Here's the story how a savvy founder, a strategic influencer, and an astute investor transformed a simple business model into a $50M+ powerhouse.

MEET MARSHALL HAAS

A.K.A "THE FOUNDER"

The story starts with Marshall Haas. 

At 22-years-old, he founded a startup studio called Need/Want that spun out DTC ecommerce brands. Alongside co-founder Jon Wheatley, they launched everything from “Smart Bedding” (bed sheets that clicked together), pool floaties, notebooks, and Emoji Masks that landed them $51,365 revenue in 60 days and later sold that business.

Some took off, most failed. It turned out the winner was right under their nose all along - Jon’s iPhone slim case brand Peel. Remember that viral “touch key” during the pandemic? That was Marshall. Their studio acquired the brand, making them co-owners and leveraged Need/Wants resources to grow it into the “multi-million dollar brand” it became. 

Part of the brand's success was the studio’s ability to hire cheap overseas talent to maintain strong margins. 

Fast forward to 2019, Marshall’s doing the digital nomad thing with his wife. He drops by the Philippines to finally meet his virtual team face-to-face, including Joemer Embernate.

They were hanging out as friends and Joemer threw out an idea for more efficient outsourcing.

They'd find someone, ramp up their skills, then let clients directly manage them, doubling the hours billed without the fuss of constant oversight.

There was something in this. And that’s where the genesis of the idea began. 

They iterated and made the whole process simpler for businesses (and themselves). 

Back home, a buddy of Marshall's needed a customer support hire overseas. They tried it out—hiring one person as a test. It worked. The costs, the headhunting process, it all just clicked.

SUPPORT SHEPHERD WAS BORN

Shepherd is a headhunter agency focused on overseas talent that officially launched in 2020.

They take care of the heavy lifting in filtering and presenting a handful of top candidates. Customers just pay a one-off finders fee instead of an ongoing ~35% commission on salary.

The bulk of the roles they recruit for have salaries ranging from $800-$1500/mo, meaning Shepherd generates ~$3-$6k per placement.

They primarily recruit for US-based SMBs and focus on roles like social media marketing, bookkeeping, and operations roles.

The launch was low key. Just a tweet and some emails to buddies who might dig it. But the timing was perfect. Remote work was exploding, and finding good help was tough.

Support Shepherd became the solution, growing wildly within its first months.

But it wasn’t all smooth sailing. Marshall faced criticism for making offshore talent more accessible and “taking jobs away” from local US citizens.

He also encountered an issue with the business model that was draining resources. By not charging a finders fee until the end of the process, there were a lot of ‘tire kickers’ that took advantage of the free headhunting and ultimately didn’t pull the trigger and hire, leaving Marshall empty handed.

So Shepherd implemented a refundable $500 deposit that weeded out the ‘tire kickers’ and qualified the serious employers. 

Then to avoid unpaid invoices, they automated it all via the contract signing process. They essentially became a free trial SaaS product that requires a credit card. The moment a hire was signed off, the finders fee was paid out. 

These were two golden moments of genius that really made Shepherd work smoothly and allowed them to operate as leanly and as profitably as possible. 

It became a booming business that shook up how we thought about recruiting across borders.

The business was really starting to heat up. 

Now it was time to add fuel to the fire. 

ENTER NICK HUBER

A.K.A "THE INFLUENCER"