
From Laid-Off Recruiter to Staffing Firm CEO | Catiana Ibarra
From The Elite Recruiter Podcast by Benjamin Mena
May 11, 2026 · 1h 3m · Season 1 · Episode 323
About this episode
Catiana Ibarra shares her journey from being laid off to becoming a CEO of a staffing firm, highlighting the role of AI in recruitment.
Resumes never tell the full story. The candidate who casually mentioned she's open to relocating, the manager who said he wants a four-day week, the senior dev who's quietly looking — that detail gets buried in notes and forgotten. Atlas changes that. It's the AI-first recruitment platform built to eliminate admin, capturing every conversation automatically and turning it into something you can actually search. With MagicSearch you can ask Atlas "who talked about relocating?" or "who mentioned a four-day week?" and it pulls the answers instantly across your entire database. Atlas also makes BD easier with opportunity tracking and client relationship tools powered by generative AI, plus smart dashboards that give you full pipeline visibility across the business. Atlas customers report 40%+ EBITDA growth and 80%+ increases in monthly billings after adoption. It's built for agencies that want to grow without adding more manual work. https://recruitwithatlas.com April 24, 2020. Catiana Ibarra Aponte was handing layoff letters to her own team when her own letter came. Her director's parting line: "If we had more recruiting, you'd still be here." She heard what she'd been hearing her…
People in this episode
Host: Benjamin Mena
Guest: Catiana Ibarra
Topics covered
- recruitment
- AI technology
- staffing
- entrepreneurship
- career transitions
Keywords
- recruitment
- AI
- staffing firm
- career change
- business growth
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Atlas
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