The Resilient Recruiter

Ross Cohen left his role as managing director at one of Florida's leading search firms to launch Brinc Search Partners with his business partner, Brett Nortman. They gave up an established brand, a built-out book of business and the steady flow that came with a larger firm. Ross also had a non-compete preventing him from approaching his former clients.

Brinc launched in March 2025. In its first year, Ross and Brett billed over $1 million.

They did it by getting scrappy. Although both had spent years specializing in financial services recruitment, Ross accepted searches ranging from executive assistants to engineers. These assignments kept revenue moving, helped Brink prove its value and opened the door to further work.

Ross also explains why Brinc does not rely on traditional cold calls. Each search begins with people Ross and Brett already know in the market. They gather intelligence, ask for referrals and identify passive candidates who may never appear through job boards or LinkedIn searches.

You'll also hear why they hired their first associate before the business felt ready, how face-to-face meetings fit into Brinc's hybrid schedule and how the team uses Recruiterflow, PIN and Claude to reduce administration and present candidates more effectively.

What You'll Learn:

How Ross and Brett billed over $1 million in Brinc's first year

Why accepting searches outside their specialty helped create early momentum

How Ross rebuilt his book of business without approaching former clients

Why existing relationships outperform traditional cold calls

How referral conversations uncover passive candidates

Why Brinc hired its first associate earlier than planned

How in-person meetings help the team assess cultural fit

How Claude reduces administration and improves candidate presentation

Episode Outline:
[00:10] Billing over $1 million in the first year
[05:16] Lessons Ross carried from equity research into executive search
[17:22] Building candidate flow at StevenDouglas before launching Brinc
[23:01] Leaving an established firm to launch Brinc
[27:42] Rebuilding the business one phone call at a time
[38:51] Hiring an associate before the firm felt ready
[50:38] Replacing traditional cold calls with warm market conversations
[59:40] Building Brinc's technology stack around Recruiterflow, PIN and Claude

About Ross Cohen:
Ross Cohen is the co-founder of Brinc Search Partners. He launched the firm with Brett Nortman in March 2025 after building a financial services recruitment practice at StevenDouglas. Ross began his career in equity research at Lazard before moving into recruitment with Solomon Page. He holds Series 7, 63, 86 and 87 securities licenses, an economics degree and a master's in international business from the University of Florida. He is based in South Florida.

Connect with Ross:
Ross on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ross-cohen-44658037/
Brinc Search Partners: www.brincsearch.com

Podcast Partners:
This episode is brought to you by Recruiterflow, an AI-native ATS and CRM built for serious recruiting businesses. Learn more: https://recruitmentcoach.com/recruiterflow

It is also brought to you by Juicebox, the modern AI platform for recruiting. Juicebox combines more than 30 datasets with AI models to support search, outreach and pipeline management in one workflow. Learn more: https://recruitmentcoach.com/juicebox

Connect with Mark Whitby:
Get your FREE 30-minute strategy call: https://www.recruitmentcoach.com/strategy-session/
Mark on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mwhitby/
Mark on Twitter: https://twitter.com/markwhitby
Mark on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheRecruitmentCoach/
Mark on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/recruitmentcoach/

Subscribe to The Resilient Recruiter: https://plinkhq.com/i/1489513354

What do you do when the recruitment business you've poured everything into starts to fall apart?

Gemma Downing Mapp came back from holiday to find Mixxos £100,000 behind budget. Two months later, the company recorded its highest-billing month ever with roughly half the team.

Gemma is co-founder and CEO of Mixxos Group, a boutique recruitment consultancy she built with her business partner, Chris. They grew the company from a team of two into a multimillion-pound firm, with the numbers moving in the right direction year after year.

But the foundations had not kept pace.

Gemma and Chris knew within the first few months that a senior operations hire was not working. They liked the person and wanted the appointment to succeed, so they continued trying for 18 months. During that time, leadership became misaligned, standards slipped and financial forecasts became unreliable.

Gemma is open about the responsibility she and Chris carried for allowing the situation to continue. She explains why recruitment business owners delay difficult people decisions, what finally forced them to act and why the first thing she would fix is always the person leading the team.

The turnaround involved restructuring the company, reducing headcount by 50% and redefining the founders' roles. Gemma became CEO, responsible for the people and culture. Chris became Commercial Director, focused on revenue and gross profit.

They also brought in Sam to restore operational control. He introduced consistent one-to-ones, clearer financial reporting and a skills matrix, while helping the business prepare for a new technology rollout and launch a retained executive search desk.

Throughout the restructure, approximately 99% of Mixxos clients stayed with the company. Gemma credits the relationships she and Chris had built and their determination to do what they said they would do.

In this episode, you'll learn:

How fast growth allowed problems to develop behind the scenes

Why Gemma and Chris delayed a senior leadership decision for 18 months

The danger of wanting success for an employee more than they want it themselves

Why the leader between an owner and the team shapes everyone's standards

How Gemma and Chris divided their roles around their strengths

What Mixxos changed about hiring, onboarding and accountability

How the company achieved its best month with half the headcount

Why strong client relationships protected the business during the restructure

Episode highlights:
[05:58] Five years of growth and the foundations that failed to keep pace
[09:57] Returning from holiday to a business, Gemma no longer wanted to be in
[11:44] The cost of delaying a senior leadership decision for 18 months
[22:00] Gemma becomes CEO and Chris becomes Commercial Director
[28:29] Launching the retained executive search desk
[31:04] Achieving the best billing month in company history with half the team
[40:17] How Mixxos retained approximately 99% of its clients

Podcast Partners:
This episode is brought to you by Recruiterflow, an AI-native ATS and CRM built for serious recruiting businesses. Learn more: https://recruitmentcoach.com/recruiterflow

It is also brought to you by Juicebox, the modern AI platform for recruiting. Juicebox combines more than 30 datasets with AI models to support search, outreach and pipeline management in one workflow. Learn more: https://recruitmentcoach.com/juicebox

About Gemma Downing Mapp:
Gemma Downing Mapp is co-founder and CEO of Mixxos Group, a boutique recruitment consultancy based in Milton Keynes. She and her business partner, Chris, grew Mixxos from a team of two into a multimillion-pound firm working across permanent, temporary and retained executive search. The business now also delivers retained search assignments in EMEA and the United States.

Connect with Gemma:
Mixxos Group: https://mixxos.com/

Connect with Mark Whitby:

Get your free 30-minute strategy call: https://recruitmentcoach.com/strategy-session/
Mark on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mwhitby/
Mark on Twitter: https://twitter.com/markwhitby
Mark on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheRecruitmentCoach/
Mark on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/recruitmentcoach/

Subscribe to The Resilient Recruiter: https://plinkhq.com/i/1489513354

While much of the recruitment industry was flat last year, Sachin Ruparelia grew billings by 33% and kept hiring.

Sachin is the Founder and Managing Director of Camino Partners and Camino Search. Over the last couple of years, his businesses have grown net fee income by 20% and then 33%, while scaling to around 37 people across London and Tampa.

A big part of that growth has come from community-led business development. Instead of calling prospects to ask if they're hiring, Camino creates reasons for clients and prospects to want to speak with them. They run events, CFO dinners and networking sessions. They publish salary surveys and a 120-page Global Report for the private equity market.

Sachin calls it "the art of selling without selling."

In this conversation, Sachin explains how those events and insights turn into real recruitment opportunities, including the important step recruiters often miss: making the commercial ask after they've earned the conversation.

You'll also hear how Sachin approaches the other side of scaling: people. He shares how to know when it's time for your next support hire, why an operations manager can be one of the smartest early hires for a growing firm, and his A's, B's and F's approach to hiring people who are better than you in the areas where you're weak.

Sachin also speaks openly about growing up in a violent household and the two years of psychodynamic counseling that helped him understand how those experiences had shaped his behavior. He explains how that self-awareness made him a better husband, father, friend and leader, and why he now speaks openly about mental health in recruitment.

In this episode, you'll learn:

How Camino grew NFI by 20% and then 33% while scaling to around 37 people

How community-led BD creates conversations without leading with a sales pitch

Why Sachin runs one to two events a month and how he gets the right people into the room

How a 120-page insight report creates multiple reasons to contact prospects

How to turn events and content into actual recruitment opportunities

When a growing recruitment firm should make its first operations hire

How the A's, B's and F's test helps founders hire around their weaknesses

Why is self-awareness becoming increasingly important as you build a larger team

Episode Highlights

[08:50] Setting up the business at 31 and appointing a chairman
[09:33] The two years of therapy Sachin calls game changing
[17:20] Two verticals, 37 people and 33% growth in a flat market
[22:51] The first scaling lesson: hire people better than you
[29:25] Community-led BD: the art of selling without selling
[39:07] Insight-led BD and Camino's 120-page Global Report
[52:55] The first operations hire for a scaling recruitment firm
[54:50] The A's, B's and F's approach to hiring around your weaknesses

Sachin Ruparelia Bio

Sachin Ruparelia is the Founder and Managing Director of Camino Partners and Camino Search. He launched Camino Partners in 2012 with two former colleagues, initially specializing in accountancy and finance before expanding into "mission control" roles within recruitment businesses.

Camino Search works within the private capital ecosystem, placing CFOs and other senior finance professionals, along with corporate development, M&A and origination talent, into private equity-backed technology-enabled and business services companies.

The business operates from London and Tampa and has grown to around 37 people. Over the last two years, Camino's NFI grew first by 20% and then by 33%. Sachin's next plan, Mission 234, is to double headcount and triple NFI over four years.

Connect with Sachin

Sachin on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sachinruparelia/
Camino Partners: http://www.caminopartners.co.uk
Camino Search: http://www.caminosearch.co.uk

Sponsors

This episode is brought to you by Recruiterflow, an AI-native ATS and CRM built for serious recruiting businesses. Learn more: https://recruitmentcoach.com/recruiterflow

It is also brought to you by Juicebox, the modern AI platform for recruiting. Juicebox combines more than 30 datasets with AI models to support search, outreach, and pipeline management in one workflow. Learn more: https://recruitmentcoach.com/juicebox

Connect with Mark Whitby

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

Mark on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mwhitby/

There's a belief in recruitment that scaling a firm means scaling headcount.
Dave Fox has built a different model. His fully remote technology staffing firm, Focus GTS, generates more than $10 million in annual revenue with a team of just 11 people.
Early on, Dave assumed he would need 80 to 100 people to build the business he wanted. He also thought a 360 model and broader market coverage would be the right path. Over time, he found a different way to grow: stay close to one specialist market, build a split-desk team of strong people, and make AI part of how the whole business works.
Dave is the founder of Focus GTS, a Miami-based technology staffing firm that specializes in the Adobe Marketing Cloud ecosystem. He started in recruitment with the S3 Group, working his way from trainee consultant to manager and director before launching his own business eight years ago.
In this conversation, Dave explains why he is done with the "chase game" of constantly pursuing new opportunities. His focus now is on becoming so useful and well-known in his market that clients and candidates come to him.
That means creating free tools that solve real problems, publishing useful content, and using AI research agents to stay close to key customers. It also means giving every member of his 11-person team access to Claude and Claude Code, then creating a culture where people share what they are learning.
Dave is not suggesting AI is a shortcut to success. He spends 50 to 60 hours a week learning and building with it. But he makes a strong case that agency owners need to rethink the old relationship between headcount, growth, and productivity.
In this episode, you'll learn:
Why Dave moved from a 360 model to a split-desk structure
The assumption that made him think he needed 80 to 100 people
Why a smaller, better-paid team can outperform a larger one
How Focus GTS became known in the Adobe Marketing Cloud market
How free tools and useful content can create inbound conversations
How AI research agents help Dave's team stay close to top clients
How to make AI a shared team habit rather than a founder-only project
The mindset Dave believes agency owners need as AI changes the market
Episode highlights:
[02:49] Why Dave launched Focus GTS after walking away from a potential partnership
[07:53] Building a fully remote technology staffing business
[10:46] Why Focus GTS uses a split-desk model
[18:18] The AI inflection point that changed Dave's view of growth
[23:28] Building free tools for a specialist market
[29:42] Using AI research agents on Focus GTS's top five clients
[34:52] How to become a celebrity in your recruitment niche
[45:25] How all 11 team members learn and use AI together
Sponsors:
This episode is brought to you by Recruiterflow, an AI-native ATS and CRM built for serious recruiting businesses. Learn more: https://recruitmentcoach.com/recruiterflow
It is also brought to you by Juicebox, the modern AI platform for recruiting. Juicebox combines more than 30 datasets with AI models to support search, outreach, and pipeline management within a single workflow. Learn more: https://recruitmentcoach.com/juicebox
Guest Bio:
Dave Fox is the founder of Focus GTS, a fully remote technology staffing firm based in Miami. Focus GTS generates more than $10 million in annual revenue with a team of 11 and has been recognized on the Inc. 5000 list. Dave and his team specialize in the Adobe Marketing Cloud ecosystem and use AI across research, marketing, sales, website development, and client delivery.
Connect with Dave Fox on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davefoxceo/
Learn more about Focus GTS: https://www.focusgts.com/
Connect with Mark Whitby:
Get your FREE 30-minute strategy call: www.recruitmentcoach.com/strategy-session/
Mark on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mwhitby/
Mark on Twitter: @MarkWhitby
Mark on Facebook
Mark on Instagram: @RecruitmentCoach
Subscribe to The Resilient Recruiter

David Paffenholz never worked as a recruiter. He studied economics at Harvard, led growth at Snap, and built a couple of consumer products with his co-founder, Ishan, before the two of them turned their attention to hiring. What they noticed was that most of the recruiting tech stack is built for candidates who are already in the funnel, while the harder and more valuable problem sits right at the top: finding the right people and getting them to reply.
The platform they built, Juicebox, is now used by more than 5,000 customers, and around 40% of them run AI agents that source candidates autonomously for open roles. One agent per role. Each learns from your feedback, sources a set number of new candidates every day, and tells you when the talent pool needs a different approach.
In this special sponsored episode, David walks Mark through what that looks like on a real desk. He covers the four-step outreach sequence Juicebox recommends, why generic AI-written emails hurt response rates and how to keep yours sounding like you, and how the platform searches and ranks candidates without a LinkedIn Recruiter seat. He also makes the case that recruiting will start to look more like executive search, with agents handling the research and sourcing while recruiters spend their time where they create the most value: building trust with candidates and clients.
He also shares the honest version of building the company, including the two difficult years when it was just him and Ishan, before Juicebox found momentum.
In this episode, you'll discover:
How one AI agent per open role sources candidates every day
The four-step outreach cadence Juicebox recommends, and why the fourth email waits
Why generic AI-written emails hurt your response rate, and how to keep yours sounding like you
How to search and rank candidates without relying on LinkedIn Recruiter
When to add LinkedIn and phone steps to an automated sequence
Why the future of recruiting may look more like executive search
What helps recruiters and employers win the best talent
The two difficult years before Juicebox found momentum
Episode highlights:
01:22 Why David and his co-founder chose to build for recruitment
03:41 The top-of-funnel problem most recruiting tools ignore
10:27 The four-step email cadence that gets more replies
12:00 Why AI-written outreach often sounds generic
24:57 The recruiting org chart of the future
26:49 What one AI agent per role does each day
32:18 Why recruiting will increasingly resemble executive search
51:01 The difficult two years before the business found momentum
Podcast Partner
This special episode is sponsored by Juicebox, the AI recruiting platform that helps recruiters find and reach the right candidates. Book a demo: recruitmentcoach.com/juicebox
About David Paffenholz
David Paffenholz is the co-founder and CEO of Juicebox, an AI recruiting platform used by more than 5,000 customers to find and reach candidates. He studied economics at Harvard and led growth at Snap. He and his co-founder, Ishan, built several consumer products before founding Juicebox, which went through Y Combinator in 2022.
Connect with Mark
Free 30-minute strategy call: recruitmentcoach.com/strategy-session/
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/mwhitby
Instagram: @RecruitmentCoach
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