The critical first hire that unlocked a women’s health platform founded by an Olympic champion
š UKĀ Ā·Ā šÆ Full Stack EngineeringĀ Ā·Ā ā” Early-stage startupĀ Ā
THE CHALLENGE
Jennis is a women’s health and fitness platform co-founded by Olympic gold medallist Jessica Ennis-Hill, built to help women understand their bodies and hormones in a fundamentally new way. At an early and critical stage, they needed a senior engineer to help develop their initial platform – built on a JavaScript stack including React, Node.js and AWS (within a tight budget and an urgent timeline).
The combination of a niche technical profile, limited budget, and the high stakes of getting the first technical hire right made this one of the most nuanced briefs we had worked on. There was essentially one opportunity to get it right.
WHY AMIGOS?
Jennis came to us because of our track record of working with early-stage startups where speed and precision matter most. In situations with no room for error, our network-first approach, built on years of trusted relationships with senior engineers.
OUR APPROACH
We began with several rounds of in-depth consultation with the Jennis team to build a precise picture of what they needed.Ā Not just technically, but in terms of the character and seniority of the individual who could operate effectively in an early-stage environment and contribute beyond their immediate remit.
Rather than going broad to market, we went deep into our existing network,Ā specifically reaching out to senior engineers we had prior working relationships with and trusted implicitly. This gave us both speed and confidence in the quality of who we were putting forward.
THE RESULT
We identified and placed a trusted individual from our network who was an excellent fit for the role; technically strong, the right seniority, and immediately effective in the Jennis environment. After a frustrating period without a solution, we resolved the problem quickly, unlocking the development momentum the business needed and bringing a depth of experience that improved productivity across the wider team.