Interview with Darwin Shurig & Scott Pantel | Shurig Solutions - Executive Recruiting Firm

Transcription

Scott Pantel  0:00  

Darwin Shurig, CEO and founder of Shurig Solutions. Welcome. Thanks for joining me today.

Darwin Shurig  0:06  

Scott, it's my pleasure. I really appreciate, I really appreciate you having me on.

Scott Pantel  0:11  

It's great to see you. And I'm going to be, we're going to be connected in March in Dana Point. Wanted to spend some time with us some time with you this morning. And just get caught up. The first thing I wanted to ask you about is your background, you have a really interesting background, you come from industry, you worked for some big strategics. And now you're in the executive search in the talent business. How did that happen?

Darwin Shurig  0:41  

I don't know that we have enough time. But it definitely wasn't one of those scenarios where, you know, I thought I would be doing this someday, if you know, 10 years ago, you and I would have known each other and you just said, Hey, I think you're gonna own a recruiting firm or be a recruiter, I probably would hurt myself laughing at you. So there were some situations in the industry. McKesson bought a company I was with. And then after two, two and a half billion dollar business units integrated, they made some changes to those of us that are were acquired. So I had an opportunity to look at some different things at a good friend that introduced me to the MRI network and the opportunity. And after I looked at it, I had some opportunities to, you know, to continue in industry. And I just got really excited about maybe bringing some innovative ideas, and some thoughts to the industry that might change the candidate experience, and maybe tell the story a little bit differently in terms of how you protect a company's value prop and so seven and a half years later, here we are.

Scott Pantel  1:45  

That's awesome. To me. For those that don't know, sharing solutions, get us current, I know you've had a really big year, congratulations on that. But just high level, you know, what are you guys? What are you guys all about? What's what's different about Shurig Solutions?

Darwin Shurig  2:01  

I think that's a, I think it's a really important question. And I think whether it's us as a company, or the innovators in the companies that are coming through LSI, understanding your 'why', and how that ties in your mission statement is vitally important. And so, you know, our focus is to solve the biggest challenges for regulatory Quality Engineering and commercial roles for medical device. And then we also do some work in the pharma industry. What differentiates us is that it's not about finding talent in this day and age, if that's the conversation, I think that's a completely different conversation. It's about identifying the best talent and attracting it efficiently to your value prop. And then additionally, who do you partner with? How do they protect your value prop in the marketplace, companies spend millions and millions of dollars to create an identity to create a value prop in the marketplace. And then sometimes they partner with external firms or multiple firms and they really have no idea how they interact with the talent in the marketplace, how they protect their value, prop and what that looks like, I think that is a huge thing to consider and understand. So what differentiates us is that we utilize some really unique marketing tools and processes that not only protect our partners value prop in the marketplace, but helps attract the right talent efficiently in the process, and we have the data and the analytics to back that. Secondly, because of those processes, how we partner and the upfront work we put into the marketplace, our offer acceptance rate has averaged 93% for seven and a half years. So at the end of the day, making sure that we understand what the client's needs are what they need the person to do in that position, and that that person is going to fit their culture so that we can attract the right talent, mitigate the cost of a missed hire. And that's a positive experience for everybody and not wasting anybody's time. And so I think that's really, hopefully in a nutshell, one of the biggest differentiators about us as well as the fact that we're a part of the ecosystem. We're investing in the ecosystem and supporting the great work that you're doing at LSI and some of the other conferences that we sponsored.

Scott Pantel  4:24  

That's great. I want to come back to that point about your organization investing in the ecosystem. But before we go there. One of the things that I one of the themes that I've seen at at our meetings, we talk a lot about technology, of course we talk a lot about markets, we talk a ton about raising capital, right, we got to raise capital so we can, we can do all these things. And we all we also talk a lot about people in management teams and that human capital, it feels to me like just in the last couple of years, we're talking more about the people than ever. Is that? Is that a real trend? Is it just something that I'm hearing? Or do you see an emphasis on the people,

Darwin Shurig  5:12  

Certainly, as somebody who's been doing this for seven, seven half years, and you talked about our success, we doubled in revenue two out of the last three years. You know, we're scaling, a lot of positive outcomes. I think that I think that certainly the pandemic, obviously, huge disruption, a lot of negatives, at the same time, a lot of positives coming from that disruption, and how to think how to look at things a little bit differently. Whether that's you look at wearables monitoring, you look what's going on with clinical trials, and the opportunity to create efficiencies and the remote aspect. There's a lot of positive coming through that disruption. I think that people are certainly thinking about quality of life, work life balance, what they're willing to do for their career at the potential expense of their family life. I think that that lens, and how people look at the decisions they make is changing. And my gut would be relevant to how people the focus moving back to people. I'm big, big proponent of the book, the talent war, I think the author's did an incredible job in putting that together. But I think in terms of looking at talent, a lot of people say they're open to talent or cross over talent, but then they're not, you know, I'm open to talent, as long as it checks off every single, you know, 11 out of 10 boxes, right? So understanding what you need the person to do in the position. But more importantly, you actually have to attract people, you have to attract your culture. And if you don't understand that, then again, that's a different conversation, but what if somebody comes to your company, especially these companies, incredible ideas and innovation? But then how are they going to scale? What's their plan to do that? Do they have the right leadership? Conceptually, you know, because the guy when somebody asked me about joining a startup, I'm like, You really need to understand their leadership, what their plan of execution is, because you don't want to go join one that's going to get over their skis. Because they don't have a good plan in place. But what somebody if they're going to interview with you, and how the focus is changing, we're certainly trying to change the candidate experience in a positive way for the company we partner with, but they shouldn't really be able to understand from the investment of their time of exploring their company, who they're going to become, through the process. It obviously doesn't hurt that a lot of the areas that we're in, there's not near enough talent, and it's a candidate driven market for sure, right now.

Scott Pantel  7:57  

Yeah, that's, that's great. And it's always fascinating to me, I watched the presentations at the event. And you know, there's a slide on the market and the problem and the opportunity and the fundraising status. And there's usually a slide and sometimes at the beginning and at the end, and sometimes both where it talks about the team. And there's a there's a big emphasis on team and there's often spots that are open. And I know that there's a huge appetite right now for the right people. You see a lot of huge companies that struggle because they just don't have the right team. And that's the that's the gap that you fill in the services that you bring to the table. You mentioned a minute ago, investing in the ecosystem. And first, I want to thank you, because your organization has officially come on board as a sponsor for LSI Dana Point this year for which we were very grateful for. We're looking forward to working with you. But I have to ask you, you know, you've attended every one of our meetings, and now you're stepping up, you're making that investment. Why? Why are you doing that?

Darwin Shurig  8:59  

No, I think that's a great question. So I'm gonna answer that twofold. I had the honor and the privilege to be invited to sort of audition for Pinnacle Society, which is, you know, there's a whole lot of metrics, multiple metrics that you have to be able to meet an excellent success, billings to even be considered and I had the honor of being invited in and to be a part of the Pinnacle Society. And a big part of that process is what do you bring to the table? What are your experiences? And what's your willingness to share? You know, unselfishly your experiences to the group. What do you bring to that that ecosystem? And I think first of all, I mean, what you've done is just extraordinary. And I know you know, my mom got to come to the London one and she was just, I mean, Just how much joy it gave me, how excited my mom was just being around and getting to learn all of the incredible technology, a scenario where you bring the top innovators, investors, consultants and services and people that are heavily invested in ecosystem and bringing value. The intellectual capital is just incredible the opportunity to learn, think maybe a little bit differently, what a great forum. And so initially, it's, Hey, I want to we want to be there, I want to be there, I want to learn through that. I think every single conference or anything you invest your time in the number one priority is, how do you learn? How do you yourself mentally grow from it. Secondly, for us is how do we bring content back to our following that is interesting to them and helps them potentially in terms of where they want to take their career or maybe a challenge that they have. And then thirdly, hopefully making contacts and planting seeds in a way that is not that is done the right way, that you're planting seeds, so that maybe you might be able to bring value some time down the road. And if they need, if they need a solution right now, great. But you do it in a way that you're a part of the ecosystem, you're not trying to push anything on anybody. And so with that thought in mind, and as we've continued to grow as a company, and I love what you're doing, we want to be a part of the ecosystem that gives, and there are people that are part of different industries or ecosystems that are just trying to take. And I think that it doesn't take very long to clearly see who's, who's giving, and who's just taking. And so we certainly want to be a part of the industry that supports innovation that supports opportunity. And I think it's an exciting time where med techs going, the innovation, and the opportunity to bring positive products to patient populations is as exciting, as far as I'm concerned is my adult life. So hopefully that kind of answers that. But we want to be a part of it. And we want to support what you're doing and what the companies are doing in any way that we can.

Scott Pantel  12:31  

I love it. Thank you Darwin. And that's the idea that you want to get back to this great industry we work in, and you're in it for the long term says a lot about you and your organization, your leadership. So we're really excited to be partnered up with you. And hopefully we can do this well into the future.

Darwin Shurig  12:50  

Absolutely. I'm looking forward to that as well, Scott

Scott Pantel  12:53  

Yeah, we've got a big announcement coming up this week, late, maybe next week about where we'll be in Europe, but we'll we'll save that for later. We will be there. It was, it was a pleasure to have your your mom at the event. And actually, you know, speaking to that, like family and friends and just our industry in general. It's really interesting. I had a, I had a call just this morning with a friend, a VC friend. And he was sharing with me an event that he went to, and there was a discussion with an ex Wall Street kind of finance person who then went to work with a major strategic and the question was asked of this Ex Finance person now an operator, you know, what's one of the most surprising things you've learned now that you're on the inside? And his answer was, he was surprised to find out how much our industry really cares about changing people's lives. And that wasn't it wasn't set in a negative way it was it was set in a way like a very, very hopeful, a very positive way. And one of the things I love I love about our meetings and love about organizations like yours is that yes, we're all doing business. Yes, we want to make money, but we also we get to, and we want to do good along the way. And that's, that's really something that gets me up in the morning and I know it does for you as well. So speaking of speaking of people, okay. Any any cool connections you made at the event that were a surprise to you, or any special connections you made outside of your core business that you can you can share with us?

Darwin Shurig  14:43  

There's been so many really cool interactions, just you know, blessings of getting to meet incredible people. Just getting to sit in and the presentations alone and understand what's coming in the innovation and what goes into it, has been great. So there's definitely some some particular people that. So I'll tell you one that, you know, my clinical background is a respiratory therapist. So obviously, ventilation and aspects of respiratory care are, you know, I have a soft spot for that and a curiosity and interest there. So, Clay Nolan, who's the CEO, the founder, the innovator of colabs, medical, I believe is the name of it. But I got the opportunity to meet him two conferences ago and his product. And, you know, he's he's early, early stage, but what a great innovation, his background, you know, as an EMT, and I just really enjoyed his presentation. And then I got the opportunity to meet him. I was like, hey, like, can I see your product? Can I? And he was like, yeah, so I got to go back. And, you know, play with it. And he's showing me and we're probably like, people out the other table like these guys are, like, geeking out over. But what a neat story, and you talked about what you were talking about early, like his daughters, his family, his wife was there. But, you know, I'm not Clay and I, there's no, you know, we're not working with him per se, or anything. But what a cool story and the benefit to them to to those, those patient populations, And the problem that that solves, is exactly what we were talking about earlier about why LSI brings so much value. And to your point, look at his background, my background and anybody that's there, I find a lot of the CEOs, a lot of times the presenters are the, you know, you look at any day from open, he's the innovator, right? That's howthe idea came from he became the CEO. And so I think that most people have somebody in their family that was affected, or they you know, you look at oncology, cancer, right, almost everybody knows somebody that's affected there. And so most people, yeah, to your point, they're trying to build a business, they're trying to invest money, they're trying to do something specifically, but they care about people. And they care about bringing positive products to patient populations. So there's certainly a lot of others that in terms of you know, my dad, we lost him this year with Parkinson's. So some of the really neat products for seizures, telehealth I have a big soft spot for wound care with my background, that anything with Parkinson's and those kinds of things. There's so many amazing people there. So hopefully I don't get in trouble for just pointing out Clay. But that was a really cool experience.

Scott Pantel  17:57  

I think that's great. And, and I agree with you. CoLabs is at a really, really interesting company. And clay as a is indeed a very strong leader out there. I think they have a bright future. So you know, I don't want to put you on the spot here. But I know that I did a little diligence on you. I know you're a big traveler. I think you have a trip coming up. Is there anything in your just kind of your world travels in your visits to other countries around the world that has impacted how you view our business? I know we talk. We talk a lot recently about access to health care and democratization of health care. That's a big theme right now. You're out there. What do you see as a changed your thinking on things?

Darwin Shurig  18:45  

I love, I do love to travel. I, you know, my dad was sort of a wanderer last I think for I don't know if that's the best word but that's kind of what I think about my dad, my dad loved to see the beauty of the world. He liked to experience things. I love to experience other cultures how people live, foods. Just absolutely love. It's we have the opportunity to go to Africa in the fall, and that was because we hit our business goal last year. So that's been a bucket list of mine and dream of mine. So we got to spend almost two weeks in Tanzania on Safari. You know, that experience just absolutely incredible. The spirit of the people in Tanzania, cultural wakeful, and just wonderful people. So that was that was really cool, but specific to your question. You look at med tech the way med techs growing, but within med tech, you have certain micro causes, you know, robotic surgical platforms, wearables, monitoring, artificial intelligence, med techs are six and a half 7% depending on what you read. Those areas are growing 30% Plus. Right, so let's just take robotic surgical platforms. And you and I talked about this earlier, there's, you know, 2628 companies right now trying to develop the platform software for soft tissue. I was at Sage, a surgical conference in 2021. And at that conference, they talked about less than 5% of the people on the planet that had had a surgery had it on a robotic platform. And I thought that that can't be right. Right, you think about the money that's being invested there, the technology, the value that that can bring people relevant to efficiency and outcomes. But to me to the point of answering your question is thinking about countries that don't have the same resources, they don't have the same capital, and, and therefore their people don't have the same access to care. And, in this case, relative to surgical outcomes, that can be the difference between, you know, mortality or being maimed or you know, the outcome is completely different. So when you think about what this format that you brought to the to the table, and what's happening, whether it's telehealth, whether it's with wearables, robotics, the value to humanity, the ability to get access, regardless of where you're from, who you are, right, indiscriminately, to bring value to people, and better access to health care which and more positive clinical outcomes because of the product. I think that I don't know if that answers your question. But I think it certainly should tie in relevant to cultures in the world, people are different based on their experiences. But there's a lot more that brings us together. And that we value than divides us, I believe.

Scott Pantel  22:06  

I couldn't agree with you more, we're I think it's, I believe it's the most exciting time that I've ever been a part of this industry, largely for that reason that you just described, we're finally in a place where we can get access to these technologies and health care to more people around the world, a lot of work to do. But it really, really feels like we're turning a corner. And I think the next several years are going to be really exciting, as well as long as we can place really talented people in the right company. So you got a lot, you got a lot of work work ahead of you as well. And, okay, I'm going to shift gears a little bit here. For the for the first time attendee, somebody that's going to be at their first LSI event. Let's give em some advice. You're an alumni, you're a veteran, I see you at every event. So I can't turn a corner without seeing any networking with someone, I see you in one on one meetings, then I see you sitting in a pen in a session watching a presentation, and I see you at a at a lunch networking with people and breaking bread. And this year, we're gonna see you up on the stage doing a little moderating some sessions for us. So if you're a first time person, there's a lot to think about. What's the right strategy? Is it one on one meetings and sessions? Is it all of the above? Do you wing it? Do you have a strategy? Or do you just go into these things with a blank sheet of paper? Because I sincerely I know I'm kind of writing here, but I sincerely see all over the place. It's like, are there two Darwin's out there? Like, what's your strategy?

Darwin Shurig  23:47  

Could you imagine how bad that would be? For everybody? There was a second one. But um, that's a great question. And I think it's a very important question for somebody new to ask themselves that goes there. I don't know any relationships, that lasts very long, that aren't mutually beneficial. And as I look at, you know, I don't want to be a vendor. I don't want to be transactional. So how I look at things, how I plan things out is very, from a place, hopefully a proactivity and strategy. And so I think that when you look at LSI, really, most conferences is certainly LSI. If you're an innovator, they're presenting, if you're there to invest money, you got a pretty specific agenda, right? You have a specific reason that you're there for and if you're a, you know, if you're in my seat or you're a consultant or you provide services, I think you have to go into it being respectful of what the stakeholders are there for. And from that standpoint, I go into to it absolutely with this with the strategy, I want to know who's speaking, when I want to know what the panel conferences are, I want to get as much ROI from the information and the education of the event as possible to make my conversations more fruitful, more valuable to the people that I interact with number one. Secondly, at this point, we have, you know, may not be a lot to some may be a lot to others, but we have about 14,000 people following us in terms of our social media platform, our focus is to bring value to others relevant educational content, Industry Insights, opportunities, etc. So we want to bring that information back, so that the people that weren't there understand the cool technology that's coming, you know, the opportunities for some of these companies, there's opportunities to invest differently than ever before, you and I were talking about that earlier. Right, that's pretty exciting. To be able to have access from that standpoint. So I think you have to go into it with a strategy. But you have to go into it with a thought process and a feeling of what you bring what you can bring to somebody. And, you know, you don't want to be in somebody's face, you don't want you got to kind of understand where they're coming from. And you're, you're planting seeds. And then I think if you take that approach, and that attitude, opportunities will pop up. And the more you're there, if you're just gonna go one time, just save your money. That's what I would say. But if you believe in what the what the med tech industry is doing, what the platform you put together the opportunity to share thoughts, your experiences, solve problems in general, and you want to learn from that you want to invest in and try to bring value to it, then you're planting seeds. And through the course of time of multiple conferences, you'll get incredible ROI out of it in a multitude of areas.

Scott Pantel  27:04  

That's tremendous. Well, I could go on and on here, but I want to, I want to thank you again, Darwin for giving back to this great industry that we work in. And for your long term commitment to that industry and to the LSI platform. We can't hold these meetings without the support of industry veterans, like yourself, you guys play such an important role. And I want to thank you for being a part of it. Look forward to seeing you. If your mom's up for it, bring her out Dana Point, we'd love to have her. 

Darwin Shurig  27:39  

she asked me. She said, Hey, where are they going to be? Where's it going to be in Europe? Like, and when's the US one I set up? Mom, I'm sure you've got we'll get as soon as we find out where it's going to be or you can go if you want to go Mom, no problem. So you're absolutely welcome. I greatly appreciate your kindness. You have been very willing to give your insights when you and I first connected a couple of years ago. I love what you're doing. Very grateful and excited to be a part of it. And we plan to continue each year upping our investment and our support of what you're doing. So you're very welcome. And thank you in return.

Scott Pantel  28:21  

Thank you Darwin. I'm fortunate I have a good team I got back we'll tie it back to the the original theme here great people right. I got great people here at LSI great customers and support from from industry veterans like yourself, so thank you can't wait to see you and appreciate your time today.

Darwin Shurig  28:40  

Absolutely. Thanks, Scott.