Meet Russell Glass: Indiana Russell & The Temple of Zoom!

Posted on December 27, 2006
Filed Under Interviews, Sourcing Technologies | 3 Comments

by Dave Mendoza, Master Cyberseluth & Partner, JobMachine, Inc.
VISIT Free Demo: http://www.zoominfo.com/ctr.asp?c=741
Russell Glass
Position: Vice President, Products and Marketing, Zoom Information Inc.
Education: Duke University BSEE, Mechanical Engineering, Economics

For years humankind has been searching for the holy grail technology tool to identify passive talent. Protected by forces beyond imagination, it is desired above all treasures throughout global talent organizations, …

Pontificators point to volumes of demographic data as if to expect the future talent shortage to level mountains and lay waste to GDP, – none of it something to be taken lightly ….and yet, ZoomInfo’s tools shine bright light throughout the talent equation “….In-depth people and company search by industry, annual revenue, number of employees, geographic region and company ranking .. or Email addresses and phone numbers. Not to mention, Networking opportunities, an integrated email tool for recruiters and the ability to Build a list of competitors with effortless data management.” I recently returned from an excursion to a secret map room and I saw Russell Glass there, donning a Herbert Johnson Fedora. He grinned and motioned to some fresh pineapple he was slicing that had just been won playing poker for kids. “ZoomInfo’s JobCast and contact summary export capabilities are pretty sweet … like this here pineapple. Want some?”

An “A” Player, A Capuchin Who Has His Back & A Fedora

My wife, Heidi is jealous of Russell Glass. She became agitated when I told her I was interviewing Russell because, you see, Russell has traveled the world, like my wife (who happens to be a pure bred Suomi). Alas, in her travels, she was taught sign language by a chimpanzee, but the blessed life of the entrepreneur affords Russell the label “Travelin Man” with opportunities to introduce himself to say … a Capuchin monkey. Heidi and I love the Capuchins. If I had one I would have it taste test my wife’s cooking much like the one who gave its life eating dates meant for our hero (my hero,) Indiana Jones. She’s a great cook, but … you never know. That’s why I need a capuchin monkey. I digress.

In one sentence, I can tell you that Russell is all about watching a magnificent sunset, be it in Israel, Thailand, Laos, Uruguay, Argentina, Bolivia, Nicaragua, or Honduras – wearing a Fedora, listening to great jazz pianist, Dave Brubeck, roaming the park running after his German Shepard. “Phoenix” or admiring the coastline of Cape Cod with his lovely Fiancée, Robin at his side. He is a man who takes a deep sigh of satisfaction that he is living life to its fullest and is comfortable about his future, because what ZoomInfo is producing is an intricate display of recruiting 2.0.

Do we have a deal?

Russell shares a common attribute of every person profiled to date at “Six Degrees,” – he is the consummate giver without consideration and he is six degrees of admiration by those who know him and know of him. Say his name in front of Jason Davis, Founder of Recruiting.com and he smiles fondly, recognizing Russell as one of the first to support his efforts when he was developing the recruitment industry’s first and most influential recruitment Blogging portal. Jason believes so fervently in the ZoomInfo product itself, that he made a public proposal on Recruiting.com that Russell provide ZoomInfo to a colleague for three months and at the end of the three months, he buys a full year on it and then if his colleague didn’t make a placements at all in the first year, Jason vowed to reimburse him the full amount he paid to zoom.

Russell is a self-described, “technology entrepreneur,” “semi-prolific Blogger” – but he is widely known as Vice President of Products and Marketing at Zoom Information Inc. The recruitment industry at-large would likewise recognize him as an ERE Foundation philanthropist, an industry public speaker, and published author of multiple articles. Ask his mom and dad, and you’ll learn that this titan of recruitment technology is actually a Duke University graduate in mechanical engineering and economics. If you had asked Jason Davis, Gerry Crispin, David Manaster, Ryan Money, Sean Rehder, Jason Goldberg, Michael Kalchman, Brian Kennedy about this self-described poker enthusiast, we know him as the “Unbreakable” Russell Glass. The man who signifies the meaning of the word “donation” when we sit across him at “Texas Hold-Em” and have to pony up, … again.

Many names associated with so many anecdotal tales by those fond of Russell, but the true significance of the name, is that when Russell Glass evangelizes the business and social ramifications of the evolving technology landscape, recruitment industry leaders listen and adjust course to this seer of tomorrow who actually understands the industry and above all, technology solutions.

Russell Glass is first and foremost, an entrepreneur. Ask him about the major Influencers in his life and he’ll tell you it’s Jeff Taylor, founder of Monster and his three critical lessons for any entrepreneur in this industry: 1.) Think big; 2.) Focus; and 3.) Don’t rest upon your successes. Russell founded his first company when he was a freshman in high-school, and wrote his first patent abstract as a senior. Today, Russell manages the product management and marketing groups for ZoomInfo. Russell sees a rare combination in this startup of 80 people, – a start-up culture, yet one with thousands of established customers, which has already attained profitability and is optimally positioned as a business information search engine.

Cybersleuths can relate to someone like Russell who does his homework. Whereas Russell is quick to point out that he is marketing and product VP and not a recruiter, the tools he uses on a day-to-day basis may differ from the ones recruiters find useful professionally. First and foremost, however, Russell’s pattern of interests are familiar to that of our own – his adventures seek to expand business intelligence research on companies and industries –the advantage of understanding the landscape.

Ask Russell what he loves about the recruitment industry and he will emphatically affirm how critical recruiting is to business – “in reality, it is the future of any business – it’s lifeblood. So as long as capitalism is around, the future of the recruiting industry is very bright! Then of course there’s the looming talent shortage with baby boomers leaving the workforce and the population aging in general. The need for recruiters – especially savvy, creative recruiters – is greater than ever and will continue to grow. The recruiting industry will continue to need new and better tools and I count on them and Bloggers at Recruiting.com to keep telling me and ZoomInfo what we’re doing right, and what we’re not doing well. My job is much easier because of the services that Blogs like this provide.”

What Is Zoom Informationâ„¢?

“The Internet has made it easier to raise your career profile through social-networking like Linkedin.com and Zoominfo.com. You can connect with colleagues at companies you’re interested in and raise your visibility without quitting your job.”
David Patton, editorial director, CareerJournal.com.

“A Portrait of a Recruiter, In a Few Years” … “It’s always been about relationships; now, they’re virtual.” The landscape has changed with the flow of technology and to be successful, a recruiter, must adapt, using “a host of tools, including email and referral software as well as sophisticated search tools such as ZoomInfo, to build competency profiles and to find, reach out to, and build relationships with a wide variety of potential candidates.”
Kevin Wheeler, President/Founder of Global Learning Resources, Inc.

Zoom Information™, Inc. sifts information from the Internet to build resumes and dossiers; of primary use to recruiters and agencies. It is privately held and based in Waltham, Massachusetts. It is essentially a business information search engine, mapping the “Business Web” – the tens of millions of Web sites associated with business information, including corporate Web sites, press releases, electronic news services, SEC filings and other online sources. The business information search engine’s patented technology continually scans the free Web and then automatically compiles easy-to-digest summaries about individuals, companies, products and industries.

To be specific, the company’s basic search product, www.ZoomInfo.com, allows users to search by name among the 33 million people and three million companies it has compiled. ZoomInfo’s enterprise offering, PowerSearch, provides a deeper level of access, including contact details, to help streamline recruiting efforts, automate lead generation and enhance competitive intelligence efforts for thousands of companies.

The company recently closed its strongest third quarter in its six year history. Driven by an 8x increase in Web site visitors in the past year, ZoomInfo’s revenues increased 37 percent over the same period. Coupling a seasoned management team with a patented Web 2.0 technology platform, ZoomInfo has been cash-flow positive for the last four years and expects to exceed $10 million in sales this year.

In September, www.zoomInfo.com broke the three million unique visitors per month threshold. Users averaged nearly 500,000 people searches and another 100,000 company searches each day. Each month, the company is adding over 25,000 new user-generated profiles in addition to the more than 500,000 summaries of new people generated automatically by the technology.

ZoomInfo has already doubled the number of enterprise customers compared to 2005. In Q3 2006, the company added 233 new customers, including: Pfizer; Sears Holding Company; Sara Lee; Bear, Sterns & Co.; KeyBank; and Level 3 Communications. The company now boasts 34 percent of the Fortune 50, 30 percent of the Fortune 100 and 15 percent of the Fortune 1000 among the companies leveraging the ZoomInfo PowerSearch product to search for unique and fresh information about companies and people.




What is A Zoomer?

Currently, ZoomInfo is the only search engine available with the technology to extract information from the free Web to create structured summaries about people, companies, industries and products. Business people who try ZoomInfo see immediate ROI and become instant “Zoomers.”

Zoomers include recruiters, marketers, salespeople and anyone conducting competitive intelligence research at small firms to 30% of the Fortune 100, including Blockbuster, Freescale Semiconductor, Microsoft, Oracle, PepsiCo, Raytheon, Staples and Yahoo!.

Q & A: RUSSELL GLASS ON THE HOT SEAT”

Q: How does ZoomInfo fit into the ‘passive talent’ equation? Where does it add value where other recruitment tools fail?

A: Russell calls ZoomInfo, a OneStop shop for recruiters.

Finding the right candidate takes a lot more time than finding a bunch of wrong ones, so recruiters need a way to quickly identify that targeted population of passive candidates. According to Russell, ZoomInfo goes beyond providing shallow “connections” or current business card information and provides recruiters with the context they need to know if this person could be a fit, such as who has relevant experience via past companies and industries. Recruiters can define the ideal persona of a candidate – via education, location, title, industry, credentials, work history or whatever it may be. And then using ZoomInfo’s search engine that searches the entire business web, their technology allows recruiters to find a narrow – but highly targeted – list of people that fit that persona. From there, they can view the contact information and in-depth profiles of those prospects, which show where the information was found (quoted in a news article, spoke at a tradeshow, etc.). That provides the recruiter with a great opening for the initial call, all but eliminating the “cold” side of a cold call. Ask Russell and he’ll remind you that “Lou Adler said that ZoomInfo PowerSearch and a phone are the only tools a recruiter needs to be successful – I’m clearly biased, but I think he’s right on the money.”

Q: How has recruiting.com and associated Blog sites assisted in spreading the ZoomInfo message and what more do you see down the road in partnering with the viral strengths that recruitment Bloggers etc that can contribute to the industry and to your product offerings?

A: “ZoomInfo pretty much sells itself … PowerSearch is so “powerful” that we are most successful when we allow people to test it and experience its capabilities first hand. Our challenge is making sure those people know about us, and we recognized early on the power that key Bloggers have for us in this market. Blogging is such a rich medium because it gives the ability for anyone with deep knowledge about a space to become a well known expert and influencer. Influencers have always been critical to the success of good products because they have credibility; they drive success in industries, so as important influencers in the recruiting industry, Bloggers will continue to be important to us. In fact, many Bloggers found ZoomInfo because of another recruiter’s recommendation or Blog. Jason Davis or Lou Adler are great examples – they’ve sent dozens to ZoomInfo through their passion for our product.“

Q: What issues are of greatest concern to the recruitment industry today?

A: “I think that the most blaring issue today is companies use recruiters in the wrong way and as a result, many recruiters don’t know their place and their value for companies. Companies should use recruiters as offense, not defense, because the right talent is competitive advantage regardless of the role they’re in – and recruiters should be proactive in finding the competitive advantage rather than reactive in letting resumes come to them. As a founder and manager of multiple companies, the top 5 worst mistakes I’ve made have all involved hiring the wrong people. At the end of the day, recruiting is all about having the right person in the right position, yet there are so many companies (and recruiters) out there that don’t even know where to start finding the right candidates and thus end up using HotJobs.

The best candidates are the superstars out there who aren’t looking or even waiting for a call. Of course, many in the recruiting space talk about this audience, but I don’t believe most recruiters truly grasp how and where to find these potential employees. Recruiters need to focus on how and where to find the right candidate that is going to deliver competitive advantage for a company. Most aren’t hanging out in social networks, and they certainly aren’t going to be milling around job boards. They are happily executing; they’re performing. Performers don’t have time for social networks. However, their friends might be hanging out there, so those tools can be useful, but what most recruiters miss is that they still need to do the legwork. The best way to find those people is through actual communication – i.e, they need to pick up the phone. Where they get the contact from is almost irrelevant as long as there is some reason that this person is performing. For example, two of my last three hires have come from Blogs that have impressed me. The key is that I didn’t just monitor the Blog, I was proactive – I picked up the phone and personally engaged the Bloggers in conversation. If I see a Blogger that’s fits a persona I’m looking for, I tell them that, or I ask my recruiter to get in touch.”

“The Bottom Line – Supply & Demand”

As a degreed, mechanical engineer and economist by training, Russell Glass, the entrepreneur, loves how tools can be converted to various functions to serve broad benefits, and he understands that what is under supplied yet remains in high demand is talent. ZoomInfo serves both disciplines with efficiency.

No magic bullet exists today, indeed, recruitment is an art, not a science, but we recognize that technologies add efficiencies to mining raw data and creating targeted competitive intelligence. To reiterate Shally Steckerl’s response to a recent ERE discussion post, “Can ZoomInfo find low-level candidates?” ZoomInfo excels in its ability to harvest information from the Internet using automated robots and then collates this information into profiles. You get leads from the “web” but not just the main corporate pages.

ZoomInfo makes A & B level talent prospects more visible to recruiters, colleagues, alumni and friends and, through ZoomInfo’s optimization technology, it’s People Profiles are often picked up by the search engines as their top results (Try and ‘Google’ Russell Glass, and one of the first results will be his ZoomInfo profile). It’s optimization, efficiencies of time, and database organization, can each compliment methods like peer regression analysis to help you identify people with virtually no footprint on the web. Recruiters can effectively leverage ZoomInfo data for referral mining – linking someone you know to who you need to know and vice versa. It allows you to know more respected luminaries and industry players with whom to build rapport – a pivotal value add in the social networking process.

What would Shally do? Complement this tool with advanced sourcing methodologies and with phone sourcing and you can complete the remaining 30% of the list. In some cases the split may be 50/50 Internet to phone and in rare cases the opposite 30/70 Internet to phone. JobMachine, suggests that recruiters “Use all of the above and the world is your oyster

FREE DEMO OFFER … if you simply click ”Dave Mendoza Sent Me”:

If you still want the ark of comprehensive information on over 33 million business professionals and 2 million companies across virtually every industry, it hasn’t been been loaded on to a truck for Cairo, Indiana Russ & The Temple of ZoomInfo will provide it for all to see with a demo.

For any of your readers interested in seeing how ZoomInfo can help streamline their recruiting efforts, Russell will set up “Six Degrees From Dave” Readers with a free trial of PowerSearch – just visit: http://www.zoominfo.com/ctr.asp?c=741 using ZoomInfo’s “Dave Mendoza sent me”

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