Scaling So Far: Recent Episodes
Scede
Candid conversations with tech Founders and People leaders on how they've built and scaled their teams. Hear anecdotes, advice, myths to be busted, and more from some remarkable minds in the startup space. A welcome dose of behind-the-scenes insight to help inspire a people-first approach in business and beyond.
Hosted by Scede's Matthew Ellis (Founder) & others.
Presented by Scede - the go-to global talent partner for building incredible teams that ship incredible products, touched by millions www.scede.io
In series 3 episode 25 of “Scaling So Far”, we're joined by Anne Hansen, Head of People and Culture at ENVIRIA. Frankfurt-based ENVIRIA makes solar energy easily accessible to companies and their large roof units by providing all-in-one solar solutions andenergy-as-a-service products.
To date, ENVIRIA has developed over 100 commercial projects for clients, with an installed capacity of over 50MW, a figure that was able to save approximately 28,000 metric tons of CO2 emissions from being released into the environment in 2021 alone. They've been named one of the top 100 energy startups globally, and were recently announced as part of the 2022 Europe Climate Tech 200.
Hosted by Scede.io, the embedded talent partner enabling hiring success for startups and scaleups globally.
In series 3 episode 24 of “Scaling So Far”, we're joined by Eva Cortés Romero, Talent Acquisition Lead at charles and simpleclub. Eva is an expert in building teams for startups and scale-ups, having recruited for the likes of SumUp, i2x and Scoutbee prior to becoming her own boss as a freelance contractor.
A strong believer in the power of contractors and having a hybrid team of in-house TA resource combined with external talent partners, Eva shares her thoughts on the importance of flexible recruitment solutions in the current economic landscape, why she decided to take the leap into freelance and advice on those considering a similar transition for themselves.
Eva is also a Coach, having joined the Co-active coaching program in 2022. Her coaching is focused on finding career fulfilment no matter what job or level you are in. She believes everyone deserves to be fulfilled and have the tools to create positive change in our jobs and businesses. For more information, check out her website here.
Hosted by Scede.io, the embedded talent partner enabling hiring success for startups and scaleups globally.
In series 3 episode 23 of “Scaling So Far”, we're joined by Alicia Riley - People and Talent Lead at Ben. Having partnered with early-stage teams at the likes of VouchedFor and Unleashed, as well asArborEducation, on all things People and Talent, Alicia is a huge advocate for employee well-being and experience.
One topic within this that Alicia champions passionately is how companies can better support women in the workplace - specifically when it comes to women's health. In this deep discussion, Alicia and Lauren cover the topic in detail, including where to begin to start the conversation, recommendations for leaders who want to raise awareness and be a voice for women's health in the workplace, fostering and enabling the right culture to harness this and more.
We want to take this opportunity to thank Alicia for being open to sharing her experiences on this important topic and empowering those in our community by starting the conversation.
Hosted by Scede.io, the embedded talent partner enabling hiring success for startups and scaleups globally.
In series 3 episode 22 of “Scaling So Far”, we're joined by Heidi Wassini. With over 15 years in the HR arena, Heidi is a Talent Acquisition and Employer Branding evangelist - having scaled teams for the likes of Vivino, Pandora, Telenor and others.
From a strategic and operational perspective, Heidi has built TA functions in many successful companies and is known for her advocacy of data-based, positive candidate experiences, and a concept that she coins as “Candidate Value Proposition”.
We dig into this topic and others - including the importance of championing TA as a revenue-driving function, as well as how to generate buy-in from internal leadership when it comes to innovation in recruitment approach and strategy. Listen in for some brilliant and unique insights from a talent leader forging the way when it comes to shaping the power of TA for the future.
In series 3 episode 21 of “Scaling So Far”, we're joined by Charlotte Lafferty, Founder of Think Talent - the Talent consultancy bridging the gap for startups and scaleups requiring highly experienced, strategic talent leadership in the short to medium-term to support in building the talent agenda, team and setting up operational success.
Charlotte is currently partnering with renowned tech companies sennder and WeTransfer, having scaled teams and led Talent functions for the likes of Balfour Beatty, Multiplex, Sopra Steria, Exyte, Mollie, and others over the past 15 years.
Charlotte and Matt chat about all manners of juicy scaling topics, including guidance around workforce planning as folks look ahead to 2023, how to build the team around you as a TA leader to achieve this, the importance of experienced and senior recruiters at the early stages, getting buy-in to re-launch your EVP, and thinking about career "portfolios" for your people over career "ladders".
This conversation is one absolutely not to miss with plenty of actionable takeaways for business leaders at startups and scaleups.
To learn more about how Charlotte supports early-stage organisations from a talent perspective, feel free to reach out to her on Linkedin.
Podcast produced by www.scede.io.
Music from Pixabay.
In series 3 episode 20 of “Scaling So Far”, we're joined by Annie Hockey, Co-CEO at Column - a technology-focused, federally chartered bank that aims to make it easier and faster for other companies to offer financial services.
Prior to starting Column, Annie Hockey worked in marketing at tech startups, got a Stanford MBA and was a consultant at Bain, where she helped private equity firms do due diligence on retail companies they wanted to acquire. At Column she leads the regulatory, legal and human resources parts of the business.
We spoke to Annie to learn more about their intentional approach to scaling their small, aggressive and fast-moving team, why they decided to take this approach and not "hyper-grow", how this translates into their strong sense of culture and what the future holds for the fintech too.
One not to miss! Especially if you want to learn how this 100% Founder-funded and employee-owned company operates, drives high performance, and sees huge success as a result.
In series 3 episode 19 of “Scaling So Far”, we're joined by Maria Peres, Head of Operations and People, and Mariana Henriques, People Operations at Valispace. Valispace is a first-of-its-kind Data Driven Systems Engineering ( DDSE) tool and Single Source of Truth for engineering teams that develop complex hardware.
Named by Forbes as one of Germany's 100 Most Innovative Startups in 2018, Valispace is in the business of helping engineers build incredible things that seem like magic to us today. Coined the 'Gitbhub for hardware', the startup's technology is already used by the likes of the European Space Agency, Airbus, and BMW.
We spoke to Maria and Mariana about their approach to scaling this incredible team, having seen the company grow from the early stages. They discuss how they got buy-in for their newly launched remote-friendly policy, the initiatives they have to build connection and engagement across their team, and how they're driving diversity and championing female Developers.
Well worth a listen if you're a people operations leader in the startup and scaleup space.
In series 3 episode 18 of “Scaling So Far”, we're joined by Annie Jackson, Head of Talent Acquisition at Cleo - the UK-Founded, Fintechon a mission to help millions of people improve their financial health.
In July, Cleo raised an impressive $80 million Series C to further support their US market penetration - resulting in a staggering $500 million valuation.
Having worked in recruitment for almost a decade, hiring for some of Europe's most successful and fast-growing tech startups, Annie joined Cleo back in 2020 and played a key part in scaling the team to the 200+ strong workforce that it is today.
We spoke to Annie about what that journey looked like for her, some of her learnings along the way and hiring methods they put in place to triple the team's headcount to support Cleo's growth. Annie also shares more on the fintech's recently launched transparent salary bands, the driving force behind this and the impact they've seen both internally and from a candidate perspective.
Listen in for some super valuable talent insights and advice.
In series 3 episode 17 of “Scaling So Far”, we're joined Chris Barton, COO at WealthKernel - the London HQ'd FinTech on a mission to enable the change that makes financial services and investing better for everyday people.
The company recently won "WealthTech Company of the Year" at the Fintech London Awards, and is providing the building blocks for a better, more innovative wealth management industry - one that helps more people, in more places achieve financial security.
We spoke to Chris about their journey moving from Director of Operations to COO for the company, their approach to workforce planning and setting the company up for success for the road ahead. Chris also shares their advice for business leaders and fellow COOs out there when it comes to leading through more turbulent teams.
In series 3 episode 16 of “Scaling So Far”, we're joined by Jonathan Siddharth, Founder and CEO of Turing - the California-founded data-science platform that's on a mission to unleash the world's untapped human potential. The fully remote company is 900+ people strong, and help to connect world-class remote software engineers with world-class companies.
The company recently entered unicorn territory (now valued at over $1.1 B) with a Series D round of financing and is backed by prominent investors such as WestBridge Capital, Foundation Capital, Founders Fund (investors in Facebook, Tesla, Asana), Altair Capital, Mindset Ventures, Frontier Ventures, Gaingels, Facebook's first CTO (Adam D'Angelo), and illustrious executives from Google, Amazon, and Twitter.
Having been named one of the best startup employers by Forbes last year, we spoke to Jonathan about some of the lessons they've learnt scaling the Turing team, why unlocking global opportunity for top tech talent is critical today, and some of the tactics he finds effective in sourcing, engaging, and nurturing brilliant engineers.
In series 3 episode 15 of “Scaling So Far”, we're joined by Nikki Pechet, Co-Founder and CEO of Homebound - the hugely inspiring Santa Rosa-based proptech company named by Forbes as one of America's Best Startup Employers last year
Homebound’s self-described mission is to serve as a “next gen” homebuilder to make it possible “for anyone, anywhere to build a home.” Until last April, the startup had been exclusively focused on helping homeowners navigate the challenges and complexities of rebuilding after wildfires in California. But in 2021, Homebound expanded to Austin, Texas, its first non-disaster market, with the goal of taking learnings from those rebuilds and applying the same “streamlined, tech-enabled building process” to make custom home building an option for local homeowners.
We were honoured to speak with Nikki about what drives the company forward, how they've gone about building the right team of leaders to join them on their incredible mission, their commitment to shaping a diverse and inclusive organisation, and what they're laser-focused on achieving in this next phase of growth.
A brilliant listen with authentic and honest insights from Nikki on scaling the company from scratch.
In series 3 episode 14 of “Scaling So Far”, we're joined by Alicja Zwierzyńska, Head of Talent at Warsaw-based Packhelp - Europe's leading custom packaging marketplace whose mission is to empower more brands to bring sustainable packaging to their consumers.
Last year, the company was named the fastest-growing tech company in Central Europe in Deloitte Technology’s Fast 50 ranking. Having successfully launched in the Netherlands, Sweden and Romania in 2021, the company raised a significant $45.6m series B last year to accelerate its international expansion plans, and scale its global supplier network.
We had the pleasure to chat with Alicja about what that looked like for them from a people and talent perspective, how they've built a remote-friendly workplace as they've scaled, and the brains behind their internally built peer-to-peer feedback app.
In series 3 episode 13 of “Scaling So Far”, we're joined by Davide Vitiello, VP of Consumer Products at Delivery Hero - the world's leading local delivery platform.
Delivery Hero is present in around 50 countries across four continents and is on a mission to deliver anything, straight to customers’ doors. Backed by the likes of Insight Partners and Point Nine Capital, Delivery Hero opened its HQ in Berlin in 2011 and by 2017 went public on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.
We heard first-hand from Davide about his experience building and leading teams for the likes of Delivery Hero, Soundcloud, and Shopify, how they go about finding and assessing the right talent for their Consumer Products division, and some of the key considerations needed from a people perspective when launching in new markets.
If you’re a product and tech leader going through a scaling journey yourself, this is definitely worth a listen. Enjoy.
In series 3 episode 12 of “Scaling So Far”, we're joined by Vojtech Vondra, Senior Director of Engineering at Productboard - the world's largest reward program provider.
Named one of America’s best startup employers by Forbes for 2022, Productboard was founded in 2014 with a simple mission; to help companies make products that matter. Fast-forward to 2022 and over 5,000 companies use the platform, they have offices across the globe and some brilliant investors backing them.
We were super lucky to speak to Vojtech about how they’ve scaled their engineering teams, how they hire the right tech talent to thrive in an autonomous, fast-paced environment, and how he drives communication and collaboration across a hybrid, globally distributed engineering team.
If you’re a product and tech leader going through a scaling journey yourself, this is definitely worth a listen. Enjoy.
In series 3 episode 11 of “Scaling So Far”, we're joined by Jen Paxton, VP of People at Smile.io - the world's largest reward program provider.
Founded in 2012, Smile.io has over 50K+ active reward programs and 100m+ participating members globally and has recently been named on WeWorkRemotely's top 100 remote companies list for 2022. Jen was formerly VP of People and Talent at Privy and Director of Talent at Level Up - two well-known scale-ups that she saw through acquisition.
Scede's Luke discusses what this is like from a people perspective, how they're creating an interconnected community across their distributed team, scaling company culture and the process behind the recent revamping of their EVP.
A top listen for People leaders out there!
In series 3 episode 10 of “Scaling So Far”, we're joined by Christiane Thielemann, People Advisor at CoachHub.
Founded in Berlin in 2018, CoachHub is democratising access to coaching using artificial intelligence to match individuals with more than 2,500 certified business and well-being coaches in 70 countries across six continents.
Their international 700+ strong team hails from 63+ countries worldwide, and the company has been listed on Linkedin's top 10 startups, as well as being recognised by the Europas and Glassdoor for its impact-driven work and thriving company culture.
And there's little wonder. Their approach to scaling has been people-first, as Dan discusses with Christiane - investing in roles such as the People Advisor to support new starters, streamline onboarding and provide a consistent, positive employee experience. We chat to Christiane about the role, why it's so important in a fast-growing scaleup and the impact that she's seen it have during her time at CoachHub.
This is a brilliant listen for People leaders looking for ways to further engage, nurture and retain their team - especially in a remote or hybrid setting.
In series 3 episode 9 of “Scaling So Far”, we're joined byBogdan Habić, Co-Founder and CTO at Tenderly.
Belgrade, Serbia-based Tenderly was founded in 2018, and aims to make it easier for web3 developers “of all skill sets” to build blockchain products through its end-to-end developer platform.
Having recently raised $40 million in a Series B round of funding just months after their Series A, and achieved 400% YoY growth, we spoke with one of Tenderly's Co-Founders Bogdan to learn more about their approach to hiring and developing engineers globally, investing in nurturing early talent, as well as what's on their roadmap for the future and how they enable their team through extensive knowledge-sharing.
Well worth a listen if you're in, or interested in, the blockchain industry.
In series 3 episode 8 of “Scaling So Far”, we're joined by Roxana Dobrescu, Chief People Officer at Labster.
Labster is reimagining the future of education by building the world’s leading platform for virtual labs and science simulations.
Trusted by over 2,000 institutions, Labster is used at the California State University, Harvard, MIT, and Exeter University amongst others internationally. Their vision is to make science education accessible to any student with an internet connection and a laptop.
Hot off the back of hitting their 5-million student milestone, Labster has just this month (April 2022) raised $47 million in new funding to support massive growth opportunities worldwide.
Luke and Roxana discuss measures they’ve implemented to scale from a people and talent perspective, what them being a “holacracy” means in reality, and why internal communications plays a huge role in building a humanised company.
In series 3 episode 7 of “Scaling So Far”, we're joined by David Embry, Founder and CEO at Mylo.
Founded in 2015, Kansas City headquartered Insurtech company Mylo is revolutionising the insurance industry for small business owners and individuals. Founded in 2015 and backed by Lockton as well as Guggenheim partners, they’ve won a tonne of awards - including Fintech Breakthrough award for 2021 in Insurtech AND last year they were named by Forbes as one of America’s Best Startup Employers.
We wanted to dig into this further with David Embry, Mylo’s CEO to understand what he feels makes Mylo so unique, their approach to building the team, why Mylo stands out as a startup employer, and how he as CEO partners with his talent and people team.
Check it out for some super valuable insights.
In series 3 episode 6 of “Scaling So Far”, we're joined by Olivier Buffon, Head of International at Faire.
Headquartered in San Francisco and Founded in 2017 by Square alumni Max Rhodes (CEO), Marcelo Cortes (CTO), Jeff Kolovson (COO), and Daniele Perito, the startup also has offices in Waterloo Kitchener, Toronto, Salt Lake City, Atlanta, Los Angeles, New York, London, Amsterdam, and São Paulo.
At present, the company partners with 400,000 retailers across North America and Europe with over 60,000 brands from 100 countries - providing greater opportunity for the independent retail community to compete against big-box giants. Essentially democratising access to consumers for artisans and more local brands
We discuss what Olivier is focused on in his role as Head of International Expansion, their values-first approach to hiring and how this is baked into every stage of the process, what expanding international means operationally - particularly from a Talent perspective, and how their value of ownership drives empowerment, entrepreneurship from within and success across their globally distributed team.
Well worth a listen if you’re a Founder or Talent Leader with ambitions to expand into fresh new locations over the next year or so.
In series 3 episode 5 of “Scaling So Far”, we're joined by Casey Bailey - Head of People at Deel.
You wouldn’t be amiss in wondering whether Alex Bouaziz and Shuo Wang, Co-Founders of Deel, had a crystal ball when they launched Deel back in 2019 - pre-pandemic. The San Francisco headquartered scale-up helps businesses hire anyone, anywhere, in minutes. They automate onboarding, payroll and compliance across 150+ countries globally and have 6000+ customers - from SMBs to publicly traded companies.
Now in 2022, they’re already 650+ team members strong, globally distributed and have an eye-watering valuation of $5.5bn. In 2021 alone, they grew from 50 to 550+ employees. They’re a team that are truly creating the new world of work together.
Scede's Dan Caines spoke with Casey Bailey, Head of People at Deel, formerly SVP of People and Places at Divvy, and Head of Global HRBP for Uber. Casey shared some incredible learnings with us, what they’ll be doubling down on throughout 2022 and what she believes the future of work really looks like.
Casey is a true champion of the People team, and advocates for investing in talent early on as a startup. If you listen to one thing today, we'd recommend making it this.
Check out the State of Global Hiring Report 2021 that Casey mentions in the episode here.
In series 3 episode 4 of “Scaling So Far”, we're joined by Yasar Ahmad, Global VP of Talent and Carolina Veiga, Global Head of TA at HelloFresh.
Founded in 2011 in one of Europe’s most vibrant tech hubs - Berlin - HelloFresh has evolved to become one of the world’s leading meal kit companies. In Q3 of 2021 alone, they delivered 227 million meals and reached 6.94 million active customers globally.
From Designers & DevOps Engineers to pasta makers and potato farmers - HelloFresh is a team of more than 20,000 employees globally.
At such scale, Talent Acquisition needs a well oiled, efficient machine. And that’s exactly what HelloFresh has built. Luke Eaton spoke with their Global VP of Talent Yasar Ahmad and Global Head of TA Carolina Veiga to learn more about how they doubled productivity with what they’ve called TA 4.0.
It’s an absolute must-listen for those looking to optimise their hiring process for rapid growth.
In series 3 episode 3 of “Scaling So Far”, we're joined byMatt Britton and Anthony Onesto, Founder and CEO, and Chief People Officer at Suzy.
Martech scale-up Suzy has been making waves in the US tech scene since it was founded in 2018. Many of the biggest brands in the world use Suzy to deliver breakthrough products and experiences backed by data-driven decisions.
Suzy has also been recognised on Forbes’ list of America’s Best Startup Employers 2021, Inc Magazine’s Best Workplaces in 2021 AND Built In NYC’s Best Places to Work in 2022. With ambitious growth goals on the horizon - their journey is showing no signs of slowing down.
In this episode, Dan speaks with Matt and Anthony to understand how they’ve built an award-winning place for their team to work, their learnings along the way and what achieving 70% headcount growth this year looks like in reality for them.
In series 3 episode 2 of “Scaling So Far”, we're joined by Alexey Mazurov, HR Director at Palta.
Palta is a unique community of founders, investors, and talented people who are focused on building super impactful, mobile consumer products. Palta partners with ambitious Founders and exceptional people to transform great ideas into life-changing products that make a positive impact on a global level. Fast-growing companies such as Flo, Simple, and Zing are part of the growing Palta family.
Alexey shares what they're focused on for 2022, scaling teams for impact-driven organisations, and what that early-stage HR and Talent team should look like for success.
In series 3 episode 1 of “Scaling So Far”, we're joined by Jonathan Roomer, Co-Founder and Head of Customer Success at YuLife.
In this episode, Scede's Head of Growth Laura Bibby chats with Jonathan Roomer, one of 5 Co-Founders of Insurtech company YuLife - the folks taking a gamified, wellness-oriented approach to life insurance. They’ve won a ton of awards since inception in 2017, making the Startups 100 list for 2021 and being named by City AM as one of the top 50 London startups to work for.
Listening to Jonathan and the way he describes the YuLife culture and what’s important to them as they scale the company, it's no surprise the startup has garnered such recognition. Laura has an insightful chat with Jonathan about YuLife's people plans for 2022, why workplace culture is SO important and how fast-growing scale-ups can level up on that front too.
In series 2 episode 14 of “Scaling So Far”, we're joined by Tiina Hahtorvita, HR Director at Yousician.
Helsinki-based startup Yousician is the world’s largest music educator, having raised an impressive $28 million series B in April, and reached 20 million monthly users globally.
In this chat, Tiina shares the talent initiatives they're doubling down on over the coming months, why leadership coaching is so important, and what people practices companies should be focusing on if they want to keep their best people engaged and retained.
Tools and people leaders that Tiina references throughout the show can be found below:
https://auntie.fi/en/ https://www.siqni.fi/en/front-page/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/mervilamminen https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephan-thoma-08941b Music from Pixabay.
In series 2 episode 13 of “Scaling So Far”, we're joined by Andrew Bartlow, Author & Founder of Series B Consulting.
Andrew Bartlow has 25 years of HR and talent management experience at companies across various sizes, maturity stages, and industries. He is the co-author of Scaling for Success: People Priorities for High-Growth Organizations. Andrew leads Series B consulting, which helps businesses articulate their people strategy and grow fast. He’s worked with clients like MasterClass and many others to help them overcome challenges at a hyper-growth pace.
In this chat, Andrew shares some super valuable insights from his book, the most common pain points faced by hyper-growth companies when it comes to people practices, what your HR function should look like as you scale, and more.
If you're a Founder or Talent leader with rapid growth on the horizon - this is a must-listen.
Find Andrew's book on Amazon here.
Music from Pixabay.
In series 2 episode 12 of “Scaling So Far”, we're joined by Samantha Rao, Head of People at Siilo.
Amsterdam-based HealthTech company Siilo is changing the way healthcare professionals communicate - democratising access to expertise and experience and improving patient care through knowledge-sharing in a compliant way. This is all facilitated through their secure medical messaging app.
Today, Siilo is the largest medical network in Europe, with over a quarter-million active users who, to date, have exchanged over 200 million messages. During the Covid pandemic, digital messaging has been a critical tool for medical professionals - so there's little wonder Siilo has been named in Sifted's Netherlands startups to watch list and is in the top 50 most disruptive startups named by Sprout Challenger50 2020.
Samantha shares what their scaling journey has looked like so far, their approach to attracting and hiring mission-driven talent to bolster their growth, and with close to 50% of their org being female - how they're continuing to champion diversity in the healthcare industry.
Music from Pixabay.
In series 2 episode 11 of “Scaling So Far”, Matt Ellis is joined by Martin Threakall, Chief Operating Officer at Yapily.
Open banking fintech Yapily enables businesses and consumers around the world to share data and access payment infrastructure. Backed by the likes of Lakestar, HV Capital, and LocalGlobe, Yapily has seen incredible growth following their series A round in 2020 - being named on Otta's rocket list 2021 for the 50 best companies in London.
With over a decade’s expertise in growing payment start-up and scale-up businesses such as Modulr and CurrencyCloud, Martin joined Yapily in November 2020 - coming on board to lead Yapily's European expansion.
Matt chats to Martin about his role as COO, building a team to face into challenges, his approach to having difficult conversations, what companies should be optimising for at the different stages, and when recruitment processes and structures should come into play.
Music from Pixabay.
In series 2 episode 10 of “Scaling So Far”, Marisa Bryan is joined by Vanessa Stock, Co-Founder and VP People at Pitch.
Before joining Pitch, Vanessa was part of the Wunderlist crew, where she helped hire and built the core team that saw Wunderlist reach its exit stage.
With experience spanning between Berlin, New York, and London Vanessa is a thought leader and one of Berlin’s key voices on conversations around leadership, people management, and development and moreover how to build a successful distributed team.
It's at Wunderlist that she met her Co-Founders with whom she built her current startup Pitch. Pitch is an open platform for presentations and content collaboration - a new paradigm to improve the way presentations are crafted and knowledge is shared.
Music from Pixabay.
In series 2 episode 9 of “Scaling So Far”, Matt Ellis is joined by Marcus Granström, Senior Director of Engineering at Swedish Fintech decacorn Klarna.
Now valued at a staggering $10.6billion, Klarna is the highest-valued private Fintech company in Europe today, #5 on CNBC's Disruptor 50 List for 2020, and more recently launched its global Giveone.com platform, bringing to life a 1% pledge for the planet.
A close buddy and long-time partner of Scede's, Matt speaks to Marcus in-depth about their scaling journey so far, including:
- His journey building and leading engineering teams at Klarna
- How they set up hiring pipelines to ensure recruitment velocity, quality, and scale
- How they reflect Klarna life throughout interviews and assessments
- Finding a balance between utilisation and protection of Engineering time throughout the hiring process
Music from Pixabay.
In series 2 episode 8 of “Scaling So Far”, Marisa Bryan is joined by David Eberle, CEO & Co-Founder of Typewise.
Swiss-based Typewise is a DeepTech company on a mission to make daily lives easier by decoding human thoughts.
Named a CES 2021 innovation awards honouree, the Typewise app has already been downloaded 500,000 times and is being used by 130,000+ active listeners.
Marisa chats to David about some key topics, including:
- Their scaling priorities as an ambitious Seed-stage startup
- How as CEO and Co-Founder he keeps everybody rowing in the same direction
- His leadership inspiration and approach
Music from Pixabay.
In series 2 episode 7 of “Scaling So Far”, Matt Ellis is joined by Michail Katkoff, CEO & Co-Founder of Savage Game Studios.
Having scaled kick-ass teams with the likes of Supercell, Rovio, Zynga & Fun Plus, & launched Deconstructor of Fun - the #1 site for those making free-to-play games - Michael is widely considered an incredible mind in the gaming industry.
And we couldn't agree more.
Now CEO & Co-Founder of his very own mobile games company - Savage Game Studios - which launched in 2020 & earlier this year raised their $4.4m Seed round, Michael chats to Matt about some key topics, including:
- His experiences building a studio team from the ground up
- What being a "Savage" means to them and the way they operate
- The impact of having leaders who listen, de-centralised command & true ownership
Music from Pixabay.
In series 2 episode 6 of “Scaling So Far”, Marisa Bryan is joined by Kamil Tamiola, Founder and CEO of Peptone.
Biotech company Peptone is building the world's first Protein Engineering Operation System (PeOS) that combines generative AI with state-of-the-art computational molecular physics.
Following their $2.5 million Seed raise earlier this year - backed by Hoxton Ventures, Founders Factory, and dRx Capital - Kamil chats to us about their scaling plans for the future, his experience transitioning from the role of Scientist to Founder, and how they're bringing together some of the brightest minds to join them on their mission.
Music from Pixabay.
In series 2 episode 5 of “Scaling So Far”, Matt Ellis is joined by Matt Moralo-Langan, Talent Team Lead at Personio.
HR Tech unicorn Personio is valued at $1.7bn following their Series D raise in January 2021 - officially making them the most valuable HR Tech company in Europe.
Matt shares some of his learnings from the last decade scaling teams at Personio, as well as Airbnb, Atlassian, and Facebook. He chats through how they'll go about increasing their Dublin headcount five-fold over the next 12 months, and what you can do as a scaleup leader to ensure your talent and people function becomes a strategic partner to the wider org.
Music from Pixabay.
In series 2 episode 4 of “Scaling So Far”, Matt Ellis is joined by David Smith, VP of People at Cleo.
AI-powered fintech company Cleo saw huge wins in 2020, achieving 400% revenue growth and raising a super impressive $44million Series B led by EQT Ventures.
David shares what's on their agenda as they scale their team throughout 2021, some of his learnings from the likes of Trainline and Wonga, launching new markets from a Talent and People perspective, and when the right time is to build out your management and executive layer.
Music from Pixabay.
In series 2 episode 3 of “Scaling So Far”, Marisa Bryan is joined by Jessie Scheepers, Head of People at Pleo.
Founded in Copenhagen in 2015, fintech company Pleo is the spending solution for forward-thinking teams everywhere. Their smart credit cards empower thousands of businesses across Europe. Today, they have 13,000+ customers across 6 markets - and offices in Copenhagen, London, Stockholm, Berlin, and Madrid.
Marisa chats to Jessie about her journey at the business so far; how she set up their people function when they were just 40 people, scaled that to support a distributed team of 200+ employees, her thoughts on the evolution of company culture, authentic leadership, and keeping things human - especially as they look to their high-growth road ahead.
Music from Pixabay.
In series 2 episode 2 of “Scaling So Far”, Matt Ellis is joined by Guy Franklin, Talent Acquisition Director at Graphcore.
UK-headquartered AI unicorn Graphcore is at the forefront of the machine intelligence revolution, enabling innovators from all industries to expand human potential with IPU tech. Recently, the company raised a staggering $222 million series E to bolster their next phase of growth.
Formerly Global TA Lead at Dyson, Guy joined Graphcore in 2019 and is now responsible for all recruitment activity at the company - focusing hugely on maintaining their high-bar hiring mentality and securing the right people to help them to achieve their mission.
He and Matt chat about his learnings scaling teams so far, what they'll be focusing on from a talent and people perspective in 2021, and why it's important to up-level your approach to management and leadership development at the early stages.
Music from Pixabay.
In series 2 episode 1 of “Scaling So Far”, Marisa Bryan is joined by Simon de Jesus Rodrigues, Chief of Staff at Curio.
Founded in 2016 by Govind Balakrishnan, an ex-BBC strategist, and Srikant Chakravarti, a former solicitor, London-based Curio offers a curated library of journalism translated into and presented as audio, letting listeners get their daily fix of news and analysis.
Having previously held the Chief of Staff role at high-growth prop-tech startup Nested, Simon has a tonne of experience partnering closely with Founders and CEOs to delivering scaling success.
He and Marisa chat about the nature of his current role, how he operates cross-functionally, why you shouldn't hire great people and get out of the way, and the power of listening.
Music from Pixabay.
In episode #20 of “Scaling So Far”, Marisa Bryan is joined by Alex Duell, Head of Talent at Cutover.
Cutover is the Index Ventures and Barclays funded leader in work orchestration and observability. Founded in 2015, Cutover has since raised around $20 million, most recently with a $17 million Series A to bolster client engagement and product development.
Having scaled teams at Dropbox, The Business of Fashion, and Beamery over the years, Alex is now leading the People/Talent function at Cutover as they embark on a seriously exciting chapter of growth building commercial and engineering teams in both London and NYC.
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In episode #19 of “Scaling So Far”, Matt Ellis is joined by Chris Bell, Director of Global Recruiting and Employer Brand at N26.
N26 is building the first mobile bank the world loves to use. Founded in 2013, N26 has more than 5 million customers in 25 markets who generate over €2 billion in monthly transaction volume. The company employs more than 1.500 employees across 5 office locations: Berlin, New York, Barcelona, Vienna and São Paulo.
As the leader of an award-winning team of up to 40 global recruiting and employer brand specialists, Chris shares his approach to scaling teams in hyper-growth, building a world-class candidate experience function, developing an employer brand strategy, and more.
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In episode #18 of “Scaling So Far”, Marisa Bryan is joined by Peter Anstey – talent leader for Entrepreneur First.
Entrepreneur First brings together extraordinary people to build startups from scratch in London, Singapore, Berlin, Hong Kong, Paris, and Bangalore. To date, they’ve created 350 companies, have over 1000 alumni worldwide, and a portfolio valuation of over $2 billion.
Peter shares his learnings Co-Founding _nology.io, building world-class founding and executive teams at Entrepreneur First, and his formula for identifying leadership potential.
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In episode #17 of “Scaling So Far”, Matt Ellis is joined by Siadhal Magos – Co-Founder and CEO of talent science company Metaview.
Before Metaview, Siadhal worked on product at Uber – the fastest growing company ever – where he built and led teams in a period when the company grew from 7,000 to 17,000 people in under two years.
Now, he and the Metaview team are helping companies to make better talent decisions – up-leveling the most outcome-defining part of your recruitment process: your interviews.
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In episode #16 of “Scaling So Far”, Marisa Bryan is joined by Stacey Slater – Global Talent Acquisition Team Lead at Onfido.
Onfido is the new identity standard for the internet. Our AI-based technology assesses whether a user’s government-issued ID is genuine or fraudulent, and then compares it against their facial biometrics. Their mission is to create a more open world, where identity is the key to access.
Stacey is currently scaling teams across Growth & Business Operations at Onfido; responsible for their hiring strategy and delivery across functions – fuelling the company’s incredible expansion across EMEA, SEA, and the Americas.
Stacey has extensive experience scaling teams in the tech space, having previously led talent at the likes of Contentive, Nexmo, and BounceX – the learnings she shares are super valuable!
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In episode #15 of “Scaling So Far”, Marisa Bryan is joined by Petter Torgersen – talent acquisition leader at Volkswagen’s Car.Software Organisation.
Car.Software organisation is a cross-brand, has its own operating system for all Volkswagen Group models, an automotive data cloud and a new electronics architecture.
Petter has extensive experience at the likes of Cisco and Schneider Electric, more recently heading up talent acquisition at Autonomous Intelligent Driving (AID – now Argo AI).
Petter shares his learnings when it comes to building high-performing teams in a startup / scale-up environment, focusing on how to drive operational excellence with the candidate experience front of mind.
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In episode #14 of “Scaling So Far”, Matt Ellis is joined by Libby Dangoor – People Director at WhiteHat.
WhiteHat is a UK-founded, purpose-driven tech startup that’s on a mission to create a diverse group of future leaders by matching non-grad talent with apprenticeship opportunities at some of the UK’s most exciting companies.
Listed on Otta’s “Rocket List” as one of the best startups to work for in London 2020, Libby shares how they’ve built their team there and touches on the importance of early-stage talent for tech companies, as well as how to hire for potential – not just experience.
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In episode #13 of “Scaling So Far”, Marisa Bryan is joined by Beatriz Dominguez, Head of People and Talent at Avrios.
Avrios is an award-winning fleet management software. Founded in 2015 in Zurich by a team of serial entrepreneurs, Avrios currently manages the fleet of more than 900 customers in Europe and is one of the fastest-growing companies in the SaaS space.
Beatriz shares Avrios’ scaling story so far, thoughts on talent and people as a critical business partner in times of change, as well as advice on candidate care and driving a culture of gratitude in a startup environment.
Music from Pixabay.
In episode #12 of “Scaling So Far”, Matt Ellis is joined by Jan Hauke Holste – Director of People and Culture at PlusDental.
Berlin-based Healthtech startup PlusDental wants to give everyone the chance to show their most beautiful smile by democratizing access to state-of-the-art dental care. They're one of the fastest-growing MedTech companies in Europe.
Having scaled the team at PlusDental through high-growth, Jan shares some of his biggest learnings as well as advice on the HR and people processes needed at the earlier stages of a company’s journey.
Music from Pixabay.
In episode #11 of “Scaling So Far”, Marisa Bryan is joined by Ben Branson Gateley – CEO and Co-Founder of Charlie HR.
Charlie HR is the HR software for small teams with big ideas. They believe that while building a company is hard - running one shouldn’t be.
Ben shares some fantastic advice and learnings from his experience founding and scaling teams for both Charlie HR and award-winning social media agency Born Social.
Music from Pixabay.
In episode #10 of "Scaling So Far", Matt Ellis is joined by James Routledge – Founder of Sanctus.
Sanctus is the company changing the perception of mental health and building the world’s first mental health gyms. With a shift in awareness and a rise in mental health issues, more people than ever are talking about their mental health and wellbeing at work. Through Sanctus Coaching, the team has created a space that allows these conversations to happen in the right way.
James shares some of his learnings when it comes to scaling the Sanctus team, as well as advice on how you can make it easier for employees to talk about mental health in the workplace.
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In episode #9 of “Scaling So Far”, Matt Ellis is joined by Tomasz Stoma – Senior HQ People Partner at Glovo.
Barcelona-based startup Glovo is the fastest-growing delivery player in Europe, Western Asia, and Africa. With food at the core of the business, Glovo delivers any product within your city at any time of day. We currently deliver over 100M+ annual orders and operate in 19 countries, and in 250+ cities.
In this special, 45-minute episode, Tomasz shares some of his biggest learnings scaling teams, advice when it comes to building inclusive people processes, why diversity is so important to their continued success, and more on their Employee Resource Groups and Future of Work plans.
Music from Pixabay.
In episode #8 of “Scaling So Far”, Matt Ellis is joined by Tris Revill – Global Sourcing Lead for French health tech unicorn Doctolib.
Founded in 2013, Doctolib aims to simplify the life of physicians and healthcare facilities and improve healthcare access for patients.
Tris shares his learnings from scaling teams at the likes of Lyst, Indeed, and Doctolib over the years and chats through some key advice on sourcing channels, how to assess candidates and the importance of culture add for tech teams.
Music from Pixabay.
In episode #7 of “Scaling So Far”, Marisa Bryan is joined by the wonderful Anne Caron.
Anne is an international speaker, author, and consultant. Drawing on her 10 years’ experience as a senior HR executive at Google, she set up her consulting practice in 2015 to support founders in building high performing and positive organisations.
Through her experience working with entrepreneurs, she developed a methodology for startups to grow the right organisation and team, which she describes in her book From Zero to 1,000: The Organisational Playbook For Startups. They chat about this, and Anne’s advice when it comes to scaling high-performing teams.
Music from Pixabay.
In episode #6 “Scaling So Far”, Matt Ellis is joined by Michael Laws, Head of Recruitment at Bulb.
Bulb is a tech company, green energy supplier, and the UK’s fastest-growing startup.
Michael shares his advice when it comes to building a high-performing team, and discusses how they’ve scaled the Bulb team to over 600 talented individuals.
Music from Pixabay.
In episode #5 of the series, Marisa Bryan chats with Manuel Heichlinger, Director of Recruiting and People EMEAat Samsara.
Samsara is the leader in Industrial IoT.
Having held talent roles at the likes of Deloitte, HSBC, and LinkedIn, Manuel has a wealth of knowledge on how to build a high-performing team.
The two dig deeper into his story, advice when it comes to hiring great people, and thoughts on the following topics:
– The importance of your talent brand
– Inclusive hiring practices
– Employee engagement
Music from Pixabay.
In episode #4 of the series, Marisa Bryan is joined by Matt Bradburn, Co-Founder of The People Collective.
The People Collective is a specialist People, Talent and Culture strategy firm, partnering with VCs and Founders to build great companies
Matt has owned Talent and People Operations strategies for several global tech companies including Peakon, Lyst and Qubit. He now guides VC-backed businesses in managing their people at scale.
Music from Pixabay.
In episode #3 of the series, Matt Ellis chats with Nicolas Blier-Silvestri Co-Founder and CEOat Platypus.
Platypus is the company that empowers HR to uncover your organisation's true culture.
The two dig deeper into Nico's story, Platypus’ mission to help companies understand their culture better, his advice when it comes to scaling awesome teams, and thoughts on topical questions.
Music from Pixabay.
In episode #2 of the series, Marisa Bryan chats with Nate Phelps,Senior Director of Talent Acquisition at Criteo.
Criteo is the global technology company powering the world’s marketers with trusted and impactful advertising.
Nate shares his story, advice on building the team at Criteo and guidance on how talent and people leaders can be agile and deliver value throughout times of change.
Music from Pixabay.
In episode #1 of Scaling So Far, Marisa Bryan speaks with Matt Ellis, Founder and CEO of Scede.
Scede enables ambitious tech companies to achieve hiring success at every stage of their growth journey. Matt shares their very own scaling journey so far, including how they've adapted in 2020 to further support early-stage businesses throughout the pandemic.
Music from Pixabay.