How Sitedrive built its Go-To-Market in Norway through strategic hiring with TalentBee

Background and business context

Sitedrive is a Finnish SaaS company transforming how construction projects are managed. Their platform helps construction teams move away from traditional scheduling methods toward more collaborative, real-time production management and workflow optimization.

Before expanding internationally, Sitedrive went through a defining transformation. The company restructured its operations, cut non-core business lines, and focused fully on its SaaS product. The goal was now clear: build a scalable and profitable foundation for growth.

At the time, the team consisted of fewer than 15 people, but with strong alignment. Roles were clear, employee satisfaction was high, and the company had regained focus after a demanding period.

With this foundation in place, the next step was international growth, starting with Norway.

Sitedrive already had early traction in the Norwegian market, including existing customers and strong references within large construction companies. The market itself was mature and competitive, offering a clear opportunity to build a repeatable go-to-market model.

However, the key challenge wasn’t entering a new country – it was building the right team to win there.

The talent challenge we needed to solve

Sitedrive’s Chief Operating Officer, Anni Uimonen & the team at Sitedrive quickly realized that their expansion would depend on hiring highly specific talent profiles.

This wasn’t just a typical SaaS hiring challenge, because they needed people who:

• Understand the construction industry
• Can sell and support a behavioral and operational transformation
• Have strong local networks and credibility
• Thrive in Sitedrive’s early-stage, fast-moving environment

In other words, hybrid profiles combining SaaS, construction, and commercial mindset.

These profiles are rare, especially in a new market where Sitedrive was still relatively unknown.

At the same time:

• Competition for top talent in Norway was high
• The company needed to move fast to validate its go-to-market approach
• Hiring mistakes would directly impact market entry success

The risk was clear: without the right people, the entire expansion strategy could slow down or fail.

Exploring a recruitment solution

Sitedrive approaches international expansion strategically. Instead of committing to one model, they explore multiple go-to-market approaches in parallel:

• Partner networks
• SDR and booking models with local partners
• Building their own local commercial team

For Norway, they chose to start by building their own core team, Account Executive and Customer Success Specialist, to ensure control over learning, strong customer relationships, and execution.

However, they knew they couldn’t solve the hiring challenge alone.

They needed a partner who could:

• Understand their business model and go-to-market strategy
• Help define and refine the ideal candidate profile
• Combine headhunting, recruitment marketing, and employer branding
• Deliver both speed and quality

At the same time, Sitedrive made an unconventional move: they decided to invest in employer branding already at an early stage.

They understood that:
→ The right people won’t join based on job ads alone
→ They needed to build credibility and communicate their mission in a niche market

TalentBee was brought in to support both hiring and market positioning.

The decision to collaborate with TalentBee

TalentBee stood out by treating recruitment as part of Sitedrive’s go-to-market strategy, rather than as a separate function.

The collaboration started with a clear understanding:
→ Hiring is not a support activity. It is the strategy.

TalentBee aligned closely with Sitedrive’s needs by:

• Taking time to deeply understand the business and market
• Challenging and refining the candidate profiles
• Combining multiple approaches instead of relying on one method

As Anni described it: “We found exactly our kind of people. What’s essential is that go-to-market and employer branding go together. This is clear proof of that.”

This combination of strategic thinking and hands-on execution created confidence in the collaboration.

We focused on building awareness & credibility in the Norwegian talent market, where people don’t yet know Sitedrive, its business, or its growth journey.

The project in action

The initial scope was to hire for 2 roles:

• Account Executive (Norway): full end-to-end recruitment
• Customer Success Specialist (Norway): headhunting-focused

But very quickly, the nature of the project evolved.

Recruitment became an iterative go-to-market process

One key realization shaped the work:

→ You don’t know the perfect profile before entering a new market – you learn it through the process.

Instead of static hiring, Saara Salonen, Talent Acquisition Lead from TalentBee’s team, built an iterative approach together with Anni:

• Hypothesis: What kind of profile could work?
• Market testing: What talent is actually available?
• Iteration: Refining the profile based on real conversations

How the work was executed

1. Recruitment marketing & positioning
To support hiring and build awareness:

• High-quality, conversion-focused job ads by TalentBee
• Employer branding content explaining Sitedrive’s mission
• LinkedIn campaigns during the hiring period

This helped build credibility and generate inbound interest in a new market.

2. Targeted headhunting
Because awareness was still limited:

• TalentBee built curated candidate lists from relevant companies
• Focus on competitors, construction tech, and similar environments
• Personalized outreach with video messages to engage high-quality candidates

3. Continuous learning loop
Every candidate conversation generated insights:

• What motivates candidates
• What concerns do they have
• What backgrounds actually work

This feedback was continuously refined:

• Role definitions
• Messaging
• Target profiles

As one of the key learnings from the project:

“The challenge wasn’t finding candidates, but defining the right profile for the market,” Saara from TalentBee said.

Results and outcomes

Account Executive: fast validation

The Account Executive role was filled pretty quickly:

• Strong candidates engaged early
• The right profile was identified fast
• Jeevitan Navaratnarajah was hired in Oslo within 2 months

This validated the approach:
→ Combining headhunting, employer branding, and iterative profiling works in a new market.

Sitedrivers welcomed Jeevitan with open arms, and so did LinkedIn.

Customer Success: deeper learning

The Customer Success role proved more complex:

• Required a rare combination of SaaS, construction, and commercial mindset
• Role scope evolved during the process

Through iteration, Sitedrive gained a much clearer understanding of:

• What success in the role actually means
• What kind of profiles truly fit their model

Finally, in spring 2026, Isabell Hernandez was hired as a Customer Success Manager to join the Norway team.

Strategic impact

Beyond hires, the collaboration also delivered:

• A validated, iterative go-to-market hiring model
• Clear understanding of talent-market fit in Norway
• Strong foundation & learnings for scaling internationally in the future

Employer branding also became a long-term growth lever:

• Building awareness and credibility in niche markets
• Supporting future hiring across countries
• We’re now publishing new content 2 times a week on Sitedrive’s company page, and also helping Sitedrive’s team post content on their personal profiles

Today, Sitedrive continues to grow on this foundation, with growing interest in new markets such as Denmark and Mexico.

Their next milestones are clear:

• Scaling to €2M ARR
• Building toward €10M ARR

And at the core of their strategy remains one principle:

→ Go-to-market success is not just about product or sales.
→ It’s about having the right people in the right market, early enough.

“Going forward, it will be interesting to see how the employer branding groundwork we’ve done so far will support us when opening new roles. When my own time resources are limited, TalentBee’s role becomes really important. The collaboration works because I can trust them – and that makes my day-to-day much easier,” Anni says.