AN East Lancashire businessman has impressed former Dragons’ Den investor, James Caan, and announced their exciting new partnership.

Whalley’s Thomas Keighley is chief executive and founder of the new recruitment business, Pursuit.

James Caan, who made his fortune in recruitment, has invested a six figure sum into the business through his private equity firm, Recruitment Entrepreneur.

Lancashire Telegraph: Thomas Keighley Thomas Keighley

Due to Thomas' success and growing appetite, he saw his next step as becoming a leader of his own company.

He said: “I live and breathe the industry and have worked in every sales role, from a Sales Development Representative to Sales Director and wanted to use my experience and knowledge to create something special."

Tom grew up in Whalley and has worked in various large cities across the UK.

Manchester-based Pursuit launched earlier this month and aims to become the leading specialist sales recruiter in the market.

Thomas homes to expand companies across the north with a focus of Pursuit becoming the powerhouse company outside of London.

On why he decided to partner with Recruitment Entrepreneur, he said: “I saw their experience of launching, scaling and exiting businesses as a huge advantage for Pursuit, as well as having the teams support including Abid Hamid and James Caan by my side."

Abid Hamid, chief executive of Recruitment Entrepreneur, reflects on partnering with Pursuit.

He said: “We’re really looking forward to seeing how Tom’s vision of attracting talent within the Gen Z market develops alongside supporting his journey within the portfolio."

James Caan said James had an “exciting” and “different” business model.

He said: "Having initially met Tom to hear about its business, it was clear from the onset he wanted to do things differently, to rethink how Gen Z/Millennials look to start or progress within their careers and how people think about sales.

“I was intrigued to see how Pursuit was going to be positioned as a unique recruitment company within the space – it’s a different and exciting business model to what we have seen in the past and I can’t wait to help drive Pursuit with him".

Thomas said Pursuit is data driven and uses its own science led assessments and cultural profiling to deliver ‘Pursuit Prodigy’ ca­­­ndidates.

They aim to become the most data led sales recruiter in the market who delivers accurate predictions on job performance leading to better retention for their clients in a talent short market.

They are on a mission to shake up the outdated candidate attraction processes that are typically associated with sales recruitment with social media attraction being at the forefront of their methodology.

The company aim to have a headcount of 20 people in the next three years and is already recruiting for a sales team and digital marketing manager.

If you are or know someone who is a talented creative strategist, content creator and gen z expert please email thomas@startthepursuit.com to find out more.