Ep 268: The Final Episode! w/ Carolyn Betts

1 - > Hello, and welcome back to the Pavilion Podcast. I'm your host, Brandon 2 - > Barton. You are listening to Is this a good time? Special and sad 3 - > announcement to be making.

This is going to be the last episode of the 4 - > pod. We're gonna be doing kicking off something new in twenty twenty three that'll 5 - > just have a little bit different take to it and so forth. So more 6 - > to come on that, but I just wanted to say thank you for everyone 7 - > who's listened. Done over one hundred and thirty five episodes, and it's just 8 - > been incredible to meet so many different people that are part of Pavilion, so 9 - > many amazing leaders, and to hear from you all as you've encouraged me during 10 - > this journey.

So thanks so much for listening. You are the absolute best 11 - > and this episode, I hope is not going to let you down. It 12 - > is with rock star Carolin Betts. She is the CEO and founder of Bets 13 - > and we talk about building one of the best recruitment companies in the entire US.

14 - > Thank you all. This episode was brought to you by Caribbiner Group. 15 - > They are a team of trusted advisors, certified consultants, and industry leaders who 16 - > make revenue operations easy for clients around the globe through full service fractional rev ops 17 - > consulting. They serve SaaS, financial services, and on profits and higher education 18 - > verticals.

Find out more at caribbiner group dot com. All right, let's 19 - > do this the last and final episode of Is This a Good Time? Episode 20 - > one thirty six. So is it a good time?

All right? Everyone? 21 - > I am here with an incredibly special guest to me, Carolin Batts. 22 - > She is the founder and CEO of BETS.

Everyone everyone kind of knows what 23 - > BETS is, but I will I will pass some mic to you to give 24 - > yourself you know, the background and into Accoulen. So great to have you 25 - > on the pod. Well thanks for having me. Yes, excited to be 26 - > here.

Yeah, Carolin Batts, Founder and CEO of BETS. We are 27 - > recruitment technology company national here in the US. I am based in Austin, 28 - > Texas, originally from the Bay Area, and we focus on building go to 29 - > market team so sales marketing, customer success. Our clients can log into our 30 - > platform, access all the talent, all the data, and you hire as 31 - > many people as they want.

And if you are running a business or an 32 - > executive in a business, and have not seen any of the reports that you 33 - > guys put out on executive comp on recruiting. I mean, you need to 34 - > get yourself signed up because this is essentially where we all come up with these 35 - > benchmarks of what we should be paying an AE, what we should be paying 36 - > a VP of sales. So there's there's my plug for your business. But 37 - > hey, it didn't all start there.

And that's and you know, obviously 38 - > we start at the beginning with the first question, jump right in, you 39 - > know, tell us a little bit about how you got to the point where 40 - > you wanted to start bets. I think this is what thirteen years on the 41 - > ten years, twelve years, yes, yes, thirteen years incredible, So 42 - > so yeah, so tell us the early date. How did you know, 43 - > where did you start, where did you come from, what do you do 44 - > first? And then what was the pa you know, the inspiration for starting 45 - > your own business?

Yeah. Well, when I graduate college, I moved 46 - > back to the Bay. I went to UNC and my first job was actually 47 - > selling yellow page ads in the book so it just mee a little bit. 48 - > And then I fell into recruiting like most people do, and I worked at 49 - > a boutique for about four years.

Absolutely loved it, and then I decided 50 - > I wanted to get into technology sales. So I went to Career Builder and 51 - > I was hired as an enterprise sales rep. I had never sold into the 52 - > enterprise before. I didn't really know what I was getting into.

I remember 53 - > going into my boss's office one day, Nick Bruckner, who is still a 54 - > dear friend and actually a bets Connect client at Lexipole, and I was like, 55 - > what's procurement and he's I mean now, And I was like, oh 56 - > man, there's a whole department in an organization that you know, blocks my 57 - > deal. And he's like pretty much. And so, you know, that 58 - > was O eight, o nine. The market was, you know, a 59 - > little tough then, but you know, I ended up being a top performer 60 - > at Career Builder.

But I didn't love it, right. It kind of 61 - > felt like selling a commodity into large companies. The amount of value that we 62 - > were really adding wasn't the same as when I was at on the Yama, 63 - > which was the boutique that I went to before. So I did some soul 64 - > searching and decided I wanted to start my own company.

And so, funny 65 - > enough, Dress Salesforce was in my patch at career Builder. So I talked 66 - > to Nick. I was like, Hey, I'm going to start my own 67 - > company. But you know, an enterprise sales, most of the deals are 68 - > closed, you know at the end.

Q four is kind of a big 69 - > quarter for HR tech and enterprise sales. So it's like, I'm going to 70 - > close out all my deals. I'm gonna get you these contracts. In the 71 - > meantime, I'm gonna, you know, with my extra time, start my 72 - > company.

So I went to Dreamforce and I went around to every single boot 73 - > in that place, and I asked everyone to what do you do? And 74 - > they told me and then they'd asked, you know, the reciprocal question, 75 - > and I'm like, well, I work at Career Builder now, but I'm 76 - > starting a recruitment company focused on sales talent. And I walked out of there 77 - > with like two hundred business cards and followed up with all of them and I 78 - > was off to the races, and before I knew it, I had too 79 - > much business to handle on my own.

And that was when I started hiring 80 - > people. Wow, that's incredible. So did you raise any money in the 81 - > beginning or were you just boots strapped from the get go? Yeah, No, 82 - > I'm self funded from the beginning and one in twenty eighteen when I made 83 - > the strategic decision to build the connect platform.

I did take on a handful 84 - > of angel investors, but that's about it. And so pretty much from the 85 - > beginning, including all the tech development it, we've been bootstrapped. Love it. 86 - > It's just incredible.

Well, look on this pod, we always talk 87 - > about success being a combination of hard work and luck. The dream Force story 88 - > is clearly one of hustle, right, Like, just you know, I'm 89 - > sure you got a lot of you know, strange faces back and who are 90 - > you why you you know, wasting my time here in those conversations. I 91 - > wonder, you know, where's luck played a role in getting you to where 92 - > you are? Well, I actually think the timing was great when I started 93 - > the company, right like at that dream Force conference, the amount of people 94 - > that were really starting to scale their companies going into twenty ten, which is 95 - > when I really got going.

My last eight career Builder was in December thirty 96 - > first, and then you know, kind of off to the races then. 97 - > So I think the timing of when I started the business was very key, 98 - > and we were really small, and so we were able to you know, 99 - > capitalize on the market. I think that's it. I really do think most 100 - > of our success was due to really hard work, hustle, great hiring amazing 101 - > people, training them, and you know, making it a great place for 102 - > people to work and doing great work for our clients.

I think that that's 103 - > really been our you know, key to our success. Um. But yeah, 104 - > I think the timing was lucky when I started the business at the beginning 105 - > of two thousand and ten. Yeah, I mean to two thousand and ten 106 - > too.

You know, you could argue twenty and twenty was an amazing bull 107 - > run, right, So a lot of businesses growing double triple, you know, 108 - > ten xing, so, especially in the value makes a lot of sense 109 - > and and and for you, you know, give us some give us a 110 - > sense of like a sales or marketing tactic that you've used. Maybe it's more 111 - > in kind of the B to B sales as you're doing with the platform now, 112 - > or or even I'm happy if you wanted to take this as like a 113 - > recruitment sales because guess what, recruitment and sales are very similar, right, 114 - > Like getting people to come to you and to work for you is a sales 115 - > pitch.

Take it whichever way you want. Yeah, well, and you 116 - > mentioned this earlier, um at kind of the beginning of this conversation with the 117 - > content that we put out into the world, right where we put a lot 118 - > of time into, you know, getting all that data in terms of compensation, 119 - > figuring out the trends in the industry, and putting out not just you 120 - > know, fluffy pieces of content, but legit information to help our clients and 121 - > the community build their organizations.

And you know, as you know, it's 122 - > it's cool when I'm in these different groups like Pavilion or GTM or you know, 123 - > whatever it is, and I see our content being shared by other people, 124 - > you know, answering questions with our content, and you know, it's 125 - > it's very valuable. But that's marketing, right. You know. You send 126 - > this to another you know, cro and they're like, oh, if they 127 - > hadn't heard of bets or it's a reminder you know that we're there to help 128 - > them build their team.

Yeah, I mean, I think you know, 129 - > the stuff that you've put out and your organization is put out is like the 130 - > quintessential case study and offer value before asking for a dollar, right, how 131 - > many people have used you know, I'm one of them. We've never had 132 - > an opportunity to work together on this side. I'm sure at some point when 133 - > I need to hire an amazing executive when my company is bigger, UM, 134 - > you know, you'll you'll be one of the places that I come to for 135 - > that.

But yet I've used your your research and now I have ten you 136 - > know, five ten years of impressions of using that. UM just an incredible 137 - > strategy. Well, and another thing that we do is like we're not afraid 138 - > to innovate in the space, right We're always trying new things. And actually 139 - > January fourth, we're launching recruit Coin, So we've created our you know, 140 - > cryptocurrency to incentivize people to you know, first of all, join that's connect, 141 - > refer their friends or people that they know, UM to take interviews to 142 - > you know, move through the process, and it's all going to be tracked 143 - > on the blockchain.

Because I don't know about you, but if I'm going 144 - > to send you like a twenty five dollars Amazon gift card, it's not quite 145 - > as exciting as you know, getting crypto and looking at it in your wallet 146 - > and you know, watching that that grow and really being you know, invested 147 - > in as part of the community, helping us grow the community. So that's 148 - > another kind of cool thing that we're launching early twenty twenty three. Oh, 149 - > that's incredible.

You're hearing it here for breaking news ladies and any that. 150 - > That's awesome. Any key positions you're hiring for, Yeah, you know, 151 - > right now we are hiring a partnerships person. So uh it's now ran mostly 152 - > by myself and our CRORO where the partnerships with the venture capital community.

That's 153 - > been a huge, um, you know strategy for us along with you know 154 - > partners so other recruitment companies that specialize in different things or groups like Pavilion, 155 - > GTM, etc. So somebody to really run with that. That's the main 156 - > position we're hiring for right now, um and going into next year. Love 157 - > It Remote can be anywhere anywhere, Yes, I mean preferably in one of 158 - > those cities where we have you know, more people so like s F New 159 - > York, M Austin, but you know are rare remote first company, so 160 - > they can really be anywhere.

Love it, Love it. And I'm curious 161 - > about this one for you. Give some shout outs with you know who who 162 - > when you know who inspires you when you're you know, scroll on LinkedIn or 163 - > scroll on social media and you see kind of things that that pique your interests. 164 - > Who are you watching in the space that helps to kind of um, 165 - > you know, get you to innovate and so forth.

Yeah, you know, 166 - > there's a lot of really great people out there. Uh. You know 167 - > my buddy Jake Dunlap. I love looking at his content.

Um gosh, 168 - > you know, I know it when I see it, and I think, 169 - > what I really like are the people that are transparent and it's not just laugh 170 - > about marketing their business, but really like, you know, either information about 171 - > what they're struggling with and how they got through it, or you know, 172 - > tactical things of how people can continue to you know, better themselves, better 173 - > their companies. That's the type of stuff that really stands out to me.

174 - > Love it, love it all right. Last, but not least, I 175 - > am obsessed with restaurants. As you know. You gotta give me a spot.

176 - > You could be an Austin, could be separate, you could be anywhere, 177 - > to be honest, But I'm curious, how long have you been in 178 - > Austin Now it's been two and a half years. Yeah you should, I 179 - > mean, yeah, I know, that's two and a half years. During 180 - > the pandemic and all, but you should have some good secret spots down there 181 - > where we eat and when I come down there to visit. Well, okay, 182 - > so it's a it's a secret, but I guess I'm letting the cat 183 - > out of the bag.

There's an amazing place called Coucci Sushi. You're in 184 - > Austin. It's right by my house and it's very very hard to get a 185 - > reservation. But if you walk in, if it's two people, you can 186 - > sit at the sushi bar.

There's sometimes a little weight. They have a 187 - > bar there where you can get a sack, ear or drink or whatever while 188 - > you wait, and then you just sit at a sushi bar. And so 189 - > it's a little bit casual, but the food's amazing and they have an excellent, 190 - > excellent happy hour. So there's deals there and so if you go between 191 - > like four and six, you get a good deal.

You usually get it 192 - > get et seated. I've actually never walked in and been turned away with only 193 - > one other person. Wow, this is you would never think, you know, 194 - > high end Japanese and such a landlocked place like Austin. But I have 195 - > been to the one in Houston or Dallas.

Dallas, I think I've been 196 - > to the one and it is absolutely outstanding. Big fan. All right, 197 - > we're going when I come, when I come down and need to get out 198 - > of this terrible cold of the northeast. Absolutely, Carolin, so great to 199 - > have you on.

I've been such a fan for so long, and like 200 - > you know, if there's anything that I Pavilion can do to help you, 201 - > please let us help. Great to see you. What thanks for having me. 202 - > All Right, that's our show.

It's a wrap. Amazing. Thank 203 - > you so much for the time. Everyone really appreciated going on this journey with 204 - > y'all.

This episode was brought to by Caribbean, a group offer a unique 205 - > revas ops reva ops as service model where they make a long term commitment to 206 - > partnership alongside your team, developing bespokes, strategies and blueprints to ensure successes your 207 - > team expands and faces new challenges. Find out more at carabrenagroup dot com. 208 - > I had so much fun doing this whole series with y'all. I hope you 209 - > did too.

Now get out and crush those numbers.