The lack of ambition, character, and empathy that Chris Vasquez, the founder of The Quantum Talent Group, encountered while working at three different major recruiting firms motivated him to start his own company and revolutionize the executive search industry.
“I worked at three different companies before launching my own two years ago,” said Vasquez during a recent video interview. During this period, “there were so many things that I saw wrong with the industry that I said, ‘I have to change it and create what I haven’t been able to find.”
Today, Vasquez and his team help VC-backed technology startups scale into multi-billion-dollar companies. Over the past two years, The Quantum Talent Group has become one of the leading executive search companies in the SaaS and Crypto sectors. Quantum’s list of clients includes several of the world’s most renowned emerging software companies, like ClickUp, Kandji, Gemini, and Dapper Labs.
Vasquez encountered a corporate culture polluted by bureaucracy during his beginnings in the recruiting sector. In his time working for three different recruiting companies, he polished his networking skills and worked hand-to-hand with multiple Fortune-500 companies.
Yet, these companies’ lack of vision and purpose motivated him to follow his own path two years ago. After resigning from his work, he created The Quantum Talent Group to correct the overarching flaws in the executive search industry.
Back in January, Vasquez connected via Zoom for an exclusive interview. He sat to talk about the early stages of his career and the flaws in the recruiting sector that inspired him to build his own company and revolutionize this industry.
Vasquez’s beginning in the recruiting sector was not by any standards orthodox. What started as an effort to approach a girl at a career fair in college led to a job opportunity at a major recruiting company.
“I fell into [recruiting] totally on accident,” narrated Vasquez with a broad smile on his face. “I went to talk to this really attractive girl at a career fair, and she interviewed me and hired me at this giant recruiting company.”
Vasquez developed a fervent passion for recruiting in the following years. The networking component of this industry attracted Vasquez, who takes great pleasure in connecting with other people.
During this phase of his career, Vasquez had the opportunity to be part of three different major recruiting companies and work with multiple Fortune-500 companies. Nonetheless, the corporate culture that predominated in the industry was incompatible with Vasquez’s principles and working ethic.
“I found out that I liked the people, but I hated big companies,” said Vasquez. “It was too boring; it was bureaucratic; it was slow-moving. After seeing three different companies, I saw what was wrong with the industry.”
Vasquez disputed two elements of the recruiting industry: its hyperfocus on numbers and the general apathy towards creating meaningful impact. The three companies in which Vasquez worked prioritized profits over the wellbeing and development of their employees. Furthermore, he found that they had no palpable interest in the long-term success of their clients.
For these companies, “It was all about creating efficiencies, and there wasn’t a human element,” explained Vasquez. Similarly, “it was a very low value-add. They would focus on low-level positions, but they weren’t focusing on how we can be the most game-changing partner in the world for this company.”
On top of this lack of vision and impact, Vasquez perceived that most companies in the recruiting industry possessed a corporate culture that promoted mediocrity.
“Every company I went to didn’t have a high enough bar for excellence,” said Vasquez. “80 to 90% of people in these companies were average performers, and they allowed that.”
Vasquez observed that most recruiting companies did not invest in building teams with character and a genuine sense of service. These companies could not maintain consistent quality standards, thus, damaging their brand reputation and ability to retain clients.
“Their acquisition model was getting as many clients as they could, hiring as many recruiters as they could, and increasing their revenue,” said Vasquez. “But, the intensity of character and reputation of wanting to add the most value in the world and only hiring people that had that level of standard, that didn’t exist anywhere I saw.”
Two years after leaving his last position at a recruiting firm and launching his own company, Vasquez has proven that it is possible to develop a company based on excellence and passion for creating impact.
Over the past years, The Quantum Talent Group has helped multiple SaaS and Crypto startups grow from having no venture capital to a multi-billion-dollar valuation. Since the company’s conception, Vasquez has followed an impact-driven model centered on the values of character and personal development. Today, he is confident that this approach will take his company to become the leading executive search company in the country.
“I’ve seen and talked to 100 plus companies in this industry, and [this model] didn’t exist,” concluded Vasquez. “That’s what motivated me to create what I consider the greatest company in our industry.”
