Embedded Hiring

Founder-led embedded hiring for PE & VC-backed tech firms.
We deliver hires fast, eliminate agency spend, and build internal systems that keep scaling after we’re gone.

Who We Work With

  • You’re scaling portfolio companies - but hiring is often fragmented, inconsistent, and costly.

    Common Challenges:

    • Each portco hires differently - with limited visibility or shared structure

    • Founders still lead hiring, slowing focus and consistency

    • Internal TA teams are missing or under-resourced

    • Agency spend is rising: often $500k–$2M+ across the portfolio

    • Employer brand is unclear or unaligned across markets

    • Candidate experience varies by team, function, or region

    • Bottlenecks are slowing product, operations, or GTM

    • International expansion introduces complexity - sourcing, systems, and process

    How We Help:

    We embed directly inside portfolio companies to:

    • Deliver high-quality hires immediately

    • Reduce agency costs by 50–70%

    • Build or optimise internal hiring engines

    • Improve consistency across process, tooling, and brand

    • Support global expansion with in-market hiring systems

    • Exit clean - handing over systems, documentation, and internal capability

    We support individual companies or deploy portfolio-wide hiring programs.

    Why It Works:

    • Proven delivery across UK, Europe, US, and APAC

    • Founder-led execution with deep portfolio experience

    • Delivery comes first - then structure, standardisation, and scale

    • We integrate with early TA teams or operate solo - no disruption, no noise

    • What we build continues working long after we’re gone

  • We Extend, Not Replace.
    Support designed for internal teams - by someone who’s sat in your seat.

    What You Might Be Facing:

    • Engineering or product hiring falling behind roadmap

    • Volume spikes pulling focus away from strategic roles

    • Founders and execs still involved in sourcing

    • Market mapping across geos feels unmanageable

    • Agency use creeping in - without real accountability

    • Candidate experience suffering at speed

    How We Partner With Internal Teams

    We embed inside your world to support - not override your team.

    • Own delivery of key roles or regions: search, outreach, close

    • Operate on your tools, cadence, brand tone

    • Build sourcing systems you can keep using after we’re gone

    • Protect candidate experience - no off-brand conversations

    • We act as a pressure valve under your banner

    Your team stays focused. We keep the hiring engine running.

    Why It Works:

    • Not an agency - no commission, no ego, no noise

    • Senior operator with hands-on experience scaling inside VC/PE-backed firms

    • Embedded globally - across London, EU, US, and now Australia

    • Delivery that runs clean - fast, predictable, and embedded

    • 50–70% cost saving vs traditional recruitment

    • Your team stays strategic — we handle the heavy lift

  • You’re building fast. But hiring keeps pulling you sideways.

    Common Challenges:

    • You’re still doing sourcing, screening, and interviews

    • Time-to-hire is blocking delivery - and it’s only getting worse

    • No internal TA yet - or it’s too lean for what’s coming

    • You’ve avoided agencies - or you're reliant on them - but speed is now non-negotiable, and costs are spiralling.

    • Process is ad hoc. Consistency and candidate experience are suffering

    • Scaling globally - and don’t know where to start

    How We Help:

    We embed inside your business to:

    • Take full ownership of tech and product hiring - fast

    • Work independently, without dragging your time

    • Build or improve the internal system behind hiring

    • Protect candidate experience and your employer brand

    • Deliver international scale - across UK, US, EU, and APAC

    We move fast, deliver well, and leave you with a system that doesn’t rely on us.

    Why It Works:

    • Founder-led, senior operator - not a recruiter

    • Trusted by other CEOs, founders, and investors

    • 50–70% lower cost than traditional agency use

    • Clear structure, clean delivery, no dependency

    • You get your time back - and still get the hires you need

How It Works

Flowchart showing a company’s talent management process with steps: We Embed, We Deliver Tech Hires, We Reduce Costs, No Internal Talent Team, Existing Internal Talent Team, We Audit, We Extend Reach, We Audit + Optimize, We Build The Engine, We Step Out, and International Expansion. Icons accompany each step.

Why It Works

We’ve done this before, inside portfolio companies across four continents.

  • Every engagement is led by a seasoned operator with deep experience across PE & VC-backed tech companies, trusted by founders and investors to deliver under pressure, without breaking things.

  • We close roles fast - then build a repeatable engine behind them.

  • Our embedded model replaces external recruiter overhead with a predictable flat monthly fee - freeing up capital to reinvest in your team, product, and growth.

  • We Build To Win.
    We don’t just hire people. We build scalable systems that continue delivering after we’re gone.

  • We understand how portfolio companies operate - and what investors expect.


    Our model flexes to support one business or the entire portfolio, delivering tailored, scalable hiring systems aligned to each firm’s investment strategy.

“I had no doubt.”
— Olivier G., CEO, SonarSource

What To Expect

We embed fast, deliver clean, and build systems that keep working when we step out.

  • 1. We deliver hires immediately - while quietly building the system behind them.

    Every engagement starts with delivery.
    We take full responsibility for sourcing, outreach, process, and close.

    2. While delivery is underway, we audit the full hiring system:

    • ATS and tooling

    • Outbound messaging and candidate response rates

    • Interview flow and consistency across teams

    • Candidate experience from first touch to onboarding

    • Hiring manager approach, feedback quality, and alignment

    3. We identify gaps, then review, optimise, and streamline.
    We refine, iterate, and build a system that delivers - smoothly, repeatedly, and fast.

    4. Once it’s running, we hand it back—clean and documented.
    No bloat. No chaos. No dependency.

    5. Or we stay on to extend capacity.
    To help internal TA during scale.

    6. Or help build the internal TA function from scratch.
    Team structure, hiring systems, and onboarding—set up to run independently.

    • One flat monthly fee

    • No placement costs, no commission

    • 50–70% less than agency use

    • Predictable, PE/VC-portc ofriendly

  • JP Morgan Digital

    200+ hires. £1M+ saved.

    Embedded inside the launch of their digital bank. Delivered engineering, product, and ops talent at scale—agency-free.


    InstantScripts

    12 engineers in 3 weeks.

    Agencies were too slow and misaligned. We stepped in, delivered directly, and paused external recruitment within days.


    SonarSource

    €1.5M recruiter spend avoided. 90% offer acceptance.

    Built and ran a hiring engine across Europe and the US during hypergrowth. All roles filled internally, without agency support.


    Sharkmob

    Hyper-niche gaming talent hired.

    We sourced and closed high-scarcity profiles that agencies couldn’t reach—critical roles delivered in stealth mode, on time.


    Portman Dentex / SFD

    90% productivity lift post-acquisition.

    Post-deal operational scale-up. Identified bottlenecks, redesigned team structures, and delivered an approved transformation plan.


    Excelian / Luxoft

    £5M saved. £8M revenue growth enabled.

    Hired full delivery teams inside a major FSI consultancy. Internalised process, removed reliance on third-party resourcing, and prepped for acquisition.

Hiring often breaks when speed ramps up, systems aren’t built, or too many dependencies form. We fix that - by embedding early, building quietly, and handing back clean.