Oliver, a UK recruiter hitting a million dollars, gets surprised at the airport with a two-day Porsche and a Four Seasons suite. He talks about 9.5 years closing high-value deals and compares recruiting to being a sports agent for elite talent.
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So this guy Oliver is flying from the UK. He's just coming to visit us, but he has no clue what's happening. We're gonna ball him out because he's on track to make a million bucks. If we got you a Porsche each, would you guys quit your job right now?
Yep.
Oh, now— oh, you're lucky Jeff's not here.
Wow, you're gonna drive it?
I'm gonna drive it to him and then to the interview, and then he's gonna drive. Wait, can he drive it right now? We're just calling Uber to head to the airport and pick him up. Now we're just going to look out for the, uh, sexy car. It's actually one of the— Hey, race! Alex had to race it. He's at door 3. Hey Ollie, what's up, man? Good to see you in person.
How are you, man?
My guy, my guy. How's it going? So we got a surprise for you as well. Yeah. So we got you— you know how to drive, right?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So that car's going to be yours for the next 2 days.
Oh shit, I did not know what you had in store at all. Yeah, I've never driven on the other side of the road, so that could be—
You had a good flight?
Yeah, it was all right to be fair. There was a little bit of turbulence though towards the end.
How long was it like?
It's going to be 11 hours, but um, oh shit, longest one I've done.
Imagine jumping off a plane and going straight to the driving lane here.
Oh yeah, mate, when I saw that I was so glad you said you're driving first because I was like, I might actually just—
we wouldn't do this to you. Highest hire like ever. What was that feeling like?
I actually got Mark to close it because I was so junior. Oh, Mark's like— yeah, Mark is the guy that works in my office. Yeah, but he was my manager at the time. Yeah, he closed it for me. And, uh, yeah, so to be honest with you, they always feel good.
Like, I could—
like, every deal, I'm absolutely buzzing when it comes in. Yeah, like, I did a deal on Friday that I wasn't really— it looked like it wasn't going to go in, and then we worked on it and negotiated and stuff like that. And then he just messaged me and the internal recruiter saying he's accepted. I was absolutely buzzing, I couldn't believe it. Yeah. So like, that's like the best feeling ever. It's like, especially when you work for yourself, because like within reason all the money is yours.
Yeah, you can never get used to it, huh? No. Even after all this time? How many years has it been?
9 and a half years.
9 and a half.
It's a long time.
You know, we were actually planning like, would Ollie like skydiving?
No, that is the 100% right call because I would have shit my pants. Is that Alcatraz? Yeah, that is. That's quite sick.
I'll slow it down. Yeah, that's cool.
I like that someone said this analogy the other day, and this is what I said. I said it's like, it's like you're brokering like top-tier talent. It's like you're an agent. Yeah. And when you get these good grads that have like 2 years experience, it's like being a football agent and you've got the next Messi and you're trying to send them to every club.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
That's how I I see it when I find someone good.
That is really what we're all about, like this whole sports agent model. You know, we're trying to build the Premier League or the NBA, trying to bring all these like teams, like these companies hiring in one place.
You should do a Paraform draft every year with the best engineers.
Hey, that's actually a cool idea. Yeah, yeah. What's your favorite feature of Paraform?
Curated lists.
Curated lists?
Nice. Because basically when you're taught in recruitment in England, if you have a good candidate, to send them as many places as you can.
Yeah.
And you've actually given us a tool for being able to do that.
In the— That's sick. Who's that? I just turned up with loads of attention.
We work together.
Yeah, how are you? Yeah, how are you?
You good? What's your favorite feature? Let's go! Nice to meet you. Everyone knows, obviously, Nate Lee. He's actually like for us where we— yeah. Olé!
