
Founders & scale-ups
From the first senior hire through every layer that comes after it.
Most founders are hiring leaders for the first time. We scope the search before we run it, and re-target as you meet people and the brief changes. Every search teaches you something about the decision you are making.
The people worth hiring are often leaving something safe and equally exciting. We know who makes that trade and how to put your case to them.
PE-backed
Leadership hired into a portfolio company, against the value creation plan.
100+ of our placements have gone into portfolio companies working to an exit. We know which executives can carry a value creation plan, and how fast you need them in seat.
In buy-and-build the job is usually a function nobody has run properly before. We look for leaders who can set the direction and still roll their sleeves up to build it.
Corporate & post-IPO
The roles a company at scale has never had to fill before.
A new growth area fails without the rest of the company. We look for the person who can build it and win the organisation over while they do.
The person you need may be running something far smaller today. We see both ends of that range every week, and we know which of them can make the jump.
“Always reachable for ad-hoc questions, and they gave us feedback on how to improve our own search as it went.”
“Open conversations that helped scope the search, and a candidate brief that was exhaustive and genuinely relevant.”
Fund clients
Close value creation partnerships.
Venture & Growth Funds
Repeat mandates across companies at different stages.
Your portfolio does not stop hiring between mandates. We stay in touch and pass on what we see in the market, so the next search starts warm.
Your own team is a search too. We hire investment professionals and operating partners into the fund, not only into the companies you back.
Private Equity Funds
Advisors to provide a read before you sign, and the bench behind the plan.
Your thesis tells us who you will need before you need them. We map against it, so you are choosing from a bench rather than starting a search.
Mid-market European technology is a small world. We have spent years mapping it, and we know the leaders who have taken a company through an exit plan before.
“Coming into a time-pressured situation, the team listened well and understood quickly what profile we needed.”
Reach
Every search is international.
countries we have placed leaders into.
Arabic · Croatian · Danish · Dutch · English · French · German · Hungarian · Italian · Macedonian · Montenegrin · Norwegian · Portuguese · Russian · Serbian · Spanish · Vlach
