We exist to give small businesses control of their own hiring

Our Values

  • COMMITMENT

    Our customers get 100% of us.

    Nothing held back. No conflicts of interest.

  • SIMPLICITY

    The best ideas are simple and timeless.

    Success comes from delivering with conviction and consistency.

  • ACCOUNTABILITY

    It’s up to us to make things happen.

    Get on with it, and make adjustments once you’re moving.

  • CLARITY

    Communicate with maximum clarity.

    Make it easy for everyone to understand and make decisions.

  • DEDICATION

    Our standards are non-negotiable.

    Without pride in our work, we don’t have a business.

Our Story (told by Matt)

Thursday 12th March 2020. It was 8.25am on a cold morning, and the office heating hadn’t quite kicked in – so I was warming my hands on the second coffee of the day. 

The phone rang, and then didn’t stop ringing for the next two days. 

By 4pm on Friday 13th March, we had lost our entire business. 

We had built a moderately successful small business over the previous 8 years, placing aerospace engineers in contracts all around Europe. With Covid came the closing of borders and grounding of aircraft, meaning our business was dead.

We had three kids, a sizable mortgage, and no income. 

Like most of the people on the planet, we found this a bleak, challenging and downright terrifying time. 

After both spending 20 years in hiring and recruitment, we had seen significant changes and didn’t like the direction the industry was heading. We were sick of competing on price; sick of shoddy practices; sick of stupid salary-based fees; sick of always being a grudge purchase. Covid was the final straw.

We were ready to jack it all in to go and live off-grid in a caravan in Devon.

But there was something nagging at the back of my mind.  It wasn’t recruitment I hated.  It was the recruitment industry.  

Emily and I are both bloody good at what we do, but we hate the conflict that is at the heart of the recruiter/employer relationship.  Salary-based recruitment fees must be one of the stupidest commercial structures ever invented.  God knows how it got accepted as the standard way to do business.  

So we set out to build a business that aligned both our ethics and our skills.

Our golden rule with Cohort is that there can never be any conflicts of interest.  We are always on your side of the table.  We will never encourage you to hire someone that might not be right for your business.  The salaries you pay will have no impact on how much we earn.  Everything we do must benefit you.

So that’s what we’re trying to do with Cohort.  Giving SMEs and startups someone to fight their corner in an increasingly complex hiring market.