Idealpeople was founded in March 2001 with the aim of delivering a significant and positive change to the established client and candidate pre-conceptions of recruitment consultancies. This goal has been achieved profitably and without fluctuations in consistency or quality of service. Having been employed for many years by both small and large providers of recruitment solutions and services, the founding directors identified a gap in the quality of service offered to clients and candidates.

Recruitment projects were won and completed and clients quickly bought into the added value Idealpeople was able to muster. Immediately, software houses, systems integrators and consulting companies began to take notice.

Key clients in the formative months were largely concentrated in 'Silicon Fen', a Cambridgeshire hot-spot with a dense population of high technology companies with vastly different needs for expert staff.

Late 2001 saw a massive downturn in the technology and telecommunications marketplace and little demand for R&D. As a result, Idealpeople diversified and began to fulfil recruitment projects for sales and marketing staff to clients which had previously asked Idealpeople to find technical staff.

2002 saw the appointment of Nick Tooley as Sales Director. Nick was tasked with expanding the Idealpeople business into new geographic regions and vertical markets. Although growth in 2002 was modest (25%), relationships were formed that were to prove hugely fruitful in the future. Additional key appointments were made and Idealpeople began to 'headhunt' the best consultants in the industry in order to maintain momentum.

2002 proved challenging for many recruiters in the high-tech space and most of Idealpeople's competitors laid-off staff - Idealpeople bucked the trend and continued to grow and prosper.

2003 saw staff numbers increase by 33% and sales growth increase by astonishing 200%. Idealpeople moved to larger, more accommodating, premises as a platform for further expansion and with the capacity to take on a further 50 operational and consulting staff.

in 2004 Idealpeople doubled in size on 2003's numbers, recruiting more talented consultants and operational staff to ensure we can add further value to our clients and customers.

2005 was a renaissance year for many Idealpeople customers, and saw a three-fold increase in requirements for both permanent and contract staff. 2005 also saw the acquisition of many blue-chip customers, including Apple, Sophos, Broadcom, ATI and Worldpay (RBOS). Once again, Idealpeople invested heavily in increasing both headcount and advertising, and extended our access to CV databanks, from 400,000 to 3,000,000 live CVs, ensuring consistent availability to elusive candidates in a highly competitive marketplace.

2006 was again a growth year for Idealpeople, with the acquisition of yet more world-class technology companies as customers. With the state of the market changing and with skills gap widening, Idealpeople were the first search and selection company to begin reaching out into the passive jobseeker market through a blend of social networking and headhunting. Customers were consistently able to rely on Idealpeople to communicate their Recruitment Brand and deliver candidates, irrespective of the numbers of available job-seekers.