How Tech Scale Ups Can Compete For Commercial, Execution Focused Talent...

What can tech scale ups do to address the challenge of competing for commercially focused, execution minded talent? Some thoughts to consider...

Presently, one of the toughest hiring challenges for tech scale‑ups isn’t just finding people who can think strategically or execute (or deliver) at pace…  it’s finding those illusive individuals who do can do both of those things...The larger, bigger name tech firms out there have the ability to lure them with bigger salaries. However, tech scale ups have significant power to win these professionals over with something far more compelling: speed, scope, and impact.

⚡ More than a job title: Commercially strong professionals connect every action and every decision they make to revenue, margin, or market position. Execution or delivery focused professionals are all about achieving key outcomes faster than anyone else around and, importantly, without any drop in the quality of those outcomes. Make sure all of this is clearly communicated in your role profile and again when you're meeting with them. It’s not all about the job title, that’s just the label not the deeper and, for them, more important content of the role itself. 

⚡ Start the conversation before you need to hire: Run invite only events, product previews, or advisory sprints and some of your wish list talent to your guest list. When the right role comes live, you’re not pitching them a role cold and out of the blue but, simply carrying on a previous conversation.

⚡ Emphasise and leverage your scale up advantage:  You can offer what larger, bigger name tech firms can’t:- End‑to‑end ownership of outcomes- Direct access to founders- Learning curves measured in weeks, not years

⚡ Design interview scorecards to capture both: Design scorecards that enable you to evaluate candidate’s strategic judgment as well as their ability to execute and operational drive.

⚡ Close with conviction: When you find these top performers, don’t hang around! Signal to them that their hire moves the needle and doesn’t just fill a gap on your org chart.

Your takeaway from all this is that in a competitive market for these top performers; you bring these individuals into your scale up by proving your company is the fastest, clearest route for them to make a meaningful impact. And, guess what, you can play your part by running your hiring process with the same pace and precision that you would expect from your new hires.