Case Studies

DeepMind

Overview: 

The company needed help to scale pre-acquisition.

Delivered: 

  • Oversaw growth from 20 to 100 across all disciplines
  • Company was in stealth during this time and required extensive outreach for new hires
  • Built teams in Research Engineering, product development, operations, finance
  • Became a trusted partner of the Leadership Team

Hired: 

  • CFO
  • Head of People
  • Chief of Staff
  • Head of IT Operations
  • Lead Research Engineer

Company Sold to Google 2014

“Thanks again for all your amazing hard work, you made a real difference to us! I’m sure our paths will cross again!”  –  Demis Hassabis, CEO 

SwiftKey

Overview: 

Talent function needed establishing.

Delivered: 

  • Oversaw their growth from 9 to 150 in 2 years
  • Helped build a world-class engineering team
  • Grew product teams from ground-up
  • Bult Professional Services teams from ground-up

Hired: 

  • Head of Engineering
  • Lead Architect
  • Head of Professional Services
  • Head of IP
  • Head of Data Science

Company sold to Microsoft in 2016.

“Ability Resourcing have been reliable throughout and have demonstrated exceptional insight into our business and a remarkable ability to locate high-quality candidates and shepherd them through the recruitment process. Within a short space of time, we’ve been able to put together one of the most talented technical teams in the UK” – Ben Medlock, CTO

 

Benevolent AI

Overview: 

Company needed building from scratch

Delivered:

  • Worked with 4 founding Pharma execs to establish an AI first drug discovery team
  • Oversaw growth of cross-functional team from 4 to 300 in 5 years
  • Built all teams from the ground-up

Profiles Hired: 

  • AI Research
  • Bioinformatics
  • Cheminformatics
  • Software Engineering
  • Scientific Research
  • Operations
  • Introduced advisors and non-exec’s from our network
  • Several key VP, “C” level hires made
  • Grew 30 man cross-functional team in New York
  • Back filled our role with on-site talent function

Company floated on Euronext 2022

“Ability Resourcing were an amazing partner that helped me build a cross-functional tech team that spanned AI research and engineering, product management, data science, and design, from the leadership to the individual contributors, They are the best recruiters I have worked with in my career. Very strategic, not only surfacing high-quality people, but people who are right for the role” – Jerome Pesenti, CEO BenevolentTech 2020

Endomag

Overview:

Talent function needed establishing

Delivered:

Super-charged their hiring needs. Brought in to create and lead their internal talent function.

  • Helped structure & standardise the hiring process
  • Oversaw growth from 35 to 55 people
  • Back-filled our role with in-house talent function

Hired: 

  • Operations Manager
  • HR Director
  • IP Manager

Acquired in 2024 for $310M

Orbital Witness

Overview: 

We joined the company at 40 after they just received their Series A funding.

Delivered: 

  • Worked on-site in addition to internal talent function
  • Scaled their product and engineering team to 60+
  • Doubled size of engineering team

Hired: 

  • Full Stack Engineerings, AI Engineers, Front End Engineers
  • 2x Product Managers for LLM based products
  • Lead AI Engineer
  • Secured Tech Lead for their core product
  • Senior DevOps Engineer

Business now over £5M ARR plus US expansion

GENERAL SYSTEM

Overview: 

Company circa 30 people required new engineering leadership, product management capability and scaling

Delivered: 

  • Owned the on-site talent function for 4 years
  • Oversaw the growth from 30 to 55.
  • Upskilled the engineering team.
  • Hired across Sales, Customer Support, Operations, Engineering

Hired: 

  • VP Engineering
  • Engineering Manager
  • CMO
  • Head of Infrastructure
  • Head of QA

“We worked closely with Ability for 4 years and they were instrumental in supporting our growth and building out the high calibre team, they demonstrated a deep understanding of the nuances, complexities and challenges faced by tech start-ups/scale-ups. This helped them really understand the dynamics of our business and then translate that to sourcing high quality candidates who were the right fit for both technically and (crucially) culturally for us, They have a rich and deep network across the start-up/scale-up ecosystem with access to a strong seam of talent – across all disciples. We really appreciated their flexible and pragmatic approach – it was a true partnership – not just an arm’s length agency. On top of all that, they are really nice people to work with and we always felt they were putting the needs of our business ahead of their own.” – Paul Birch, COO, David Peto, CEO

Comply Advantage

Overview: 

  • Scaling company
  • Lots of open requirements
  • Business lost confidence in talent function

Delivered: 

  • 5 month engagement for 2 experienced talent specialists
  • Rapidly embedded, onboarded in-situ
  • Quickly won confidence of hiring managers
  • Owned open roles& re-energised hiring cadence
  • Managed entire pipeline and hired CISO

Hired: 

  • Head of IT
  • Senior UX Designer
  • Product Manager
  • 2x Software Engineers
  • 1x QA Engineer
  • New internal talent team to take over hiring
  • CISO to Hired section list

What our candidates say about us:

“ Working with Ability Resourcing as both a candidate and a hiring manager has been an outstanding experience. They helped me secure two fantastic roles. As a candidate, I really valued their open and honest approach making me feel completely comfortable sharing my expectations and goals. It was clear they genuinely cared about finding me the right role and team—not just filling a position.” – Director of AI

“They’re well versed in the unique challenges of tech startups, but what stands them apart is their natural ability to understand candidates and hiring managers beyond skills and experience alone. Very attentive to synergy of values, company culture and working practices to ensure their placements are not only successful, but go on to become invaluable team members” – Sales Operations Manager

“Ability Resourcing are the best recruiters I’ve ever worked with. Over the past 10–15 years, they’ve placed me in a couple of fantastic roles and handled the process with professionalism and care. We’ve built a great relationship, exchanging introductions and career advice along the way. The team have been instrumental in my career” – COO

“I’d highly recommend any tech professionals looking for an opportunity in an early-stage startup to get in touch with Ability Resourcing. They invest the time needed to get to know what’s going to work well for you and they work with some impressive tech entrepreneurs on exciting projects. I’ve found two great roles through Ability now they’ve really helped me to push my career forward and learn to be a better engineer and a better leader.” – TECH LEAD / CTO

“I’ve had the pleasure in knowing the team at Ability Resourcing for nearly 20 years, both as a hiring manager and a candidate. Their dedication to matching the right candidates with the right roles is unparalleled, and they excel at partnering with some of the most innovative emerging tech start-ups. What truly sets them apart is their commitment to build strong, lasting relationships” – DATA PLATFORM LEAD 

“In an industry that desperately needs more people like him, Mike stands out as a beacon of good practice. He takes the time to genuinely understand the background, motivation and requirements of both candidates and hiring organisations, treats both with respect and, most importantly, integrity” – CTO, Advisor

“If you’re looking for a recruitment partner that prioritizes quality, trust, and long-term fit, I couldn’t recommend Ability Resourcing more highly.” – Director of AI