Tech recruitment founders with a large idle database / The problem
Ten people, no hours, no new clients
Every new client conversation costs a consultant an hour they have not got. Ten people, all already filling roles, and business development is the first thing dropped when a day gets busy. Meanwhile 150,000 candidates sit in your system going quiet, because working them properly takes exactly the hours nobody has. It is not a data problem. It is a capacity problem, and no tool has ever sold you capacity.
Tech recruitment founders with a large idle database / What we found
Tech does not tier the way construction does
Map how matching actually has to work here and the construction model falls apart. There, a firm one rung below a candidate's current employer is a defensible target. In tech it means nothing. Your back-end developer at a bank belongs at a council or a charity startup if the stack lines up, and nowhere near another bank if it does not. Match on career path and you will produce confident, useless lists at speed.
Tech recruitment founders with a large idle database / What we built
A reason you would read out on a call
A working slice of the engine pointed at real candidates, not a slide deck. It reads a person, finds firms that would genuinely hire them, names who does the hiring, and attaches one line explaining why that company. Weak matches are left visible instead of quietly dropped, so you can see where it is wrong before you decide whether to trust it. Nothing leaves the building unapproved.
Tech recruitment founders with a large idle database / What changed
Sceptical at the demo, pilot agreed five days later
Twenty real tech candidates produced 47 matches, every target verified as an active UK company, each with a named decision maker and a written reason averaging 4.2 out of 5. Deliberately poor matches were left in on the day rather than hidden. Fifty-one minutes turned a room that expected none of it to work into one leaning towards buying. Five days later a paid pilot was agreed.
5 daysFrom a sceptical founder watching a live demo to an agreed paid pilot carrying a full money-back guarantee.
Tech recruitment founders with a large idle database / Whose it was
Pilot agreed, and nothing proven yet
A 20-year-old UK technology recruitment firm, ten staff, one CRM carrying everything. At the end of August they agreed a four-week paid pilot with a full refund if it fails to produce even one genuine new client conversation. It has not gone live and the money is not banked. And the single thing they said still needs proving, matching by technology stack rather than career path, is precisely what the pilot has to prove.
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All fourteen stories · MAX.AI · 2026