Local agency with global reach: Milton Keynes firm building teams for Silicon Valley’s top startups
After being made redundant just weeks after becoming a new father, a Milton Keynes entrepreneur has turned a difficult moment into a thriving business, now helping build elite technical teams for venture capital–backed AI startups across the globe.
Alex Cross founded Exceder, a Milton Keynes–based recruitment agency, in 2022 after being made redundant from his job just two weeks after his daughter was born. Using his redundancy pay and with no prior business experience, he decided to back himself and build something of his own.
In the three years since, Alex has carved out a niche as one of the go-to hiring partners for high-growth, Silicon Valley and venture capital–backed AI startups. Working from his home and now a small office in Milton Keynes, he has helped build elite software engineering teams for companies across San Francisco, New York, London and Europe.
Most recently, he hired the majority of the technical team from scratch for a Y Combinator–backed, London-based AI startup called Model ML, which this month announced a $75m Series A funding round, one of the largest in FinTech history.
What began as a necessity to provide for his family has grown into a thriving six-figure business, and Alex now plans to expand the Exceder team here in Milton Keynes.