When the pandemic took hold worldwide in 2020, it caused an 18 month slowdown in IT-related projects and HireRising CEO Graham Greytak was faced with keeping his executive search and technology recruitment firm afloat.
HireRising had lost 95% of its business over a two month period during Covid-related shutdowns and the firm’s payroll amounted to more than $100,000 a month, he said.
Despite growing expenses and uncertainty surrounding the economy, Greytak wanted to protect the livelihood of his employees as he navigated the challenges brought forth by the pandemic.
“I chose to save everybody's job. When we came out of Covid at the end of 2020, hiring picked up,” Greytak said. “I tripled the company’s (revenue) in 2021 because I had loyal employees that were already trained and ready to go."
HireRising specializes in finding experienced, hard-to-fill tech jobs, including software developers and data scientists. It provides direct-to-hire, contract and project-based work.
Now, the Phoenix-based firm is on track to generate $10 million in revenue this year, doubling the $5 million it made in 2023. HireRising has already reported $2 million in revenue through March.
“Our goals for this year are to double, remain profitable and to expand deeper,” Greytak said. “This year’s theme is about digging deep with the team we have and the clients we already serve.”
HireRising: AI, cybersecurity fuels tech growth
HireRising’s growth is fueled in part by a ramp-up in IT projects that companies paused during the pandemic and an uptick in workers re-skilling in other areas of technology, such as artificial intelligence and automation, Greytak said.
AI, data, cybersecurity and cloud computing will likely be significant future growth opportunities for the firm as companies need skilled workers to configure software tools, he added.
“If people are getting laid off in certain areas in tech, they’re getting hired into more strategic areas of AI that would build value and reduce costs, saving the company money, so the (return on investment) is there,” he said.
HireRising is No. 11 among the largest Phoenix-area executive search firms, measured by average salary of placed executives, number of local recruiters and industries served. The average salary is $132,000 for executives placed by the firm, according to Business Journal research.
"We've figured out how to have a really solid leadership team and articulate what we need from every team member to get to our goal,” Greytak said. “And that's why I think we are on pace to double this year.”
From ticket sales to technology
Greytak launched HireRising in 2018 to provide flexible IT employees through direct and temporary hires. He started the firm with a $75,000 investment from Scottsdale software entrepreneur Gregg Larson, who founded and sold Scottsdale-based real estate consulting and tech firm Clareity to Irvine, California-based CoreLogic (NYSE: CLGX) in 2017 for an undisclosed price, the Business Journal previously reported.
Prior to HireRising, Greytak served as the vice president of sales at Avisolve, a Gilbert-based tech services provider. He also was the business development manager at CyrusOne (Nasdaq: CONE) data center company and worked in marketing and sales for the Phoenix Suns from 2011 to 2015.
Greytak’s path into entrepreneurship was sparked while selling courtside seats and suites for the Phoenix Suns, he said.
“Because of that, I was talking to very wealthy, high-level buyers in Phoenix. And those conversations and friendships materialized into wanting to become an entrepreneur,” he said. “I also realized there was only 18 Fortune 1000 businesses locally based here. So my goal was to build a very large business that's headquartered in Phoenix.”
Greytak saw a business opportunity for executive job placement services in the technology sector as budgets of chief information officers and technology departments were growing at a rapid clip, he said.
HireRising now has more than 40 employees and its clients include Republic Services, Discount Tire, Amkor and First Solar.
“Then, we work with other companies, like Hawaiian Airlines based in Hawaii,” he said. “But their second big office is right here in Tempe and they have an IT workforce here.”
Greytak credits the firm’s success to building relationships with clients. He aims to grow the firm’s revenue to $100 million in the next 10 years and give back to the Phoenix community by possibly establishing a venture fund to help other aspiring entrepreneurs.
“I'd love to create a stable place of employment for the next 30 years and create a bigger brand,” Greytak said. "The sky's the limit on where we can go revenue-wise. I want to just keep building it up.”
