Wall Street’s biggest recruiting firm launched four months ago. It doesn’t use pushy sales pitches, and its founders don’t wear suits or ties.
If you have trouble believing any or all of that, meet the founders of Vettery, a New York startup whose high-tech approach is shaking up the stodgy, sharp-elbowed business of financial recruiting.
For decades, investment banks, hedge funds and buyout firms have been beholden to a handful of headhunters as they search for entry- and mid-level analysts, traders and dealmakers.
On top of charging fat, upfront fees, old-school matchmakers have used telephone-based methods that remained painfully opaque to their clients, according to Vettery co-founder Adam Goldstein.
“Successful recruiters are very good at convincing clients to interview people, saying, ‘This guy’s really good, trust me he’s great, you need to meet him,’ ” Goldstein said.
“They can get really aggressive, and it causes a lot of buyer’s remorse,” added Brett Adcock, who co-founded Vettery in 2013 with Goldstein after the pair covered the recruiting industry as hedge-fund analysts.
Instead of a handful of candidates picked by a recruiter, a Vettery client gains access to an online platform showing profiles of as many as 100 potential hires a week.
Clients like Citadel, Morgan Stanley, UBS and DFJ Growth don’t get charged for access to the platform, which allows them to contact candidates directly.
Vettery charges 15 percent of a hire’s base salary — less than half the traditional take of 30 percent of salary plus bonus.
Companies need solid financials, growth prospects and reputations to get on board, while candidates need top-tier schooling and experience: Fewer than 5 percent of 82,000 Vettery registrants have gained access so far.
Despite the high bar, Vettery says it’s brokering more than 150 first-round interviews a week. Placements, well into the double digits a month, are on track to number 500 over the next 12 months — a number that would be unheard of in the industry, according to insiders.
Comvest Partners is set to make two hires after a month on Vettery’s platform, according to Zach Hungate, an associate at the $2.5 billion buyout firm. He says experience with traditional recruiters has felt like “a cheesy sales process” and “a total black box.”