The Forsyth Group – Executive Search

Seedcamp Events in the past 3 months

3 months. 3 events in Zagreb, New York and London. Thousands of applications from over 65 countries. 60 passionate teams getting mentored. Hundreds of high quality mentors and 4 investments. These are the numbers that make Seedcamp stand out as the leading micro-seed investment and mentoring programme.

A recap of Seedcamp London

As always, a great calibre of entrepreneurs pitched their products to a very diverse pool of mentors – ranging from founders and product and marketing gurus, to institutional VCs and angel investors.

We opened the day with a unique masterclass hosted by Saul Klein and Chris Riley. They both shared their knowledge on the importance of storytelling, and Chris, who was the brain behind the brand strategies of Nike, Apple, and Twitter among many others, also gave insightful advice on how to engage the audience via narratives.

We have received some extraordinary feedback and wanted to share these comments as they truly capture the day:

‘Best Seedcamp I’ve ever been to. The stakes have been raised with the quality of companies and teams. It also had a great set of mentors there, which is just as important for the companies. Logistically, it was the best run Seedcamp I’ve been to, which shows the experience on the team and the energy was much higher than usual. I came away feeling hugely thankful to the Seedcamp team.’ Scott Sage, DFJ Esprit

‘Good atmosphere. Well run day. Quality of teams high. Masterclass of an excellent calibre. Having Chris remind young teams about some of the really important “brand” needs for a business chimed well with my own background and agenda. An excellent day.’ Richard Fearn, The Friday Club London

‘This was my first attendance at Seedcamp as a mentor and I thought it was a fabulous event and a great opportunity for startups to get feedback on their go to market plans and meet relevant contacts. I also thoroughly enjoyed the masterclass.’ Sarah Gunderson, Yammer

The winners

We had a record number of applications for these events, so all the teams were immensely proud to be selected. We were very impressed by their shared enthusiasm, drive and ambition – a really positive atmosphere throughout the whole day at each event.

Despite the fierce competition, three teams from Seedcamp London really won us over, as did one from our Zagreb event. In one month time – along with 15 other Seedcamp teams – they will participate in our annual week-long event: Seedcamp Week. This is a priceless opportunity to showcase their growth and build relationships with 400 individual mentors over the course of 5 days.

So, who are the winners?

BRANDiD – Winner of Seedcamp London – London, UK
What: BRANDiD is a clothing subscription service that learns what you like: built for men, not fashionistas.
Why: This is the kind of consumer company with the real potential to go viral, especially with ‘their engaging approach and depth of understanding of their market’  according to Elliot Conway, VP of Pentland Group.

poq Studio – Winner of Seedcamp Zagreb – London, UK
What: poq Studio makes it possible for SME fashion retailers to get their own mobile commerce apps.
Why: Vukašin Stojkov added that ‘the straightforwardness of both the business model and the product itself gave me the confidence that they’re capable of greatness’.

Rawstream – Winner of Seedcamp London – Malta
What: Rawstream boosts employee productivity and secures your network against internet malware, with ROI measured in days.
Why: We were impressed by the disruptive potential of this compelling product, wrapped up in a really simple proposition. ‘A relevant industry experience and a pragmatic approach makes them a truly promising startup’ according to Sanjay Kaler from GFI Software.

TRData – Winner of Seedcamp London – Kiev, Ukraine
What: TRData sells professional financial platforms for getting, collecting and analysing data from difficult financial markets.
Why: Rachel Evatt from Skyscanner underlined that ‘If TRData’s product is as good as they make out, then they could be placed to rip apart the financial data market, similar to how salesforce.com did to enterprise CRM.’

Thank you to:

Everyone who attended our three events in Zagreb, New York and London respectively.
All teams who participated in the events, eager to drive their business forward and were challenged by the mentors’ comments. We would like to thank all the mentors, who gave us their precious time during these summer months to share their expertise in order to help startups map out their future road to success.
Last but not least, we would like to extend our thanks to our generous event sponsors, who in every city hosted us like kings: 10Gen, SoftLayer, Yammer,CRANE and the CEED. And, of course, we can’t  forget the invaluable contribution of our yearly sponsors Microsoft BizSpark, Qualcomm, Paypal and Google, who support Seedcamp on an ongoing basis.

What’s next?

If you’re a startup wanting to get involved in the Seedcamp action, then applications are currently open to:

Seedcamp Budapest taking place on October 25th. See here for further information about the event and how to apply.

Stay tuned for our coverage of our annual flagship event in September, Seedcamp Week, which will finish with a Demo Day where our companies will showcase their progress to Europe’s top VCs and angel investors. We promise, it will be bigger and better than ever!

THE KERNEL MONDAY, 11 JUNE 2012

The Kernel and Forsyth Group are hosting an invitation-only networking breakfast about ‘big data’, featuring Datasift founder Nick Halstead, with five places reserved for Kernel members and the Kernel 50.

Big data is probably the most important trend in technology today, but, because it doesn’t have a sexy user interface, it’s generally ignored by the tech press. In the first of a series of invitation-only breakfasts, co-hosted by Forsyth Group, The Kernel aims to redress the balance.

We will bring together 20 influential players in the technology industry to discuss the implications and future of big data businesses. The breakfast will take place at 8 a.m. on Tuesday, 3 July in Central London.

Five places at the breakfast have been reserved for Kernel subscribers and members of the Kernel 50.

To apply for a place, please complete the form.

TECH RECRUITERS, PART III: ‘HOLDING THE FORT’

MIC WRIGHT FRIDAY, 8 JUNE 2012

In part three of The Kernel’s tech recruitment industry exposé, Mic Wright reveals the firms you can trust: those the technology industry has told us they regularly use with success.

We’ve so far given the impression that recruitment is an industry in the way gun-running or collecting burnt scraps of pornography you find in the park are industries. But there aresome good firms out there. And we want those people to get the credit they deserve.

In the course of this report, we have spoken to chief executives, CFOs, start-up founders, contractors and investors in the UK and identified a set of firms who were spoken of highly. In this final part of the report, The Kernel speaks to them and their clients.

“It’s all about hiring the person, not the firm, who you trust to do a good job for you,” says Ben Tompkins of Eden Ventures. “It’s incredibly hard to position your early stage company to a VP-level candidate at Google, Microsoft or Salesforce and you need someone you trust to do it well. The best headhunters go on to build a relationship with the company and can end up doing a lot of senior level hires across multiple years.”

Here are the firms The Kernel has identified as ethical players in the recruitment industry:

Forsyth Group is the oldest and remains, according to many, the most prestigious executive search firm in the business. By a clear margin, it is the firm recommended most highly by venture capitalists. Testimonials to Forsyth are extensive and impressive. Alliott Cole of Octopus Investments says: ”Understanding the culture and the skills of the existing team, knowing when to challenge and when to listen, and how to prioritise hires, is critical.

“Being able to draw on someone who has worked closely with founders for many years, knows how important it is to deliver – often within unrealistic deadlines and budgets – and who also seeks to build an enduring relationship with every company, makes introducing Forsyth Group to our teams an easy decision.”

Simon Edelstyn, European managing director of Outbrain, had similarly good things to say this week: “I have worked with the Forsyth Group a number of times over the past five years. Over the past six months, they have helped me build out our European operations, hiring senior executives in Germany, France, the Netherlands, Italy and the Nordics. I am very happy with the quality of candidates they seek out and their communications in keeping me informed on progress. I will continue to working with them as we continue to expand our team.”

“Getting a deep understanding of the cultural dynamics of a company is critical to the successful placement of a candidate and recruitment firms often don’t recognise the importance of this,” according to Rosemary Forsyth, a child psychologist by training who is the founder and general partner of Forsyth Group.

“As an executive search firm, we bring over three decades of experience working with VC-backed, high-growth emerging technology companies. We have always focused on and invested a lot of time in understanding the cultural DNA of the company we are working with. A candidate who brings the skills and experience the company is looking for and also fits with the team’s culture has a significantly greater chance of adding value to the organisation – especially when the going gets tough.”

Congratulations to our four new investments

Antavo: travelling all the way from Hungary, this ambitious team showed an impressive promotion building platform for SMEs to market their offerings on various platforms – a slick product with big potential.

Bukit: Sarah lived through the bad experiences of having personal debt and was fed up with the status quo. That’s why she founded Bukit, which allows consumers to settle their debts through a new platform.

MightyFingers: absolutely rocking HTML5 gaming engine performance; our first 100-per-cent Latvian team is certainly going places.

Sayduck: a fantastic usage of Augmented Reality bridging the gap between online and offline retail experience by helping customers visualize real world items in their environment (Via Sayduck’s app, Carlos is able to hold a virtual table below). This Finnish team impressed us with their dynamic approach to rolling their solution out to market.

In the may 12^th edition of  Wired our Managing Partner wrote 7 pointers on how to hire great talent.

1. Exploit your network for potential employees or referrals before considering using a recruiter. Great businesses are built on great referrals.

2. Think about and create an attractive company culture. Understanding and building a robust cultural DNA for your start-up will help you hire and retain the best candidates.

3. When making a hire ask yourself: “Would I enjoy spending 8 hours next to him/her on a long-haul flight?”

4. Try to hire executives with past start-up success. They will understand the requirements of a rapidly growing company. They also will help you avoid the mistakes they made or experienced.

5. Do not hire executives who don’t fully understand the demands of a start-up company.

6. Locate your business as close to the talent pool as possible. If this is not possible, be prepared to entice the right candidates to your location, or relocate.

7. Hire slow, fire fast. The right employee can help you grow rapidly, even exponentially, but the wrong candidate can set your company back twelve months. Work out why they weren’t suitable before you make your next hire.