Ryan Smith summarises AG's journey and take-outs from 2022...

I'd like to thank our client partners through 2022; you were instrumental to our learning and growth and we look forward to further collaborations.

It was our first full year as a business, and it was not overlooked that our partners (Albany) took a risk on a new company, but one that a year on, has shown was worth taking.

We set up AG with a very clear objective: to build a search business that scales and builds teams for CTOs and CPOs. One that reduces attrition and increases retention in product & engineering teams for early-stage businesses.

Our aim was based on our belief that the best execution is always a collective, and CTOs and CPOs who build complementary teams tend to perform better.?

We haven't measured success by the number of hires made or the revenue generated. Success for us comes months down the line when we're able to revisit hires made and learn of personal and professional growth, coupled with business impact. However here are a few indicators of what we’ve done, as well as things we’ve enjoyed doing along the way:

• Hiring a committed and talented team, and finding out we actually all get on.
• Two investments made - this is a huge step forward for AG and something we didn't expect to do so early. We talk about being a generational partner and live that philosophy by investing in the companies we partner. We have found this to be a huge driver for authentic collaboration.
• Onboarded marketing - we're aware personal and professional brand is important for new and existing businesses so having someone help us and our clients jostle for exposure has been awesome and will be a catalyst for 2023 as we take AG into new territory. Thanks Becky.
• We ditched Power Point and moved to Notion. I'm not saying PDF is dead but using Notion to publish company information is far more digestible and slicker.
• We focused on advising and co-creating content to help early-stage companies illuminate their offering in specific tech and product communities.
• We helped over 40 CEOs, and technology and product executives make hires. 45% in leadership (people and strategy); 20% engineering efficiencies; 35% individual contributors.
• Every company we recruited for this year had formed post 2011.
• We hired into portfolio companies across 6 different VCs, 3 PE, 2 bootstrapped.
• Pre-seed, Seed and Series A totalled 90% - the other 10% were Unicorn or bootstrapped.
• Our European footprint was far greater than expected. Over 75% of hires made were in Europe?(not all HQ'd there; also the power of remote working etc).
• Coming up with innovative ideas with the team to ensure our candidate base is fully representative.
• Average % of equity offered was at 0.5%, with the greatest share offering at 2.8%.
• Over 65% of mandates were offered fully remote, and 100% hybrid as a minimum.

So there you have it – a snapshot of AG’s endeavours in 2022. The tech sector has had a challenging 12 months and this has been tough for many. But there’s a huge amount of talent out there, new exciting ideas springing up all the time, and the demand for both. Bring on 2023.

Author: Ryan Smith, Managing Director