What can recruiters learn from a tech founder about building better BD?

In this episode of The 1% Better Recruitment Podcast, I'm joined by Cam Briggs, co-founder of Venti AI and former recruiter turned tech sales leader and entrepreneur.

Cam started his career in recruitment before moving into tech sales and eventually co-founding Venti AI, a business built around solving one of the biggest problems he kept hearing from recruitment businesses: BD.

We discuss the lessons Cam has learned from recruitment, tech sales, building a startup and raising almost £900k, and how many of those lessons apply directly to recruitment BD.

Topics Discussed:

✅ Why recruiters become too focused on short-term BD wins
✅ The difference between chasing immediate jobs and building long-term relationships
✅ What recruitment BD can learn from tech sales and fundraising
✅ Why you should build relationships before you need them
✅ The importance of customer validation before building a product
✅ What Cam learned from getting his first startup idea wrong
✅ Why being specific and niche makes your sales message stronger
✅ How to qualify customers out rather than simply qualifying them in
✅ Why introverts can actually have an advantage in sales
✅ How Cam went from struggling with cold calling to becoming comfortable with outbound
✅ The importance of understanding the “why now?” behind a sales conversation
✅ How customer feedback can completely change a product
✅ The lessons Cam learned from raising almost £900k
✅ The “Good” mindset and the importance of extreme ownership
✅ What recruiters can learn from tech sales and startup founders

⏱️ Timestamps:

00:00 – Introduction & Cam’s Journey From Recruitment to Tech Sales
02:00 – Cam’s Biggest Lesson From His First Startup: Customer Validation
04:01 – How Customer Feedback Changed Venti AI
06:07 – Why Recruiters Don’t Want to Sit Around Watching Training Videos
07:45 – The Importance of User Education
09:48 – What Fundraising Taught Cam About Recruitment BD
11:03 – Finding the Problem That Actually Needs Solving
19:02 – Why Recruiters Are Too Short-Term Focused
21:00 – The Recruitment BD Pendulum: Delivery vs BD
25:00 – Building Relationships Before You Need Them
30:00 – Why Recruiters Need to Think Like Salespeople
36:36 – Adding Context to Your BD Conversations
37:36 – Becoming the Expert in Your Market
40:00 – Why You Need to Back Yourself
45:00 – Cam’s Experience as an Introvert in Sales
50:00 – How Cam Learned to Love Cold Calling
52:00 – Structure, Call Blocks & Consistency in BD
54:56 – Why Recruiters Don’t Follow Up Enough
59:00 – The “Good” Mindset & Extreme Ownership
01:04:33 – Why You Need to Qualify Customers Out
01:06:44 – Why Outbound Lets You Choose Who You Work With
01:10:00 – What Recruitment Can Learn From Tech Sales
01:12:54 – Where to Find Cam & Venti AI
01:13:29 – Closing Thoughts

🐋 Podcast Sponsor – SourceWhale

This episode is sponsored by SourceWhale, the recruitment productivity platform I personally use and recommend to recruiters and founders.

SourceWhale helps recruiters save time across outreach, sourcing, data enrichment, multi-step email and LinkedIn sequences, inbox management and call notes, giving recruiters more time to focus on the human side of recruitment.

👉 Book a SourceWhale demo here:SourceWhale Demo

Mention The 1% Better Recruitment Podcast or my name, Charles Kyriakou, when you book.

Connect with Cam:

💻 LinkedIn: Cam Briggs on LinkedIn

🌐 Website: Venti AI

Connect with Me:

💻 LinkedIn: Charles Kyriakou on LinkedIn

📲 TikTok: Charles Kyriakou on TikTok

🌐 Podcast Website: The 1% Better Recruitment Podcast

🌐 Training Website: Inf1nite Learning