What Ad Talent does

AD Talent Inc is a New York-based, privately held workforce solutions firm founded in 2016 by Angela Tai after senior talent leadership roles at R/GA and 24 Seven Inc. The firm provides six integrated services: executive, full-time, and contract/freelance search; staff augmentation; payroll administration for freelance and contract talent; HR Business Partner and benefits advisory; recruitment training and process implementation; and AI Strategy sourcing for AI/ML hires. It targets enterprise, mid-market, and growth-stage companies across creative, advertising, technology, retail, SaaS, and consumer verticals, with named clients including Spotify, MRM, Red Antler, R/GA, WeWork, Nike, Samsung, Verizon, Salesforce, DoorDash, and Publicis.

The business operates on a professional services model: placement fees structured as a percentage of hired candidate annual salary for permanent roles, hourly/daily rates for contract placements, payroll processing fees, and ongoing consulting fees for HRBP and training engagements. Pricing is quote-based and not publicly disclosed. Distribution is direct-enterprise sales led by named client and talent partners, supplemented by inbound through the firm's website and the affiliated Taimoto job board. The firm is a certified Minority and Women-Owned Business (MWBE) with a multilingual team spanning seven languages and operates across six US metros (New York, Bay Area, Charlotte, Denver, Pennsylvania, and Washington Metro Area). Headcount is in the 11–50 range, the company is founder-owned with no disclosed institutional funding, and an EMEA expansion advisor has been added to the board to support international growth.

Name

Ad Talent

Legal name

AD Talent Inc

Website

https://adtalentinc.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2016

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

AD Talent is a New York-based, founder-led workforce solutions firm providing executive search, contract staffing, payroll administration, HR advisory, and AI talent sourcing to enterprise and mid-market clients in creative, advertising, and technology.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Recruitment & Workforce Solutions

NAICS

Employment Placement Agencies and Executive Search Services (56131), Employment Placement Agencies (561311), Employment Services (5613), Temporary Help Services (561320)

SIC

Services-Employment Agencies (7361), Services-Help Supply Services (7363), Services-Management Consulting Services (8742)

akta.pro primary industry

Talent Acquisition (Recruiting) & Applicant Tracking (ATS) (BPACAPAD)

akta.pro secondary industries

Recruiting Administration Outsourcing (Recruitment Support, Scheduling, Onboarding Ops) (BPACAKAG), Compensation Planning & Total Rewards (BPACAPAH), Employer Brand Strategy & Talent Branding (BPAFAEAH)

Keywords

• Executive search services
• Staff augmentation
• Talent acquisition
• Recruitment services
• Workforce solutions

Headquarters

HQ city

New York

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices6 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D

Revenue model

1. Recruitment and Search Fees: AD Talent earns placement fees for placing candidates in executive, full-time, freelance, and contract roles. Fees are typically structured as a percentage of the hired candidate's annual salary for permanent placements, or hourly/daily rates for contract/freelance placements.
2. Payroll Administration Services: AD Talent onboards, administers, and pays freelance and contract talent on behalf of clients, eliminating administrative burden while ensuring regulatory compliance. Revenue is generated through payroll processing fees charged to client companies.
3. HR Business Partner & Benefits: AD Talent acts as a strategic HR advisor providing employee relations, performance management, DEI, and total rewards solutions. This is billed as an ongoing consulting/managed service to clients ranging from early-stage startups to global firms.
4. Recruitment Training & Process Implementation: AD Talent provides training and process optimization services for internal talent acquisition teams, covering career development and executive coaching. Revenue is generated through training engagements and consulting fees.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

Ad Talent is a full-service workforce solutions agency that recruits and places executive, full-time, freelance, and contract talent across functions including design, engineering, product, marketing, operations, finance, and legal. Beyond search, it administers payroll for freelance/contract talent, provides HR Business Partner advisory (employee relations, performance management, DEI, total rewards), delivers recruitment training and process optimization, and sources AI-skilled professionals for client teams.

Product overview

Ad Talent is a full-service workforce solutions agency offering six integrated service modules: Executive/Fulltime/Contract Search for talent acquisition across all levels; Staff Augmentation for scaling operations with vetted professionals; Payroll Support for freelance and contract talent administration; HR Business Partner services for strategic HR advisory; Recruitment Training & Process Implementation for optimizing hiring workflows; and AI Strategy for sourcing AI talent and building AI-capable teams. The company operates as a unified service platform rather than a software product, combining recruitment, HR support, payroll, and consulting to provide end-to-end workforce solutions from talent identification through ongoing people operations.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Taimoto: Sister company for job searching and team hiring services
• Femmerevamp

Products and services

• Executive, Fulltime & Contract/Freelance Search Connects companies with top-tier talent across executive, full-time, and freelance/contract roles, spanning functions from CTOs in fintech to creative directors and AI specialists. Designed for enterprise, mid-market, and early-stage companies seeking to fill leadership, technical, creative, marketing, operations, finance, and legal roles.
• Staff Augmentation Provides vetted professionals in engineering, compliance, analytics, operations, and customer experience to help teams scale up and respond to project surges, tech upgrades, or seasonal spikes. Targeted at companies needing flexible, short-term workforce scaling without permanent hiring overhead.
• Payroll Support Onboards, administers, and pays freelance and contract talent on behalf of clients, ensuring regulatory compliance and streamlining payroll processes for local and global talent sourcing. Designed for companies hiring freelancers/contractors who want to offload administrative and compliance burdens.
• HR Business Partner (HRBP) & Benefits Acts as a strategic HR advisor and employee advocate, providing tailored solutions including employee relations, performance management, DEI, and total rewards. Targeted at companies ranging from early-stage startups to global firms that lack internal HR expertise or need supplemental people strategy support.
• Recruitment Training & Process Implementation Optimizes hiring processes and enhances internal capabilities by streamlining talent acquisition workflows and providing training in career development and executive coaching. Designed for companies with internal talent acquisition teams seeking to upskill recruiters or improve hiring funnel efficiency.
• AI Strategy Sources talent with AI skill sets to build, manage, and train teams, helping organizations streamline product launching, marketing strategy, hiring, and workforce planning. Targeted at organizations seeking to integrate AI capabilities into their teams and operations.

Quantifiable outcome

• Placed candidates at leading global brands including Spotify, MRM, Red Antler, Fever Content, R/GA, Huge, Verizon, WeWork, Nike, Samsung, Salesforce, DoorDash, Publicis, Gensler, and others.
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers15 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• TaimotominorOthersTaimoto is AD Talent's sister company, operating as a job board and hiring platform. It is referenced on AD Talent's website as 'Our Sister Company' and shares the same operational ecosystem, driving candidate and client traffic to the broader AD Talent workforce solutions business. Taimoto is separately branded and operates its own website (taimoto.com) with job listings and hiring tools.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Emerging players

• The Mom Project: Digital talent marketplace and staffing platform with a focus on diverse and women professionals — overlaps with AD Talent on diversity-led enterprise talent sourcing and MWBE-aligned customer demand.
• Fiverr Enterprise / Fiverr Pro: Marketplace and managed-services platform for freelance creative, marketing, and tech talent — competes for the same contract-staffing engagements that AD Talent fulfills through its staff augmentation practice. (Fiverr is also a former employer of AD Talent's Sarah Fornaris.)

Broad incumbents

• Robert Half: Largest specialty staffing firm in the U.S. with broad capabilities across finance, technology, marketing, and creative — competes for the same enterprise marketing and creative hiring budgets as AD Talent, but at a much larger scale.
• Akkodis (Adecco Group): Global technology and engineering services firm with a growing digital and creative talent practice — competes for the same cross-functional technology and creative engagements as AD Talent.

Direct peers

• Working Not Working: Curated network and talent placement platform for top creative professionals — overlaps with AD Talent's creative talent pool, including shared alumni (Sarah Fornaris previously worked there).
• The Sage Group: Boutique staffing firm placing creative, marketing, and technology talent with a relationship-led model comparable to AD Talent's client-partner approach.
• Creative Circle: Specialized staffing firm for creative, digital, marketing, and communications professionals, serving agencies, brands, and in-house teams — a near-identical service model to AD Talent.
• 24 Seven Inc. Specialty staffing and recruiting firm focused on creative, marketing, digital, and fashion talent — the same core verticals as AD Talent, and notably the firm where founder Angela Tai previously built a multi-million dollar business.
• Aquent: Global staffing and services firm specializing in creative, marketing, and design talent with an integrated managed-services model that closely mirrors AD Talent's search-plus-staff-augmentation offering.
• Vitamin T (Aquent's creative arm): Boutique creative and digital talent agency under Aquent, focused on placing designers, copywriters, and content strategists — directly overlapping AD Talent's core creative recruitment practice.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks7 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles12 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Ad Talent