SER knows who can sell the science

Chad Garrett knew people in enterprise software. That was precisely what made his problem interesting. TetraScience, where he was chief revenue officer, needed access to a different circle: people who understood research and development biotechnology. In SER’s October 2021 account of the assignment, Garrett explained that he didn’t know many people in that sector. A substantial address book had reached its edge.

That edge is where SER operates. The Pennsylvania search firm builds commercial teams for technology businesses, with a particular interest in the software surrounding scientific work. Its customers need people who can connect a technical product to a buyer’s actual problem. A résumé can establish that someone has sold software. Establishing whether they can sell your software takes another conversation.

The seller behind the search

Steve Rosenblum brought a seller’s background to recruiting. Before launching SER in 1999, according to the company’s history, he spent 15 years in sales and management at ADP, Oracle and SAP. His biography credits him with leading the utility practices at Oracle and SAP. He had worked inside organizations that needed to translate complicated software into an understandable commercial proposition.

SER’s stated mission carries that experience into search: connect software talent with growing technology companies, screening candidates before introducing them. The firm says it has served more than 200 clients. Its description of pursuing the top tenth of talent is best read as a statement of selectivity. For a hiring manager, the more useful question is how a recruiter decides who belongs on the shortlist.

A laboratory has its own language

The biotech assignments give the business its clearest shape. In March 2022, SER announced that Titian Software had selected it for US hiring. Titian’s specialty was sample management software. In April 2023, SER announced that Benchling had retained it to expand US sales. TetraScience’s earlier assignment concerned a research data cloud. Different products, connected by the world of research.

The implication is straightforward: a seller needs to understand the work being sold into. Laboratory samples, research data and scientific collaboration give the sales conversation different subject matter from a general business application. SER’s wager is that familiarity with that environment makes its network useful. Its published account of the TetraScience engagement puts the gap in industry contacts at the center of the assignment.

The roles extend beyond the person closing a contract. SER’s listings include sales development representatives, enterprise account executives, solutions consultants and scientific implementation managers. Together, they sketch the work around a technical sale: opening the conversation, explaining the application and helping customers put it to use. That range makes the commercial organization a more revealing unit of analysis than a single executive vacancy.

Before the résumé, the brief

SER sells retained search to employers. Its published process begins with agreement on retainer terms, then alignment on the customer’s go-to-market strategy. Search criteria follow. Only after those steps come the kickoff, market research and candidate engagement. Weekly calls and progress reports keep the search attached to the employer’s requirements. The sequence makes the initial definition of the job part of the service.

There is a reason to linger over that apparently unglamorous machinery. A search can produce plenty of activity while pursuing an imprecise brief. Agreeing on the sales motion first gives both sides something concrete to test. The weekly review then becomes a chance to correct the search, rather than simply count the people contacted.

Unravel Data’s March 2020 announcement supplies a useful example of the problem upstream. Its CEO, Kunal Agarwal, described having searched for a VP of sales for some time while also needing account executives across the US. His account emphasized SER’s understanding of the criteria and its validation of candidates before submission. The attraction was a reduction in the employer’s early screening burden.

The shortlist is the deliverable

Upsolver’s June 2021 account is more specific about an outcome. The company needed marketing leadership and multiple account executives. According to the announcement, SER assembled a screened marketing shortlist, and Upsolver hired its executive vice president of marketing from that group. That is a concrete description of the service: turn an expansive labor market into a manageable set of relevant conversations.

“He is also about quality above quantity.”

Uri Moaz, former CRO, Upsolver
In a customer testimonial published by SER

Other client accounts describe outreach to people who were not actively job hunting. This helps explain where a specialist recruiter fits alongside an internal hiring team or a broader search firm. The employer is buying access, judgment and persuasion, as well as the work of arranging introductions. The distinction depends on how well those introductions fit a particular company’s needs.

What a hiring manager can borrow

The transferable practice is modest enough to use tomorrow: describe the buyer, the product and the selling situation before writing the ideal candidate profile. Separate evidence of relevant experience from familiar company names. Review what the first conversations teach you. SER’s published sequence offers a framework for doing that, whether the eventual search stays in house or goes to a specialist.

The approach needs a reasonably clear commercial direction and people willing to give feedback. If the employer keeps changing the job, even a relevant network has a moving target. For a company selling technical software into a defined market, however, SER presents a specific proposition: find people who understand the sale well enough to make the next conversation count.

A network closer to home

The company’s community work has a different geography. Rosenblum established the SER Foundation in November 2011. Its activities include Thanksgiving meals and holiday toy drives, working with local organizations as well as supporting disease-related causes. The foundation reports that its 2022 toy drive collected and donated more than 300 toys to St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children in Philadelphia. Its 2023 photographs show another Thanksgiving drive. These are tangible details of a company whose commercial relationships stretch across countries: a recurring collection, a delivery and a nearby recipient. They give the word “relationships” a second, fairly literal meaning.