Our CEO Sean Mallapurkar interviewed by recruitment industry expert - @TheMillionaireRecruiter

Summary

In this episode of Talent Takeover Unfiltered, Sean Mallapurkar, CEO of Recruit CRM, shares his unique journey of co-founding the company with his father. The duo built a successful multi-million dollar recruitment software business from the ground up, overcoming challenges in the tech space, despite not being traditional tech experts. Highlighting the importance of simplicity in recruitment tools, the conversation also underscores the undervalued role of recruiters and the immense financial potential in the industry. With anecdotes of personal struggle and triumph, listeners gain insights into the realities of entrepreneurship, the recruitment industry, and the value of resilience and hard work.

Highlights

• Sean started Recruit CRM with his dad, overcoming hurdles to build a thriving business. 👨‍👦
• The importance of simplicity in recruitment tech: sometimes less is more. 📉
• Recruit CRM was built from the ground up and is now making millions without external funding. 💰
• The episode reveals the underestimated power and financial potential of being a recruiter. ✨
• A heartfelt story of resilience through personal and professional challenges. 💪

Key Takeaways

• Success can come from unexpected partnerships. 🤝
• The journey from startup to success is filled with struggles, but also triumphs. 🚀
• Recruiters play a crucial role in shaping industries, and they deserve respect. 🙌
• Effective recruitment software should simplify, not complicate, the hiring process. 🤖
• Pride in one’s profession can drive success and fulfillment. 🌟

Overview

In this engaging podcast episode, Sean Mallapurkar shares the story of founding Recruit CRM alongside his father. What began as a family venture has grown into a leading recruitment software company. Despite not having a traditional tech background, Sean and his dad bootstrapped their way to success, showing just how critical determination and innovation can be.

The discussion delves into the inherent value and often overlooked potential within the recruitment industry. Sean emphasizes that recruiters are vital to any organization's success, and that the tools they use should empower rather than burden them. His experiences underline a need for simplicity in recruitment tech, to genuinely address the recruiters' everyday challenges.

Throughout his narrative, Sean reiterates the theme of pride and respect in one's work. The conversation not only highlights the potential for financial success through recruitment but also the personal satisfaction it can bring. Sean's story is one of resilience and triumph, encouraging listeners to find pride in whatever path they choose, particularly in the realm of recruitment.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 00:30: Introduction and Welcome The chapter introduces the podcast episode featuring Sean, the CEO of Recruit CRM. The hosts, Brianna Rooney and Taylor Bradley, welcome Sean to the show. They set the tone for the episode by emphasizing values such as hard work, keeping it real, self-care, happiness, inner peace, and time management. Brianna and Taylor highlight their ability to thrive in chaos and present their discussion as a raw, authentic, under-the-hood view on talent takeover.
• 00:30 - 01:00: Overview of Recruitment Industry This chapter introduces the recruitment industry, acknowledging its often underrated status despite being filled with experts. It emphasizes the importance of recognizing the industry's value and credits existing tools, like recruit CRM, that aid in automating and simplifying recruitment processes for agencies worldwide. The chapter sets the stage for a deeper exploration into recruitment.
• 01:00 - 01:30: Sponsor Message and Introduction to Recruit CRM This chapter introduces Recruit CRM, a highly-rated recruitment software across all review boards, known for its easy-to-use and intuitive Applicant Tracking System (ATS) and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) functionalities. It emphasizes the software's capability to automate manual tasks, which alleviates recruiters from burdensome administrative work. Recruit CRM is recommended for recruiters who manage multiple tasks such as scheduling interviews and screening resumes.
• 01:30 - 03:30: Sean's Background and Early Career The chapter introduces Sean, delving into his personal background and early career. The discussion is anchored around his role as CEO of recruit CRM, a platform designed to streamline recruitment processes through automation tools like ATS (Applicant Tracking System) and CRM (Customer Relationship Management). The narrative emphasizes Sean's involvement in promoting the platform's benefits, such as increased efficiency and time savings for users.
• 03:30 - 05:00: Founding of Recruit CRM The chapter discusses the intertwined personal story of the speaker and the founding of Recruit CRM. It begins with the unique fact that the company was started by the speaker and their father five and a half years ago. Recruit CRM is a family-run software company thriving in the software as a service (SaaS) industry. Notably, it stands out as one of the few successful bootstrap father and son multi-million dollar software companies in this domain.
• 05:00 - 07:00: Challenges and Growth of Recruit CRM The chapter discusses the personal background and early exposure of the speaker to the recruiting and staffing industry. His father, who worked for Randstad, a leading global staffing and recruitment company, significantly influenced the speaker. From a young age, the speaker observed his father's role in expanding Randstad's business in India, growing from a small team of 90 people to a massive operation with 2400 consultants and managing 100,000 contractors.
• 07:00 - 10:00: Comparison with Bullhorn and Market Strategy The chapter discusses the speaker's family background in the recruitment industry, emphasizing their expertise in executive retained searches, contingent recruitment, and contract staffing. This experience financially supported the speaker's education in the United States.
• 10:00 - 13:00: Customer Success and Service Strategy The chapter discusses a venture in the B2C space focused on creating a hyper-local commerce platform for buying and selling video games, with the aim of replacing GameStop. The founders raised a couple of hundred thousand dollars in Angel funding while they were just 19 years old. They graduated within two and a half years and moved to San Francisco to pursue their business. Despite their efforts, the platform did not gain significant traction, and the $200k funding was quickly depleted in the expensive San Francisco market.
• 13:00 - 16:00: Discussion on Recruitment Technology The chapter discusses the inception of a company focused on developing technology for staffing and recruitment firms. The speaker mentions frequent discussions with their father, who had experience in using various recruitment products and felt there was a lack of excellent options. This motivated them to set up a company in Delaware, USA. The speaker relocated to India while their father invested $80,000 into the venture, humorously noting that they were still utilizing 'daddy's money.'
• 16:00 - 20:00: Personal Struggles and Overcoming Challenges The chapter titled 'Personal Struggles and Overcoming Challenges' discusses the financial and structural beginnings of a business endeavor. A total of $80,000 was invested over two years, not all at once, with the father owning two-thirds and the narrator owning one-third of the company, while the mother and father own one-third each. The initial team comprised of three developers and some fresh graduates from lower-ranked Indian schools, considering affordability. This setup marked the commencement of this entrepreneurial journey.
• 20:00 - 24:00: Reflection on Career and Hard Work The chapter titled 'Reflection on Career and Hard Work' discusses a successful career journey. It highlights the achievement of signing up the first customer through an online blog and expanding to serve over a thousand customers in 81 countries. The business is doing well with over four million dollars in revenue without raising additional funds and having a solid financial base with a million dollars in the bank from self-generated cash flows. The chapter reflects on the significance of hard work and personal achievement rather than reliance on external support, emphasizing pride in self-made success.
• 24:00 - 30:00: The Value of the Recruitment Profession The chapter emphasizes the importance and privilege of working in the recruitment profession. It highlights a success story of growing a business to over 100 employees and hiring globally within five years, contrasting it with typical business investments. Additionally, it touches upon the aspiration of building an applicant tracking system in the recruitment field.
• 30:00 - 36:00: Closing Remarks and Future Plans The chapter discusses the unique selling point of a new ATS (Applicant Tracking System) developed by a recruiter, which stands out because it is based on real recruiting challenges rather than traditional approaches.

Our CEO Sean Mallapurkar interviewed by recruitment industry expert - @TheMillionaireRecruiter Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 all right another wonderful episode of talent  takeover unfiltered with Sean the CEO of recruit   CRM welcome hello thanks thanks for having me  guys good to have you on the show thanks for   making some time welcome to Talent takeover  unfiltered when it comes to working hard and   keeping it real we know our [ __ ] self-care  happiness inner peace and time I'm Brianna   Rooney and this is Taylor Bradley hey y'all and  we have thrived in chaos and turned it into an   art form so Taylor what are we doing here today  we're here to give you a raw under the hood view
• 00:30 - 01:00 of all things recruiting and finally give credit  where credit is due to a long underrated industry   that's full of quote-unquote experts right  well then let's take this show to the road   all right before we dig in I just want to take  a quick thank you to our sponsor who has been   helping thousands of recruiters automate  and simplify recruitment finally say hello   to recruit CRM currently trusted by recruitment  agencies across 80 countries globally which is
• 01:00 - 01:30 crazy uh they have the highest rated recruitment  software across all review boards which is really   unheard of um goodbye bullhorn it's easy to use  intuitive ATS and CRM that lets you automate all   those manual tasks I know recruiters hate admin  work and we're all about getting results this   helps you get that so if you're juggling  between interviews to schedule candidates   the screen resumes to say to you know paying all  those things we definitely recommend that you use
• 01:30 - 02:00 recruit CRM for sure let the system do the heavy  lifting and save time for better things in life   which is making money so to learn more about this  amazing ATS and CRM check out recruit CRM dot IO   and you you can start a free trial or book a demo  with one of their Executives whenever you're ready   so head on to recruitcrm.io today um Sean we want  to know all about you but we definitely want to   talk about the the company that you're obviously  CEO of recruit CRM so tell us about recruit CRM
• 02:00 - 02:30 sure uh and and my personal story and the  story of recruits CRM is very very intertwined   right uh so it's a it's I think you might not  know this but I started recruit CRM with my dad   five and a half years ago where family run  software company oh my God very cool in the   world in the world of SAS right very few Father  and Son multi-million dollar software companies   bootstrap uh out there uh so fun fun uh so so to  walk you through our story is is is is is pretty
• 02:30 - 03:00 fun so since the time I was about four years old  my dad worked for recruiting and staffing company   called randstadt or runstadt which is a Dutch  Staffing and recruitment company largest on the   planet by market cap and value like Revenue uh  that was their India country manager so he ran   their business in India and so from the time I was  in diapers through high school he basically grew   runstadt's business in India from 90 people to  2400 Consultants 100 000 contractors because they
• 03:00 - 03:30 do everything in India they do executive retain  searches contingent Recruitment and contract   and so that's very deep like Staffing and  recruitment background comes in that that is also   what helped my dad pay for my overpriced American  college education very overpriced yeah yeah so uh   you know I wish I should I shipped off to college  after 12th grade uh to Bloomington Indiana I've   been to Indiana University there I've been to  the business school which was the Kelly School of   Business I graduated in two and a half years got  lucky uh I started a little startup there in the
• 03:30 - 04:00 b2c space we were trying to do local hyper local  Commerce for people to buy video games from each   other to try to replace GameStop yeah it seemed  like a cool idea back then uh we got a couple   hundred thousand dollars of Angel money which  was crazy considering we were 19 at the time so   graduated in two and a half years moved to San  Francisco and then uh that the platform didn't   take off in 200k Burns pretty quickly in San  Francisco Founders and you're trying to run ads
• 04:00 - 04:30 and make things work right around that time I was  always talking to Dad and we always wanted to do   something together long term and I knew Tech any  new Staffing and recruitment so we were like let's   build technology for Staffing and recruitment  firms because he used a lot of the products   and he was like there's nothing great here so we  set up a company in Delaware in the US I moved to   India that put in about eighty thousand dollars  so you know I still use daddy's money you know
• 04:30 - 05:00 yeah yeah he put in about eighty thousand dollars  uh total investment over a period of time not not   all up front uh over two years to get this  started dad owns two-thirds the company I   own a third so it's my dad and mom that own  one-third each uh between one third and one   third so two-thirds and I own a third and we  hired three developers and we got started in   India development Talent was cheaper and we  also hired people right out of college from   lower ranked schools who would accept working for  us right uh and and that's how we got started uh
• 05:00 - 05:30 we signed up our first customer who found Us  online on a Blog uh today we serve a little   over a thousand customers at 81 countries uh  and we're on a Runway doing a little over four   million in Revenue uh US dollars I and we've  not raised any money since then and we have   a million bucks in the bank from cash flows  that will be generated can we just clap yeah look where daddy's money got you don't sell  yourself short there like that's amazing yeah
• 05:30 - 06:00 congratulations so so you can never forget that  you come from a place of privilege to be able to   even do that yeah but we have been a lot more  successful than most people that have put 80   000 into their business uh within sub five years and so that's where we're at we're a little  over 100 people now uh and we're hiring globally   that's incredible so I have said I I've been  in the recruiting business for like 14 years   and building an applicant tracking system has been  a dream of mine um and because you're right it's
• 06:00 - 06:30 not done by a recruiter until now that makes me so  happy to hear that finally a recruiter has built   an ATS there's other ats's was like we shadowed  recruiters for 90 days it's like what no you don't   know the challenges there's so many challenges  um I love that I love that you two teamed up   because the reason why I personally didn't go down  that route was like well I'm not a coder I don't
• 06:30 - 07:00 know Tech like it would have been a nightmare  um for me to grasp that so the trust that you   have as father and son and you know one owning  age specialty is huge that's awesome love that when I have a tech problem I restart my computer   that's a very different skill set right  being a tech recruiter you can be a magical   tech recruiter not knowing how to write hello  world on your computer by just understanding
• 07:00 - 07:30 you know the different spectrums of recruitment uh  technology anyway yeah yeah I know it's awesome so   what I'm even more excited about to talk to you  is about bullhorn um so uh again ats's are just   disasters I could rip them all apart um and then  I ended up going with at the end um bullhorn and   oh my goodness well no it was a disaster it's  over complicated it's really difficult and so
• 07:30 - 08:00 again I always said to myself if I am going to  go up against a beast it's going to be bullhorn   because they have a lot of market share so want to  know how you have fought to do that and how you're   tackling just so you know I love I love bullhorn  and I love them because of everything you just   said uh about uh about 26 to 20 like eight percent  of our customers and about 36 of our revenue is   people that cancel will horn and moved to us yeah  at any point of time we're having multiple like
• 08:00 - 08:30 this week we have three bullhorn data migrations  running just this week well uh for people moving   from bullhorn to us uh and that's every week  throughout the year 52 weeks here right uh so   so I don't I don't dislike the company they're  great about it but either someone from their   M A Team or someone who works at the private  Equity Fund that owns them has reached out to   us every single year I would imagine to ask us to  be part of a larger platform uh one of one of the
• 08:30 - 09:00 calls I've actually recorded and shared with my  team because we have a laugh about it [Laughter]   yeah and and recorded with incentive obviously  we have this note taker that joins every call   so we tell people sure hey I'm not judging  you Sean yeah yeah but uh but but yeah so   so we we understand the product and Company  and and how we think about it is this right   the largest problem that people that work in  recruitment have is is a couple things right
• 09:00 - 09:30 one most recruitment systems tend to be super  complicated because over time people just keep   folding on new features on them as people ask  for features and so basically you could have   something that looks cool in 2005 and by 2015 it  looks like total crap because like there's been   200 feature requests and they basically just added  200 buttons on it to pick up a book and the second   thing is the average recruiter uh forget technical  recruiter right there's non-technical recruiters
• 09:30 - 10:00 and so on are not technical at all right like so  in many cases like uh you know they're not super   comfy with like crazy technology and it's not you  can't just say okay sign this contract wire this   money and here's a login figure it out uh and if  you want our help we're going to charge you 200   an hour to help you but that that's that doesn't  work out right yeah and so what you did and we   leveraged some of the advantages we have right  so because I'm based in India I have two tanks   I have an English speaking populace a large number  of young people because we have a pretty favorable
• 10:00 - 10:30 population demographic and because of that  combination we have we have cheaper Talent at the   entry level right sure the compensation difference  in India between a fresh let's say engineer versus   a director of engineering is very different  from that in the US right it's 10 there's a 10x   compensation differential between someone in year  one and year 15. which is not the case in the US   right on in an average situation yeah so you can  hire a lot of these really young smart people you
• 10:30 - 11:00 can train them in the business of recruitment over  three months so we do three months of training and   we can give each of our customers very dedicated  support so for the Thousand accounts we have we   have 21 people in our customer success team wow  every 40 customers or 40 to 50 customers accounts   uh via One customer success manager and that's  a lot of humans so that that means when you sign   up with us there's one human who's who who has  to spend four to five hours a month every month
• 11:00 - 11:30 of their entire career making sure you're  successful on our platform we just yeah and   that's only possible with the economics we have  you you cannot do that in any other part of the   world so we really outside of making a simple tool  that's easy to use that you can see on the ratings   you've just gone on overdrive and like the free  Consulting piece where we're like you're buying   our software you only have four people on your  team it's cool we'll spend 10 out of 10 hours with   you to figure out why you only charge 15 and not  25 why are you not good oh you get this because
• 11:30 - 12:00 oh wow okay it's very that's that is its own  separate game um do you ever charge I don't know   I'm thinking about monetization I can't myself you  don't ever charge you can't even ask like for more   help and and then you charge or no it's on it's  unlimited help right uh no matter the number of   seats you have you get as many hours with us  as you want and and there's only so many hours   someone wants on live calls right it's not like  we're giving you free like back office late where
• 12:00 - 12:30 we're giving you free Consulting so you can have  as much as you want uh and and then we also have   best practices on like automations right so if you  run a 20 recruitment agency every time you get a   new job from a client and in an increasingly  remote world world you shouldn't have to like   manually send everyone a message on something or  an email that says hey we got a new job or we just   made a placement why can't you set up automations  that automatically inform everyone at the company   job to recruit for beautiful placement  successfully made or an interview request
• 12:30 - 13:00 we will work with you to set those automations up  using tools like Xavier with other people use for   free so we'll give you all that Consulting  expertise for free where if you run a five   percent recruitment business you don't you don't  know any of that [ __ ] for the life of a better   word yeah yeah it's a good but that's the best  word yeah yeah um yeah it's interesting that   you say that because we actually I jump out a  product um this week wait actually last week   and they followed up again this week so they  have a really great product I won't say who   it is or what they do but they have this great  product but then I'm like they have this video
• 13:00 - 13:30 on their website that I absolutely love of what  the product can do and I'm like I want that how   do I get that and they're like oh yeah our product  can do that but it'll cost you about two to three   k to get it to get basically these analytics that  you want that that's really what this tool does   is analytics and so I love that you're making  the customer experience the focus because that   was a complete deterrent like that just I was  done after that because it's like you have this   amazing tool but you charge me to show me how  to fully optimize it that makes it even sense
• 13:30 - 14:00 and this is a big problem right with most  technology right uh if you look at the average   Salesforce implementation which a company  buys it spends 100 Grand buying Salesforce   it takes about nine to 12 months for Salesforce  implementation at a Enterprise to be successful   from the time they pay the hundred grand  so they don't get anything back for the   100 Grand until like eight or nine months  in and you end up spending two dollars in
• 14:00 - 14:30 implementation Consulting for every dollar  you've actually spent on the subscription   so uh and and this and so I studied Information  Systems in college and they sort of taught us   this right like when you implement sap at your  business uh the average sap Hana implementation   can take 12 to 18 months and for for an average  200 000 subscription contract of sap Hana it costs   about 350 000 in addition to the app so and the  thing is small businesses aren't cool with that
• 14:30 - 15:00 yeah that's not even the adoption rate because  how many like let's get into recruiting Tech   and just in general because we've seen a lot  of Leaps and Bounds but we've also seen a lot   of missteps in my opinion where they're just  being they're putting too much Tech into things   um and then again when you come to recruiters and  you think of like what's something that recruiters   hate doing well it's admin work which is typically  what a tool is right so how do you feel like   um how do you feel technology comes into play  with not only your system but into like the
• 15:00 - 15:30 industry in general sure and and to go back to  your point about tech or and like a CRM or an   ETS or any right internal external at an agency  being an admin tool traditionally how software   was built was there was a business owner that  owns like let's say a 20 firm and they're like   I want to know what all of my people are doing  right always yes and I'm going to give all of   them this tool that they can only log into from  the office and every time they make a placement   they have to put data into this tool I don't give  them commissions right so if you want commission
• 15:30 - 16:00 you got to put it in the tool I've heard  people say I came from an agency like that yeah my agency had a call counter like he literally  would go into the closet and like come out   and like read our stats on how many calls  we did how long they were all that stuff   that's that's ridiculous right and and the  problem with that is as a recruiter you're   like this this tool is this shitty part of  your day where you have to spend 20 minutes   talking about or writing about what you did  all day and your company is paying you to do
• 16:00 - 16:30 that it's completely unproductive it adds no  value it doesn't make you feel good it just   makes you feel like what the hell and the and  the reason for that is that that tool isn't   really designed to help you gain anything it's  just designed to give your boss great dashboards   and the problem with that is because it's designed  in that way people don't use it and thus the boss   doesn't get accurate dashboards because candidates  because recruiters or Consultants tend to only add   those candidates that got the job and now you need  to collect a feces you just put the put those ones
• 16:30 - 17:00 in uh I remember talking to someone that works  at a large Pharma company where they use workday   which is uh yeah he has a CRM system they're like  we hire about in in that office we hire 40 people   a month we get about you know 1500 applicants  and people we talk to and we make 40 entries   in workday every month we only make entries  when we have to make an offer because that's   that's all they use the ATS for because you need  to make the offer through the ATS yeah skew data   everything else happens offline The Fortune 500  company has no clue who's applying where they're
• 17:00 - 17:30 applying from uh same with agencies so the way  to fix that is make sure the tool you use and it   doesn't have to be I don't I don't want to like  be over like self you know uh do self-marketing   sort of actually if you got a rocket yeah you know  there's a bunch of tools they can do this recruit   CRM can do it but there's a few other tools that  can do it too you need to get a tool that actually   saves your recruiters hours every week just by  using it and reports are just something that's
• 17:30 - 18:00 extra that happen and you like but you need to  get the tool because your Consultants are able   to reach out to two extra candidates or two extra  clients with the same level of personalization   because because another extreme you see now is  tools that say Hey you just put in 100 names and   emails and we'll just automatically send them 200  emails a day for the next 20 days that's spamming   and then that gets you flagged and that that's  not what the technology is supposed to do what   the technology is supposed to do is if you're  able to reach out to 20 people and have 20
• 18:00 - 18:30 conversations today a day or maybe less the tool  is supposed to help you get an extra 50 or 30 in   conversations so if a recruiter makes let's say  builds two hundred thousand dollars a year and   you can spend a grand or two getting a tool that  helps them make 220. that's great that and that's   what you're going to want to focus on the problem  with most people buying tools is like they're like   hey how can I hire hire everyone in my company  take a database put it into this tool and make
• 18:30 - 19:00 millions of dollars I've had people ask me those  questions but don't pay anyone anything I just   have a database and it emails these one million  clients and then some of them reply back and   say Yes I want candidates and then I put jobs  on them then I email a million candidates and   then I automatically set up interviews and I'm  just sitting in the machines rolling I'm like   then you don't need a recruitment  agency right like uh yeah you know   that's on a sustainable business model that's  not gonna work long term that may be what this
• 19:00 - 19:30 individual doing it's not even you know it didn't  work for him at all it's a fantasy this is good   normally the people say this stuff they've  never done Recruitment and they're starting   a new business and they're like hey I I've done  and they're normally from the more technical side   right they're not really done Recruitment  and they're just starting a business and   they're like hey I talked to all these recruiters  Technical Recruiters recruiting Engineers like me   they're so stupid man they don't even know what  I'm talking about I'm gonna go in and I'm gonna   write code and I'm gonna automate all of this and  this recruiter makes 200 Grand I want to make like
• 19:30 - 20:00 a million doesn't happen because if you're it's a  sales job right if you're not good at convincing   the candidate a high quality candidate to go do  an interview with a client it's not gonna work   yeah if you're on it yeah that's it nobody thinks  that recruiting is a strategy a job that's that   like you said all these Engineers are like I touch  these recruiters they're so stupid I could do that   I could do that job it's really not that easy and  they can't I I've actually had an engineer tell me
• 20:00 - 20:30 um that a monkey could do my job like literally to  my face tell me that and I was like and you know   the crazy part uh the best recruiting Consultants  uh make a lot more than the average engineer a Fan   Company yep I know recruiters that make a million  bucks a year because a lot of them use their Tech   it's not it's not that they make a million bucks a  year just because they use our Tech Maybe 10 or 20   of that extra 100 Grand on the 900 on us but like  they're good already they're killing it already
• 20:30 - 21:00 and that's more than the average engineer  makes at Facebook or Google because then   you're making 50 Grand a placement but that's  it adds up if you're good at your job yeah yeah   and then your tool just makes them more efficient  so therefore they can make more money they can   either make more money and or they can just work  less well there you go so that's what I'm all for   so go ahead forget I was going to ask a question  about uh I just would love to know like what's
• 21:00 - 21:30 your biggest struggle starting recruit CRM what's  your biggest struggle so give us the real [ __ ]   give us the real [ __ ] tell us the real of  course of course so the biggest struggle was   was two things right uh the first thing was my  dad's completely non-text people but he knows   the industry super well right uh I am technical  as enough studied information systems but I'm   basically a product manager I'm not like a  hardcore you know back-end engineer and if
• 21:30 - 22:00 you want to build a full-blown SAS application  that people in different countries are going   to give you money for with a payment portal  like everything baked in you need to be a   hardcore engineer you can't be like a light  engineer like me just writing SQL queries   right so I can do code I can write code right  but I can't quite write production grade code   uh but I can do pretty decent product  management so the hardest part in the   beginning as a non-funded right uh because even  in India 80 grand is not that much money right
• 22:00 - 22:30 especially when you're trying to launch a company  uh the biggest challenge was building something   with folks that had never done it before none of  my Engineers had ever worked at any other company   before that's like their first gig right uh I  had never built a SAS app right and I had never   had success previously and my dad had success in  a completely non-tech pure recruitment setting   so the first year and a half we really like  literally fumbled and fumbled and fumbled till
• 22:30 - 23:00 we got a product out so like every six months like  six months in I was like hey are we even gonna   get anywhere we're just going to blow up or that  money and I'm gonna be like unemployed again right   CEO startup to an employee not fund right  so and that was probably the pressure that   like this forced you to persevere and make it  happen right think or Swim but that was that   was a very real stress right going bankrupt  is a pretty uh interesting uh stress point to   happen in your life yeah what's interesting is  one way to put it yeah scary traumatizing yeah
• 23:00 - 23:30 I don't know I had a pretty rough pace so so when  the first start and this this has nothing to do   with this but when the first startup didn't work  out I was like really depressed because like when   I like graduated from college in two and a half  years and like raised money uh from angels and   gone to San Francisco to run a startup I thought  I was going to be in a Lambo in a couple of years   and then you like declare bankruptcy for any  bankrupt the startup basically with a lawyer
• 23:30 - 24:00 and then you fly back to India it was I was so  depressed I had uh at alopecia at stress-induced   alopecia so there were like little spots on my  head and my face hair stopped growing uh so you   went to the doctor and I was like what's going on  they put some steroid shots right like injected   yeah and it it was fake then I just had a pretty  bad time during that phase because I also had a   humor in my neck like the same thing [ __ ] time  like around those three months I'd cut it open you   have to check if it was cancerous it wasn't but we  still have to remove it so we removed it so that
• 24:00 - 24:30 was just a shitty phase of my life yeah versus  now when you're making millions of bucks right   it's pretty contrasting the crazy thing is I wish  this [ __ ] was made up but I had stitches in my   lately yeah it was it wasn't fun yeah you know  what Sean I I need to go back to the fact that   in earlier in the conversation you said you were  lucky to have graduated in two and a half years   no you were just a badass and you worked really  hard so first of all take that and you know enjoy   it but you probably didn't feel it at the time  yeah yeah but but I wasn't like a 4.0 student
• 24:30 - 25:00 graduating in two and a half years I was a I was  a 3.8 that dropped to a cumulative GPA of a 2.95   through graduation because I just made sure I  got at least a c in every class that you could   I could just finish the number of credits I needed  to get the degree and get my student visa because   I wasn't legally allowed to drop out because  I'm an international student so I dropped out   admission back to India right so the only way for  me to like get my company to sponsor my own Visa
• 25:00 - 25:30 was for me to like pass college yeah but and  that's basically what I did but that's why   you're you're you're you're you're a winner you  are a born entrepreneur like that's stuff that   only entrepreneurs think to do you know most  are just like hey I'm just gonna chill here   for four years then I'll figure out who's  gonna get my Visa and you know whatever   um but I mean you accomplished a lot um that  takes Grit so I I love also that you share   that like kind of the rags to riches because like  that's what it is like that's that's the hard work
• 25:30 - 26:00 no one talks about you know people love talking  about reaction riches but it's not right my dad   was a CEO right I can't I can't picture actually  read the story it's not fair right to a lot of   people that do go through the real struggle you  know I've had a good life growing up sure you   know I've had a comfortable life uh we did work  hard we did work 80 90 hours a week the the few   years that we were launching this making this work  and so on but I thought that's a lot easier than   people that are struggling sure there's different  degrees of rags to riches but you are literally
• 26:00 - 26:30 down and out you were depressed you were having  a hard time where it's like you were you were a   shooting star and then now it's like wow like you  kind of had like this reality check like wow my my   [ __ ] does stink okay let's figure this out well  yeah and I agree with what you're saying we're   gonna have with where you're like I get what  you're saying the rags to riches your health   decline Sean I mean you could have had a Lambo in  your garage but your health decline like what the   [ __ ] does a Lambo matter you know so it's kind  of like I get where you're going with that it's   like you did the strategy part was the shitty  part was I didn't have a Lambo those batteries
• 26:30 - 27:00 so money does once I get it I just feel  like having a Lambo in any scenario is   not a bad thing even if I can't drive  it if I'm just looking at it whatever   it's not I'm just taking pictures with it  yeah yeah I'm just laying on top of it yeah   taking pictures of it exactly that's  a different reality show that's funny no I was just gonna say like I I know  that we're we're definitely over time
• 27:00 - 27:30 on how what our normal podcasts are but this  is that there's some such great stuff here   um love that there's uh literally a an actual  database made by a recruiter lifetime recruiter   um and uh and the the father-son duo that's just  a cool story in general but um no that like they   get it that that doesn't have need all the bells  and whistles that like a monster bullhorn has   um because the fact is is like not a lot of  people use it and sometimes it's there just
• 27:30 - 28:00 for looks or just for the CEO to feel  better um I totally get that um I love   that and actually it reminds me of do you know  who uh Max hire is like it's an old database [Music] yes so like I was thinking of that when you were  saying it because I used to use max higher I loved   Max higher I would use like it was just so simple  like you could just go in and rock out whatever   you needed to do um and then they transferred me  to Bullhorn and I was like nope nope give me Max
• 28:00 - 28:30 higher back I can't do this and they were  like but we're not update upgrading it I'm   like it's okay I'll go there until you burn it  down um so the fact that there's something like   this that has come out and that kind of has in my  opinion the max higher strategy like less is more   um and that you know there's no such thing the  Bots are not going to take over this industry   Bots can take over a few Industries and  do a few things but not this one yeah it's about using technology  and leveraging automation
• 28:30 - 29:00 to do the stuff that's boring yeah for example  instead of saying send a candidate these 10   emails back to back and then if they reply  let me figure it out you can create an email   sequence but when you create that email sequence  it needs to include actual physical touch points   for example send this email but then remind me  to call this person and if I call them and leave   them a voicemail remind me in two more days to  send them a LinkedIn message and then email them
• 29:00 - 29:30 again so yeah you're still taking out a couple  emails from like the whole typing experience yeah   let's smoothing that out but you're not just  saying select a thousand people press a button   and just pray for like somebody to reply to you  the spray and pray yeah yeah yeah yeah that's not   getting you your 40 or 50 000 fee right that's  not what the client is yeah right uh and as long   as you're honest with your job and you're like  hey I'm a recruiter my job is finding the best   talent for this job I've gotten and if I do  that right I can make 40 Grand in two weeks
• 29:30 - 30:00 if like that's a crazy amount of money right  think about it an average recruiter right this   is the only industry in the world and as a agency  recruiter it's the only job in the world that you   can do without any degree you know as long as you  have a phone and a computer and a tongue to speak   and I'd like Facebook you can make millions of  dollars amen and I know people that have made   millions of dollars unlike maybe say becoming  a professional like doctor or lawyer or CP or
• 30:00 - 30:30 something where you need to get a certification  degree here is literally you could you all you   need to do is you just need to grind and hustle  and you need to be smart about it and you can   make a shitload of money yep absolutely it's an  awesome industry I love it I'm going to work in   this for the rest of my life right love it I hear  you me too you know I I think we've all gotten   chills during this conversation um just because  it resonates so well and I'm I'm a die-hard agency   recruiter you know we have a couple of different  solutions and now we start you know we're we're
• 30:30 - 31:00 training recruiters because it's like let me train  you to make millions of dollars let's do this like   um I've seen it I've had lots of employees that  have have hit that that threshold so that's cool   love that um let's uh Taylor you want to take it  away to to end this restaurant so you've listened   to our episodes before you know at the end we hit  him with a broke to boss tip of the week so what   would be your rug to boss tip for our listeners  thank you if you're if you're listening listener   is a recruiter which I guess most of them are  right yeah take more pride in what you do right
• 31:00 - 31:30 this is one of the most important jobs on the  planet you are helping Talent move to the right   opportunities and if Helen doesn't move to the  right companies at the right time you're not going   to have Innovations in different industries from  Healthcare and pharmaceutical space everything   right like if Steve Jobs didn't get his designers  and Engineers you wouldn't have iPods and iPhones   and airpods or whatever right and so a lot of  times recruiters are pretty like you could you   could have a recruiter making four 500 Grand a  year and unlike a software engineer who's like   I'm a software engineer I'm a lawyer oh I just do  technical recruitment oh you you know you're just
• 31:30 - 32:00 talking on the phone no I do recruitment right I  kill it you need to have a little more confidence   right most recruiters I talk to especially in a  public setting never talk about their job with   the absolute confidence and like hey I need to  totally tell you about what I did today right   and I I got this company a new VP and it's going  to change their direction or for example have   more confidence right and a lot of recruiters  have confidence while talking to candidates or
• 32:00 - 32:30 clients where they're pitching their service but  when they're by themselves or in a Social Circle   take more pride in what you do it's it's  impressive work yeah I love that I love   that so many people and Taylor I'm sure you can  relate to this like I felt like it took like my   parents at least five years to figure out what  I did and even then I'm like do you really know   what I what I do like are you sure and then  it's like you know something silly like when   will you get a real job yes oh I've heard that I  totally heard that like like dude this is a real
• 32:30 - 33:00 job I make three times what you do right it is  as real as can be you know a real job isn't like   needing to dress up and drive and going to a  corporate office right you you could you could   have a real job at your desk and you could make a  million bucks on your desk today that's possible   yeah I love that job is not Optics it's not  the Optics it's the dollar sign like you yeah   you have but I think with anything it doesn't  even just have to be recruiters take pride in   what you do but I love that always saying that  specific to recruiting because you're so right
• 33:00 - 33:30 when it's talking about what you do like  I even find myself in talking about what   I do it's like you kind of have to downplay it  because people don't really understand it and   it's not that hard to understand but it's like  get a real job mentality you guys are so right   I mean take pride in what we do what we do is  hard it's not easy and it it shapes some of the   companies that change the world exactly like so  um my ex-husband is a chef so he gets invited in   to talk at the kids school go be a chef I'm like  what about me I've owned my own business for how   long like I'm a recruiter it's like nope that's  not that's not relatable they're like sit down
• 33:30 - 34:00 and you know what a career and no offense to Chef  chefs are great right but a professional recruiter   over their career makes more and more money than  the average professional chef of course just that   yeah right but but chefs are like oh my God  he's a chef he must be awesome oh you're a   recruiter oh like you know you're just a crazy  salesperson and and that's not cool right now   it's not cool his impersonations are the best  by the way his impersonations uh I love it you
• 34:00 - 34:30 the drama and the the impersonations you do when  you're talking about different people is amazing   but my my mother's an actress that produces movies  in in India so I have like a little bit of the   yeah I can't help it it just it's just that drama  the drama is like going through I'm so pumped I   feel like picketing but I don't know where I'm  gonna pick it give us respect oh my God what you   do mic drop take pride of what you do I love that  I absolutely love that I think our listeners will
• 34:30 - 35:00 too and this is such an empowering episode that I  didn't realize it was going to be but it actually   really is yeah so thank you so much for taking  the time to join us today we really appreciate   it love learning about you and recruit CRM and  why recruiters are [ __ ] amazing I didn't know   it but you know thank you yeah yeah like this is  gonna set the tone for our day to let's go kick   some ass Brianna yeah I love it I'm super super  pumped and I want to talk to your dad let's let's
• 35:00 - 35:30 get him on here I want to hear all his crazy  stories thank you Sean there's a lot of them   love a lot of them so before before he went to  b-school and went to start working at Randstad   he was in the anti-terrorist squad oh god wow in  the Army so he was he's actually killed terrorists   and stuff like actual like wow that's a totally  different direction I wasn't expecting yeah   his pre-recruitment stories that are also  fun and then recruitment stories that are fun
• 35:30 - 36:00 because he's an old school recruiter like  that's the stuff like I I got half of my   careers old school recruiting and now  it's kind of funny now but anyways uh   thanks thanks so much everyone thank you for  listening uh you know every Tuesday for sure   we drop a new episode but this one was an extra  special one with Sean the CEO of recruit CRM