Verticalmove / Partners
See if the model fits
Independent Recruiting Partners

You already know how to recruit. Now own the economics.

You find the people. You win the clients. You close the placements. Then your firm keeps most of the fee.

Start at 70%. Earn your way to 80%. No salary. No draw. No agency to build.

70 to 80%
of the fee when you own both sides. You start at 70% and the split rises as you bill more
$500
a month. Desk, data, CRM, insurance
No draw
nothing advanced, so there is never a deficit to repay
Your LLC
your entity, your book, our platform underneath it
Run your numbers

The math is the pitch.

What you billed last year$400,000
What you kept35%

35% is typical agency take-home on a full desk. Move it to whatever your plan actually pays.

What you earned on that production
$140,000
Starting at 70%, after the $6,000 desk fee
$274,000
Difference on identical production
$134,000
Same production once you reach the 80% tier
$314,000

You already created the revenue. The question is how much of it you keep.

Before you spend a call on this

This model is very good or very wrong for you.

Works if you think

  • I can originate
  • I do not want another manager
  • My relationships are mine
  • I want the upside tied to what I close
  • I am not spending six months building infrastructure

Wrong if you want

  • A salary or a draw
  • Reqs waiting in the inbox
  • Leads handed to you
  • Someone running your calendar
  • Independence without the accountability

A book does not appear because you joined a platform. You still have to hunt.

See if the model fits
Five short answers. If it is not a fit, we will both know inside a day.
Independence without the build

Go independent without starting from scratch.

If you have been producing for years, you have already done this math.

I know how to recruit. I have the relationships. I can develop business. Why am I not doing this myself?

Because I do not want to build an entire recruiting company just so I can recruit.

That second thought is the one we solve.

Build the agency first

  • CRM and ATS
  • Candidate and contact data
  • Insurance
  • Client paper
  • Invoicing and collections
  • Brand and website
  • The AI stack
  • Then start recruiting

Plug into Verticalmove

  • All of it already exists
  • Built around how agency desks work
  • Carried at the firm level
  • Written, reviewed, in use
  • Handled by our back office
  • An established name on your outreach
  • Ours, and it ships weekly
  • Start recruiting on day one

You do not need to rebuild a recruiting company. You need to recruit.

Whose brand goes on your outreach

Professional headhunters for more than 20 years. Technology builders because we needed better tools.

Verticalmove places senior specialist and executive talent across North America and Europe, with delivery in India. Venture-backed startups through the Fortune 100, across eleven verticals. That is the name that shows up in your subject line.

Artificial Intelligence  ·  Cybersecurity & Defense Technology  ·  Semiconductor & Microelectronics  ·  Advanced Manufacturing & Automation  ·  Data Center & Critical Infrastructure  ·  Robotics & Autonomous Systems  ·  Aerospace & Defense  ·  Energy Transition & Industrial  ·  Enterprise Software & Cloud  ·  Healthcare Technology  ·  Life Sciences & Biotech
What the desk actually does

We mine the sources other recruiters don't know how to read.

Most platforms start with profiles and keywords. We start with the evidence people leave behind while doing the work, where a professional proves what they can do long before a recruiter calls. What counts as evidence changes by market, so the platform reads several kinds at once.

Filings and registries

Named inventors on patents, licensure and regulatory records. Proof attached to a person's name rather than a job-board response.

Public work

Repositories, portfolios, contributions and published output in their exact field. What somebody shipped, not what a resume claims.

Recognition and research

Conference rosters, program committees and named authorship on peer-reviewed work. Vetted by their own field before we ever call.

Every company arrives already read.

Classified against our own taxonomy, with the full technology stack, headcount broken out by function, growth, funding and revenue attached. You open a business development call already knowing what they run and where they are hiring.

Company intelligence record showing taxonomy tags, technology stack, headcount by function, funding and revenue

One company record, as a partner sees it.

The practical version: give it one sentence. It searches our own database first, then casts the same search across 850M professional profiles, GitHub, patent filings and the open internet at once. It enriches what it finds, scores the list against the role with a full rubric on fit.

1M+
resumes in our own database. A structured bench, not a pile of files
850M+
profiles across supplementary datasets. The same search, cast wider
200M
verified personal emails. Stop hunting for addresses
70M
verified personal mobiles. Reach people directly
20+
agentic AI driven tools, called in parallel from one instruction. Stop bouncing between tabs
Genius Copilot showing saved search alerts and one-line actions

One line in. The stack goes to work.

Saved searches watching your market for movement. A daily brief across your calendar and email. Your pipeline, submittals and interviews for the week, without opening a report.

It drafts, it stages, it waits. Nothing sends and nothing is written to a record until you approve the card in front of you.

Genius Copilot, running a partner's morning.

Every hour on $20 work is an hour stolen from $200 work. We automate the floor so you live upstairs.

What your client sees

Your client does not get a watered-down solo experience.

This is the part most people underestimate when they go out on their own. The recruiting gets no worse, but the experience around it does. Resumes turn into email attachments. Status updates happen when the client asks for them. Feedback lives in a thread nobody can find three weeks later, and the client quietly starts treating you like a freelancer instead of a firm.

Your candidates arrive through the same client portal our retained searches run on. Each one lands with a summary written off the interview you actually ran, a recruiter scorecard, and their position in the pipeline with dates attached. Your client reads it in about two minutes, approves or declines in a single click, and that decision comes straight back to you timestamped. A decline turns into a recalibrated search the same day rather than a week of chasing.

Complete visibility

Every candidate and every stage, live. They stop emailing you for updates because the answer is already on their screen.

Decisions without friction

Approve or decline in one click, timestamped. You know where every candidate stands the moment they do.

Honest scorecards

Gaps are written down before an interview happens. A truthful low score protects their time better than a padded high one.

ACTIVE SEARCH  ·  OPEN 18 DAYS

Director, Manufacturing Operations

Confidential client  ·  retained
6
SHORTLISTED
4
IN SCREENS
2
SUBMITTED
AWAITING YOUR DECISION
D. Whitfield
Director, Manufacturing Operations
d.whitfield@••••••.com  ·  submitted 1 day ago
89/100
STRONG FIT
SUMMARY, DRAFTED FROM THE INTERVIEW

Ran multi-site operations for a $400M business unit and took a greenfield plant from commissioning to full rate in fourteen months. Rebuilt maintenance and quality underneath it, cutting unplanned downtime by roughly a third.

RECRUITER SCORECARD
Role fit18/20
Experience relevance19/20
Communication and presence17/20
Regulated environment exposure11/20
Gap flagged before submittal. Adjacent experience only.
SubmittedSep 2
Recruiter screenAug 29
Client reviewWaiting on you
Interviewing
ACTIONS
Approve
Decline

One candidate, as your client sees it.

You get independence. Your client still gets infrastructure.

Independent, not alone

Going out on your own should not mean going quiet.

Splits are credited 50/50 between the recruiting side and the business development side, so partnering is settled math rather than a favor you have to negotiate. There are other desks in adjacent markets when a req lands outside your lane.

Independence without the isolation. Nobody manages you. Everybody is reachable.

Practical questions

What experienced recruiters actually want to know.

The model
Is this really an independent 1099 model?+

Yes. This is not a salaried job converted into commission-only pay.

You operate through your own business entity. You are responsible for your own taxes, benefits, and business expenses outside the platform. We provide the platform, brand, technology, data, contracts, insurance infrastructure and back office.

You run your business. We provide the infrastructure underneath it. The whole relationship is defined in the Partner Agreement before you join.

Is there a salary, guarantee or draw?+

No. No salary, no guarantee, no recoverable draw.

Which also means there is nothing to pay back after a slow month. You make a placement, you participate in the fee at your tier. You do not, there is no commission. That is the whole mechanism.

The money
How does the commission work?+

You begin at 70% when you own both sides of the placement, the client and the candidate. There is no introductory rate and no waiting period before you reach it.

Client fee$40,000
Your starting split70%
Your commission$28,000

As your production increases, your percentage can rise toward 80%. The thresholds and tiers are defined in the Partner Agreement and we walk the whole schedule with you before you sign. The model rewards production, not tenure.

How do split placements work?+

Every placement has two sides, each worth half the fee. Client and business development on one, candidate and recruiting on the other.

Own both and you take commission on the entire fee. If another Partner works one side with you, the credit divides.

Fee$40,000
Client side$20,000
Candidate side$20,000
Your side at 70%$14,000

The Partner on the other side is paid on their side at their own tier. Nobody argues about credit, because the arithmetic was settled before the deal started.

Own both sides when you can. Collaborate when it makes the placement more likely.

How does the split move from 70% toward 80%?+

Production. Not tenure, not politics, not negotiating with a manager.

As your eligible billings grow, your percentage moves through the tiers defined in the Partner Agreement. You see those thresholds before you join, so you can answer one question from day one: if I bill this, I earn that. There should be no mystery in it.

What does the $500 a month cover?+

The infrastructure behind your desk. CRM and ATS, our proprietary recruiting technology, Genius, candidate and company intelligence, contact data and enrichment, browser tools, the client portal, the Verticalmove brand, client agreements, firm-level insurance infrastructure, billing and collections, and back-office support.

You do not assemble twelve subscriptions and build an agency before you can produce. The machine behind the desk already exists.

The fee does not increase because your commission percentage does.

Your book
Are clients or job orders handed to me?+

No, and this is the most important thing to understand before joining.

You identify markets. You build relationships. You develop clients. You represent candidates. You create the opportunity. Nobody hands you a stack of open reqs on Monday morning.

What we give you is technology, data, brand, infrastructure and a network that makes you considerably more effective at doing it. The platform gives you leverage. It does not replace hunting.

Can I bring my existing clients and relationships?+

Potentially yes, assuming you have the legal right to do so and there is no existing Verticalmove relationship or other conflict.

We review prospective accounts during onboarding so ownership and attribution are clear before anyone works them. We do not want two Partners unknowingly chasing the same relationship, and we do not want ambiguity about who originated an account. Define ownership early, avoid the argument later.

Do I own the clients I originate?+

The model is built to recognise the relationships you personally originate and develop. While you are operating through Verticalmove you manage the accounts in your book, and we do not casually reassign a relationship you built because another desk wants it.

If the relationship ends, the treatment of Partner-originated accounts, firm-originated accounts, active searches and fees in flight is governed by the Partner Agreement. The principle is simple: relationships you originate and relationships we provide are treated differently. Those lines are defined before you sign anything.

What happens to a placement already in process if I leave?+

It does not disappear. The Partner Agreement defines an attribution period for candidates, searches and placements already in process when a relationship ends.

The purpose is plain. If meaningful work was done while you were a Partner, there should be a clear rule for how the resulting fee is treated. No guessing, and no rewriting history after somebody leaves. You see the exact rules before you sign.

How you operate
Can I work anywhere, and are there activity quotas?+

The model is built around independent operation rather than an office schedule. You decide how your day runs, subject to the Partner Agreement, client obligations and applicable law.

There are no employee-style activity quotas. Nobody counts your calls or builds your calendar. But do not confuse autonomy with an absence of cause and effect. No activity means no production, and no production means no income. The scoreboard is production.

Do I have a manager?+

Not in the traditional sense. You are not joining because you need someone managing your daily activity.

You will have access to experienced recruiters, leadership, training, systems and other Partners whenever you want them. Ask questions, collaborate, use the expertise around you. But nobody should need to remind an experienced recruiter to prospect.

Can I collaborate with other Partners?+

Yes, and it is one of the real advantages of a platform over going fully alone.

You may have the client while another Partner knows exactly where the candidate is. Or you have an exceptional person who fits somebody else's account. Use the network when it raises the odds of a placement. The split model already defines how each side is credited.

What if I have a great candidate but no client?+

Market them. On a full desk, candidates create business.

If you are representing an exceptional person you do not have to wait for the perfect req to appear. Work out which companies that person creates value for, find the decision-maker, and start the conversation. That is recruiting.

What markets can I recruit in?+

We operate across specialist markets including artificial intelligence, data, cybersecurity, advanced manufacturing, energy, healthcare, life sciences, engineering and technology, among others.

The model is not limited to one technical discipline. If you have spent ten years becoming exceptional in a market we do not currently cover, we want to understand it. What matters is market knowledge, candidate credibility, client access, and whether you can originate. Bring the market you know.

The trade
Who pays my taxes?+

You do. As an independent business operator you handle your own federal, state and local taxes and any other applicable obligations. We do not withhold payroll taxes the way an employer would.

Work with your own accountant on the right structure for your business.

Are benefits provided?+

No. There is no company health insurance, PTO, retirement contribution or paid vacation in this model.

That is part of the trade. You give up the protections of employment in exchange for substantially more of what you produce and far more control over how you operate. The numbers have to work for you, which is why we put them at the top of the page.

What am I responsible for outside the $500?+

You are operating your own business, so expenses personal to that business and not included in the platform stay with you.

The Partner Agreement sets out exactly what we provide and what remains yours. We would rather make that clear before you join than surprise you afterwards.

What are the expectations of a Partner?+

Run your business professionally. Protect your reputation and ours. Honour client agreements. Represent candidates accurately. Tell clients the truth. Keep your commitments. Treat confidential information as confidential.

We do not expect Partners to behave like employees. We do expect anyone operating under this name to protect the credibility the firm has spent decades building. Intentional misrepresentation of a candidate, a client, a fee arrangement or what we can deliver is incompatible with the Partner relationship.

You already know whether you can produce.

The question is what you want to do with that ability. Keep building inside someone else's economics. Build an entire agency yourself. Or plug into infrastructure that is already here.

70% from your first placement, rising toward 80% as production grows. $500 a month. Your business, our platform underneath it.

See if the model fits · hello@verticalmove.com