Life-changing connections – every person has a life filled with them, and every career is made from them.
But how do you build a company from them?
Hunt & Co.‘s founding story is based on a series of life-changing connections – some through happenstance but mostly through Founder and CEO, Holly Hunt (née Tattersall)’s drive to succeed for her clients, passion to make a difference in the community and years of building industry connections.
Like every good founding story, we have to take you back to the beginning…
Back in 2016, Women in Digital, Holly’s organisation dedicated to improving gender diversity in technology was already achieving international success with chapters in Israel, US, UK and Australia. Holly herself had spent 6 years in the Brisbane digital community carving a name for herself as an industry expert and recruitment professional.
With a passion for learning and travel, she relished the opportunity to attend one of the industries greatest conferences, SXSW in Austin Texas. Following a jam packed and energising 2 weeks, the return flight gave her time to reflect on her takeaways, and to consider what was next. The stillness of the flight gave her the space to take it all in and she realised three really defining things:
- Fortune favours the bold. The conference speakers and attendees she met were all trail blazers in their own right who didn’t shy away from taking risks and enjoying the ride.
- Recruitment was ripe for disruption. Done with seeing people be treated as commodities, she knew that the recruitment industry had to do better.
- Expertise, insight and experience put her in a unique position. She wanted to carve out her own path in the world of recruitment, career and future-of-work.
That is how the Digital Talent Co. brand (later to become Hunt & Co.) was born.
A jetlagged Holly stepped off the plane and never one to miss a beat, she made a quick Canva logo, made a visit to the trusty ABN site and Digital Talent Co. was open for business. End of story, ha! Not really. That’s when all the work began.
Every business owner remembers those early days in operation; the imposter syndrome is real, your parents aren’t entirely sure what your role is and you are figuring out where to start in the mountain of business set up, marketing and of course sales. The long hours and days (and nights) finally start to pay off when you have your first customer pay their invoice and suddenly it’s official – you are a legitimate business owner!
And it couldn’t have come at a better time for the Brisbane technology. The digital community was beginning to boom and needed help forging life-changing connections with the best digital talent in the market.
“I realised that recruiting clients weren’t buying from a big recruiting brand like Hays or Hudson. They simply didn’t trust them to understand the unique space and mindset that is digital. They wanted to buy from an individual that they trusted, who cared and was passionate about digital and technology.” – Holly
The making of an industry leader
Within less than 6 months, Digital Talent Co. (now Hunt & Co.) went from strength to strength. The company brought on clients from startups, agencies, not-for-profits and billion dollar multinationals including Cisco, Data#3, Sealy, The Smith Family, Flight Centre, QSuper, Go1 and Genie Solutions.
“Looking back I underestimated the power of an authentic passion to do great work for the individual, whether that was a client who was struggling to find that perfect team addition or a candidate who wasn’t feeling fulfilled at work. That passion translated quickly and saw me secure some incredible clients early on – and of course Brisbane being a referral based city has sustained the business growth from the start.” – Holly
Digital Talent Co.’s voice as an industry expert and future-of-work specialist in the Australian digital community was also gaining traction with Holly sitting in board positions across the Queensland Government, University of Queensland and Queensland Futures Institute. In future years she’d also go on to be the Ambassador of DLD Salon for the QUT Chair in Digital Economy, Advisory Board Member for Brisbane startup, Sortal, and QUT Centre for Future Enterprise and a Member of the Board of Directors for Jobs Queensland.
And the hard work paid off and the business grew.
Building a team of team builders
It was clear that Digital Talent Co. was gaining momentum and it was time to take the leap that all founders and entrepreneurs know so well… the time had come to build her own team of team builders.
The Digital Talent Co. (now Hunt & Co.) grew to the core team you know and trust today. And true to our driving purpose of making life-changing connections, every team member has had a strong effect on the business, the value we deliver to clients and candidates and to us as a tight-knit team.
“I can’t say I started with the end in mind and never actually aspired to build a team. It just made sense at a certain point, and I have to say it’s been the single most fulfilling part of growing the company. There’s nothing quite like working with a team that believes in your vision, your mission and will ride the ups and downs with you. There’s not a day we don’t start without laughter, banter and a shared sense of purpose in the work we do, moving as a tight-knit team.” – Holly
From a skilled negotiator working in outback Australia, to an award-winning sales consultant, to someone that managed a digital agency themself; our team is made up of passionate experts that gain a sense of achievement from making life-changing connections. The team has all come from different corners of industry and it is that diversity of experience that provides such an impact for our candidates and clients.
A new name for a new era… introducing Hunt & Co.
Heading into 2021, having not just survived but thrived as a team and a company through a pandemic, our purpose was reaffirmed – we are in the business of making life-changing connections, and we truly believe in the life-changing work we do.
We felt that the colourful bubbles and literal name of ‘Digital Talent Co.,’ no longer represented who we were and didn’t represent the consultative, impactful service we deliver.
We had outgrown our original brand name and identity that had served us so well over the 5 years and were ready for the next evolution.
Which is how Hunt & Co. evolved to be.
The ‘Hunt’ is a quiet nod to Holly, her husband and their growing family’s surname but also to our constant pursuit of life-changing connections.
The ‘&’ is to signify our pursuit to deliver more; for our clients, for our candidates and for the industry.
The ‘Co.’ is so that we remember where we came from and don’t forget our Digital Talent Co. roots.
We are Hunt & Co.
We believe in finding the right person who helps to build our clients’ businesses, not just their team size.
We are a boutique recruitment agency run by business and digital specialists who care about creating meaningful, long-term impact in the industry — not salespeople or recruiters.
We are dedicated to quality, not quantity and set ourselves apart through a drive to deliver the best business results for our clients and career results for our candidates.
We are, as one of our clients’ put it, “the most unrecruiter-like recruiters”.
The Hunt & Co. team has grown since those early days but our mission remains the same – we are passionate industry experts who work with a range of companies from startups to billion dollar multinationals grow their high-performing teams.
If you are interested in talking about a career move, grow your team or just love all things digital – contact the Hunt & Co. team today.