Building a recruiting firm with founder DNA

“Our edge is that we operate with the DNA of a startup ourselves,” explains Chad Rogers, Director at Quantum Talent. “We’re built to scale fast, with high agility. We’ve created raving fans among the founders we work with because we don’t just fill roles; we help build companies from the ground up.”

That founder empathy defines Quantum’s model. The firm doesn’t throw candidates at the wall to see what sticks; it starts with context. What is the company building? What kind of cultural foundation do the founders want to create? “It’s never just about a job description,” Chad says. “It’s about understanding the story behind the role: why this hire matters and how this person will move the company forward.”

That clarity of purpose has earned Quantum the trust of founders operating in markets defined by scarcity and speed—especially in AI, where competition for elite talent is relentless. “There are so many startups launching, raising capital, and trying to hire at hypergrowth speed,” Chad explains. “Everyone’s going after the same rare archetypes.”

To meet that pace without losing precision, Quantum turned to Harmonic.

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Turning startup chaos into structured intelligence

For Chad and the Quantum team, Harmonic has become the engine behind their entire workflow, from researching potential clients and analyzing markets to refining hiring strategies mid-search. “Harmonic’s been great as a centralized platform to dive deep into data,” Chad says. “Whether it’s talent mapping, market trends, funding history, product vision, or company research, it gives us a single source of truth. And because the data is accurate and current, we can move fast without second-guessing the research.”

Each search saves hours of manual research—time the team reinvests in founder relationships and candidate strategy. Quantum used to rely on a cumbersome bundle of PitchBook data, LinkedIn Sales Navigator, Google, and LLMs for every single role.

Ease of use is a massive part of the appeal. “The interface makes searching and filtering effortless,” Chad says. “And with the new AI features in Scout—Harmonic’s intelligent startup-analysis engine—I can quickly pull overviews of a startup’s funding, team, and focus before ever meeting a client. It makes every conversation richer because I already understand how they describe their value prop and where they’re trying to compete.”

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From insight to action: building sharper pipelines

With that baseline context in place, Harmonic becomes a tool for action. It helps the team understand the broader talent landscape: what companies their clients want to emulate, where they’re sourcing talent, and who their closest competitors are.

Quantum uses Harmonic’s People Search, an AI-powered map of startup talent tracking over 150 million professionals, to identify candidates with similar profiles or from key peer companies. Once they’ve mapped the right peer set, they export those lists into LinkedIn Recruiter to build targeted pipelines. “It’s a remarkably efficient way to build high-quality candidate lists without relying on guesswork,” Chad explains.

Investor data adds foresight. “If a founder’s backed by a certain VC, I can look at that portfolio to see comparable teams and how they’ve scaled,” Chad elaborates. “If I notice firms like Sequoia or Andreessen making a string of new AI bets, I’ll explore those companies to identify potential hiring partners or emerging competitors.” This visibility helps Quantum anticipate talent needs before they arise, and advise founders proactively.

Chad has also begun using Network Mapping to visualize relationships across founders, investors, and past hires. It overlays Quantum’s collective network—contacts, conversations, and LinkedIn connections—onto Harmonic’s global startup graph, revealing “warm paths” into founders or companies already within reach. “It’s a powerful way to translate years of relationship-building into new search intelligence,” Chad says. “We can instantly see who’s connected to whom and use those insights to open doors faster.”

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Data-driven storytelling that sells the opportunity

For Quantum, Harmonic’s value extends far beyond sourcing; it shapes how the firm tells each client’s story. The same insights that help Chad understand markets and investors also guide how he positions clients to candidates. “As recruiters, we want to be the best possible extension of the founder,” he says. “Knowing where the company sits—whether it’s pre–product-market fit, pre-revenue, or scaling—helps us craft messaging that strongly resonates.”

Scout gives Chad a clean, structured view of each startup—its market focus, product vision, funding history, and leadership team—all in one place. “It ties together data I might otherwise have to pull from multiple sources like Pitchbook, websites, or LinkedIn,” he says. “Harmonic becomes the backbone of our prep. It informs the story we tell and the conversations we have with candidates.”

Chad adds that “Harmonic is one of the first tabs I open every morning. And if I need to revisit a search or re-engineer part of the strategy later, I go straight back to Harmonic. It’s all there.”

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Reading real momentum before the market does

The intelligence that shapes candidate conversations also sharpens founder strategy. With Harmonic’s Talent Flow view, Quantum can see recent hires and where they came from. “That helps me talk with founders about what’s attracting new talent, what’s driving departures, and what differentiates their company today,” Chad says. The Talent Sources view highlights which companies or backgrounds are contributing to that flow, helping Quantum focus outreach on the most promising pools.

Harmonic’s coverage makes it easy to spot momentum signals in context. “A funding round doesn’t always reflect how strong the product or founder is,” Chad explains. “So I’ll layer filters—recent funding dates, investors, headcount trends—to gauge whether a company’s actually accelerating. It helps me separate headline hype from real momentum.”

Those insights, combined with competitor data, give Chad confidence to advise founders on how to position themselves in a crowded market. “In AI especially, so many companies are iterating on similar ideas,” he says. “Being able to see competitors side by side helps me talk to founders about what makes them distinct.”

Even when information is sparse, as with stealth startups or early-stage teams coming out of incubators, Harmonic helps Quantum connect the dots. “I can look at hiring patterns or early traction signals and get a good sense of where the company’s headed,” Chad says.

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Scaling efficiency through shared intelligence

For Chad, Harmonic isn’t just a sourcing tool; it’s how Quantum stays ahead of the market. “I use it for everything from tracking client growth to understanding competitor dynamics,” he says. “It keeps me systematic, current, and efficient.”

That efficiency scales across the team. Every recruiter, partner, and director has a Harmonic seat, and the platform has become part of the firm’s shared operating rhythm. “We’re all running at 150%, so anything that improves efficiency is a huge unlock,” Chad explains. “Some teammates lean on Harmonic for sourcing, others for market intelligence or client research. But everyone gets value out of it.”

That collective learning has become an asset. “We run internal sessions where people share how they’re using Harmonic—sourcing techniques, market analysis, client prep—and it gets everyone excited about new ways to apply the data.” The collaboration extends into day-to-day work, Chad adds. “If a teammate needs quick context on a company, I’ll send over a Harmonic link or Scout report. We also embed Harmonic URLs directly into our client blueprints so the team can explore live data and stay ahead of changes.” That real-time visibility helps the team adapt fast when headcount, funding, or product direction shifts mid-search. 

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The future of recruiting: where data meets judgment

Looking at the broader recruiting landscape, Chad sees one constant: context still wins. “At the early stage, founders are moving so fast that they don’t always take the time to craft or communicate the narrative around why someone should join them,” he says. “Candidates need to understand not just what the company does, but why now is the right time to join and what the long-term vision looks like.”

Data, he believes, is the bridge between story and execution. “Founders can bring candidates to the table, but it’s that story—the ‘why’—that truly sells them. Too often, hiring is driven by pedigree or pattern recognition instead of focusing on the outcomes a person can drive. Founders need to use market data to ground those decisions.”

Harmonic helps Quantum and the founders they partner with build that clarity. “If we can translate data into focused, actionable insights that connect founders, VCs, and candidates, we’ll make hiring far more efficient and collaborative,” Chad envisions. He’s especially excited about Harmonic’s growing depth in financial and compensation data, which will strengthen how Quantum advises clients on market positioning.

The partnership between data and human insight has become Quantum’s competitive edge. Harmonic gives the team the precision to operate at startup speed, and the context to build lasting relationships at every stage of growth. “When you combine that level of intelligence with founder empathy,” Chad says, “you don’t just make better hires. You build stronger companies.”