Customer reviews & testimonials

 

Discover what tech startups, scaleups and employers are saying about how we helped build their teams

What they share in common is a caring, diligent & progressive approach to hiring, whilst being open to the things that their people need to do great work.

We would be pleased to hear about your hiring aims and explore ways we can collaborate and help bring your plans to life.

You can read more about our approach to hiring here, and as ever, please be in touch any time!

 

 

 

 

 

"As a Bristol-based scaleup company, we were looking for recruitment support beyond the usual cv-pushing services offered elsewhere. techfolk have been invaluable in helping us scope, and recruit to, a range of brand new roles for Sennen. From ensuring the job and person specifications are accurate, through proactive marketing and search, assistance with assessment and onboarding, they really feel an extension of the Sennen team. Candidates in our hiring processes are also hugely complimentary of their experience with techfolk, which is all too rare in the tech recruitment sector. As the first contact they have with 'us', this is really important to me, and is another reason I recommend techfolk."

Alexandra Allen | COO | Sennen

 

Sennen is a 'clean tech' or 'tech for good' scaleup SaaS software provider of global offshore wind farm and renewable energy management solutions including investment, wind farm operation, data management and safety & maintenance. Customers include: Foresight, London Array, EDF Renewables, Octopus Energy, Orsted. We've supported Sennen since 2020, hiring a remote-first team spanning full-stack (React, TypeScript, Node.js, functional JS), delivery management, AWS platform operations, product design, API integrations and account management.

Together we've enabled Sennen to further its growth and maturation, hiring key team members adept in the skills sought and who want to shape the technology that builds a more sustainable world. We are both passionate about building 'tech for good' that helps the world change its ways to avoid disastrous climate change.

 


 

"We have worked closely with techfolk over the last 10 years to recruit for new roles in our organisation, a complex and unique organisation. Each time we have found excellent candidates and the help that techfolk has given throughout the recruitment process has been invaluable. techfolk's experience, hands-on involvement and excellent communication throughout the process have meant that we have succeeded with each recruitment drive. I would strongly recommend the entire team at techfolk to help with recruitment and I expect to be working with them for the foreseeable future whenever we need to recruit both for permanent and temporary positions."

Rory Davidson | CIO | SNOMED

 

SNOMED International is a non-profit and open source 'tech for good' clinical terminology standards organisation with 48 member nations worldwide and growing - including the UK and the NHS - which can rely on its data standard for accuracy in clinical and medical data, underpinning their nations' healthcare and hospital systems. SNOMED also releases integrated web-based data and knowledge engineering tools, supporting a progressive and active community of health information users, open source developers and partners.

techfolk has supported SNOMED since 2013, hiring a fully-remote team across software engineering (Java, description logic, linked data, semantic web), DevOps, front-end, release, SDET/QA, project management and delivery.

Together, we secured people with shared values around working contributing to open source for the health benefit of hundreds of millions of people worldwide.

 

 


"Hands down, techfolk are a dependable, credible team. When I moved companies I fought to get them added to the roster — wrestling the HR paperwork paid for itself. They have provided some of our most valuable engineers, covering novel roles through to their home-court specialities in the infrastructure space.

I would not simply recommend the services from techfolk, I’d just turn to them repeatedly for almost any need I’d have in the future. I trust their candid counsel and competence."

James Irwin | Director of Product Support Engineering | Graphcore

 

James's team within Graphcore supports customers adopting and operating Graphcore's ML compute and platform products, underpinning significant ML projects globally. This entails supporting and evolving the product and application layers, the SDK, and the infrastructure of the managed platform 'GraphCloud'.

To supplement Graphcore's in-house recruitment team, we supported hiring for James' team during 2021, hiring software engineering skills (embedded, C++, Python, Keras, CUDA, OpenCL, PyTorch, TensorFlow) and MLOPs/SRE skills (Python, Linux, K8's, Docker, PaaS, cloud, OpenStack and systems infrastructure).

Together, we secured some key hires soon promoted to team leader level and also the first person dedicated to Graphcore's platform offering.

 

 


 

"techfolk provide a considered approach to recruitment which appears to work well for both clients and candidates. At StackHPC we enjoy working with the team at techfolk and value the service that they provide for our business."

Stig Telfer | CTO | StackHPC

 

StackHPC is a UK-based SME that provides professional services and solutions for AI, high-performance computing (HPC) and cloud computing. The company specialises in designing, building, and supporting HPC and cloud infrastructures for scientific and engineering research organisations, government agencies, and private companies. StackHPC has a team of highly experienced HPC and cloud experts who have worked on some of the world's largest and most complex on-premises cloud infrastructures, e.g. StackHPC is helping to build and run the new Dawn AI system housed at the University of Cambridge, partnered with Dell and Intel.

 

techfolk has supported StackHPC since its inception in 2018, hiring OpenStack developers (Python, cloud and systems engineering, HPC) and graduate-level Python and cloud infrastructure engineers to advance its technical services delivery and open source product development.

 

 


 

"techfolk has helped us to reach the calibre of candidate we'd never have been able to attract on our own."

Alan Parry | Director of Engineering | YellowDog

 

YellowDog is a mature startup building the world-class cloud native scheduling, source of compute and intelligent provision products. Partners include AWS, OCF, AMD, Storm FX. Customers span life sciences, finance, enterprise, startup and AI/ML. We've supported Alan since 2019, hiring software/system engineering skills and QA/SDET (Java, cloud systems, Python, big data, automation, ML and HPC).

Together, we shaped a career proposition to engage highly skilled engineers in the South West region, securing the right skills to help build out YellowDog’s products.

 

 


 

"Publisher Discovery is a late-stage SaaS startup in the affiliate advertising sector. We have managed to be successful by having a very focussed team in which every member has an active role in the product. We wouldn't have been able to grow this team without the help of techfolk. They are very proactive in their brief, and often help us to better understand our own requirements. When specifying new roles, techfolk's experience in the market is invaluable, and it shows in the quality of the candidates that techfolk bring to us. I have previously used techfolk at a different business, and it is their commitment to easing the hiring process, and bringing us only quality candidates, which has led us to engage exclusively with techfolk when growing our team."

Rob Haswell | CTO | Publisher Discovery

 

We've supported Publisher Discovery since 2020, hiring skills spanning full-stack (React, TypeScript, Node.js, Postgres), and data engineering (Python, asyncio, big data and GCP). 

Together we've enabled Publisher Discovery to build out a high quality product, hiring key engineering team members who have progressed within the business and helping build out all-new products to maximise commercial opportunity, while entering a new chapter of enhanced efficiency, automation and maturity.

 

 


 

"techfolk brought clarity to our plans. We could talk in depth about our roadmap and technology choices. Together, we translated this into a hiring strategy that resulted in hires who reflect our values and are already transforming how we build out. We'd not known we could get this from any recruiter, let alone one that has become a friend of the business."

Martyn Jennings | Co-Founder | Virtual Pricing Director                                                                                                                 

 

"It has been a refreshing change working with techfolk. A totally different approach to what we have previously experienced from other recruiters - a few CVs fired in our direction. Instead their thorough approach to really understanding our needs as a startup has meant a much more targeted process and a better fit of shortlisted candidates. We look forward to enlisting their support to further develop the team as we grow."

Richard Burcher | Co-Founder | Virtual Pricing Director

 

Virtual Pricing Director is a mature startup building groundbreaking 'legaltech' SaaS that assists law firms to understand and price their fees. Customers are large and international law firms, world wide. We've supported VPD since spring 2020, hiring back end and full stack software engineering skills (Go, Python, Node.js, React, data science) for its now entirely-remote team. 
 
Together, we formulated a remote-team approach and hiring plan that illustrated VPD’s open culture and freedoms around engineering decisions and technology choice.
 

 

"Whenever we've needed to hire a developer, an engineer or someone to help evolve our products, we've used techfolk to make sure we attract candidates with the attributes we seek. With other agencies, we're frustrated by the lack of attention to our particular culture and the sort of personalities we're looking for, but techfolk get it right every time. It is unusual to find a recruiter that works this hard, and listens this hard. Highly recommended - and worth every penny when you find the perfect hire."

Michael Wells | MD at Third Light, and VP Strategic Projects at PhotoShelter

 

Third Light - a PhotoShelter company - is a mature digital asset management SaaS provider, making the management of digital media files easier for busy content owners. It manages 750+ million visual assets for 80,000 professional photographers and over 1,200 large brands, including universities, pro sports teams, corporate and consumer brands, and leading nonprofits. 

We've supported Third Light since before 2013, hiring across software engineering (iOS, Android, React, Node.js, Go, AWS and private cloud) plus a range of adjacent roles, including product and UX design, technical authoring, pre-sales and more.

 

 


 

"I have used techfolk with numerous different clients and they have always excelled. Their approach to recruitment is refreshingly different and their candidate research and vetting process is different from your typical recruiter - I only get the best candidates to review - a promise other recruiters give but fail to deliver on. techfolk does genuinely care and give every role the focus it needs. Highly recommended."

Mat Diss | Interim IT Director | Freeman Clarke 

 

Freeman Clarke is the UK’s largest and most experienced team of part-time CIOs, CTOs and IT Directors. We've supported Mat Diss on a range of digital and agile transformation assignments since 2016, hiring the developers, engineers and technology leaders that build out and implement the new strategies and roadmaps.

Together, we adapted the approach to the nuances of each interim assignment, appointing a range of technical hires across the South East and the South West to materialise modern, agile and highly automated approaches.

 

 


 

 

"techfolk are unlike any other recruitment agency I have known. They genuinely care about the fit of a candidate with the role and can help me shape my requirements. I used them in my previous role and reconnected when I wanted to build a team at Blackout Technologies. The candidates I interview speak highly of their experience with techfolk and those I've hired are surprised and impressed when they follow up to hear how the new role is going. They are my agency of choice."

David Taylor | CTO | Blackout Technologies

 

Blackout Technologies is a startup 'infosec' and compliance provider. Its proprietary technology regulates non essential smart device functionality by utilising situationally aware technologies. Blackout helps companies protect sensitive data, minimise distractions and improve productivity. Its technology will also protect school students from distracting and potentially harmful phone usage, for improved learning and safer play time. We hired cross-platform skills in native mobile app development and full-stack PHP for the integrated web application and dashboard.

Together we formed the early team that will enable Blackout to build out its core technology for customer trials and commercial growth.

 

 


 

"We’ve worked with techfolk many times as we've grown, and we keep coming back because they genuinely care about getting the right candidate, with a friendly, socially grounded ethos that fits our own. The candidates we've hired always speak highly of their experience with techfolk and we've had many successful hires, still with us years later." 

Alex Coley | MD | Epimorphics

 

Epimorphics is a mature software and services provider at the forefront of developing standards, tools and applications that enable public and private sector organisations to organise and publish data. Its team includes accomplished computer scientists and data experts who helped define the standards in the semantic web and linked data. Customers include the Environment Agency, the Food Standards Agency, Defra and HM Land Registry. We've supported Epimorphics since 2016, hiring across software engineering (Java, Ruby, front-end, UI), data modelling and technical project management.

Together, we shaped a hiring proposition that secured up-and-coming South West based Java engineers and data modellers who were soon helping solve complex data problems.

 

 


"techfolk have been great to work with from the get-go. Andrew and the team adopted an intelligent and empathetic approach to working with Flexys and took time to understand our requirements both at a technical level and also from a cultural perspective. They work and communicate in a clear and consistent way and have taken time and considerable effort to come up with some top quality candidates for some of our key positions. I have no hesitation in recommending techfolk as a trusted partner."

Jon Hickman | CEO & Co-Founder | Flexys Solutions 

 

Flexys is a scaleup fintech SaaS company making the experience of corporate collections and debt management a more positive and sustainable experience for consumers and providers alike. Customers span banking, utilities, mortgage, motor finance and financial services. We supported Flexys around its inception through 2017-2019, hiring the early technical team across software engineering (Scala, CGP, front-end and data science), DevOps and delivery.

Together, we shaped a hiring proposition that illustrated Flexys’ flat team structure and open culture, securing people from within the South West who also embraced functional programming and a cloud-native approach.

You can read more about our approach to hiring here, or please be in touch