Van Kaizen establishes a revolutionary recruitment model that provides both unmatched flexibility and commission opportunities for high-performing professionals across the world.
— Why Top Recruiters Are Quitting Big Agencies
This is the story of how a collective of independent headhunters tripled their personal earnings and built a global network across six continents, creating the largest recruitment firm in its technology niche—iGaming—within just five years.
As more and more top-billers tap-out of the corporate recruitment model, it now has its sights set on the world’s technology, financial, and professional services markets.
The problem with traditional recruitment models
Headhunting has always been a high-effort, high-reward profession: an emotional rollercoaster of rejections and dry spells, punctuated by big wins and eye-watering placement fees. Yet most recruiters never fully taste the upside. Gross profit margins for high-performing recruitment agencies run up to 50%, meaning that as much as half the value generated by a recruiter’s work goes straight into the agency’s pocket even after overheads.
For high performers, this is not just a financial frustration. Large agencies often come with layers of oversight, rigid KPIs, and a culture that measures input (calls made, emails sent) as much as output (placements closed). That model may have made sense in the pre-digital era, but in a world of AI-empowered applicant tracking systems, video interviews, and global networking platforms, great recruiters can deliver results without someone breathing down their neck.
And let’s be honest: the best headhunters tend to be creative, socially agile, independent thinkers—the sort of people least likely to thrive under corporate micromanagement. For them, agency life can quickly become a grind.
Going solo: freedom, with a catch
The obvious alternative is to strike out alone. Plenty of recruiters have set up as independents to escape the corporate ladder. But going solo brings its own obstacles:
- Up-front costs for software, licences, and insurance.
- Limited brand recognition, making it harder to win new clients.
- Endless administrative burdens—chasing invoices, managing compliance, wrangling contracts.
- A professional loneliness that can wear down even the most self-sufficient operator.
As a result, many solo recruiters find themselves working harder than ever, only to plateau at modest revenues.
How Van Kaizen changed the game
Van Kaizen was founded to break this cycle. Its model is simple but radical: independent recruiters operate under a single global brand, keeping 75% of every invoice they raise. The remaining 25% covers a full suite of support services—marketing, IT, compliance, legal, finance, and bespoke recruitment software—so recruiters can focus purely on what they do best: building relationships and closing placements.
Unlike many “agency-in-a-box” schemes, there are no startup or recurring fees, equity grabs, or strings attached. Recruiters join as genuine independents, without start-up costs, but with the credibility of a brand that is already known in boardrooms across Europe, North America, Asia, and beyond.
More than just higher commissions
The high commission is eye-catching—if you’re a recruiter getting more than 30% you’re doing well—but it is not the only draw. Van Kaizen has deliberately built an ecosystem of collaboration:
- Recruiters share candidates they cannot place themselves, earning passive income when those candidates land elsewhere in the network.
- Clients introduced by one recruiter can be serviced by others with local expertise, creating shared revenue streams.
- A bespoke applicant tracking system, designed in-house, replaces the clunky spreadsheets that solo recruiters often rely on.
- Perhaps most importantly, the network removes the isolation of solo practice, replacing it with a peer group of like-minded professionals spread across 20 countries and six continents.
Results at scale
The results speak for themselves. Since its launch in 2019, Van Kaizen has grown into the largest recruiter in the iGaming sector by geographic footprint, with several hundred active clients and tens of millions billed.
Retention tells an equally powerful story: more than 85% of billers have stayed with the platform long-term, a figure almost unheard of in the recruitment industry, where churn is typically high.
Beware the alternatives
Not all “independent recruiter platforms” are created equal. Many competitors lure recruiters with promises of autonomy, only to claw back earnings through steep overhead charges, restrictive contracts, or equity stakes in the recruiter’s own book of business. Exiting those arrangements can be as painful as leaving a bad job.
Van Kaizen’s success rests on the opposite principle: people stay because they want to, not because they have to.
Stories that matter
The numbers are impressive, but the human stories carry more weight. Recruiters who once languished in corporate environments now report a new lease on life. Some have tripled their incomes; others have used their earnings to buy property outright. Parents in the network speak of doubling their household income while still being present for school runs and family dinners. For many, the model has provided not just financial independence, but personal freedom.
Is it for you?
Van Kaizen is not a shortcut to success. To thrive, recruiters need to be self-motivated, commercially minded, and able to bring in roles and clients—an existing client base is a strong advantage. But for high performers used to watching half their fees siphoned off by corporate overhead, the upside is dramatic.
In short: if you can already beat agency averages, Van Kaizen offers a way to double or triple your take-home income while gaining the support, credibility, and camaraderie of a global network.
About Van Kaizen
The global technology-driven recruitment organization Van Kaizen provides independent recruiters with complete career freedom to build their professional paths according to their personal objectives. The company operates in 15 countries which span six continents and works with more than 400 clients worldwide. Through its unique commission system recruiters at the company can receive up to 75% of the invoice value for each placement, which creates a performance-based reward structure that matches compensation to individual contributions. The progressive recruitment methods at Van Kaizen establish new benchmarks for the industry by enabling its workforce to reach substantial career and monetary achievements.
Media Contact
Cosmo Currey
Head of Talent Acquisition, Van Kaizen
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.vankaizen.com
LinkedIn: Van Kaizen on LinkedIn
Join Us: Van Kaizen Join Us
Contact Info:
Name: Cosmo Currey
Email: Send Email
Organization: Van Kaizen
Website: http://www.vankaizen.com
Release ID: 89168884
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