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Most venture-backed platforms reach a point where the technology, and the team running it, has to grow past what the founders built. HMN Capital runs CTO and CPO searches for venture-backed businesses across the UK and Europe, including cross-border searches when the domestic market is short.
Recent mandates: a CTO sourced across the UK and Benelux, and a CPO hired from the US
These are the patterns we see most often. The business decides the order.
Founding CTO
A technical founder builds the first product. The question is how long they should also run engineering as the team grows.
Series A
Often a first engineering leader or a Head of Product, so the founders can stay on architecture and customers.
Series B
The platform starts straining under volume and investors expect engineering governance. A scale-stage CTO or a first CPO often arrives here.
Growth and pre-exit
Security, resilience and a roadmap that survives technical diligence, run by a team that does not need the founders in every decision.
A platform that scales
Re-architecting under load without stopping the roadmap.
Engineering governance
The controls, security and delivery discipline an incoming investor or buyer will look for.
One roadmap
A single product roadmap the board, the commercial team and engineering all work from.
AI and data depth
Leaders who can build AI into the product and the platform. Chief AI Officer search
The founder and the new leader
We work through how the role sits alongside a technical founder before the search starts, because that relationship decides whether the hire works.
Cross-border when needed
When the domestic market is thin, we widen the search. Two of our recent venture product and technology searches ran cross-border.
Packages and equity
We benchmark salary, bonus and equity for the seat against live market data, so the offer reflects what the seat pays in the market today.
Headline mandate
CFO, CRO, CPO and COO for one VC-backed business
Four C-suite appointments for the same venture-backed company as it scaled, plus the people and commercial hires beneath them.
Chief Technology Officer
VC-backed fintech infrastructure, Benelux. A CTO to re-architect a platform under volume and stand up the engineering governance an incoming Series B investor would expect.
Sourced across the UK and Benelux
Chief Product Officer
VC-backed AI and data products. A first CPO with genuine AI and machine-learning depth. When the domestic market came up short, the search widened to the United States.
Hired from the US
Should we hire a CTO or a CPO first?
It depends on where the constraint is. If the platform is straining, usually the CTO; if the roadmap is being pulled in too many directions, usually the CPO. We help settle that before the search starts.
What happens to the founding CTO?
That is agreed before the search, with the founder. These searches run confidentially and with the founder inside the process.
Will you search outside the UK?
Yes. When the domestic market is short of the profile, we search across Europe and the US.
Do you advise on equity?
Yes. We benchmark salary and options for the seat against live market data.
