About Catalyst
Catalyst Recruiter was built by people who have seen the agency model from both sides: the corporate side that teaches scale, and the founder side that creates autonomy.
A legacy of autonomy
At Catalyst Recruiter, we do not just support independent recruiters. We champion a movement. Talented professionals have been asked to split hard-earned fees and conform to someone else's brand for too long.
Our mission is rooted in a simple idea: recruiters deserve to own their success completely: their clients, their brand, and their future.
Who we are
Our combined expertise lets us provide every service independent recruiters require at a high level.
Zack Cress is an entrepreneurial recruiter and founder of WH Talent Solutions, where he built an independent executive recruiting firm focused on architecture and engineering. Before launching his own venture, Zack spent 14+ years at a large agency in leadership roles including Director of Sales Operations and Director of Market Operations. That mix of corporate scale and independent ownership shapes the Catalyst Recruiter model.
Kenny Kline is a serial entrepreneur and digital growth operator with a track record of building, scaling, and exiting content and technology businesses. As Co-Founder and President of BarBend, and through earlier ventures like JAKK Media, Kenny built companies around audience, systems, SEO, and repeatable growth. At Catalyst Recruiter, he brings the launch, brand, technology, and operating spine.
Support
Catalyst is not an agency. It is your launchpad. Traditional firms take fee splits and impose someone else's brand. Catalyst gives you the legal, technology, and operational infrastructure to run your own independent firm.
We handle the back-end burdens: entity formation, contracts, payroll, ATS and CRM setup, website support, compliance, and operating playbooks. You get a business framework so you can focus on placing talent.
We can move a lean launch in weeks, and a more fully branded firm on a longer custom timeline depending on website, logo, job board, and operating needs.
Yes. While you own your firm independently, the Catalyst network can support partnerships, shared referrals, and resource pooling on your own terms.
Catalyst playbooks simplify the early operating decisions, from setting rates to structuring the first workflow. You do not need to become an operations expert before you start.
Ready to talk through the move?