Dear Friends of Wellington Partners,

Young technology companies are led only by their founders and nobody else – that’s a common misconception among people considering careers at start-ups. In reality, such companies are constantly looking to complement their management teams and recruit senior executives. After the companies have gone through their first stage of development, many CEOs take active steps towards expanding and changing their executive boards.

Our main article of this issue of Think! Careers deals with the opportunities for senior managers in young companies and the challenge of finding suitable candidates. By the way, if you feel you would like to join a young tech company, we would be happy to receive your CV at scherer@wellington-partners.com. Enjoy reading.

Your Wellington team

Think! { COVER STORY }

Come on board!

Due to their fast growth and internationalization, venture-backed start-ups are finding themselves under constant pressure to enhance their management teams. Wellington supports this process, as we know what a huge challenge it is for small companies to find senior executives.

Qype has everything that it needs to become a great company. The Hamburg-based company has become Europe’s largest user-generated local reviews site in the last five years. It is attracting 22 million visits per month and is now steadily enlarging its footprint in the mobile world with its smartphone apps. The fast-growing interest in advertising on the part of business owners is fueling the revenue stream and enabling the company to expand all over Europe and beyond.

Senior managers wanted

To stay on a growth course, Qype has to consistently strengthen its pan-European team – the company now employs more than 150 people. At the same time, the company needs to expand its international management team. In the last few months, the company has recruited, among others, senior managers in the field of HR and finance with the help of Wellington Partners. Qype is today Europe’s largest site for user-generated reviews and recommendations of places, events and experiences. More about Qype ... » Enhancing and enlarging the management team is a key requirement for successful start-ups. Normally, they start with a small team of entrepreneurial talents who are committed to bringing their business concept to ultimate success. And when they start to prosper, they have to professionalize the entire organization – from accounting to sales. More often than many realize, founder teams even decide to recruit a new CEO with more experience in building a global sales organization and/or marketing an innovation on a global scale. Qype is a good example, where founder Stephan Uhrenbacher stepped down from his position as CEO and joined the company’s board. Former AOL and BT manager Ian Brotherston has now taken over the lead of the company.

Wellington knows how to identify born entrepreneurs

The biggest challenge in such a process is to get in touch with the right talents – and that means finding people that are not only qualified on paper but also fit in culturally, which are two very different characteristics. It is like finding the proverbial needle in a haystack, as conventional recruiting methods are tailor-made for big business. To overcome this problem, Wellington has had its own dedicated HR manager for many years – Sabine Scherer became a part of the team in 2003.

The agnion case is a good example of how, with Sabine´s support, Wellington maintains a stake in the management hires of portfolio companies and helps them grow and succeed. This German pioneer in the field of biomass gasification was looking for a CEO with vast sales and marketing experience. Within 6 months, agnion was able to hire Stephan Mey. Most recently, the engineer had headed the power plant division at MAN Diesel, playing a key role in its profitable growth. Read more about his new job at "It´s just fun". For Mey, as well as for Qype CEO Brotherston, their job changes were logical steps in their careers. As CEO’s, they gain the freedom to follow their strategy, make decisions quickly, and hire the people they want to work with. They are now in a position to drive their respective companies to ultimate success as part of a highly-motivated and committed team. agnion is a biomass gasification specialist with a unique value proposition in a fast-growing market. More about agnion ... »

A trend towards entrepreneurial careers

Mey as well as Brotherston represent a new generation of managers. They strive for more responsibility, more flexibility and a higher level of autonomy than conventional big business can offer. It is the young technology companies that offer such a working environment, so it makes sense for entrepreneurial talents to come on board. Interested? Then send your short CV to scherer@wellington-partners.com.

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Talk! { INTERVIEW }

It´s just fun

Stephan Mey has headed biomass gasification specialist agnion since November 2010. The CEO explains the advantages of working in a start-up environment:

You left a senior executive position at a German DAX company to become the CEO of the young growth company agnion. Why? My entire career I have started up new businesses, such as the power plant division in my previous company. It has always been part of my mentality to develop new businesses. But in a traditional organization this is an exhausting task, as you have to overcome many obstacles within the organization. For example, certain HR procedures take months and prevent you from hiring the talents you need, all because a candidate with the specific   qualification that you are looking for has never been hired before. What are the main differences between your old career and your new task? The working environment is much easier than before. There is no politics. A mistake is called a mistake and countermeasures are taken immediately. Work is extremely efficient. Have you found anything that you did not expect at the time you decided to join a start-up? Not really. It is as exciting as I expected; it’s just fun. { TOP }

Apply! { CAREERS }

Latest Job Offerings

Our portfolio companies are constantly expanding their teams on all levels – and Wellington Partners is supporting them not only in the field of executive search but also in recruiting candidates for junior and senior positions. On www.wellington-partners.com/careers, we regularly publish a broad range of job offerings from our portfolio. If you feel the time has come for you to join a fast-growing technology company, just check our website or have a look at the following vacancies:

agnion – Fachkraft Technische Dokumentation (German) » (Hettenshausen)

agnion – 3D CAD Anlagenkonstrukteur/-in (German) » (Hettenshausen)

agnion – Projektingenieur/-in Anlagenplanung (German) » (Hettenshausen)

AZZURRO – Engineer LED Development » (Dresden)

AZZURRO – Marketing Engineer High Power Semiconductor » (Dresden)

GameDuell – International Online Marketing Manager (German) » (Berlin)

GameDuell – Grafiker/-in mit Flashkenntnissen (German) » (Berlin)

Hailo – Mid-Level QA Engineer / Automation Test Engineer » (London)

Heliatek – Chemielaborant / Chem.-Techn. Assistent/-in (German) » (Ulm)

Heliatek – IT-Systemadministrator/-in (German) » (Dresden)

Heliatek – Wissensch. Mitarbeiter/-in Spektroskopie (German) » (Dresden)

Orcan Energy – Versuchsingenieur/-in (German) » (Munich)

Orcan Energy – Ing. Mechatronik / Ing. Elektrotechnik (German) » (Munich)

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