Mavik’s OnCall Recruiting model shows early success 

Boise-based Mavik Ventures is seeing significant success after the first year’s run of its new staff recruiting model.

James Cramer, executive recruiter for Mavik, said the startup company placed 137 candidates with companies across North America with its OnCall Recruiting model in 2021. 

The model uses technology to match clients with qualified and pre-vetted candidates, augmented by recruiters and “sourcers” trained to handle staffing needs from entry-level companies to executive-level searches in technology, health care, finance and more. Since every company’s hiring needs are different, the OnCall Recruiting model allows companies to switch the service on or off. 

Cramer said Mavik can impact client hiring on day one, “which has allowed us to see a reduction in time to hire by almost 60%, compared with industry standards.” 

Darren Koontz and Joe Kaufman co-founded Mavik. They met while working at a different recruiting agency and eventually came together to develop their concepts on recruiting. The founders wanted to build a model to empower companies to be able to grow at the scale they need while driving their expenses down so they can better compete in aggressive markets.  

Mavik Ventures was developed from the belief that existing recruiting models are out of date with the current market trends and make it very difficult for companies to hire strong talent at scale. For example, Cramer said, contingent recruiting, which is commonplace, involves a recruiter working out a deal with a company  where the recruiter usually takes a large percentage from the company — not the candidate— of the candidate’s salary as a fee for the placement. 

There are no placement fees with OnCall. Clients are billed at a flexible hourly rate. That drives hiring at scale while reducing costs to the client, according to Cramer. Based on average placement fees of $20,000 per hire, clients saved more than $2 million in 2021.  

“We have found our model eliminates the stress of contingency fees and allows companies and our team to be more focused on the skills and talent of the hires than worrying about financials of a large fee,” said Kaufman.  

Koontz said “old-school” agency methods gave too much power to the recruiter without so much benefit to the companies they served. 

“It was quantity over quality,” Koontz said. With OnCall, potential candidates are pre-screened to ensure they are the best possible match for the client — and vice versa — rather than send many candidates to the client, who may only need one employee. 

Koontz, CEO of the firm, majored in business management with an entrepreneurial minor at Boise State University. Kaufman is a Boise native who majored in secondary education, math at the University of Idaho.  

“Our OnCall Recruiting method has proven itself to be a great solution in the marketplace to change the traditional stigma a lot of companies have had in the past with recruiters,” Koontz said. 

Going forward, the company is building a platform designed to give clients “a leg up against their competitors when it comes to hiring,” Cramer said. He wouldn’t elaborate at this time, since the technology is proprietary. 

The firm tripled its recruiting team in 2021 and plans to double it this year. Cramer said Mavik started with a team of four, “and today we have over 15 people working nationwide on a variety of recruiting, consulting and advisory roles.” 

Ultimately, the firm’s priority is to have a larger footprint in Idaho on both the client and candidate sides, while maintaining its nationwide presence. Mavik was about to close on a new 4,500-square-foot office in downtown Boise as this article went to press.

The company said it wants to get more involved with its hometown by sponsoring such events as Hackfort, a part of the Treefort music event geared toward technology folks.  

“Boise has a pretty big tech presence, and it’s growing,” Koontz said. “This is our backyard, and we want to help people find those jobs here. We also want to bring really talented people to Idaho, as well. It’s a good way to build that think tank.” 

Kaufman said Mavik is looking closely at the potential for college graduates entering the marketplace to find good-paying positions with local companies, by working with Boise State University and University of Idaho advisors. The firm is also looking into the idea of offering community service.