About the episode
Inflexion Point tells the story of YER, the Amsterdam-based specialist recruitment agency, and how it reinvented its model after the financial crisis and set out to grow across Europe. Host Tim Smallbone is joined by Chief Executive Johan Overgaauw, who joined the business after meeting founder Jaap Kooijan and worked his way up to lead it, and Sander Ruijter, the head of Inflexion's Benelux office who led the minority investment. They reflect on the moments that shaped it: the financial crisis that pushed the business out of permanent recruitment and into a secondment model, the ambitious targets that saw YER reach 2,000 people placed with clients a year ahead of plan, the 2023 Inflexion minority investment that brought M&A expertise on board, and the two German acquisitions that opened its first market beyond the Netherlands. Along the way, they talk about training young engineers in both hard and soft skills, winning over sellers by turning up in person rather than just pitching a partnership, treating cultural differences as an opportunity rather than a threat, and why France is the next step.