To this day, Chris Vasquez recalls the early days of his company, The Quantum Talent Group. Without a renowned brand or a reputation and with limited funding, Vasquez and his team had to overcome the barriers of breaking into a new industry before establishing The Quantum Talent Group among the leading executive search firms in the nation.
The biggest challenge is “that no one knows you, so you have to sell a lot,” said Vasquez during a recent video interview. “You don’t have a brand; you don’t have a reputation. So, you really have to sell just on passion.”
The Quantum Talent Group is one of the most prominent executive search firms in the Crypto and SaaS industries nationwide. This California-based company assists VC-backed crypto and SaaS startups in building full executive, engineering, and product teams. Vasquez and his team have helped several emerging software startups grow into world leaders in their industry, including ClickUp, Gemini, Dapper Labs, and Kandji.
Brand reputation is arguably more critical in the executive search industry than any other industry. After launching The Quantum Talent Group two years ago, Vasquez faced the complex challenge of establishing his company in an industry in which he was fairly unknown.
Passion, perseverance, and the support of a devoted team were critical factors in the subsequent rise of The Quantum Talent Group.
In a recent interview back in January, Vasquez described the obstacles he overcame to establish The Quantum Talent Group among the top executive search firms in the SaaS and Crypto sectors.
In 2019, after several years in the corporate talent recruitment industry, Vasquez took the leap of opening his own executive search firm to work with software startups. Little relevance had his experience working with multiple Fortune-500 companies in his previous jobs. Now, Vasquez was in a new arena, where he would have to make a name for himself among the rising stars of Silicon Valley.
“When you are breaking into a new industry, you could have done something amazing in another industry, but they don’t really care,” explained Vasquez. “They only look at what you do in their industry as relevant.”
Lack of brand recognition was the most significant handicap that Vasquez faced after creating his company. In the early days of The Quantum Talent Group, Vasquez’s primary focus was to prove the quality of his work and gain the trust of startups in the software technology industry.
“The hardest part is that everyone asks, ‘who are your clients? How many times have you done this before? Give me people that I know,” said Vasquez. “Whenever breaking into a new industry, the challenge is getting the reputation and brand built. People have to feel that they can trust you.”
The support of Vasquez’s team was critical during the rough early days of The Quantum Talent Group. At a stage in his entrepreneurial career in which Vasquez lacked the capital to recruit all the required personnel, he had to persuade others to take a chance on his project. However, he was fortunate to stumble upon a group of devoted employees who believed unconditionally in his entrepreneurial vision.
“The hard part was getting people to believe in our vision when I couldn’t offer them money. I could offer them lots of opportunities but no money,” said Vasquez. “One employee, who worked with me at another company, took a big chance, and she took no money, zero-base, to join me. She is really successful now.”
The passionate work of Vasquez and his team led The Quantum Talent Group to rise with firm steps and place itself among the leading executive search firms in the United States.
Since the beginning of his company, Vasquez promoted a culture of excellence and service. Over the past two years, this commitment to the success of his clients helped him build durable partnerships and stand out in the executive search industry.
Today, Vasquez nourishes the memory of the early days of The Quantum Talent Group. The formidable hurdles he and his team overcame are now a source of inspiration to continue their journey of becoming the nation’s pre-eminent executive search company.
“In the beginning, we had no reputation, no brand, and no money to get people to join the cause,” concluded Vasquez. “So, it was all just vision and passion.”
By Juan Sebastian Restrepo,
With Artistic Initiative Agency
