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A Brisbane-headquartered startup that helps recruiters strike it out solo with their own agencies has witnessed exponential growth since expanding its clientele beyond Queensland in late 2023, now with partners all over the country and recently opening its first physical office in Melbourne.
Xrecruiter co-founder Declan Kluver says at a time when large global agencies are haemorrhaging money and there are reports within the recruitment industry of a downturn, his business appears to be living in a "warped sense of reality, or maybe just our new reality, where recruiters are three months into business and they’re having their biggest month".
"The little guy is finally winning," says Kluver, who co-founded the white-label solution for recruiters in 2022 with former recruitment rival Blake Thompson.
He notes that last June the company had just four clients, which he refers to as partners, and since then the number has grown to 50.
"We're in Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney, the Gold Coast and Brisbane. Revenue has grown 10x in the past six months," Kluver adds.
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Recruitment veteran Matt Cossens has been instrumental in assisting Xrecruiter's growth in Melbourne, where the company now has nine partners to its name - a figure that is getting close to half that of its more established market of Queensland where there are 22 partners.
Cossens was originally working for the startup as a contractor providing his expertise as a coach, but this month he has been promoted to chief growth officer and is Xrecruiter's sixth hire, based out of the company's new office in the Melbourne CBD.
"I think the business model makes sense because we were those recruiters; we were the ones that were missing fulfilment," Kluver says.
"To help a recruiter go from billing $500,000 to $1 million, in an agency they may make an extra $100,000 which is pretty cool and exciting, but to do that in your own business is truly life changing. To be able to bring $400,000-500,000 into your family, that’s unparalleled.
Kluver believes that Xrecruiter provides "more training, more support and better technology than any global player", assisting recruitment entrepreneurs in their mindset, energy, processes, and the language they use.
"Instead of calling someone and saying, 'hey, I've got candidates for the job', they use the language of leaders. They discuss the impact these people can make in your business, the way they can drive change, the ROI (return on investment), and the risks of business and getting it wrong," he says.
"These skills that these recruiters have, and the support with us, it’s just the perfect match. So-called high-performing recruiters in agencies, they come to Xrecruiter and they’re blown away."
With such momentum, Kluver expects the business to open an office in Sydney this year, and expand overseas in 2025.
"Next year we want to go big time – Dubai, the US, UK, it’s going to be one of the locations, and it’ll be all of them within the next three years," he says.
The ambitious founder, who alongside Thompson won the 2023 Australian Young Entrepreneur Award - Startup, is no shrinking violet.
"I just think it's the biggest shift in recruitment in 20 years since LinkedIn," he concludes.
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