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Case Study: QiO Technologies

QiO – Series B AI Sustainability Start-up

GTM Leadership Team Build: VP of Global Sales and Director of Customer Success

 

The Brief

QiO Technologies, an AI sustainability tech start-up which supports energy-intensive businesses to deliver rapid reductions in greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) and energy costs, closed a $10m Series B funding round from WAVE Equity Partners, a leading impact investment firm based in Boston, USA.

QiO will use this funding to expand its operations in USA and Europe, enhance the capabilities of its Foresight Sustainability Suite™, and accelerate customer acquisition in sectors which face the biggest challenges in achieving net zero GHG emissions.

To support this expansion, Zeren were appointed to work with the Leadership Team (Rajan Pandhare & Gary Chandler) on the appointment of highly experienced Sales and Customer Success leaders as priority hires.

The expectation from the QiO team was to appoint high-calibre leaders with deep domain expertise who know how to scale teams and build functions in early-stage companies.

 

The Solution

Zeren was appointed to run an Executive Search process for both roles.

As with all Zeren projects, a specialist team is selected based on deep functional expertise along with dedicated research support and Account Director to ensure consistent communication and delivery. Our starting point with the search for all roles is to leverage our knowledge and extend existing networks within the target domains.

We subsequently conducted an extensive research and mapping process into the ESG and adjacent markets, identifying candidates who demonstrated the right mix
of industry knowledge and start-up experience. Throughout the search, weekly update calls were scheduled between Zeren and QiO to ensure the
search was progressing towards a successful outcome within the agreed timelines.

All candidates were assessed for the core competencies agreed upon for each role.

 

The Outcome

QiO successfully made two key appointments in Spring 2023.

 

Gary Bourton | Director of Customer Success
Gary is an established leader in Customer Success, Professional Services, and Delivery with an exceptional track record of building multi-discipline post-sale teams for high-growth investor-backed businesses within the IoT and Sustainability.

 

Paul Silver | VP of Global Sales
Paul is a highly successful leader with a track record of success in scaling Enterprise Software businesses within Data Centre and associated markets for both listed and investor backed businesses.