Something special happened on July 4th, 2021, Herd Freed Hartz turned 20

My partners and I always knew we were going to form HFH, we were just waiting for the stars to align.  Well, in 2001 the stars aligned but they were all in the wrong column.  The dot.com bubble had just burst and Tech Recruiting was the industry we knew. Kevin Hartz and I were both recruiting in-house for RealNetworks, Paul Freed’s company focused on the tech industry, Heidrick & Struggles had just scuttled their Seattle office, my wife was 7 months pregnant with our first child and Kevin’s wife was 5 months pregnant with twins.  It certainly did not seem like a good idea to form a new company. 

We had read that expanding a business in a retracting economy could provide great gains, but we had never lived it, all theory.  Although our Business Plan had been in place for a few years it did not include starting under those circumstances.  Starting a new business is anxiety producing under the best of times, and our plan read more like, make millions in the dot.com craze and then do what we love with a nice cushion to begin.  All three of us were significantly affected by the economy and were at a crossroads of career planning.  A decision needed to be made and by the third beer, we were in…all in.  I just had to tell my wife first and if she didn’t kill me, Herd Freed Hartz would launch. 

I had the joy of telling my 7-months-pregnant wife: I was leaving RealNetworks, had no idea who would hire us or when any revenues would come in, the sector we knew didn’t need us, our biggest competitor had just folded their Seattle office and (in a whisper, looking at my feet) we found a houseboat on Lake Union that would be the perfect, cool locale to set up our first office.  Needless to say, her jaw dropped further with each choice nugget I presented, and I honestly thought she was going to punch me.  After a few days of crying, yelling and a million questions, our spouses did something amazing, they said, “we believe in you” and gave us their full support.  This just got real.

The odds are against every new business and for me having a pregnant wife, failure was not an option.  All of us needed laser focus; our families depended on us.  Burning the ships in the harbor, gave us that focus.  We had our lawyers draw up the papers on July 4th, 2001 for our “born on date.”  We really wanted the Independence Day symbolism of the endeavor we were about to take. 

I am so proud of the journey and the life lessons that have come with it.  We survived the 2001 dot.com bust, the 2008-9 housing crash and 2020-21 Covid.  This firm is battle tested and anything feels possible going forward.  There are so many people that have played such an important role in our success.  I would be remiss not to thank the following:  my two co-founders Paul Freed and Kevin Hartz (20 years and no major disagreements, one big brain mentality), our amazing and supportive wives Robin Herd, Rachel Freed and Darcy Hartz, our incredible all-star team Fred Pabst, Scott Rabinowitz, Chris Blais, Karen Bertiger, Ryan Biancofiori, Edith Rothenberg, Liliane Lendvai and Grace Medina, Eric Piltz (the houseboat owner) who believed in us enough to defer the first 6 months’ rent to help us get established, the lady from AT&T who stayed on the phone with me for an hour to get a cool phone number 206-525-9700, to the punk band in LA who wouldn’t give up HFH.com so we decided to use our last names, not for vanity but to hold us to a higher level every day.  We’d also like to thank Dr. Jenny Mather (ex-Genentech super scientist) who was the CEO of a red-hot SF biotech company who was our first client and to all of the 300+ clients who have hired us over the years.  Herd Freed Hartz never set out to be the biggest executive search firm, just the best, and “Finding Greatness” is exactly what we have strived to do for the last 20 years.  It’s been a true joy helping to build our beloved PNW one executive leader at a time. 

Thnx

-jim herd