Paraform, UK Recruiters & Breaking Into the US Market: Real Talk with Wayne Zhou & Kat Kingshott
In this special on-location episode of RecTalk, recorded at the iconic Hedsor House ahead of the Paraform UK Recruiter Gala, Nitin Sharma and guest co-host Bobby Banerjee sit down with Wayne Zhou and Kat Kingshott to deep-dive into the realities of scaling recruitment across the US, UK, and global markets. Wayne and Kat share the unfiltered story of Paraform — how the company began as a scrappy agency, discovered its true product-market fit through hard lessons, and evolved into a high-growth marketplace connecting elite recruiters with top US tech and healthcare companies. Together, they unpack: * 🚀 The origin story of Paraform and why they pivoted from agency → referral model → today’s high-performance recruiter marketplace. * 🌍 Why UK recruiters are uniquely successful in the US — urgency, maturity, speed, and commercial sharpness. * 📉 The biggest challenges recruiters face when expanding into the US market (BD, legalities, niche specialisms, and client qualification). * 💰 How Paraform helps smaller agencies scale fast by providing vetted roles, support, AM teams, community, and fair marketplace dynamics. * 🧪 What “good” looks like: the behavioural traits and experience Paraform looks for when vetting recruiters. * 🛠️ Why the platform isn’t the “easy way to make money” — and why those who love the game can double revenue by specialising. * 📉 When it doesn’t work — transparency around missteps, early platform issues, and how they course-corrected. * 🧭 Future-proofing recruiting beyond the AI boom: healthcare, consulting, legal, gov-tech and other elastic-demand sectors. This episode is an honest, energetic and hilarious look at the realities of building a recruiter marketplace, the differences between UK/US hiring cultures, and what it really takes to succeed as a specialist external recruiter today. Who This Episode Is For * Recruiters considering expanding into the US tech or healthcare market * UK-based agencies wanting a BD engine without the legwork * Solo recruiters seeking community, support and higher-value roles * Founders exploring marketplace models or recruiter enablement tools * Anyone curious about how Paraform actually works behind the scenes 🔗 Connect with the guests Wayne Zhou: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wayne-y-zhou/ Kat Kingshott: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katkingshott/ Check out Paraform: https://www.paraform.com/ 🔗 Connect with the hosts Nitin Sharma: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nitin-rectools/ Bobby Banerjee: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bobbybanerjee/ Discover recruitment tools and services: https://www.rectools.io/ New episodes of RecTalk, including Founder Diaries and Talking Talent, drop every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Also look out for The Mixed Grill — the official podcast of the Recruitment Curry Club — dropping on a Thursday. https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-recruitment-curry-club/ Listen on another platform: https://rectalk.co.uk/ 🔗 Get in touch with these recommended suppliers Ross Thompson — Infinity Staff Global: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rossnthompson/ Matt Fox — Exitus Advisory: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matt-fox-50b10311/ SourceFlow: https://www.linkedin.com/company/sourceflow/ Robert Woodford — The Marketing Junction: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marketing4recs/ Carl Jones — Konquest: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carl-jones-66093722/
