Sunny Ray interviews Hank Levine, founder of BeAdditive, a global recruiting company with staffing, KPO, and AI talent marketplace divisions. Levine shares his journey from a Pittsburgh entrepreneurial family through mechanical engineering at Penn, nuclear fusion work at General Atomics, MIT's technology innovation program, early home automation ventures, and telecom software companies. He describes building iPlace, a recruiting firm that grew to over 900 recruiters across 30-plus countries, exited in December 2023. Levine explains BeAdditive's mission to place vetted senior AI contractors from offshore markets into funded US and European startups, addressing the acute talent shortage at the high end of AI hiring. He argues AI will follow historical disruption patterns, first cutting jobs through efficiency, then spurring innovation and new job creation, though outcomes remain uncertain. Levine also discusses skepticism toward US manufacturing reshoring, and closes by reflecting on his personal philosophy of avoiding an ordinary life and building companies that create broad impact rather than personal wealth.
A serial recruiting entrepreneur explains why AI will disrupt jobs like every technology before it, but won't kill recruiting.
Tell us about your company and your backstory.
BeAdditive is a global recruiting company with a staffing firm, a KPO business building teams in India and Philippines, and our newest venture, an AI talent marketplace placing senior AI contractors from offshore into funded US and European startups. I was born near Pittsburgh in an entrepreneurial family that owned hardware stores. I've always been driven by scaling my values through building ethical companies that touch many lives.
What drew an engineer into business strategy and management?
I studied mechanical engineering and worked at General Atomics on fusion technology, but realized fusion was more of a PhD physicist's science experiment than something commercially viable. I wanted MIT for business school specifically for their technological innovation program, and found it surprisingly cooperative rather than cutthroat despite being surrounded by brilliant people.
What was it like working in early automation and telecom?
I worked in bleeding edge home automation in the late 80s, bringing over 100 companies into a joint venture with $30 million in R&D contracts, then started my own home automation company. Products cost around a quarter million dollars and used early touchscreens and voice recognition, but the technology and wireless infrastructure weren't ready yet.
How did you end up building a large recruiting company in India?
In the 90s I saw brilliant but inexperienced founders in India benefiting from a huge cost arbitrage with the US. I got a company in Bangalore to hire me, learned how things worked, then started my own recruiting company based in Pune. It grew to over 900 recruiters serving clients in more than 30 countries before I exited in December 2023.
Do you see parallels between the India arbitrage opportunity and AI today?
Yes, AI has the same characteristics as past disruptive innovations like agriculture to manufacturing or manufacturing to services. Each shift first causes efficiency driven job losses, then eventually sparks innovation that creates more and higher paying jobs. Whether AI follows that same pattern is unknown since many new AI companies aren't yet big job creators.
What problem is BeAdditive Tech solving, and why won't AI replace recruiters?
AI startups are flush with venture money and pressured to build fast, but struggle to find high end talent since supply is scarce and salaries are extreme. We match funded startups with vetted, highly skilled offshore talent who want the resume boost of working for a Silicon Valley company, getting them hired in two to three weeks at a third to half the cost.
What's your take on reshoring US manufacturing through robotics?
I'm not confident there will be much reshoring because it often doesn't make economic sense, building factories can be more expensive in the US. Robotics combined with AI will become a big industry, but it won't recreate the large number of jobs old manufacturing once did, since automated plants need far fewer workers.
You've said acquiring money leads to an empty life. What legacy are you after?
It's never been about money for me. We talk about kenophobia at our company, the fear of being ordinary and not doing anything exceptional. Since I was nine I've wanted to touch a lot of lives and build something big rather than accumulate wealth, and any money I end up with will mostly go to charity.
Building something daring? Sunny talks to founders like this every day. Fifteen minutes to see if your story belongs on the stage.
Claim your pre-interview