Insights
18 Tech Scaleup Podcasts to Listen While Walking Your Dog
Make the most of your dog walks with these 18 standout tech and scaleup podcasts. From startup stories to growth insights, these shows will keep you inspired, informed, and moving.
Did AI break the hiring process?
When even video screenings aren’t enough to effectively interview candidates - it’s fair to ask: where did human judgment go?
Anti-Blitzscaling 2025: Why Lean Startups Still Need Growth Foundations
Unlimited funding but no team? Anti-blitzscaling is here. Learn why sales, ops, and growth leaders are essential to turn tech into real business success.
CTO Salaries in 2025: £150K or £300K?
Same title, completely different jobs. Here’s what London scaleups are really paying—plus what to expect in equity, scope, and team size.
15 AI Trends from Top CTOs and VCs in London
Key takeaways from a roundtable we co-hosted with Next47, featuring insights from 12 VCs and CTOs in AI.
10 Tips To Help Find Your New Job In 2025
Struggling to land a job in 2025? Discover 10 expert tips to stand out in the job market, from LinkedIn hacks to networking strategies that actually work.
Do I need a Head of AI?
With AI rapidly becoming an important part of a business’ growth strategy, we examine how installing a Head of AI helps maximize its potential, and what qualities and experiences make a good fit for the role.
The spectacular fall of Sam Bankman Fried and his organisational anarchy
A new book "Going Infinite" is out on Sam Bankman Fried (SBF) by Michael Lewis (author of The Big Short, Moneyball). It exposes how the lack of corporate structure led to one of the biggest startup meltdowns in history, and is a classic example of the market accepting the eccentric genius narrative.
Sales (Software) Salaries Update 2023
The latest 2023 insights on sales (software) salaries for VC backed scale-ups in London at Late Seed, Series A and B stage. Includes benchmarked average salaries, AND live 2023 examples of recent hires.
Marketing Salaries Update 2023
Here are the latest insights on Marketing salaries for Late Seed, Series A and B in 2023 - benchmarked average salaries, AND live 2023 examples of recent hires.
Insights from a Chief People Officer on HR Trends for Scale-Ups in 2023 - Part 1
In this 2-part series with Chief People Officer Geraldine Butler-Wright, we discuss topics within people, talent and HR that are affecting scale-ups in the tech sector right now:
Part 1 - Hiring in a challenging market - is interim the answer?
Part 2 - HR trends scale-ups need to know about.
Interim Leadership Services VP & C-Suite
Santa Monica Talent provides cost effective, on-demand access to interim talent for the world’s most ambitious challenger brands and scale-ups. We have immediate access to the skills, knowledge and market insights specific for your sector. Our market knowledge and sector specific experience have been built over 25 years within executive search in multiple locations covering Europe, Asia Pacific and North America.
How to Build Your Marketing Team in 2023
A case study for a typical VC backed Series A, 100 headcount, B2B SaaS scale-up in 2023. Insightful tips on how to build a marketing team in 2023 to increase revenue, achieve product/market fit and raise brand awareness. Ellis Seder in conversation with Michael Williamson, veteran CMO with over 25 years of senior strategic technology marketing.
How to sell artificial intelligence software in 2023 - from 5 leading AI scale-up executives.
AI scale-ups often undervalue the need to build strong sales and marketing teams that can effectively define, communicate and sell the value of their AI solutions. Here are 6 tips to hire sales & marketing talent for AI hyper-growth scaleups.
7 Tips To Building The Ultimate Sales Team For Growth 2023
Building and growing a winning sales team is complex and nuanced, because your business is unique. But, one thing that scale-ups ALL have in common right now is the pressure on revenue targets and the urgent need to drive sales for growth in 2023.
The Return of the Digital Scale-up CMO!
At Santa Monica Talent we recently completed senior marketing leadership searches for VP Marketing and CMO roles. During the hiring process, we interviewed over 200 candidates, and have created a summary of what those candidates ‘looked like’.
Why you’re struggling to hire in 2021
This is part II of the article on staff shortage. Having recently seen both The Guardian and The Times talk about staff shortages and what to do about them, I wanted to detail my own 2021 experiences.
Why you’re struggling to hire in 2021
Having recently seen both The Guardian and The Times talk about staff shortages and what to do about them, I wanted to detail my own 2021 experiences. They are lengthy, so I’ll break them into two parts. Part I below, part II coming next week.
How InsurTech startups can get ready for 2021’s summer of hiring
Following FinTech’s lead, InsurTech has become a real growth marketplace and that looks set to continue in the coming years. But in what sub-sectors will that growth occur? And how can startups get their hiring right for 2021 and beyond?
Ellis Seder
Forecasting talent trends with Rise @ Barclays
I’ve just published an article on the latest talent trends in partnership with Barclays’ Fintech hub, Rise. It includes my take on how remote working might influence the talent market, how existing roles might be affected, and whether Covid-19 could mark the end of blitzscaling. Here’s 8 trends that I have shared in the article.
Check out the original article HERE.
London Fintech Podcast
I recently sat down with Mike Baliman of the London Fintech Podcast and spoke about getting a job in tech no matter what age or stage you’re at. I delved into the ways of finding the perfect job if you’re already working in the tech industry and thinking about moving on to something new, or if you’re wanting to break into the tech industry for the first time. READ HERE
SXSW
What I learned, and didn’t, from SXSW 2018. I’ve not long been back from the spectacle that is SXSW. What did I learn? I’m glad you asked.
READ HERE