I get asked fairly often what I look for when we're hiring, as if there's a formula for it. There isn't, not really. But I can tell you what I've learned from the route that got me here, because it's shaped the kind of person I want on this team more than any interview technique has.
A route that wasn't exactly conventional
I didn't come into alternative investment through a graduate scheme or a straight line up a corporate ladder. Before New Capital Link, I owned and ran a tea room in Chelmsford for about four years, and I spent time working with Bank of Bullion and Bank FX, in gold-backed investment products and foreign exchange. Running a small business and working in structured, asset-backed finance don't look like they belong on the same CV, but they taught me the same lesson from two completely different directions: you learn fast whether something actually works, or whether it just sounds like it should.
A tea room doesn't survive on good intentions. Neither does an investment opportunity that only looks solid until someone asks the second question. Both taught me to trust evidence over confidence, which turned out to be exactly the instinct I needed when I incorporated New Capital Link in October 2020.
Why I built the firm the way I did
New Capital Link exists because I saw a gap in how sophisticated investors were able to access genuine alternative investment opportunities, venture capital deals, asset-backed securities, property bonds and loan notes, delivered with the same rigour I'd expect applied to my own money. That's still the standard the whole business is held to, and it's the same standard I apply to the people I bring in to help run it.
"Our mission has always been about more than just returns; it's about building a trusted ecosystem where investors feel empowered."
— Rachel Buscall, CEO & Co-Founder
What I actually look for when hiring
Not a polished CV on its own, though I understand why people assume that's the shortcut. What I'm really looking for is someone who asks the second question rather than accepting the first, comfortable answer. Someone who'd rather tell me an uncomfortable truth about a deal or a client relationship than a comfortable version that falls apart later. That instinct matters more in this business than any specific qualification, because our work lives or dies on genuinely understanding what we're introducing people to.
I also look for people who want to be known, not just employed. New Capital Link is deliberately kept small at the top. There's no layer of management standing between a new hire and the people who actually run the business, which means everyone who joins us gets direct access to Georgina and me from their first week, not just a name on an org chart eighteen months in. That only works with people who actually want that kind of visibility and accountability, rather than preferring to disappear into a bigger structure.
Why I think it's worked
Under that approach, New Capital Link has been named Alternative Investment Provider of the Year on two occasions, Best Boutique Alternative Investment Firm 2024/2025, and a winner at the Private Equity and Venture Capital Awards 2024. I don't think that's a coincidence. A small, closely-run team where everyone genuinely understands what they're selling tends to outperform a much larger one where that understanding gets diluted somewhere in the middle.
To be upfront, as we are with everyone who joins us: New Capital Link is a professional introducer, not a fund manager, and is not FCA regulated. That's simply a fact about how the business operates, and it's exactly the kind of thing I'd want someone to tell me plainly before I signed up to anything, so it's exactly how we tell it to the people who join us.