The Thinking Behind our Rebrand
A rebrand is a moment of honesty. It asks you to look clearly at who you are, where you’ve come from and what you stand for and whether the way you present yourself actually reflects that. Ours does now.
Starting with the real question
We didn't begin with a logo or a colour palette. We started with a harder question: what does Up actually stand for in 2026, and does our brand reflect this?
Up was founded in 2008 with a clear ambition - to disrupt executive search. Traditional firms offered either rigour or speed, rarely both, and treated leadership hiring as a transaction rather than the strategic decision it is. We were built to change that.
Nearly two decades on, we've supported the leadership journeys of many of Europe's most ambitious companies - from early-stage VC-backed scale-ups to global category leaders and listed businesses. Our network has grown and evolved. So has our thinking. The brand needed to catch up.
What we stand for
At the centre of everything is a single idea: we partner with category-defining companies to build leadership teams as they scale and evolve.
We don't just take briefs. We shape them. Before a search begins, we work with clients to define what great leadership actually looks like at their specific stage of growth. That requires judgement, not just process. It also requires the kind of honest challenge that only comes from trusting the relationship - and earning the right to have a view.
The Up Standard
Unlike traditional search firms, every Partner at Up has an operator background. We've sat on the same side of the table as our clients - inside fast-growing businesses, navigating the same leadership decisions, the same pressures, the same trade-offs. That lived experience is what gives us genuine pattern recognition and a deep understanding of what a business actually needs from its leadership, not just what looks good on a brief.
Every search reflects this. We calibrate early, test assumptions against real candidates, surface trade-offs openly and refine the brief as insight develops. Clients get direct access, candid dialogue and continuity from first conversation to final stages.
We bring the rigour of a top-tier firm with the agility of a boutique. Fast decisions, senior attention, highly tailored delivery - without the layers or anonymity of larger firms.
What makes this possible is pattern recognition built over time. We've worked across the full lifecycle of growth - from disruptive VC-backed start-ups and PE-owned growth companies through to global corporations and listed businesses. That breadth gives us something hard to replicate: a genuine understanding of how leadership needs evolve, and what "great" looks like at each stage.
The brand expression
The visual identity reflects the same thinking: clear, confident, without unnecessary complexity. No jargon. Just directness - the same quality we bring to every conversation with a client.
Our hero film captures what we believe in motion. Leadership that shapes organisations. The people who carry that weight. The moments of growth and transformation that define what a business becomes. We wanted it to feel human, not corporate - because that's how we work.
Why now
A new wave of technological disruption is reshaping what leadership looks like - and what organisations need from it. The companies navigating this moment need partners who understand both sides of the equation: the commercial realities and the human complexity of building great teams.
That's the work we do. And this brand - its language, its look, its values - is our clearest attempt yet to say so.
We’re proud of it, and we’re just getting started.
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The Up Group is a leadership partner at moments of growth and transformation, combining insight-led advisory, trusted networks and senior judgement to help organisations build leadership that scales and transforms. We work across the UK and Europe with VC-backed, PE-backed, listed and privately held companies.