Recruiting for
Deep Tech Start-ups
We help founders navigate highly complex and novel talent markets to create world-class technical teams quickly and efficiently.
Who We Are
We. Love. Building.
We set up Atticus to build technical teams for deep tech industries.
Deep tech companies are emerging rapidly yet the broader recruiting industry has grown up around “soft tech” - largely as generalists. We provide a very focused set of capabilities targeted at helping deep tech founders from the earliest stages of company formation.
The dawn of artificial intelligence is ushering in new applications requiring a radical shift in underlying infrastructure. There are new opportunities in accelerated hardware, systems to automate physical industries, and technologies to transform energy, space, food, and much more.
Deep tech investment is having a rapid effect on scientific discovery. We are hugely motivated to support this change and play a key role in the deep tech ecosystem.
Our backgrounds are rooted in building founder-led companies from stealth to over 450 people.
We come from industries building first-of-its-kind groundbreaking technology.
Matt Andrieux
Mike Lew
Kat Jennings
Jason Campos
Our Services
Deep tech companies shift business risk to an often unquantifiable level of technical risk. This makes them inspiring places to work with a strong mission and a novel set of problems. But - so much pressure on implementation means assembling a world-class team from the start is foundational to success. This can be extremely challenging as teams are composed of many sub-disciplines making it hard to identify the right talent not to mention attract it in increasingly competitive and costly markets.
We set up Atticus Growth Partners with one goal in mind - go deep not wide. We are domain experts offering a specialist recruiting approach to deep tech founders giving us the right background and network to contribute quickly and effectively.
RECRUITING &
TEAM BUILDING
- We partner with founders from the start to build teams. These are 3 month partnerships (sometimes longer) in which we operate on a fixed budget with a joint set of hiring objectives. We also provide embedded sourcing if you just need help at the research level.
- This can be effective for creating founding teams or the first 10-15 hires prior to a Series A. At a later stage, this solution can be used to build niche disciplines outside your network or expertise. Or - to create long term talent networks such as for research labs or starting new locations.
- In any scenario, we create a detailed search plan with deep research and clear metrics, just like our executive search process.
EXECUTIVE &
LEADERSHIP SEARCH
- World class teams need world class leaders. We excel at finding technical leadership including executives, managers and senior individual contributors.
- Leadership hires play a pivotal role in scaling - it's not just who you hire, but when. Early on you need “leader-doer” people with versatility and adaptability. As you grow, operational and people management skills are important but in deep tech, the best leaders will always roll up their sleeves. Executives can 10X a start-up but only if you get the right person at the right growth stage.
- You need to think deeply about this and we use our operating backgrounds to contribute well-informed advice.
TALENT STRATEGY
& OPERATIONS
- Think of this service as an “interim” Head of Talent. We help you to take one step back from day-to-day hiring and think more strategically about talent.
- A Head of Talent helps you get ahead of issues like cost, competition, interviewing, closing or quality to build a proactive plan that puts talent in full alignment with critical business priorities.
- We can be your partner to implement the plan or advise on when and how to build an efficient and effective recruiting function.
Browse by Category
Our expertise is in these industries.
Artificial Intelligence
- Software
- Frameworks
- Research
- Applied Engineering
Hardware, Silicon & Systems
- Systems
- Software
- Compilers
- Networking
Robotics & Automation
- Drones
- Driving
- Manufacturing
- Supply Chain
Modernizing Industries
- Energy
- Space
- Food
- Defense
Testimonials
Naveen Rao
Co-founder & CEO at Mosaic MLTom joined my leadership team in 2017 to drive our strategic recruiting efforts for AI talent in Intel’s AI Products Group.
Through a mix of conferences, events and new programs like an AI Residency, we built a strong reputation in research communities . Tom also helped build international recruiting processes in Poland, India, and Israel contributing to the launch of our pioneering hardware platform for training and inference.
There are few people with perspective in AI recruiting and I highly recommend Tom to anyone building AI research or engineering teams. He is a strategic thinker and very effective at building leadership teams.
Nish Sinnadurai
VP Engineering & Canada GM at Cerebras SystemsIn early 2020 Cerebras launched its Toronto office to bolster its capabilities in AI, Compilers, EDA and HPC. Almost three years later, we have nearly 100 engineers in Canada, building state-of-the art software and hardware for our Deep Learning system. From the start, Tom developed a strategic and intentional plan focused on building specific engineering functions in Canada. He adjusted the strategy continually with ever changing market dynamics and engineering needs. Today, many of the engineers Tom brought on board in Canada are thought leaders within the company and have achieved the highest levels of our technical and management ladder. I have the privilege of leading the team that Tom was instrumental in putting together. Tom demonstrated a keen ability to spot talent, engage them technically, and convey a compelling mission and story. Tom is a rare stand-out player in the industry and I am truly grateful to have had the opportunity to work with him.
Arjun Bansal
CEO & Co-Founder at Log10Tom was instrumental in helping recruit and retain key talent as we founded and built out Intel’s AI lab.
He took a strategic approach to sourcing talent – hiring research and engineering talent from top schools and research labs.
Tom was able to passionately communicate our vision and set us apart from our peers.
Beyond recruiting, Tom set us up for success by identifying top professors in academia and startups to partner with to maximize the impact of our brand.
Tom is a very positive person and has cultivated a strong network over the years. He has always been entrepreneurial and I am excited for his new venture.
Casimir Wierzynski
SVP Cloud and AI at Rockley PhotonicsTom and I worked closely at Intel AI on several strategic initiatives in the CTO office. One was creating an AI Residency program to embed promising early career scientists and provide access to Intel’s research resources and mentorship for one year to support a project of their own design. Tom pitched the idea to senior management and played a key role in defining and executing the program. It was a huge success for Intel, especially per unit of spending, leading to several exceptional research and talent outcomes.
Tom has redefined my expectations of what a great recruiter can do. He is the only talent professional I have worked with who thinks in terms of specific business outcomes, not just filling pre-defined roles. He is also a pleasure to work with and always operates with great integrity and humanity.
Emad Barsoum
CVP AI at AMDI met Tom Case around two years and a couple of months ago when I was in the process of joining Cerebras. I had a great interview and onboarding experience working with Tom in each step of the process.
After joining, I had the pleasure to work with Tom closely and get to know him better. I worked with Tom, and his team, to grow the AI Framework team at Cerebras in U.S, Canada and remote. Tom was crucial in helping us select top candidates, in addition to working with us to understand what we are looking for in terms of seniority, experience and knowledge. Tom’s skill in finding top talents in such competitive market was essential in growing the team with world class talents, including helping attract those talents against multiple offers from top companies.
Furthermore, I worked with Tom to organize a recruiting event in Seattle & Oregon, this was during the peak of COVID so we did the event virtually. Tom was instrumental in each step of the way, from deciding on the venue for face-to-face event then switching to online, Tom was also essential in the organization and layout of the event such as agenda, presentation time, Q&A and private room with each team in Cerebras for more focused interactive discussion. The event was successful, we got a lot of interests and some great hires.
I enjoyed working with Tom, he is a world class recruiter. And I am looking forward to working with him again in the future!!!
Rebekah Leslie-Hurd
Head of Software Engineering at Rain NeuromorphicsI first met Tom in mid-2020 when I was considering joining Cerebras Systems. He has a genuine warmth and interest in others that shined through from our initial call as well as a great ability to articulate the vision for a company and role in an engaging way. Working with him through the recruitment, interview, and onboarding process was far and away the best experience I’ve had as a candidate.
After I joined Cerebras, Tom and I worked together to double the size of our compiler team within a year, sourcing top talent from around the globe. He has a knack for finding candidates with the right technical and cultural fit for a role, even when working in niche domains. During this high growth period for the team, we had a steady stream of well-matched candidates and an extremely high offer acceptance rate despite significant competition in the market.
In addition to managing our regular recruiting pipeline, Tom and his team created a strong academic recruiting program and through their efforts we were able to hire outstanding candidates from top universities such as Stanford, MIT, and Georgia Tech.
In these endeavors, I have no doubt that Tom’s unique combination of EQ, technical acumen, and strategic insight was key to our success.
Lakshmi Ramachandran
India Country Lead at Cerebras SystemsI got to know Tom Case at Intel AI and our paths crossed briefly.
A few years later, Tom reached out to me in late 2021 for a leadership role at Cerebras and resulted in an excellent interview / onboarding process at Cerebras. Tom was my key partner in building the India site for Cerebras and his strategic approach helped a great deal.
Tom brings world class expertise in hiring and building teams with top talent. His ability to quickly understand a new geography and its nuances, his rich experience in the Tech industry, and his ability to connect with candidates of diverse backgrounds really helped build a world class team for Cerebras in India, which is now delivering critical capabilities to Cerebras products.
Tom was a joy to work with, and I look forward to working with him in future!
Andrew Feldman
Co-Founder & CEO at Cerebras SystemsTom joined when we were in stealth mode. Over his four year tenure, he helped build almost every part of the organization.
Tom created a lean and effective recruiting team that identified and hired top engineering talent from around the world. And, Tom played a foundational role in our strategy to open new locations in Toronto and Bangalore providing direct access to new pools of talent.
I highly recommend Tom to anyone trying to build complex high performing technology companies.
Ajat Hukkoo
VP Hardware Engineering at Etched.aiTom and I met during the VP Hardware Engineering search he led for Etched.ai. As a candidate, I got to work closely with Tom.
He has deep subject matter expertise which was useful and is a trustworthy partner critical to the closing offer stage. I recommend him to others looking for a well-connected and knowledgeable search consultant. Since joining Etched.ai, Tom helped me build out my team.
He has demonstrated exceptional proficiency in candidate sourcing, employing innovative strategies to engage with relevant individuals and facilitating their communication with our team. Furthermore, he extended his efforts beyond the scope of his primary responsibilities by actively participating in compensation negotiations. I have developed a significant reliance on Tom's
contributions during the hiring phase of our startup.