SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders

EP 418: Executive Recruiter Made $1.1M 2015, Super High Profit Margin with Matt Schwartz of MJSearch.com

15 Sep 2016

27 min

5078 words

2 speakers

15 Sep 2016

Audio

Description

Matt Schwartz, the president of MJS Executive Search –a 13-year old, New York based retained executive search firm that specializes in placing transformational talent to global Fortune 500 companies. His clients are included but not limited to Pepsi Co, American Express, Fidelity, New York Life, Equinox, and Pitney. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – Profit First and Rework What CEO do you follow? – Gary Vaynerchuck Favorite online tool? — Send Later and Trello Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— I do If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be? – Don't follow the herd. Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:44 – Nathan introduces Matt 02:44 – Why MJS Executive Search is different 02:51 – The trends have changed 03:45 – The roles placed for Pepsi Co 04:30 – Engineers for reinventing equipment 05:30 – We are there to tell the story 05:40 – The pitch MJS delivers 06:42 – How MJS make money through placing people on roles 07:41 – Our competition bills the entire fees in 90 days 08:15 – Founded MJS Executive Search in 2002 08:32 – First year revenue was $85,000 08:45 – Matt left Heidrick & Struggles with an $280K salary including bonuses 09:24 – They changed the complain significantly 10:35 – "I had nothing to lose." 11:01 – MJS' revenue in 2015 was $1.1M 11:14 – Revenue goal for 2016 is $1.4M 11:39 – Working with a team from Less Doing's Virtual Assistance Services 12:19 – Nathan hates humans 12:40 – Matt spends $700 to $1000 monthly for a virtual assistant 13:17 – Bottom line profit in 2015 was $600K 13:31 – What the entrepreneur does to create wealth for himself 14:00 – Meeting with Michael Michalowicz 14:25 – I struggled with not knowing where my cash wash 14:34 – Bank balance accounting 15:57 – Matt wants to make sure he has security, funding, and business health 16:23 – Nathan's struggle with his investments 17:04 – Matt can save up to $53,000/year from his bank balance accounting 17:24 – All on the profit first 17:43 – The average contract value from $80K to $100K 18:05 – Working with an average of 5 to 6 customers per year 18:21 – MJS is competing with the largest firms in the world 19:06 – Connect with Matt thru his email address and website 21:25 – The Famous Five 3 Key Points: We are there to tell the story. Struggling without knowing where your cash is at. All on profit first. Resources Mentioned: Toptal– Nathan found his development team using Toptal for his new business Send Later. He was able to keep 100% equity and didn't have to hire a co-founder due to quality of Toptal Host Gator– The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for cheapest price possible. Freshbooks– The site Nathan uses to manage his invoices and accounts. Leadpages – The drag and drop tool Nathan uses to quickly create his webinar landing pages which convert at 35%+ Audible– Nathan uses Audible when he's driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5 hour drive) to listen to audio books. Profit First and Rework – Matt's favorite business books Send Later and Trello – Matt's favorite online tools Connect with Matt thru his email address and website Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

Chapters

1. What is the main topic discussed in this episode? 2. What makes MJS Executive Search different from other firms? 3. What is the unique pitch MJS delivers to clients? 4. How does MJS Executive Search make money? 5. How did Matt Schwartz achieve $1.1 million in revenue in 2015? 6. What is the Profit First method and how does Matt use it? 7. How does Matt Schwartz manage his business finances? 8. What advice does Matt have for aspiring entrepreneurs?

Featured

Nathan Latka

Matt Schwartz

Transcription

Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?

0.031 - 15.765 Nathan Latka

This is The Top, where I interview entrepreneurs who are number one or number two in their industry in terms of revenue or customer base. You'll learn how much revenue they're making, what their marketing funnel looks like, and how many customers they have.

Chapter 2: What makes MJS Executive Search different from other firms?

16.266 - 19.269 Nathan Latka

I'm now at $20,000 per talk. Five and six million.

19.409 - 21.19 Matt Schwartz

He is hell-bent on global domination.

Chapter 3: What is the unique pitch MJS delivers to clients?

21.25 - 24.053 Matt Schwartz

We just broke our 100,000-unit soul mark.

Chapter 4: How does MJS Executive Search make money?

24.073 - 49.258 Nathan Latka

And I'm your host, Nathan Latka. Okay, Top Tribe, this week's winner is Charlie Daggs. Okay, he was a middle manager at a manufacturing company. He wants to break free and he won the $100 I give out every Monday. For your chance to win, simply subscribe to the podcast on iTunes right now and then text the word Nathan to 33444 to prove that you did it.

Chapter 5: How did Matt Schwartz achieve $1.1 million in revenue in 2015?

50.639 - 70.519 Nathan Latka

Folks, many of you heard I made a big league acquisition of a business. NathanLacka.com forward slash send later is the name of the business. And I didn't want to give up equity to a developer because I'm a business guy. So what I did is I used a website to find a guy named He Sheming. I paid He over $12,000 to help me build send later.

70.559 - 77.085 Nathan Latka

And the site that I am using now is called Topdol at NathanLacka.com forward slash T-O-P-T-A-L.

Chapter 6: What is the Profit First method and how does Matt use it?

77.065 - 86.641 Nathan Latka

I will build SendLater into a big business, and I will take it public by the time I turn 30. I'll tell you more later on in the episode. Top Drive, this is episode 418.

Chapter 7: How does Matt Schwartz manage his business finances?

86.701 - 98.601 Nathan Latka

Coming up tomorrow morning, you will hear from Cam Doody. He's 30 years old in Tennessee, did $6 million in revenue in 2015, and he's taking over the $5 billion moving industry with his company, Bellhops.

99.239 - 121.324 Nathan Latka

top drive grab your coffee buckle your seat if you're driving and hold on our guest today is matt shorts he is the president of mjs executive search it's a 13 year old new york based retained executive search firm that special that specializes in placing transformational talent with global Fortune 500 companies to venture-backed startups on a national basis.

121.785 - 138.595 Nathan Latka

His clients have included but are not limited to PepsiCo, American Express, Fidelity, New York Life, Equinox, and Pitney Bowes. Prior to starting MJS, Matt was a principal at Heidrick & Struggles in New York City. Matt, are you ready to take us to the top?

138.794 - 139.856 Matt Schwartz

Absolutely.

140.056 - 141.879 Nathan Latka

Thanks for having me. Yeah, I'm excited you're here.

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Chapter 8: What advice does Matt have for aspiring entrepreneurs?

141.959 - 163.29 Nathan Latka

So first question, by the way, I'm always too, I think, self-indulgent on these podcasts, but whatever, I'm going to milk it for all it's worth. When we were at Hayo, we talked to so many firms, and I could never get my mind around actually paying one of these executive search firms 30% to 60% of first year salary plus a placement fee on talent they brought me.

163.771 - 166.455 Nathan Latka

Help me understand why you're different. Why are people paying you?

167.498 - 191.076 Matt Schwartz

Yeah. So that's an excellent point. I can tell you that the trends have changed. Clients only hire us when they have some of the most difficult transformational searches that they can't fill on their own. And what that means is basically roles that have never existed before within their business, skill sets that are not organic to the company or the industry, or

191.056 - 219.561 Matt Schwartz

or roles that need a significant upgrade due to an infusion of digital marketing or technology. So in a lot of cases, the searches that we fill, there may only be five rock stars in the world that could potentially do this job. And they'd be interested in our client's opportunity based on the overall challenge versus just putting a square peg in a square hole. These are very unique roles and it's

219.541 - 223.998 Matt Schwartz

too much heavy lifting for the clients to try and do on their own through their own resources.

224.199 - 227.813 Nathan Latka

Okay, so let's be more specific. Tell me what the role was for PepsiCo that you placed.

228.67 - 249.565 Matt Schwartz

That's a great example, actually. We probably placed close to 30 people at PepsiCo over an eight-year period. But one of the most marquee searches, we started out doing very traditional marketing and corporate communications work. But then we had placed their first head of global social media, Banin Bao, who you probably know.

249.545 - 271.57 Matt Schwartz

back in 2008, and then Shiv Singh, their first head of global digital strategy and development. From there, they said, hey, you filled these roles that were very unique, had never existed before. What if we asked you to find engineers with MBAs who could reinvent our vending,

271.55 - 294.686 Matt Schwartz

What that meant was, okay, how do we turn a vending machine into a giant touchscreen with facial recognition or the ability to play a video game or obviously pay with your smartphone? But at the same time, having all of this equipment connected digitally so we can collect data for manufacturing, supply chain, maintenance. You know, this is, again, something that never existed before.