BackStretch placed 47 permanent hires for our company within 12 months, at all levels and positions in North America and Europe.
Lisa Beck
Former VP of HR, Alternative Energy Company
I was VP of HR for a new IPO, pre-revenue Hydrogen Fuel Cell company that had just completed a $100 million IPO financing. We were a team of 32 at the time, and were looking to scale quickly. I was introduced to Matt and BackStretch through our previous CFO who had worked with them previously, and came highly recommended.
What intrigued me about BackStretch was the partnership model that they were using. It’s non-traditional, in that they do the recruiting under our brand. And one of the biggest challenges for Loop back then was we had no brand recognition or brand awareness.
So there were some real pluses I felt in working with BackStretch. They would market under our nomenclature, and partner on the marketing. They truly are a hiring partner. It’s almost like having an internal resource, but they’re being run completely separate.
I think the model works particularly well for growth and startup organizations instead of using an executive recruitment firm. And then Matt is energetic. He’s smart. He’s thoughtful. And he’s high EQ on the communication side. He’s quite transparent, which makes working with BackStretch like an extension of your own company, without all of the encumbrances of having to hire full time staff.
Aside from the model, which is a bit more unique. I think the other part is they’re more focused. They’re focused on Loop in terms of the service model, which is very personalized. They are focused on keeping everybody on track and on time, and working to ensure that the client is educated around what’s going on. They plugged right into our calendars which streamlined the process.
And they are very responsive. It’s not like I’m going to send an email and hope that they respond in the next few days. And I mean, we sort of get used to that cadence dealing with big recruiting firms where it’s like you don’t hear back, and you feel like you are being ghosted. That isn’t the case with BackStretch.
Opening up our calendars to them was a big thing in terms of the transparency. Allowing BackStretch to actually drive a part of that without having to have an admin in the middle which becomes a gate. It's very efficient!
We hired a US Sales Director, and European Sales Directors. Just finding these people in a way that was quick, I think there’s a certain amount of tenacity that they’re willing to go outside of the little recruitment box. What was really happening in the background is pretty astounding. You talked to like 2,000 people… how did you do that?