Built by a founder.
For founders.
Most hiring partners have never made a hire that kept them up at night - never had to work out if they could still afford the salary if growth stalled, or sat across from a candidate wondering if this was the person who'd get the business to the next round, or set it back six months.
Suma was built because that lived experience matters - and most of the people offering to help early stage founders don't have it.
I started my career in senior finance recruitment, placing CFOs and finance directors into consumer focussed companies in Central London. I learned how to find exceptional people and how to tell them apart from average ones.
Then I moved into business development at a fintech, which taught me how early stage commercial teams are built and what good GTM leadership looks like in practice.
Then I co-founded Apex Rides. A connected fitness startup, a subscription business, a consumer product. We raised £7M over multiple rounds, built a team, made good hires and bad ones, and learned what early stage feels like from the inside.
Suma is deliberately small. I want to know every founder we work with personally which means being selective and not taking on every search. The ones we do take on, we're confident about.
Simon Cook
Founder, Suma
Designing the first bike
First production run
Production at scale
Scoping studios
Apex showroom, London
Out of home across London
ExCeL London trade show
Founders at launch
Best exercise bike, 10/10 — The Telegraph
Apex Rides app
Testing the ride — feat. Mr Motivator
The Apex team
Team summer, Hyde Park
Interviews & features
What Suma stands for.
Three things we believe.
The best hiring advice comes from people who've done the hiring and sat on all sides of the table.
We don't charge unless we deliver.
The rhythm of a consumer business - retention economics, brand building, the founder-led growth phase - is distinct. Generic hiring partners don't understand it, we do.
Want to talk it through?
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