Exciting news from our founder.

The Up Group (Up) has been acquired by PE-backed, global talent management firm, Alexander Mann Solutions (AMS).

This is a huge moment in our thirteen year history, and marks the start of an exciting third chapter for us in our mission to become Europe’s leading executive search, networking and advisory business, and to positively impact the tech ecosystem through the power of outstanding talent and connectivity.  Up’s first chapter was one of sole founder ownership where we grew from an idea in my head to a twenty-person team; the second chapter saw Up attract investment from mid-market PE firm, Livingbridge, in 2016 and subsequently more than double the team and revenues as well as exponentially grow our network, events and client base; and Up’s third chapter starts with us being acquired by a strategic trade partner, AMS, who will now support us in accelerating our growth, internationalising and enhancing our talent services.

As many of you know, I founded Up in late 2007, when the tech ecosystem in Europe was still pretty nascent – before we talked about scale-ups and unicorns, and before billions of pounds of global investment piled into the market.  I joke that at the age of 26, I had my ‘Jerry Maguire’ (that tear-jerker Tom Cruise movie for those too young to remember!) moment: I wanted to build a challenger brand in a traditional industry, executive search, an industry that badly needed to change, and I wanted to play in the most disruptive part of the market, in tech/digital. I believed passionately that different kinds of talent as well as a different kind of approach was needed to help these exciting new tech start-ups to succeed. I wanted to inspire people to step off the corporate ladder and pursue a more entrepreneurial path; I wanted to find a way of building non-transactional relationships and of truly adding value (contrary to the view held by many of executive search at the time); and I wanted to find a way of convening a fascinating group of individuals in an engaging format that was truly additive.

At that age and as a former management consultant, I did not have the grey hair, black book nor experience one typically expects of a founding partner of a search firm, and so, perhaps through a stroke of luck not judgement, I settled upon a new approach. I placed a bet that by using the power of connectivity and inspiration, Up could build a first-class network, a brand, and a business development fly-wheel based on referrals, in order to become a truly trusted talent advisor, and hence our series of invite-only, curated, networking events began.  By convening hundreds, and later thousands, of key business leaders, founders and investors in the digital space each year across London, Paris, Amsterdam, Berlin, Stockholm and New York, it afforded us the most privileged position of connecting with some of the greatest minds in the market, of hearing those gold-dust insights about how new companies were evolving, how business models were adapting, how new technologies were surfacing and how incredible roles were being created in these new tech companies.  Remember those days, back when no-one considered careers in start-ups?! Back when roles such as Chief Data Officer and Chief Product Officer were almost unknown in Europe?! Those ad-hoc networking events that have since become known as the Digital Masters Programme (kindly sponsored annually by SVB, Orrick and Silverpeak) have been the cornerstone of our success over the last thirteen years as we worked hard to establish ourselves as a go-to for great executive leadership in the tech ecosystem.

Over this time, myself and my team, have found ourselves truly honoured to have worked with so many amazing companies.  We have worked across the lifecycle from VC-backed start-ups and scale-ups, to PE-owned companies, to listed global corporates, across B2B and B2C, across pure-play and multi-channel, and across every functional role as well as leadership and Board position imaginable.  We have travelled the world meeting amazing, inspiring, ambitious execs, investors and founders.  It has been a brilliant learning curve.  We have taken such pleasure in positively impacting the careers of many individuals by exposing them to roles that have delivered huge personal value and development; and we have felt proud to be selected by some of the world’s top investors and companies to be their strategic talent partner, helping them to scale through building high-performance teams.  Our brand has become synonymous with tech-enabled growth and transformation, and we have become relevant not just to pure-play companies, but also to more traditional offline businesses needing to become truly omnichannel.

The last thirteen years as a founder, as a business owner, as a CEO and as a people leader, have been a wonderful, rich, as well as incredibly challenging journey.  It seems just yesterday that I sat on my own in a tiny office above a cheese shop in Covent Garden having given up my sensible MD job, to start my own thing.  I had no idea what I was doing, what I was going to do, nor can I say I even had the greatest business plan (far from it!).  But I do know that I had a vision, a stubborn desire to build something, an attitude of ‘sod it just try’ and I have never regretted a moment.  I will be forever grateful to my first employee, Gemma Hale, for believing in my ramblings about ‘a start-up with a funny name’ (thanks to my brother Neil Johnston for that one!) that she could help me build – when a person, even just one, gets behind you and believes you may have something, it is a humbling moment. Others then joined me, several of whom are still with Up over 10 years on, such as Claire Hogg, Pete Alexander and Stephanie de Wangen, and all of whom have been instrumental in building towards today’s achievement: Andrew Duncan, Lydia Shepherd, James Burrows, Anca Condrea, Danielle Ward, Sarah Pipkin, Jed Butcher, Vicki Welham and Sarah Noyce to name just a few.

I fear I won’t do justice to the full list of amazing individuals who joined Up for various stops along its journey although are no longer with us, but a big shout out and thank you to those who certainly left an indelible mark: Rob Swerling (my co-CEO for over four years, who took a detour from his career running tech companies to join Up, and who helped me raise investment from private equity); Alex Hazell and Arabella Reeves (who helped me build the Digital Masters Programme into something we are so proud of today and who painstakingly launched the now epic talent awards, the DMAs, which at the time was a scary step and a big investment for us all); and the amazing ‘rising stars’ in our search team over the years, such as Tiffany van Driel, Oliver George, Lucy Shilling, Tamsin Elsey, Hanna Linden, Ilja Koren, Karen Klakegg and Chris Wilkinson, who have all gone on to great careers in tech companies like Netflix, Google, Min Doktor, Thread and SignalAI, which has been so rewarding to see.

I have made many mistakes along the way, far too many to fit into one post for sure, and at some point, I will take the time to list them and to reflect on the key lessons learnt, to inform the next chapter and to grow as a person and leader.  But for now, I wanted to share a huge thank you to every one of you reading this post, as you are the people who supported me in founding Up, in helping me and my team to grow the business, and you are the reason our jobs are so rewarding.  The people in the tech ecosystem who I have had the pleasure of building relationships with over the last thirteen years are truly inspiring and I will be forever grateful to those of you who have provided words of support, who have attended our events, who have engaged with our network, and who have been clients or candidates, or just general cheerleaders.  

As Up begins chapter three, we are excited to be able to leverage a global platform as well as the support and expertise of a four-times PE-backed business like AMS, whilst retaining our autonomy, our brand, our team and our network, in order to accelerate our growth, to expand globally and to deliver better and better services to our clients.  I, for one, feel the same sense of passion and energy for Up now as I did thirteen years ago, and I hope Up is even better positioned than ever to support you all in building world-class companies.

I want to finish on a truly personal note - my inspiration to go into business and entrepreneurship stems from my amazing parents, Pete and Irene Johnston, both of whom were working parents.  My father founded a company in the software space when I was young and I was very much a daddy’s girl spending my weekends in his office in Bristol. Therefore to have built The Up Group, whilst also getting married and becoming a mother to four incredible children, all still below the age of 10, is a huge source of pride for me - I hope I will serve as an inspiration to them too in years to come. Diversity in business and leadership is a topic close to my heart, and if my journey as a female founder and mother serves to inspire just one female to ‘go for it’, then that is the greatest reward.

And the biggest mention of all - to my incredible husband, James Turner, who has been my rock throughout, and who has played the role of ‘house husband and super daddy’ just perfectly.  I love that we’ve done it, differently, together. 

Thank you again and congratulations to everyone at Up!  Today is an exciting day.  I cannot wait to join Rosaleen Blair, Chair of AMS and David Leigh, CEO of AMS, in helping to take Up and AMS to the next level.  Onwards and Up-wards!