The RAG Podcast - Recruitment Agency Growth Podcast
We’re having real and raw conversations with successful recruitment entrepreneurs about what is happening in their businesses right now and their plans to navigate market changes.
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Season 9 | Ep 20 Emma Storey: How 2 part-time working mums billed £500K in their first 2 years!
<p>Emma Storey: How 2 part-time working mums billed £500K in their first 2 years!</p><p>Emma Storey never thought she'd still be in recruitment after having kids.</p><p>She'd never worked with a mum in the industry. Never had a role model who'd done it. The assumption was always the same: have a baby, and your recruitment career is over.</p><p>But after successfully juggling recruitment and becoming a mum inside the pandemic, in 2023 she launched her own agency with colleague Nicola Morse, a fellow working mum.</p><p>They launched Hera with the plan to both work p...
Season 9 | Ep19 Avetis Antaplyan on how he spent millions protecting his team (they still left anyway)
<p>In 2022, Avetis Antaplyan was absolutely flying...</p><p>HIRECLOUT, his global recruiting firm with 30 employees across the US, Colombia, Armenia, and India was breaking record after record.</p><p>Two-time Inc. 5000 Fastest Growing Company, his best year ever and he felt everything was working.</p><p>Then when the market hit hard in 2023-2024 and every other founder was doing layoffs, Avetis refused to cut people.</p><p>Instead, he took most of his profits out of the business to keep his team employed through the downturn.</p><p>He genuinely believed loyalty would be returned. That when things...
Season 9 | Ep18 Peter Kornberg: How a Non-Recruiter Built $1M+ Revenue 15 years in a row (with Just 6 People)
<p>Peter Kornberg: How a Non-Recruiter Built $1M+ Revenue 15 years in a row (with Just 6 People)</p><p>Peter Kornberg never worked a day as an agency recruiter.</p><p>He worked in Advertising and Marketing and became a Chief Digital Officer.</p><p>He ran a product design agency in New York City. Clients started asking for talent they couldn't afford to engage the agency for. So Peter said: "We can provide you some people."</p><p>That was 15 years ago.</p><p>What started as an ad hoc favour became UX Hires -a staffing and recruitment firm that's...
Season 9 | Ep17 Alex Hashash: A Decade of Building Offshore Teams Across Three Continents
<p>At 21 years old, Alex Hashash was managing 15 people and 18,000 hours of temporary nurses every single week.</p><p>By his early thirties, he had 120 staff. Most of them offshore.</p><p>But it didn't start with a playbook. It started with 3 am phone calls, traumatic Blackberry ringtones, and weekend rotas that never seemed to end.</p><p>When his company decided to build an offshore capability, Alex didn't manage it from a distance.</p><p>He moved to India for eight months to build the team from scratch.</p><p>Night shifts. Culture clashes. Teaching people who'd never worked...
Season 9 | Ep16 Logan Naidu: How he made 100 cuts after a £30M deal (and survived the downturn)
<p>Logan Naidu runs Kernel Global-a multi-brand recruitment group with 200 people across London, Hong Kong, Charlotte and New York.</p><p>We first spoke in April 2021. He had 180 people. The market was about to explode.</p><p>2021: £7 million EBITDA. 2022: £10 million EBITDA. Headcount doubled to 300.</p><p>Then March 2023 hit. Logan closed a second PE deal. Paid out over £30 million to staff. The biggest individual payout? Multiple millions.</p><p>One month later, he started making cuts.</p><p>"I remember talking to my father-in-law saying I'm really embarrassed by this. I've just taken on a load of money from new inv...
Season 9 | Ep15 Ryan Gorman: How He Built £250k in Fees Without Making a Single Cold Call
<p>Ryan Gorman: How He Built £250k in Fees Without Making a Single Cold Call</p><p>Ryan Gorman launched Lofthouse Group in January 2021 with a newborn daughter at home.</p><p>His wife asked him one question: "What sort of person do you want Isla seeing? Do you want her growing up seeing work as something you love, or just something you do to earn money?"</p><p>Year one, solo, working part-time around his newborn: £93k invoiced. £60k profit. Home for every bath time.</p><p>"Everything has been warm. I've never had to sit down and just col...
Season 9 | Ep14 Stuart Mitchell: How he built $3M in 3 years (then realised he hated his own job)
<p>Stuart Mitchell: How he built $3M in 3 years (then realised he hated his own job)</p><p>Stuart Mitchell launched Hampton North in September 2022.</p><p>$1.6 million year one. $2.5 million year two. On track for $3 million plus in year three.</p><p>Now 10 staff and projects $1m profit for next year.</p><p>I interviewed him on the show in the middle of 2023, and things were flying.</p><p>But over the following 18 months, he nearly broke.</p><p>His dad died. His wife fell pregnant. And the VP he'd promised her-the guy who was supposed to take the...
Season 9 | Ep13 Pete Watson: 22 years as a solo Rec2Rec in Australia (and why he'd never do it again)
<p>Pete Watson: 22 years as a solo Rec2Rec in Australia (and why he'd never do it again)</p><p>Pete Watson is the longest-serving boots-on-the-ground Rec2Rec in Australia.</p><p>22 years running Mint R2R. Thousands of placements. A recognisable name across the entire Australian recruitment market.</p><p>But 18 months ago, he was at the gym when he asked himself one question:</p><p>"Would I do it all again?"</p><p>His answer was immediate: "A fast no."</p><p>Not because he failed. But because of what success actually cost him.</p><p>"Even though...
Season 9 | Ep12 Michael Green: How he made $700K in year one (after not billing for 6 years)
<p>Michael Green: How he made $700K in year one (after not billing for 6 years)</p><p>Michael Green spent six years running teams of 100+ recruiters.</p><p><br></p><p>Building offices. Managing people. Zero placements.</p><p><br></p><p>When he launched Unico in April 2024, he had to go back to basics.</p><p><br></p><p>"I had to do role plays to myself. I hadn't qualified a candidate in six years."</p><p><br></p><p>Day one was brutal. Just him, his house and a dog.</p><p><br></p><p>But Michael had...
Season 9 | Ep 11 Jen Gaster: How she sold her business to her team (and kept the tax bill at zero)
<p>Jen Gaster: How she sold her business to her team (and kept the tax bill at zero)</p><p>Jen Gaster launched HR Heads in 2008 at the height of the financial crisis with a six-month-old baby and zero income security.</p><p>17 years later, she runs three brands, 22 people, and just completed an Employee Ownership Trust (EOT) transaction.</p><p>Tax-free exit, 5-year payout. The employees own the business when the mortgage is paid off.</p><p>One week after they completed the deal, Rachel Reeves changed the rules.</p><p>EOT payments are now taxable for anyone doing...
