The first interview at Hire With Jarvis, according to its founder, is with the employer. Kevin Jarvis says his recruiters spend 60 to 90 minutes on an onboarding call for every new job. Hiring managers and stakeholders join. Before anyone goes looking for a candidate, they discuss the company, its people and what success would look like. An hour and a half is a substantial investment in a business that gets paid to find people. It also tells you where Jarvis thinks hiring starts to go wrong.
- Specialist recruiting for eCommerce, SaaS, ERP and other technical markets.
- Permanent hires, executive search and hourly contractors.
- A pay-as-you-go option spreads recruitment fees over time.
The first interview is with the employer
Jarvis’s public objection to recruitment marketplaces is quite specific. He says he trialed three and encountered vague briefs, inaccurate information and limited contact with hiring managers. His complaint is about the distance between the person running the search and the person who understands the work. A keyword search cannot settle a disagreement about what a role is supposed to achieve.
His proposed remedy is that longer opening conversation. Learn the business, agree on expectations, then approach people who might fit. Consider this a founder’s account of his method, rather than a controlled comparison of agencies. Still, it gives a buyer something concrete to inspect: who takes the brief, who joins the call, and what the recruiter understands afterward.
“We spend 60 to 90 minutes on an onboarding call for every new job.”
Kevin Jarvis · Founder & CEO
A market small enough to know
Hire With Jarvis organizes its recruiting around specialist markets. Jarvis Cole concentrates on eCommerce; Jarvis Elliott on SaaS. The group also advertises ERP, cybersecurity, identity and access management, and semiconductor recruitment. The names are an organizing system for selling expertise to employers with particular hiring problems.
The useful detail lives below those categories. Its Microsoft Dynamics practice lists Business Central, Finance & Operations and older products including AX and NAV. Its semiconductor practice includes analog engineers, ASIC designers and wafer-fabrication technicians. Its direct-to-consumer offering runs from growth marketing and customer acquisition to merchandising and eCommerce development. Those are very different conversations to have with a hiring manager.
The company describes customers ranging from startups to Walmart and Apple. Its published candidate stories feature people associated with Gorilla Group, Laika and Rhone. These are company-presented relationships and testimonials. For a prospective customer, their value is as a starting point for asking about relevant assignments and references.
The fee has a timetable
Jarvis offers familiar ways to buy recruiting: contingency hiring, retained hiring, executive search and hourly contractors. Contingency is advertised as no-win, no-fee. Retained work asks for a more committed engagement. Executive search depends on the role. Employers can choose an arrangement suited to a permanent vacancy, a leadership search or a temporary requirement.
Then comes Talent as a Service. Jarvis describes this as pay-as-you-go recruiting with a lower upfront fee, payments spread over time and an extended guarantee period. That changes when the employer pays and how the engagement handles risk. It does not, by itself, establish a lower total bill.
The distinction matters for a growing business balancing several hires. Payment timing belongs in the hiring discussion alongside salary and start date. A buyer should compare the complete fee, payment milestones and guarantee conditions in the proposed agreement. The service name alone cannot tell you whether the economics fit your vacancy.
For an employer, the choice begins with the work itself. A defined project may call for a contractor; a continuing position may call for a permanent hire. A leadership vacancy may justify a more involved search. The sensible comparison is between the proposed service and the hiring problem, with the commercial terms made explicit before the search starts.
The agency has to find customers, too
A frontBrick case study supplies an unusually visible look at Jarvis’s own customer acquisition. The vendor says its campaign ran from November 14, 2024, to January 31, 2025. It used account-based outreach, job signals and personalized messaging to reach hiring decision-makers. The stated challenge was getting attention in a crowded market.
Attention narrows quickly.
The vendor reports $700,000 in qualified pipeline, with 35 opportunities and an average deal value of $20,000. Pipeline represents possible future business. It does not establish collected revenue or successful placements. The practical lesson is in the denominators: 35 positive replies are roughly a quarter of replies, but less than one percent of prospects. Both statements are true.
People, with software in the background
Kevin Jarvis identifies 2018 as the company’s launch year and describes its current operation as work-from-anywhere. In public posts, he emphasizes judging people by results and commitments. That philosophy suits a recruiter selling access to specialist talent across regions. It also requires clear ownership of each search and reliable communication when colleagues work apart.
Technology has a place in this relationship-focused pitch. The company’s privacy policy, effective October 2024, names AI tools used for tasks including job advertisements, communications and back-office processes. It says humans check all AI output before use. The stated boundary is responsibility: software can assist with the work while a person remains accountable for what gets used.
Candidate accounts published by Jarvis give that responsibility a practical shape. Eddie Spradley describes coaching and mentoring during a career move. Devyn Bartell describes résumé help and advice on presenting himself. Preparation is part of the service, extending the recruiter’s work beyond submitting a name.
For candidates, that suggests a useful way to approach the relationship. Be specific about the platform, projects and responsibilities you know, and ask what the employer needs someone to deliver. A recruiter familiar with your market should be able to discuss the substance of the opportunity. The conversation becomes more useful when both sides can explain what a good move would involve.
Steal the questions
The part an employer can copy costs attention before it costs an agency fee. Put the hiring manager in the room. Define what the new person must accomplish. Explain which experience is essential, what can be learned and what would make someone decline the offer. Give the recruiter enough context to explain the opportunity honestly.
This approach depends on access and clarity. A specialist cannot compensate for stakeholders who disagree about the job or never make time to discuss it. Jarvis’s proposition makes most sense when a role requires market knowledge and the employer will help develop the brief. The first useful deliverable is a shared understanding of the work.