Stephen Bateman founded Simple Machine and leads each of its searches personally, from the first conversation with a client to signed terms.
Before Simple Machine, Stephen spent his career building technology for organizations, first through his own studio and later designing the systems a professional-services firm runs on: client development, contracts, research, billing and the data beneath them. That work put him alongside the people who lead those firms, and taught him how much of a firm’s future rests on who it chooses to lead it.
He brings the same habits to search: do the research before the first call, write to people as individuals, and tell everyone plainly where things stand.