Whitney Partners Managing Director Bennett Jordan joins Yahoo Finance Live to discuss Whitney Partners teaming up with digital media startup Litquidity to disrupt the way in which junior investment professionals can land jobs at Wall Street’s top firms, hiring freezes, and the outlook for talent recruitment.

Video Transcript

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JULIE HYMAN: Longtime executive search firm Whitney Partners is teaming up with digital media startup Liquidity leveraging its connection with younger generations to disrupt how junior investment professionals land jobs at Wall Street's top firms. Here to discuss is Bennett Jordan, the Whitney Partners Managing Director who will oversee the new venture. Thank you so much for being here.

So Liquidity, very popular for its memes on Wall Street, especially young Wall Street. But how do you connect memes with actually getting those people jobs? Talk to me about exactly how this venture is going to work.

BENNETT JORDAN: Sure. Well, you have to think about the following that Liquidity has created, right? It is full of Gen Z and millennials keeping an eye on this for the transparency that he's created among the community within finance, right? He's a news outlet that many others are picking.

He gets news before a lot of the other major news outlets because it's coming directly to him from the source, right off the desk, right? So among this trust that he's created, the things that they are most interested in is jobs, career development, training and courses of that nature. So naturally, it's a great idea to bring the jobs and the recruiting to this platform. So I'll give you an example.

For instance, if we were running a search. Liquidity's reach far exceeds anything that the entire search community in the country could attain within one day. So his reach is just so powerful. He has 2 and 1/2 million collective followers across all platforms. The ability to leverage digital media and bring the recruitment to that, just, it's so powerful.

JULIE HYMAN: So do the jobs then get posted on those platforms? Is that how you're doing it?

BENNETT JORDAN: So that is exactly what we're going to do. We're going to create it, transparency, put it out there so the candidates are coming to us. Versus the other way around where you have all these firms with associates pounding the phones, trying to get in touch with other recruits and candidates, right? So we're just kind of flipping the script on that and leveraging the power of digital media to bring those jobs to them.

BRIAN SOZZI: Bennett, we've been reporting a lot the past month on Wall Street layoffs, pretty some sizable cutbacks, notably in investment banking. Is that starting to shake the confidence of these junior bankers on what their longer term outlook might be in this field?

BENNETT JORDAN: I completely understand. So funny you should say that, I think for us as recruiters, disruption like that oftentimes creates opportunity. So you'll always have other firms that are able to attract dislodged talent or unsettled talent in these downturns. So we follow where the opportunities are and that's the entire idea.

BRAD SMITH: And so for the business model for yourself, now, what does that look like when you're connecting the applicants with the range of jobs that may be on the table, even though, as Sozzi was mentioning, there are a wave of the layoffs or headcount reductions and even hiring freezes that are still in place?

BENNETT JORDAN: Sure. So we will be putting content out there to attract the candidates and then engaging them in a formalized recruiting process after leveraging social media to attract them.

JULIE HYMAN: Is it weird working with someone who's anonymous? The guy behind Lit, so-called "Lit", right, is an anonymous person who runs this whole account. So what does that do in terms of the layers of this partnership versus a more traditional partnership would be like?

BENNETT JORDAN: Sure, sure. You know I think he's just protecting himself. He doesn't want the attention, he doesn't want TV slots. And let's be serious, he's putting news out there that sometimes can be a little unsettling for these institutions, right?

Because he's putting the transparency out there for the finance industry that it's been lacking. So he just doesn't want that attention and I totally understand and respect him for it. I think there is a time and place in which he will let his identity be known, but we'll leave that up to him.

BRAD SMITH: OK, well, we already know more about him now than we do about Satoshi, because that could be anybody out there. So this person, who I perceived, has formerly worked in finance as well, are they also looking across where there is demand for financial industry talent to also say, hey, there are tech companies out there that are looking for some former Wall Street people to now bring into their fold? How does that kind of dovetail across other industries where you could be listing some of those opportunities?

BENNETT JORDAN: Yeah, that's a great question. I don't think that we're there quite yet. Naturally, there's a big cross intersection there with venture capital and growth equity, private equity, all of these things that we're going to be touching as well. So perhaps down the road, we have had in balancing that big pharma, tech, AI all needs this as well for recruiting. So it's not out of the world of possibilities.

JULIE HYMAN: Just out of curiosity, you also were on "The Bachelorette". I mean, I'm sure people are watching a recognize you for that. Is there any time between that and your recruiting business? Do people come to you and say, Oh, you were on "The Bachelorette", now I trust you to find me a job? I mean, I say that sort of tongue in cheek, but seriously, has that gotten you any more traction in your business?

BENNETT JORDAN: Well, I've been doing this for 10 years and I will tell you this, it has not really been an impediment. I'm sure that there's some people who might hold that against me, stiff Wall Street types and that's OK. 2020 was a wild year.

I was tired of creating banana bread and lasagna like everyone else and sort of doing everything that you were doing at home, so it was time to do something different, shake things up. And needless to say, I wasn't having a lot of new client development during that time or that summer. And so it was time to go open some doors and put myself out there.

JULIE HYMAN: Why not? All right, thanks so much, Bennett. Thanks for being here.

BENNETT JORDAN: Of course.

JULIE HYMAN: Bennett Jordan, Whitney Partners Managing Director. And now Litany Partners doing a new partnership with Liquidity.