Behind the Americas’ #66th Fastest Growing Company: An Interview With Jobsity CEO Andres Garzon

Andres Garzon: What we can say is that we’re doing things right, because no matter how we measure this, it means that we’re choosing the right people, we’ve done the right actions that led us to this great achievement.

Opportunities and luck always come and go. A good company is one that’s prepared for the opportunity. So the job of management is always to be prepared for the opportunity, so when it comes you take it. You embrace it. Because if you’re not prepared, no matter how clearly you see the opportunity, you will not be able to take it.

So this achievement shows that we choose the right people, choose the right team, and we were ready to take the opportunity. That's why I feel very happy and excited about continuing to do things similarly to the ways that we did in the past.

AG: Being prepared is recognizing “What are the processes that have the most impact in the company?”

80% of companies succeed because of their sales effort. So you can have a good product, but if you don't have a good sales effort, it's not gonna be that successful. So when I heard that statistic, I said, “We need to become a sales company and start investing in sales processes, in sales methodologies, in the sales team.” And that's exactly what we do. We prepare ourselves in marketing, sales, in all the aspects that will position us to make the sale. That's one of the aspects that had a lot of impact.

But at the same time, we realize that we are a type of marketplace which has two ends: we have to sell to the client and we have to hire people. For hiring, we also created a team and a process of being the best at hiring the best possible people. And that is our secret sauce. That's the product. That's how we have become what we’ve become. So those two things, being able to sell well and being able to recruit the best people, led to this success.

AG: We created a passion for hiring and we created a passion for selling. If we do these two things right, we can get into different businesses that require these two ingredients, and that’s exactly what we want to do.

We've been able to develop software and processes to hire great people, and a great sales team, and to get great clients, and it’s all based on our company values—and also our “why.” Why are we here? Because we like to change people’s lives. Our clients’ lives, our employees’ lives. And if we are able to do that we can affect different industries, not only IT.

AG: We can definitely think bigger. We have to believe that we can be a $300, $400 million dollar company. That’s something that not only requires action, but mentality as well. We all have to believe it, believe in the dream. And once we believe it, that's the first step. First believe, then do it.

AG: We do care about people. I think that’s a huge difference. And anyone can say “we care about people,” but not everyone can prove it, with their own employees. We talk with our people; they’re happy here.

The feeling of being a small shop, the feeling of having access to the leadership—these are things that people have told me. We’re not that small, but we still work as a small company.

That’s the difference. We have access to leadership that no one else does. And that gives us an advantage. I don't know how long we can keep that going, you know, if we grow to 3000 employees, 4000 employees, every time the structure grows differently. But in general, that feeling is part of the culture and that feeling is part of what we have built. Everyone can talk to me and I will always respond.