Entrepreneur
A Mission to Serve – Conscious Entrepreneurship in the Executive Search Industry, With Chris Vasquez, the Founder of The Quantum Talent Group
After working at three different large recruiting firms, Chris Vasquez despised the culture that proliferated in the industry, which prioritized profits over creating meaningful impact.
A little over two years ago, Vasquez took the leap of resigning from his job and launching his own company, The Quantum Talent Group. Since then, he and his team have proven that it is possible to build a thriving executive search firm and uphold a genuine sense of service towards clients and the community.
“I don’t hire people who are sharks or big money makers; I only hire people who really want to serve others,” said Vasquez during a recent video interview. “It’s hard to scale that, but two of our core values are ‘people first’ and ‘character over everything.’ I refuse to hire anyone who doesn’t live up to those.”
The Quantum Talent Group has grown to become one of the most renowned executive search companies nationwide. The Quantum Talent Group helps VC-backed technology startups build executive teams that match their company’s mission and culture. Over the past years, Vasquez and his team have worked with multiple prominent software companies in the Crypto, productivity, IT, healthcare, and marketing technology sectors, including ClickUp, Kandji, Gemini, and Modern Health.
For Vasquez, one of the primary motivators to launch The Quantum Talent Group was building a company that incorporated the human element he could not find anywhere else in the industry. Since its early days, The Quantum Talent Group’s business model has centered around a solid commitment to serve others and uplift its clients.
In an interview back in January, Vasquez connected via Zoom from his residence in Miami, Florida, to discuss how his company has differentiated itself from other executive search firms by giving a human element to the industry.
As the head of The Quantum Talent Group, Vasquez is a firm believer that he must embody the values that he promotes within his company. He has cultivated a deep sense of service through years of personal growth seminars, healing therapy, and spiritual work, which have helped him develop a higher life purpose.
“It all starts top-down,” said Vasquez emphatically. “The company is gonna be an extension of the heart of its leaders. As a leader, I’ve got to a point where I am not here to serve my ego; I’m here to serve human beings.”
Vasquez’s personal development work has permeated the structure and raison d’être of The Quantum Talent Group. He has ensured that all employees at every level of his company possess a genuine sense of service and share his commitment to creating impact.
Such commitment to serve and impact others is also present at the core of The Quantum Talent Group’s business model.
“When we sign an agreement with a company, we are there to serve that company fully,” said Vasquez. “A lot of companies say, ‘we are partners; we are different.’ But, very few actually embody it.”
One of the main peculiarities of The Quantum Talent Group’s business model is its venture capital side. Vasquez defers his company’s fees in exchange for equity in the startups working with him. As he explains, this approach makes Quantum take a deeper involvement in its clients’ success.
“We actually have skin in the game,” said Vasquez. “We are not there to win from our clients; we are there to win with our clients.”
Likewise, Vasquez’s goal is to become a transformational partner for the startups working with him. The work of The Quantum Talent Group is not limited to locating recruiters for a few key positions. The firm offers each of its clients a 360° recruiting service, guiding them through every stage of their growth and helping them assemble their executive, engineering, and product teams.
“We help place key executives, and then, we build and scale the teams underneath them,” explained Vasquez. “We take the companies from their series A all the way to exit, so they don’t need 55 partners to get all that done. We are like a one-stop-shop; we integrate with them and take them all the way.”
Lastly, Vasquez has incorporated a social mission into his company’s operations. The Quantum Talent Group donates a percentage of its profits to ThroughYOU, a non-profit organization co-founded by Vasquez.
“We have a purpose-driven element,” said Vasquez. “We are building schools and clean water systems in Asia, Central America, and Africa. [Plus,] we are helping out other communities that don’t have access to these things.”
Today, Vasquez continues to work to make The Quantum Talent Group an example to other companies in the industry on how to grow while maintaining an impact-driven business model. This approach has helped Vasquez and his team build durable partnerships with their clients and give a spark of hope to vulnerable communities worldwide.
“As we scale the company and the company becomes more successful,” concluded Vasquez, “we are working to create a bigger impact in the world.”
By Juan Sebastian Restrepo,
