My Big Idea: specialist executive search firm Metric

‍Hi Joe! What's your elevator pitch?

Metric is a specialist executive search firm. We find the senior and technical talent that the world's most capital-intensive sectors can't source themselves. Data Centers, Life Sciences, MedTech, Engineering, and Infrastructure – we operate in the markets defined by scarce talent, high stakes, and the kind of complexity that most generalist recruiters simply aren’t equipped to handle. We have over 130 specialist consultants across seven offices in the US and UK, and in six years we've gone from a single desk in New York to a $100 million business.

The simplest way I can put it: We're the firm that finds the people who build the future.

What does the market need it?

The markets we work in are some of the most important in the global economy right now. AI is driving a data centre building boom unlike anything we've seen before. Life sciences is scaling at a pace that would have seemed unthinkable ten years ago. Net zero commitments are generating a sustained wave of infrastructure investment that shows no signs of slowing.

The capital is there. The ambition is there. The problem, consistently, is finding the right people to lead it. Getting a senior hire wrong in a data centre project can delay a timeline by six to nine months. In a clinical trial, the consequences can be even greater. Generalist recruiters don’t have the sector depth to navigate these environments. We do. That’s the gap we were built to fill.

Where is the business today? 

In just over six years we've gone from a single office to over 130 consultants across seven offices in the US and UK. Revenue has grown at more than 30% annually for three consecutive years and 72% in the twelve months to February 2026 alone. We've been named on the Financial Times FT1000 list of fastest-growing companies two years running, and in March 2026 we completed a majority investment from Southfield Capital at a $100 million valuation.

BGF backed us in July 2024 and exited just 20 months later with a 4.1x return. That kind of outcome reflects that this growth hasn't happened by chasing every opportunity. It's happened because we've stayed disciplined, stayed specialist, and resisted every temptation to diversify too early.

What made you think there was money in this?

Honestly, I didn’t set out to build a business. I set out to solve a problem I’d seen up close. Before Metric, I was working in pharma services recruitment with a UK recruitment firm. When the pandemic hit, the life sciences sector went into overdrive. CDMOs, CROs, biotech firms, everyone needed people, urgently, and nobody could find them. I had deep expertise in that market, and I suddenly found myself with more demand. What stood out wasn’t just the spike, but the long-term reality: these sectors rely on highly specialised talent that’s always in short supply. I knew that a firm built around genuine sector depth, rather than broad coverage, could build something genuinely defensible.

What's your biggest strength?

Discipline. The single hardest thing in our industry is saying no. When you’re growing fast, every opportunity looks like an opportunity. New sectors, new geographies, new service lines. Most recruitment businesses diversify too early and end up being mediocre across a lot of things rather than excellent at a few. We have stayed relentlessly focused on the markets where we have genuine depth, where our consultants understand the industries they serve, not just the job titles. That depth is what attracts the clients we work with. We’ve stayed focused on the markets where we have real depth. Our consultants understand the industries, not just the roles, and that’s what attracts clients with complex, high-stakes hiring needs. It’s that specialist credibility that everything else is built on.

What is the secret to making the business work?

Two things. Stay close to your clients, and stay close to your market. It sounds obvious, but in practice it requires relentless effort. The sectors we operate in move fast. What a hyperscaler needs from a construction leader today is completely different to two years ago. If your consultants aren't embedded in those conversations - at the conferences, reading the trade press, speaking directly to operators - their advice becomes generic. And generic is the one thing you can't afford to be in a specialist business.

The other thing is that culture compounds. The people who joined Metric early took a real risk on an idea. They deserve to be rewarded for it, and they deserve to be surrounded by people who hold the same standards. I'm as rigorous about who joins Metric as I am about who we place for our clients. That never changes.

How do you market the company?

Our approach to marketing starts from a simple belief that credibility is earned, not broadcast. For most of our growth, we relied on reputation and referrals. Consultants becoming trusted voices in their sectors, with clients and candidates returning over time. That still underpins everything we do.

What we've built on top of it is a much more deliberate brand infrastructure. We’ve recently hired our first Group Director of Marketing, signalling a shift from startup instinct to building a more deliberate, scalable brand.

LinkedIn is our primary platform, but not in the way most recruitment firms use it. Our consultants are active, visible voices in their sectors, commentating on market trends, sharing genuine intelligence, building real audiences. Alongside that, we produce sector-specific content, run podcasts in areas like CDMOs and data centres, and stay visible through industry events, all focused on positioning us as genuine experts in our markets.

What funding do you have? Is it enough?

In March 2026 we completed a majority investment from Southfield Capital at a $100 million valuation. Before that, BGF — the UK and Ireland's most active growth capital investor — backed us in July 2024 and exited just 20 months later with a 4.1x return and an IRR of 138%. That's the kind of outcome that tells its own story.

Is it enough? The honest answer is that for an ambitious business, the question is never really whether you have enough, it’s whether you are deploying what you have intelligently. Southfield’s backing gives us the runway to accelerate US expansion, build out adjacent specialist markets, and invest in the leadership team and infrastructure the next phase of growth requires. We are entering what I would call our hyper-growth phase, and we are well capitalised to execute on it.

The commercial logic of the business is pretty straightforward. The scarcer the talent and the higher the cost of getting it wrong, the more value a genuine specialist can demonstrate. In data centres, life sciences, and infrastructure, those conditions aren't cyclical — they're structural. That's why we've been able to grow revenue at 30%-plus annually, and it's exactly why Southfield's investment thesis is built around a long-term structural opportunity rather than a short-term market cycle.

What were you doing before?

I was working in pharma services recruitment, focusing on senior roles across CDMOs, CROs and the wider life sciences supply chain. That experience gave me a clear view of the hiring challenges in those markets and the conviction to start Metric. The core idea was simple: real value comes from deep industry understanding, not just filling roles.

We’ve since invested in AI tools to improve how we capture and share market insight, and we’re exploring how large language models can support research. But ultimately, this is still a people business, technology helps, but it doesn’t replace experience or judgement.

What is the future vision?

To be the defining specialist executive search firm globally. Not the largest, but the most respected.

We want Metric to be the firm the world’s most sophisticated organisations turn to when they have a critical, complex, senior hiring need in the sectors we serve.

In practical terms, that means continued aggressive expansion in the US, where our growth has been strongest and where the structural demand for specialist talent is greatest. It means developing adjacent specialist markets where the same dynamics apply, scarce talent, high stakes, genuine sector complexity. It means building the leadership and data infrastructure that turns Metric’s placement history into a proprietary market intelligence asset. And it means continuing to attract the best specialist consultants in the world by building a firm where careers are genuinely built, not just started. The Southfield Capital investment is the platform for that next chapter. We intend to make the most of it.

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