Stay In The Loop with fellow Collaborators!
A TeamWorking Community Spotlight Series
The 'In the Loop' series highlights companies and innovation leaders within our TeamWorking community. By learning more about our neighbors, we can get to know each other and also open the door for potential growth opportunities, collaborations, and networking!
Interested in being featured in the next 'In The Loop' spotlight?
Reach out to Mykayla Smith to learn more.
Meet Mike Durec! Founder & CEO of HirexHire 💭
Mike partners with operating executives and investors to develop and implement processes and technologies to successfully attract and retain talent.
In his past work as a corporate recruiting leader in technology, Mike crafted and managed strategies to hire thousands of professionals across many functional areas worldwide. He has led hiring initiatives in the US, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, UK, Germany, France, Australia, and India. Mike brings practical leadership experience and a legacy of success to every engagement.
HirexHire now operates with Mike’s proven approach, deploying empathy with candidates and hiring managers and advocating for the best interest of both parties. Mike emphasizes the two-way relationship between the employee and employer, resulting in long-term people placement and greater work-life satisfaction.
Tell us about HirexHire. What is the company's overall mission?
HirexHire is a Chicago-based recruiting and talent consulting company that helps early stage and rapid-growth organizations hire and scale sustainably. Our mission is to enable our community’s growing companies to attract and retain the talent they need to reach their full potential. We leverage our own experience as former leaders at global PE and VC-backed companies to set our executive partners and their teams up for success.
What's next for HirexHire? What are you most looking forward to?
2022 was an exciting year for our company! We grew from ~5 employees to 13 here in Chicago and next year, we’re expecting continued expansion and partnerships with leadership teams at companies looking to develop and rapidly execute a recruiting strategy to support their growth. Beyond that, we’ve been working behind the scenes to develop our own software to streamline the hiring process for our customers and further reduce their cost per hire. I’m excited to share that we just started piloting our MVP internally. We expect to launch in 2023 and we see this as a huge opportunity to reinvent the way companies think about recruiting from a very early stage!
What are the first steps you would take if you had to start a new business?
If I had to start a new business, I’d spend my first days and weeks reflecting on what I’ve learned from my experience founding HirexHire and thinking through what’s important to me in my next company. Then, I’d start analyzing my own time, hobbies, and interests and seeing where there’s economic opportunity. With a short list of a few areas of opportunity that motivate me, I’d dive deeper into each item on the list to better understand the underlying business problems and potential paths to success. My goal would be to come out of this process with a clear choice on a problem to solve and a viable solution.
What advice do you have for aspiring entrepreneurs and leaders?
First, if you’re committed to the idea, I’d tell them to just go for it. Everyone had to start somewhere and you don’t have to jump head first right out of the gate. Second, I think it’s critical to be introspective and self-aware about your motivations going into starting your own company. It’s a lot of responsibility and there are many paths to success. You’ll be faced with tough decisions that impact the company’s growth and trajectory, and it’s important to have clarity on your priorities and goals.
On the weekends, where would we be most likely to find you?
The practical answer is at home with my wife and kids - my son (13) plays travel baseball and basketball which fills up a lot of our weekends, and my 2 daughters (5 & 3) are constantly keeping my wife and I on our toes. If you happen to catch me with a few hours to myself, I’m probably trying to sneak in a quick round of golf or watching sports with friends.
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