YoungCapital: Reinventing the Staffing Industry

On March 27, 2018, Hugo de Koning, co-founder of YoungCapital, a web-based, recruitment agency focused on students and young professionals, laughed on the phone with one of his largest clients. In anticipation of April Fool's Day, YoungCapital's marketing department had launched a campaign to ease the tensions of its young and inexperienced applicants: before the interview, every applicant would be required to either drink a shot of vodka or smoke a joint. De Koning was explaining the April Fool's joke, underscoring the high numbers of candidate registrations that the campaign was generating, and highlighting yet again the 'young' and 'fun' brand that was YoungCapital. In 10 years, as an internet-born employment agency, the company had managed to redefine the staffing sector, and to grow to be among Europe's top agencies, with turnover approaching €500 million. De Koning and his two other co-founders didn't want growth to slow, but all three acknowledged that such fast growth was difficult to manage. How could YoungCapital, with its industry-shifting, entrepreneurial spirit, keep growing to become a leading HR company?