As founder and President of Walden Recruiting (waldenrecruiting.com), Marsh Sutherland leverages over 17 years of full-cycle recruitment expertise to secure top talent for startups and enterprises. He has built a network of 29,000+ LinkedIn connections and maintains a two-week average time-to-fill with an 85% offer acceptance rate, surpassing industry benchmarks. His targeted qualification criteria and automated filtering deliver rapid, high-caliber hires across engineering, operations, marketing, sales, and product roles—fueling sustained growth and competitive advantage for every client.
Could you elaborate on the nature of your business, highlighting its purpose and the ways it benefits people?
I help startups grow by helping them hire the very best technology startup professionals.
What inspired you to start your journey as a coach and entrepreneur? Were there any specific events, challenges, or people that motivated you to take this path?
My MBA was in Operations Management, specifically Business Process Reengineering. I took that knowledge and decided to start my own recruiting agency and keep 100% of the fees for myself instead of working for someone else and only earning 25% or 50% of the fee for the privilege of another company’s name, phone number, email address, and website.
Looking back at the beginning of your career, what were the major challenges you faced when establishing yourself as a leader/coach? How did you overcome those obstacles?
I started my own agency in September 2008 right before the stock market crash which killed recruiting for most agencies. Through my prior business relationships, I was able to staff up a de novo bank, First Commons Bank, and also recruit Java engineers for Pegasystems, who were experiencing a growth spike with client companies wanting to reduce operations costs due to the economic recession.
Would you like to share any remarkable achievement?
I’d rather be humble.
Women are a growing force in the workplaces worldwide, standing shoulder to shoulder with their male counterparts. What are your thoughts about women leadership today?
I think women make the best leaders and managers! In my experience working for both male and female managers, I feel that female managers are more empathetic, driven towards excellence, and smarter than male managers. Women managers also don’t yell and scream at their team members, unlike male managers.
What message/advice would you have for future women leaders and aspiring entrepreneurs?
Don’t be afraid to ask for something! If you want something from someone, you’ll only feel regret for passing up on an opportunity to ask. Opportunities tend to be brief. If the person says “No,” then your life is no worse than before you made the request.
Get in touch:
https://linkedin.com/in/marshsutherland
