Why do most recruitment agencies collapse during recessions, while a handful keep growing? Gerard Koolen discovered the answer after watching his business expand through three major crises. And it wasn’t about working harder. It was about building the business differently.
Gerard is the founder of Lugera, a recruitment agency with 11 offices, over 500 employees, and €243 million in annual revenue. His operations span Eastern Europe, a region that’s weathered the 2008 financial crisis, COVID-19, and the war in Ukraine. Each crisis brought growth, not decline.
Gerard built what he calls an “all-seasons service portfolio.” Instead of relying on one revenue stream, he developed eight. When permanent staffing dried up during downturns, outplacement revenue surged. When clients froze hiring, talent monetization kicked in. One income stream compensated for another.
But managing eight revenue streams manually nearly broke the business. Gerard invested 10 years and €2.2 million in building technology that could automate what 30 people were doing by hand. Today, one part-time employee handles what once required an entire team.
Gerard also created the Recruitment Revenue Platform, the technology system behind Lugera’s growth. In this episode, he breaks down all eight revenue streams, explains how to monetize the 99% of candidates sitting unused in your database, and why your current ATS is limiting your growth.
Episode Outline and Highlights
- [3:30] Why Gerard’s agency grew 20% during the 2008 recession while competitors collapsed
- [5:53] The “all seasons service portfolio” that enabled growth through three major crises
- [8:01] Why most recruitment agencies only monetize 0.2% of their candidate database
- [11:35] Gerard’s 10-year journey to build technology nobody thought was possible
- [14:34] The real cost: €2.2 million and 10 years versus the original €400K estimate
- [16:35] How Ukraine became market leader in permanent staffing within two years
- [19:42] Why your ATS is restricting your growth to one revenue stream
- [27:02] Doubling placements per recruiter with minimal extra work
- [28:38] How automation replaced 30 full-time staff with one part-timer
- [31:33] The €1 million outplacement stream that offset a permanent staffing collapse
- [36:13] Why better applicant tracking doesn’t matter anymore
- [43:38] White label job portals: two passive income streams from one platform
- [45:25] The automated sequence that converts job ads into leads four weeks later
- [51:34] Why a student working two hours daily outsold an entire sales team in month one
The All Seasons Service Portfolio
Gerard didn’t set out to build eight revenue streams. He backed into the strategy after noticing a pattern.
Every crisis made Lugera stronger.
2008 financial collapse? 20% revenue increase.
COVID lockdowns? €130 million to €190 million.
Ukraine war? Another 30% growth.
“I looked at our revenue and why we are growing. If you take all the crises in 2008, 2012, COVID, I saw a trend that whenever there was a crisis, we made a big step forward.”
The reason became clear. Lugera had accidentally built what Gerard calls an all seasons service portfolio.
When permanent staffing revenue dropped during one crisis, outplacement surged. When hiring freezes hit, talent monetization and contractor revenue kept flowing. One stream compensated for another.
“We don’t rely on only one revenue stream, but on many more. Clients are buying outplacement. They are buying contracting. Why would you not embrace all those services?”
Here’s the problem most agencies face. Their ATS only supports one revenue stream.
“If your ATS doesn’t support more revenue lines, you are basically tight and restricting yourself to further growth and profit. You need tech which provides you more revenue streams.”
Gerard built eight:
- Permanent staffing
- Temporary staffing and contractors
- CV database monetization
- Talent scan (placing rejected shortlist candidates)
- Outplacement
- RPO (recruitment process outsourcing)
- Job seeker subscriptions
- Premium corporate subscriptions
Your existing clients are already buying these services. Just not from you. They’re used to your invoices. They know your bank details. Selling additional services to current clients is easier than finding new ones.
The bottleneck? Technology. Without systems that support multiple revenue streams, you’re capping your own growth.
Monetizing the 99% You’re Not Placing
Gerard was frustrated.
Lugera had invested hundreds of thousands of euros building a database of 1 million candidates. But they were only placing 0.2% of them.
“All those other 99%, that is a big investment. I thought there must be a way to monetize those candidates because that is where our capital is.”
Ten years ago, Gerard went to Silicon Valley looking for someone to build the solution. Nobody wanted it.
“They said if it’s ready, come to us. But the technology you need doesn’t exist today.”
The problem went far beyond parsing CVs. It was matching a Ukrainian CV with a Spanish vacancy with no language barriers. Instantly. From millions of records. In under a second.
Gerard built it anyway. Took 10 years and €2.2 million instead of the projected two years and €400,000.
His partners wanted him to stop. “You’re wasting money. We don’t want to contribute to it.”
Gerard kept going. Took the costs personally and kept investing.
The result? An AI matching system that scans all job postings across entire countries, matches them with every candidate in the database, and automatically reaches out to both candidates and companies.
“Every candidate is being matched all the time with new vacancies which are relevant. Every vacancy is matched all the time with the relevant candidates.”
Lugera used to have 30 people in Romania doing this manually. They could cover maybe 10% of the market.
Now? One part-timer handles 100% through automation.
The impact? Recruiters who were making two placements per month started making four. Same desk. Same clients. Double the output.
Your candidate database is sitting capital most agencies never unlock. The system Gerard built unlocked that value without adding headcount.
Outplacement: The Counter-Cyclical Revenue Stream
Most recruiters think downturns mean disaster. Gerard sees opportunity.
“In one of our markets, when there was a crisis, all the permanent staffing revenue went down. We could compensate it with outplacement. We compensated it with an extra revenue of €1 million in one year.”
Outplacement is simple. Companies pay you to help employees they’re letting go find new jobs. You provide interview training, CV feedback, and job matching.
When Gerard’s team placed 2,400 people with Nokia years ago, smartphones arrived. Nokia asked Lugera to outplace those same 2,400 people.
The beauty of outplacement? It’s counter-cyclical. When permanent staffing collapses, layoffs increase. Companies still want to support outgoing employees. Your existing client relationships remain valuable even when they’re not hiring.
The Recruitment Revenue Platform makes outplacement instant. Upload a CV and see every relevant job across multiple countries ranked in seconds.
Gerard shared an example. He was helping Valentine find a head of supply chain role in Denmark, Romania, or Slovakia. Uploaded the CV. All relevant jobs appeared instantly. Valentine applied with one button. Interview within a week.
Compare that to the old way. Outplacement firms scroll endlessly through LinkedIn and job boards looking for matches. The technology does it in under a second.
Gerard’s point is simple: build client relationships that work in good times and bad. Outplacement makes that possible.
