The people who go in.

Experienced operators who go into a company with us. As interim cover, in management, or for the long run.

Quick Response Force

What this is about

We take over technology companies in special situations and run them ourselves. For that we need people who go into the company with us. Some stay a few months, some take over the management for good, and some are there before the purchase agreement is signed.

The Quick Response Force is the circle we recruit them from. Once you are in it, you hear from us as soon as a deal or one of our holdings needs someone like you. You hear first about work that is never advertised. It asks a great deal, and it pays accordingly.

What this is

Joining a circle: An application for an open role
A profile that stands for years: A cover letter for one occasion
Roles from a few months to permanent: A brief that is fixed in advance
The start of working together: The end of a selection process

We look across every discipline

Not only the classic investment roles. Marketing, technology, software engineering, finance, sales, operations: what a company needs is decided at the company, not on a list. We put the team together separately for every holding.

Interim CEO / managing director
Interim CFO
Head of finance / controlling
M&A / transactions
Interim COO / operations
Transformation / restructuring
PMO / project lead
Supply chain / procurement
CRO / head of sales
CMO / head of marketing
Customer success / service
Interim CTO / engineering
Engineering lead
Product lead
Data / AI lead
CHRO / people
Legal / compliance

These are the roles you can pick in the application form. If yours is not there, write it into the field about your profile.

What we call you for

Before the purchase: You run the due diligence with us and sit at the table when it is negotiated. What you see there helps decide whether we buy.
From day one: Due diligence almost always turns up gaps. When we take over, you go straight into the company and close one of them.
In management: When we rebuild the C-suite, the people who take those seats often come from the QRF pool. For as long as the gap lasts, or for good.
Alongside: Advisory board, advisory work, fractional. For companies that need two days a week rather than five.

What happens after you send it

Review

We look at your profile against a set of criteria and decide whether it meets what we require of Quick Response Force members.

Answer

You hear from us whether you are in the pool. Either way, you get an answer.

The request

When we need support, in a new deal or in a holding that is already ours, we approach the people in the pool the criteria fit.

The conversation

We talk about the assignment and settle the terms of working together.

Who we want in the circle

Four things we keep finding in the people the work goes well with. Less a list of requirements than what tells us somebody fits.

You see what is off

In your first week you notice twenty things nobody sees any more once they have been there long enough. You tell us the three that matter.

You say what is going wrong first

We would rather hear about a problem on Tuesday than about a Friday solution that does not exist.

You decide before all the numbers are in

In a special situation the full picture never arrives in time. You work with what is there and correct course.

You do what needs doing

Nobody assigns you tasks. What is left lying stays there until someone picks it up.

Where this comes from: episodes of the Founders podcast. A click opens the one in question.

What this means in practice

How often you hear from us depends on our deals.: It can be the week after you are admitted or six months later. Silence is not a rejection; it means nothing fits right now.
A request commits you to nothing.: You say yes or no, without giving reasons. A no does not take you out of the circle, and we come back at the next assignment.
Confidentiality first, then the details.: A request names the role, the period and the scope, but not the company. If you say yes, you sign a confidentiality agreement and everything is open after that.
Freelance or employed, both work.: Some assignments run on a service contract, others on employment. Which suits you is a question in the form.
On site means on site.: Our holdings are in Germany and the work happens there. How many days is settled per assignment.
We are entrepreneurs, not a fund.: You talk to the partners rather than an investment committee. That holds when you are admitted and at every assignment afterwards.

Send us your profile

A few minutes. Availability, capacity and terms are the ones to get right, because every later request depends on them. We need your CV too, because the pre-screen reads it.