From 30 To 130 Employees Without VC Money: Here’s How It Was Done With Tristan Mackrory Recruiting Is No Joke podcast

Growing from 30 employees to over 130 in under two years is remarkable — doing it without any investors is even more uncommon. In this episode of Recruiting Is No Joke, Joel sits down with Tristan Mackrory, VP of People & Talent at Almeida, to explore one of the most impactful scaling stories in tech.

Tristan shares how a warning from veteran teachers pushed him into recruiting, how he rose quickly in a global agency, and how early exposure to AI-driven hiring shaped his approach long before ChatGPT. He also talks about nearly ignoring the LinkedIn message that led him to Almeida — one that casually began with “Do you want to make free cash?” — and how he convinced its 21-year-old founder to approve a full company rebrand immediately after joining.

The conversation covers his experience scaling a Silicon Valley–backed startup from Europe during hypergrowth, surviving its collapse, and then helping Almeida grow from 30 to 130+ employees with no outside funding. Tristan explains what it really takes to build high talent density, the role of branding in recruiting, and how his team managed 22,000 applications in just three months. He also highlights how hiring a full-time data analyst transformed their talent operations from reactive to strategic — and why recruiters must evolve into business-focused problem solvers.

In this episode:

[00:00] Introduction

[00:28] Tristan's background

[01:54] About Almedia

[02:27] From teaching to recruiting

[04:08] Landing the first recruiting role

[05:22] Rapid career progression in agency recruiting

[06:17] Early exposure to AI in hiring

[08:17] Consulting for European startups

[09:50] Relocating to Berlin to scale a venture-backed company

[11:54] The reality of hypergrowth work life

[13:57] How Tristan vets resilience in recruiters

[17:35] Scaling to 250 employees before the collapse

[18:33] From unicorn valuation to mass layoffs

[19:48] The “free cash” message that changed everything

[21:55] Joining a 21-year-old founder’s bootstrapped company

[22:55] Rebranding the entire company for credibility

[24:25] Hiring at scale in a difficult global market

[26:47] Managing 22,000 applications in 3 months

[27:26] Why each recruiter hires only one person per month

[29:47] Why every talent team needs a data analyst

[32:05] Using AI to build salary bands and hiring workflows

[37:12] Why recruiting must shift from reactive to strategic

[38:12] What the recruiter role looks like in 2026

[41:01] Tristan’s top advice on referrals and outreach

[41:52] Closing and where to connect

About Tristan Mackrory

Tristan Mackrory is the VP of People & Talent at Almedia, a bootstrapped adtech startup. With over ten years of experience, he has scaled high-growth tech companies across San Francisco, Tel Aviv, and Europe. Known for stepping into chaos and building the structure, culture, and systems that allow teams to scale quickly without breaking, Tristan is a passionate advocate for high talent density, clear performance expectations, and a culture of ownership. He joined Almedia when it was 30 people and $90M in revenue and has helped scale it to 130+ employees and over $350M in revenue, all without external funding.

About Joel Lalgee

Joel Lalgee is an internationally known recruitment leader and coach who has helped thousands of recruiters build their brands online. In 2015, Joel started recruiting for a small start-up agency in Milwaukee. He quickly found his passion for recruitment. In 2019, he discovered content marketing, publishing his first posts on Linkedin. Since then, he has grown to over 400k followers, and his content has been seen over 1 billion times. In 2023, he started a business specializing in coaching recruiters, marketing consulting, and influencer partnerships.

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