1. Looking back on our CTO and VP Engineering
assignments in 2016, there were some themes that
informed hiring by clients.
Firstly, the boundaries have blurred between our
expectations for user experience of B2B and consumer
apps. This is especially true with ‘open source’ go
to market strategies requiring bottom up viral user
adoption. SaaS clients now track their Net Promoter
Scores as closely as consumer brands. Therefore the
interchange of CTOs between B2B and B2C markets is
on the rise.
Excitement rages for the power of AI, Machine
Learning and NLP algorithms to automate tasks and
interactions across all industries.
We are constantly evolving our understanding of
how you balance leadership between data science,
engineering and emerging software tools in these
companies and are very excited for their potential to
improve our lives.
OUR EXPERTS in CTO Search
Florence Bown: Associate
florence.bown@erevena.com
Florence joined Erevena as Associate in
January 2016 and works primarily with UK
headquartered B2C businesses, specialising in
CMO and CTO appointments. She read Modern Languages
at Durham University and is fluent in French and Spanish.
Kevin Elderfield: Senior Partner
kevin.elderfield@erevena.com
Kevin works cross-functionally, with a major
on sales and technology functions delivering
Executive and Non-Executive searches for
technology vendors (largely Enterprise Software) and
corporates undergoing significant business and technology
change. Prior to Erevena, Kevin scaled and exited Quorum
to Kenexa Inc, now part of IBM Smarter Workforce.
Sam Wilkins: Senior Partner
sam.wilkins@erevena.com
Sam leads our ‘CTO and Engineering’ practice
for start-ups, scale-ups and public companies
requiring significant transformation. His most
recent work has been for the portfolio of Accel, Anthemis,
Balderton, Bessemer Ventures, Union Square Ventures and
in Private Equity for KKR, Living Bridge and Cabot Square
Capital. Prior to Erevena, Sam scaled and exited Quorum
to Kenexa Inc, now part of IBM Smarter Workforce.
We help attract and hire senior people into companies
that are trying to do things differently.
We work with cxo’s and shareholders to solve complex
senior hiring challenges. We deal with your unknown
unknowns, we focus on your future
We completed 14 CTO and VP Engineering searches, working with businesses of all scales; from technical
leaders at Aludio and Equaled (pre-launch), to global brands like the BBC.
KEY FIGURES
87.5%
completion rate
PLACEMENTS
62.5%
VC Backed
CLIENT PROFILES
PE Backed, Corporate, Listed
Fintech
Ecommerce
Media
Ed Tech
Health
Software
31%
SECTORS
LESSONS LEARNED: CTO Search in 2016
backed by
CTO
backed by
Chief Engineering
Officer
backed by
VP Engineering
listed on LSE
Head of IT Delivery
Director of Platform
KEY PLACEMENTS
2. • Consumer tech businesses will continue to focus on mobile-first products,
and CTOs with this experience at scale will be in ever higher demand.
• We expect to see a higher percentage of startups utilising their own AI/
ML algorithms for Core IP development as well as using opensource tools
from libraries such as TensorFlow.
• Have we reached ‘peak Google’? Does the verticalized hardware and
software strategy of launching Pixel phones expose a concern over their
future in platform agnostic services?
The first in a new series
of Erevena market
intelligence and analysis,
we hope you enjoyed it.
If you’d like to talk about
CTO search, or subscribe
to our other reports,
please do get in touch.
KEY PREDICTIONS FOR 2017
Julie Chakraverty
Rungway Founder
I was introduced to Sam at Erevena through Anthemis Fintech Fund’s
head of ecosystem in 2016. At that point we were thinking through the
capabilities needed for a Rungway CTO. Sam gave us an overview of
market options and introduced us to a few CTOs to help crystalise our
thinking on the profile. We then launched a full search. We kept a real
time view of progress via their candidate portal and after some further
benchmarking, we ran three great candidates all the way through
our process. Erevena proved invaluable in their support though the
final selection and we are delighted with our new CTO who started at
Rungway a few weeks ago.
What makes Erevena really stand out for me is the breadth of our
relationship. On top of search, they have leveraged their impressive
network to support Rungway by making introductions to other start-up
founders and potential investors. This has anchored a professional
friendship that we very much value. Thank you Sam!
Gary Mudie
CTO & COO Babylon Health
I worked with Sam to secure our Chief of Engineering, using Erevena’s
global search methodology. I have used many of the big name search
firms in the past, but for this role, I can honestly say that they delivered
above expectation. Clear from the outset that he and the team had an
extensive contact base of highly credible people from top global talent
tech businesses. He knows the market well and guided us through
(what seemed to us a seamless & “pain-free” process), of a highly
credible short list, selection for interview and then final offer stage.
Sam remained close at all times with ourselves and (very importantly),
the candidates throughout the whole process. As we hired out of the
USA, additionally Sam guided us through moving our executive and
his family to the UK, (again with ease). I’d highly recommend Sam and
the team if any company is looking for the “unobtainable talent” or so
called “talent that’s required but doesn’t exist”. If you have the role he
can find the right person for the job, to schedule and budget
CLIENT TESTIMONIALS
Saranjit Soor
Placed as CTO Key Travel
Sam is a rare gem in the world of executive search. A true professional
with the added bonus of having a great sense of humour. His approach
is measured and respectful with great insights and ability to connect
people to the right role. You were treated as an individual throughout
the whole process with a focus on finding the right match of skills,
personality and package not just making a deal. Couldn’t recommend
him highly enough.
Mark Tsimelzon
Placed as Chief Engineering Officer Babylon Health
I’ve worked with some of the best executive recruiters in Silicon Valley,
so I can confidently state that Sam is a recruiter extraordinaire. I first
talked to him three months ago about a potential job in London. It all
sounded pretty abstract, yet three days from now my whole family is
boarding a British Airways flight to relocate to London. Sam was ex-
tremely helpful at every step of the way - this move would not happen
without him. Thank you, Sam!
CANDIDATE TESTIMONIALS
London
+44 (0)203 816 9340
San Francisco
+1 415 429 3662
Dubai
+971 4 313 2851
info@erevena.com
www.erevena.com
KEY LEARNINGS
• A wholesale adoption of, or transition to stateless (microservices) architecture. AWS continues
to dominate, and is even starting to penetrate regulated financial services. This creates full-stack,
decentralized and independent feature-based engineering teams.
• The European market for engineering leaders with scale (teams of 50+) to build products with AI, ML or
NLP algorithms in the core IP is still too sparse and requires global reach. We relocated someone from
California for Babylon Health and expect to bring more US expertise to Europe as the markets catch up.
• For start-ups and scale-ups, the average age of CTOs continues to fall; the right mindset and approach
predominate over number of years’ experience. Transformational roles from ‘monolithic to stateless’
still temper mindset with experience.
• There remains a difference of opinion on the importance of ‘regulated experience’ for technology
executives in early stage businesses. Paypal & Square mostly hired people with no ‘Financial Services’
exposure, while others, like Lending Club sought executives with tacit knowledge of the industry.
