In 2020, Matthieu "Matt" Beaurain sold 55% of his search firm. This summer, he bought it all back. Lincoln is 100% independently owned again, and he broke the news on this episode.
🚀 Firm Leaders Summit, November 16 to 18. Three days built for recruiting firm owners and leaders: hiring and training recruiters, growth, BD, and becoming the rainmaker for your firm.
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Matt has led Lincoln for 26 years, taking over the firm when it was four people and growing it to roughly 230 people across more than 10 countries and four brands, with about €50M in annual revenue, as he tells it. His model: every consultant is a talent agent. Lincoln follows people, not companies, and the business follows the talent.
He explains Talent Lifetime Value, the metric Lincoln uses to measure each consultant's portfolio of talent over five years, the way a SaaS company measures customer lifetime value. Build it well and you stop starting every month from zero.
Matt also shares how he moved his family to Shanghai and built trust in China for six years without speaking Mandarin, why one rebrand after an acquisition probably destroyed value, why he brought in an outside CEO so he could keep recruiting, how Lincoln holds 25 to 28% fees on a fully retained model, and why the US may finally be on the map.
Chapters:
0:00 Firm Leaders Summit and intro
3:14 Selling the majority and still recruiting at 55
3:39 How big Lincoln has grown
5:53 From auditor to Robert Half, part-time
8:55 Moving the family to China
10:44 Building trust without speaking Mandarin
12:55 Bringing in an outside CEO
15:55 First expansion: Belgium, right before 2008
18:31 The Middle East and Cooper Fitch
20:39 Why not the United States
22:13 Every consultant is a talent agent
26:10 Follow the people, not the companies
28:40 Playing the long game
31:06 Selling 55% and buying it back
32:34 Talent Lifetime Value explained
36:29 Lincoln's tech stack and in-house ATS
38:17 Owning 100% of the firm again
40:42 Why Lincoln keeps acquired brands
43:54 Retained fees vs contingency
46:05 What takes a recruiter from average to elite
48:16 How he still runs a desk
49:47 The question nobody asks him
51:02 How to connect with Matt
Connect with Matthieu Beaurain:
🔗 LinkedIn: [GUEST LINKEDIN URL]
🌐 Lincoln: https://lincoln-group.com
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