The Resilient Recruiter

Seb Sharpe built a $4 million recruitment firm in seven years, profitable every quarter, working exclusively on retained and permanent placements.

Then he made a decision most agency owners avoid.

Instead of scaling headcount and doubling down on the traditional model, he stepped back and started building for where he believes the recruitment industry is heading next.

Seb is the co-founder of Inventure, a specialist renewable energy search firm based in Los Angeles. He launched the business in 2018 with his co-founder Charlie Rawlings, starting with no clients, no track record, and an office above a subway line in a WeWork. Within a year, they billed $1 million. In year two, $2 million. The business has remained profitable every quarter since.

More recently, they launched Generate, a platform designed for what they see as the next era of recruitment: more independent, more entrepreneurial, and built around the individual recruiter rather than the traditional agency structure.

In this conversation, Seb shares the systems that drove Inventure's growth, including the one KPI that made revenue predictable, how to properly qualify vacancies so clients stay accountable, and why most recruiters are focusing on the wrong part of the funnel. He also explains why he believes recruitment is structurally overdue for change, how the shift toward independent recruiters is already happening, and where AI is genuinely adding value inside a modern recruitment business.

If you're building a recruitment agency or executive search firm and want more consistent revenue, stronger client relationships, and a clearer view of where the industry is going, this one is worth your time.

Episode Highlights

[2:38] First year: $1M. Second year: $2M. Profitable every quarter

[9:33] Why niching into renewable energy changed everything

[13:34] The imposter syndrome behind early agency growth

[15:05] The academy model for hiring and training

[22:44] Landing a $30K retainer with no brand or track record

[31:29] The KPI that predicts your revenue

[33:51] How to calculate the value of a first-time interview

[36:27] Why most recruiters lose control of searches

[44:06] Why Seb is building Generate

[53:26] The EXP Realty model and the industry shift

[58:27] Where AI is changing recruitment [1:09:57] Mark's top two takeaways

Guest Bio and Contact Info

Seb Sharpe is the co-founder of Inventure, a renewable energy executive search firm he built to approximately $4 million in annual revenue, and Generate, a platform for entrepreneurial recruiters. He launched Inventure in 2018 with Charlie Rawlings, billing $1 million in year one and $2 million in year two, with consistent profitability every quarter. Over seven years, the business has grown through 100% permanent placements. Seb began his recruitment career at GQR in Los Angeles and later helped launch a Chicago office. Originally from England, he attended UCLA and has been based in the US for over a decade.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sebsharpe Generate: https://wearegenerateai.com (verify) Millie AI: https://mille.ai (verify)

Links and Tools

Recruitment Scorecard: https://recruitmentcoach.com/scorecard Recruiterflow

(Sponsor): https://recruitmentcoach.com/recruiterflow

Trusted Voice Video: https://recruitmentcoach.com/video

Connect with Mark Whitby Free strategy session: https://recruitmentcoach.com/strategy-session LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mwhitby

Follow The Resilient Recruiter on Apple Podcasts so you never miss an episode.

Harrison Wright built his recruitment business to nearly $400,000 in billings within six months.

Then the market turned.

Hiring froze. Searches disappeared. For six months, nothing came in while he was burning $30,000 a month to stay afloat.

Most recruiters would respond by doing more.

More calls. More CVs. More pressure.

He did exactly that.

It didn’t work.

Harrison is the founder of The Blockchain Recruiter, a search firm specialising in crypto and Web3 talent. After the crash, he rebuilt the business around retained search, tighter positioning, and a more deliberate recruitment process.

Today, he runs a retained model with an interview-to-placement ratio of 2.16 to 1 and has won clients worth more than $350,000 in lifetime value through inbound alone. After shifting into institutional crypto, he’s on track for $1.2M to $1.6M in 2025, despite a difficult market.

This conversation gets into what actually changed.

Why he treats recruitment as a sales process. Why he doesn’t pitch the job on the first call. And how doing more work upfront changes what happens at offer stage.

In this episode:

Why more activity doesn’t fix a broken recruitment model

How Harrison qualifies candidates before a CV ever gets sent

The thinking behind a 2.16-to-1 interview-to-placement ratio

Why he avoids pitching the job early in the process

How positioning led to higher-value retained clients

The shift into institutional crypto and why it changed his pipeline

What most recruiters get wrong about delivery

Episode highlights:

[1:06] From zero to $400K in six months
[1:21] The crash: no revenue and $30K monthly burn
[13:17] The 2.16-to-1 interview-to-placement ratio
[15:14] The 90-minute candidate interview
[21:37] Why pitching first creates problems later
[49:10] The institutional crypto pivot
[1:00:46] What a retained proposal looks like

About Harrison Wright

Harrison Wright is the founder of The Blockchain Recruiter, one of the OG search firms in crypto and Web3. As an avid student of business and the craft of recruiting, Harrison built his business by prioritizing tight positioning, exceptional delivery, and retained client partnerships in a market where most recruiters compete on speed, volume and contingency.

Connect with Harrison

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/harrisonwright
Website: https://theblockchainrecruiter.com

Connect with Mark Whitby

Get your FREE 30-minute strategy call:
https://www.recruitmentcoach.com/strategy-session/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mwhitby/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MarkWhitby
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/RecruitmentCoach

Sponsors

Recruiterflow
Recruiterflow is the AI-first operating system for recruitment agencies and executive search firms, combining ATS, CRM, and AI in one platform.
👉 https://recruitmentcoach.com/recruiterflow

Trusted Voice Video
You already know video works. You just don’t have time to create it.

One 30-minute session each month. Thirty days of short-form LinkedIn video content, planned, filmed, edited, and ready to post.
👉 https://recruitmentcoach.com/video

Free Recruitment Scorecard

Not sure what’s slowing your agency’s growth?

👉 https://recruitmentcoach.com/scorecard

If your market feels tough right now, this is worth a listen.

A 12-month guarantee on every placement.

That’s not something you hear often in recruitment.

Lewis Waitt and Jessica Multhauf built their firm, Aliniti, around the idea that the placement is only the beginning of the relationship. Because of the way they run their searches — and the way they support both the client and the new hire after the hire — more than 90% of their placements are still in the role after one year.

Aliniti didn’t start as a recruitment firm. It began as an HR and organisational development consultancy working closely with privately held and family-owned businesses. Recruiting came later, growing naturally from long-term advisory relationships with clients who needed help hiring.

That consulting background shapes everything about how they approach recruitment today.

They define the role properly before the search begins, challenge unrealistic expectations, and stay closely involved with both the client and the new hire long after the placement.

The result is stronger hiring outcomes, deeper client relationships, and a recruitment business built on long-term partnerships rather than one-off transactions.

In this episode of The Resilient Recruiter, Lewis and Jess explain how their model works and why it produces better results for both clients and candidates.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode

• Why Aliniti offers a 12-month guarantee on every placement
• How their consulting background shapes their recruiting approach
• The role clarity process they run before every search
• Why unrealistic job briefs lead to failed searches
• How staying involved after the hire improves retention
• Why multiple service lines create stability in a recruitment business
• How long-term advisory relationships generate repeat recruiting work

Timestamps

00:00 Introduction
03:09 How Aliniti started and why recruiting grew out of HR consulting
06:37 Lewis joins the firm as the founder’s son-in-law
09:29 Jess’s path from opera singer to recruitment leader
13:30 The “four-leg chair” business model
15:52 The retained HR model that stabilised the business
19:31 Why deep client knowledge improves search outcomes
28:24 The role clarity process before every search
33:49 Handling unrealistic salary expectations and “purple squirrel” briefs
38:56 Why Aliniti offers a 12-month guarantee
45:37 The onboarding process that improves retention
57:57 Vision for the next three years
1:01:00 Why the firm uses profit sharing instead of commission

Sponsor

This episode is sponsored by Recruiterflow, the AI-first operating system for recruitment agencies and executive search firms.

Recruiterflow combines a powerful ATS and CRM with AI built directly into your workflows, helping recruiters focus on conversations and decisions while the system handles the heavy lifting.

Learn more and request a demo:
https://recruitmentcoach.com/recruiterflow

Resources Mentioned

Aliniti
https://www.aliniti.com

Lewis Waitt
https://www.linkedin.com/in/lewiswaitt/

Jessica Multhauf
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jmulthauf/

Seven Figure Freedom Scorecard
https://recruitmentcoach.com/scorecard

Trusted Voice Video

https://recruitmentcoach.com/video

If you want to build a recruitment firm where clients stay for years and placements actually stick, this episode is well worth your time.

One placement can be a transaction. Or it can be the start of a long-term enterprise relationship.

Most recruiters treat it like the first. Brendan Thomas built his career on the second.

He started recruiting at 36, got fired after his first $60,000 placement, and joined a new agency six months later with two clients. By the end of that year, he had built over $600,000 in billings.

Six years on, he has generated more than $5 million in lifetime billings, averaged $1 million per year, and qualified for CEO Club every quarter.

He did it by ignoring the advice nearly every experienced recruiter gave him. When he asked million-dollar billers how they did it, the one piece of advice he kept hearing was to avoid enterprise accounts. He ignored it.

In this episode, Brendan breaks down exactly how he cracks major enterprise accounts, navigates HR and Talent Acquisition without getting blocked, and earns the kind of deep access - hiring manager calendars, ATS logins, long-term contracts - that turns one deal into recurring revenue.

This episode is brought to you by Recruiterflow

Recruiterflow is the AI-first operating system built specifically for recruitment agencies and executive search firms. It combines a powerful ATS and CRM with AI embedded directly into your recruiting process.

Less admin. Smarter follow-up. More time spent on revenue-generating conversations.

Request a demo: recruitmentcoach.com/recruiterflow

In this episode, you'll discover:

Why Brendan ignored the advice to avoid enterprise accounts - and what happened when he did

How to lead with a real candidate to get hiring manager buy-in before HR enters the picture

The three responses you'll get from Talent Acquisition - and how to handle each one

When to walk away from an account and the red flags that tell you it's time

How to expand one placement into a long-term enterprise relationship

Why Brendan never asks for referrals until the candidate has had at least a week in the role

How to earn direct access to hiring manager calendars

What discipline actually looks like on a million-dollar desk

Episode Highlights:

[0:38] The $60,000 placement that got Brendan fired and what he did next

[1:01] Starting over: $600,000 in billings in six months

[3:25] How Brendan entered recruitment at age 36

[18:46] The question he asked million-dollar billers and the advice he rejected

[23:16] Why enterprise accounts are harder to crack and why he pursued them anyway

[28:15] How to approach hiring managers before going to HR

[35:38] The three HR responses and how to handle each one

[46:14] Red flags, yellow flags, and green flags - deciding which accounts to pursue

[54:15] Expanding an account after your first placement

[56:42] Earning direct access to hiring manager calendars

[1:03:23] What "uptime" really means for a million-dollar biller

About Brendan Thomas

Brendan Thomas specialises in finance and accounting placements across manufacturing, construction, and technology industries in the United States. He joined Jobot in June 2020 and has since generated over $5 million in lifetime billings, averaging approximately $1 million per year.

He has qualified for CEO Club every quarter and hit the $125,000+ quarterly threshold 22 quarters in a row. He is ranked third in lifetime billing at Jobot.

He works nationwide and is available from 5am to 5pm Pacific daily.

Connect with Brendan:
linkedin.com/in/brendanwthomas

Connect with Mark Whitby

Free 30-minute strategy call: recruitmentcoach.com/strategy-session

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/mwhitby

Instagram: @RecruitmentCoach

Most recruitment agencies believe in training.

Very few build a structured system that consistently produces top billers.

Larissa Gerlach experienced the hard version first. In year one, she earned $40,000 and questioned whether she would make it in recruitment at all. By year three, she had reached President’s Club. Soon after, the CFO of a private equity-backed recruiting firm asked her to replicate her results across 25 offices.

That request became the foundation of a national recruiter training programme.

In this episode, Mark Whitby and Larissa unpack what actually drives recruiter performance, why activity metrics alone don’t create top billers, and how recruitment business owners can build scalable training systems that reduce ramp-up time and increase recruiter billings.

If you are serious about recruitment agency growth, search firm leadership, and building consistent performance inside your team, this conversation goes beyond theory.

It’s about systems.

What You’ll Discover

• Why 200+ calls per week worked — and why most recruiters still fail at high activity
• The difference between knowledge and live desk performance
• How to turn individual billing success into a national training framework
• Why daily role plays accelerate recruiter revenue
• The three structural reasons founders struggle to implement training
• Why cohort-based onboarding produces stronger long-term performance
• How to build recruitment agency systems that scale beyond one top performer

Episode Highlights

[03:56] From fashion sales to recruitment after the 2009 recession
[08:37] The $40,000 first year and the meeting where she nearly quit
[12:35] Why most recruiters struggle in year one — and what actually starts to click
[22:15] The 200-calls-per-week discipline that changed her trajectory
[26:07] The CFO email that led to building a national sales training programme
[28:17] What the training playbook looked like — from binder to LMS
[35:51] Why daily role plays create elite performers
[1:05:49] The three reasons most founders struggle to train their teams
[1:10:29] Why group cohorts outperform one-to-one onboarding

About Larissa Gerlach

Larissa Gerlach is the founder of Vibrant Talent Group, an executive search firm specialising in marketing, product, and design roles across New York and San Francisco. She has over 15 years of experience across billing, business development, national learning and development, and agency leadership. At a private equity-backed recruiting firm, she became the fastest-growing salesperson in company history before leading national recruiter training initiatives.

Resources Mentioned

Recruiter Training Programme
https://recruitmentcoach.com/training

Seven Figure Freedom Scorecard
https://recruitmentcoach.com/scorecard

Recruiterflow
https://recruitmentcoach.com/recruiterflow

Trusted Voice Video
https://recruitmentcoach.com/video

Book a free strategy session with Mark Whitby
https://recruitmentcoach.com/strategy-session

If you want weekly conversations with recruitment business owners, executive search leaders, and top billers focused on recruitment agency revenue, recruiter performance, and long-term business resilience, follow The Resilient Recruiter on Apple Podcasts.

The difference between average billers and elite teams is rarely motivation.

It’s structure.