The Forsyth Group – Executive Search

Peter Thiel has some interesting ideas on education and micro countries  , but Valar Ventures  is his best yet.

Valar Ventures is an internationally-focused venture capital firm backed by Peter Thiel. Based in San Francisco, Valar invests exclusively in companies outside of the United States. Valar believes that over the next decade an increasing number of transformative technology companies will be started outside of the US, and that the founders of those companies will benefit from having a US partner that understands their unique challenges and opportunities and can help them access US networks.

 Valar Ventures’ recent investment in Transferwise, which we wrote about earlier this week bit.ly/YTsBtg , is a great fit for Valar and Peter who is a member of the PayPal mafia.

 This is a great addition to the UK/EU funding ecosystem and a smart move considering how many companies on this side of the pond want access or relocate to the US market.

The Quora  comment below, which was a response to the question ‘What’s the worst part about working at Google’ http://b.qr.ae/10n4azK, shows an interesting perspective on what it’s like to be a superstar, working alongside other superstars. Could working amongst geniuses in such a big company actually be a hindrance? If employees aren’t stretched intellectually by their work, but are incentivised financially to stay, does this create a negative working environment?

 From a recruitment standpoint it is virtually impossible for start-ups to hire people from Google, not least because they don’t have the cash-flow to compete. But if the brightest and best want the opportunity to be challenged by building a disruptive product and working with entrepreneurs who have the passion and drive integral to the exciting, if somewhat unstable, early stage environment, then maybe the recruitment tide is about to turn…

  ‘The worst part of working at Google, for many people, is that they’re overqualified for their job. Google has a very high hiring bar due to the strength of the brand name, the pay & perks, and the very positive work culture. As a result, they have their pick of bright candidates, even for the most low-level roles.

There are students from top 10 colleges who are providing tech support for Google’s ads products, or manually taking down flagged content from YouTube, or writing basic code to A|B test the color of a button on a site.

Some of the downsides of so many overqualified people:

·         It’s hard to get promoted quickly, since the person above you as well as at your level both have great educations and strong work ethics. When it’s standard to be awesome, and the work isn’t particularly tough to begin with, it’s hard to differentiate.

·         The work may not be intellectually rewarding (read: boring). It can be tough to feel a sense of accomplishment about what you do, and that sense is actually quite important to the type of people who are ambitious enough to get over the Google hiring bar.

·         Some people end up losing their drive by working at Google. They get accustomed to not trying their hardest, but still having an awesome day-to-day life.

Some caveats: Many Googlers are clearly among the brightest in the world in their field, and they’re able to run full stride in their work. If you take your career into your own hands, you can find a role that challenges and stretches you as much as any other job in the world.

source: ‘I worked at Google.’

http://b.qr.ae/10n4azK

Congratulations to the Asetek team and Northzone Ventures! It’s always great to see a client achieving success and this IPO is a brilliant result.

Bronderslev, 18 March 2013 – Asetek A/S (“Asetek” or the “Company”) is pleased to announce the successful completion of its initial public offering (the “Offering”) with its shares to be listed on the main list of the Oslo Stock Exchange under the trading symbol “ASETEK”. The Offering, which was priced at NOK 36.00 per Offer Share, includes a total of 5,333,333 Offer Shares, consisting of 4,000,000 New Shares offered by the Company and 1,333,333 Secondary Shares sold on a pro rata basis by existing shareholders (the “Selling Shareholders”). In addition, 800,000 Secondary Shares, representing 15% of the Offering (excluding the over-allotment), has been allotted pursuant to an over-allotment facility. The Offering was well oversubscribed at the Offer Price. The first day of trading of the Company’s shares on the Oslo Stock Exchange will be 20 March 2013.

http://bit.ly/XmOzin 

It’s that time of the year again for Seedcamp Companies!

The SC team and 25 Seedcampers are travelling the US visiting the most important technology hubs, meeting investors, and catching up with our friends.

For over 5 years, our US trip has been a key component of the Seedcamp program. The goal of the trip is to connect Seedcamp founders with the ecosystem in the States, fundraise from US investors, and learn from local successes. This year, we’re upping our game in two ways: Not only are we meeting more investors and mentors than ever, also did we just announce that we will now go on our tour twice per year.

Below is a summary of how the US tour will look for our teams, but If you are interested in our trip, the meetups, and events, make sure to follow our US trip Tumblr and follow us on Twitter and Facebook. We will post photos, check ins, and daily updates. Each week, we’ll post a recap of what happened, and make sure you are all up to date on what is happening.

Connections

This year, we are travelling to New York, Boston, San Francisco, the Silicon Valley, and we will visit Austin for SXSW. Access to these local ecosystems is key, especially as founders are looking for advice, network, capital, and validation for their startups. Through a combination of events, local meet ups, and office visits, we make sure to connect the entrepreneurs to the right people.

Seedcamp style events

In all those cities, we will hold local Seedcamp events. Much like our Mini Seedcamps in Europe, these events are based the teams presenting their companies, and interacting with mentors and investors in one to one sessions. Exactly like the events in Europe, these one day opportunities to network with a broad range of investors and successful entrepreneurs are a great base for founders to experience the local strengths and find partners with whom to work longer term. Last year, we had more than 200 of America’s top mentors and investors involved across the trip, this year, even more are signed up.

Local meet ups

Meeting local startups that are in similar phases of their development as the Seedcampers builds great connections and results in lots of friendships. As always, we make sure to engage with the local community – be it with our friends at General Assembly in New York, hack:reduce in Boston, various incubators and coworking spaces on the West Coast, or the wider tech community atSXSW.

Office visits

Nothing transports the value of a strong company culture more than visiting some of the most successful startups and tech companies in person. That’s why we visit role models such as Google,Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Foursquare, Amazon, Microsoft, and Paypal, and connect with their startup and developer teams, have a chat with the founders and early employees, and enjoy the atmosphere of their campuses. This has brought about strong connections between Seedcamp companies and technology partners such as Facebook, Amazon, and Twitter, who are working directly with Seedcamp companies to support their products and services.

Fundraising

Besides the best European investors, we have always made it an explicit goal to attract US capital for our startups. The US trip is a great way to connect with and raise money from the best investors.

Exposure at Seedcamp events

About half of the mentors at Seedcamp events in the US are investors. The sessions are a great way for us to present to them some of Europe’s best early stage startups. Besides talking to potential investors for their startups, founders also get to learn from the investors experience with their portfolio companies, tap into the wider network, and build relationships early.

VC pitch sessions

Funds like Union Square Ventures, Redpoint, Lerer Ventures, Atlas, Next View, SoftTech,500startups, and more have invested in Seedcamp companies who they met on the US trip. That’s why we make sure to meet the investment teams of the best funds on our tour.

We are proud to have an open door to some of the best investors in the places we visit. This way, we’re are able to not only spend time with them during mentoring sessions, but also to visit them at their offices to deepen the conversations. This year, amongst the already mentioned investors in Seedcamp companies, we’re meeting Partners of iA Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, New Enterprise Associates, O’Reilly Alpha Tech, Greylock, and others to enable our companies to present to the best VC funds of the world.

Learning

Some of the greatest technology companies are being built in the US, and we want to enable our teams to learn from the best. We have local events, meet companies and platform providers, and involve our friends all across the US in what we do.

Masterclasses

In each city, we make sure to meet with locals and learn from their successes through masterclasses and group sessions. This year, we are excited to hold sessions like this in all of the places we visit. In New York, we talk fundraising and deal closing with successful investment bankers. In Boston, Atlas Venture and hack:reduce are organising an afternoon conference on the Boston ecosystem, which includes the founders of Zipcar, Hubspot, and insights from various VC firms. Our San Francisco events include more masterclasses on deign and product building –AirBnB and others are hosting us and the companies.

Platform sessions

Most startups are building on top of the large tech companies’ platforms, and we make sure to get them exposure to the folks behind the scenes. At places like Facebook, Twitter, Microsoft,Amazon, 10gen, and Foursquare, we meet engineers and platform teams to get the word straight from the horse’s mouth: How can startups benefit and get the most out of these technologies.

Teams make their own trip

Besides meetups, and events, teams have done their homework and are meeting angel investors, lots of startups and community members in their industries, and get involved in events that are happening in the cities we visit. This is an immediately useful part and goes beyond what we could even plan: this year, 15 teams and more than 25 people are on the trip, and we aim to leave a mark in each of the places we go.

Check out the teams that are coming along and get in touch if you want to meet up!

Want to come along?

Our next US trip is happening in October this year. If you are interested in taking part – make sure you apply to Seedcamp in the mean time and join the family. Applications are currently open for Seedcamp Berlin.

You have secured funding for the business and now hiring a CEO, COO or CFO means it’s time to grow up fast for a tech startup. Rosemary Forsyth explains how to avoid a costly mistake!

“The founders have done a great job getting to the stage where an experienced investor will invest their time and firm’s money in the company. Now the founding team needs to be strengthened with one or more executives so that the company can scale to the next level.

The first step in this process must be for the team and person leading the hiring process to get a solid understanding of what skills and expertise they are looking to attract and why. It is critical that the team and investor are on the same page when it comes to hiring the first outside executives into the company. The simplest way to achieve this is to discuss the role that you are looking to fill and draft a detailed job description that all relevant parties agree is representative of who the company needs to hire to move forward.

The next step is to search the team’s and investor’s network for potential candidateswho may fit the bill. This is the cheapest and often the most effective way to find a suitable candidate, if the hiring manager has the time and the team has a large enough network. Some start-ups have successfully sourced candidates via social networks such as LinkedIn. It is
very important that the company do full due diligence referencing on all candidates, especially candidates sourced through social networks. The team should explore these options as soon as possible, especially where the hiring of an executive within a certain time frame is vital. If timing is an issue, or if the team and investor’s network are not sufficiently large or
do not cover the right sectors, the hiring manager can choose to work with an executive search firm to help source the ideal candidate.

The hiring manager should work with an executive search firm who has a track record of success scaling high growth early stage teams in their vertical and technology sector. The cultural DNA of a high growth start-up is radically different to that of a corporate environment and therefore high growth start-ups require executives who thrive in this less structured entrepreneurial environment.  Often the best candidates have achieved success in an early stage company before.The most effective candidate will fit in with the culture of the company and be able to “hit the ground running” by opening doors, closing deals and building value immediately.”

Thank you to Rosemary.

To find out more about available office property in the Silicon Roundabout area contact Kushner at www.kushnerproperty.com