Chief Technology Officer Executive Search & Recruitment

Chief Technology Officer Executive Search & Technology Recruiting Challenges

A multi-billion dollar privately held company and closely watched tech unicorn engaged N2Growth’s Technology Executive Search practice to find a new independent Chief Technology Officer.

The company’s co-founder CEO had recently stepped down and been replaced by its COO, who had more investor relations savvy and large company operating experience and could take the brand public. Its other co-founder, the outgoing Chief Technology Officer, realized the importance of replacing himself with a seasoned executive to support the planned IPO.

The Mission

Our client, a technology business with a high volume of subscription sales, experienced hypergrowth. Its technology operations were struggling to mature to the depth and scale required to support its global business. Its core products were innovative, and its customers were happy and recurring. Still, our client’s strategic plan was essential to the need for “snaking wires,” complex infrastructure transformations, microservices architecture, cybersecurity, and optimizations to sustain high growth and manage risk. Our client needed a proven and capable chief technologist with experience leading and managing change at a multi-billion dollar scale.

After the engagement, we learned that our client’s leadership needs were situated in a nuanced cultural context. Though now a multi-billion dollar business with thousands of employees across the globe, our values were built on the ethos of a scrappy, strong-willed startup. Common among all leaders who successfully proved trustworthiness and established credibility – with the board and with employees – was a history of demonstrating speed, vision, and success in resource-constrained environments. What’s more, the outgoing CTO and co-founder were viewed as exceptionally charismatic and detail-oriented; those qualities were unstated expectations of a viable successor. Last, while executive leadership had generally homogenous and undifferentiated opinions about the strength of subfunctions reporting to the CTO, leaders and early employees still within the technology organization perceived the data and analytics function as underdeveloped relative to where it ought to be.

The Result

The specific insights we drew and the alignment we found in the early days of this search created clarity and little need for specification iteration as the search developed. Our team rigorously mapped the market for candidates whose attributes were attuned to the needs of our client. After tens of interviews, we submitted a total of eight candidates for consideration within four weeks. By week seven, our client had three finalists on-site for interviews.

On day 56, our client and its top candidate executed an employment agreement. The new Chief Technology Officer led our client through its successful IPO less than a year later. Today, our client is a publicly traded company with an eleven-figure valuation, a household name, and a world-class chief technology executive.

Areas of Expertise

Executive Search Firm | Board, CEO & C-Suite Executive Recruitment - N2Growth

EXECUTIVE SEARCH

Our search practice focuses on Technology Executive Search, Board, and CTO search. The world’s leading brands seek our counsel to build best-in-class leadership teams, to manage performance, and for succession planning.

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Executive coaching, leadership development and assessments - N2Growth

LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT

Our broad portfolio of executive coaching & leadership development services pushes companies and teams to greatness, whether through 1:1 executive coaching, executive assessments, or enterprise-wide leadership advisory. The silver bullet to winning in business starts with leadership.

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