If your ATS needs a 24-month contract to keep you, that's not a partnership — that's a trap.

In this episode of Talent Titans, Suky Sodhi sits down with Karen Somal , CEO and Founder of Athena CRM, who's disrupting the recruitment software industry with a radical promise: full customizability, month-to-month contracts, and zero migration costs.

After 15 years in recruitment tech, Karen has seen it all — from directors building systems that treat recruiters like "data entry clerks" to agencies trapped in "bad marriages" with their ATS providers.

She breaks down:

• Why legacy ATS platforms force YOU to adapt YOUR workflow to THEIR software

• The hidden cost of poor recruiter adoption (and why it's killing your placements)

• How data migration horror stories are keeping agencies stuck in broken systems

• Why Athena covers migration costs — and buys clients out of existing contracts

• The "director-led vs. recruiter-led" design philosophy that's changing the game

Karen's message to agency founders: "If you need a 24-month contract to keep someone, you're admitting that the product can't retain them on merit." This is real talk for recruitment leaders who are tired of software that works against them instead of for them.

🔑 Chapters

00:00 — The ATS Trap: Why Your Software Is Working Against You

02:15 — Director-Led vs. Recruiter-Led: The Design Philosophy Shift

08:30 — The 24-Month Contract Problem 14:00 — Data Migration Horror Stories

22:45 — "We're Unsellable Right Now": When Bad Data Kills Acquisitions

28:30 — Athena's Radical Approach: No Migration Fees, Monthly Contracts

35:00 — Why Recruiter Adoption Is Never About Features

42:00 — Word-of-Mouth Growth: From Canada to Dubai

47:30 — What's Next for Recruitment Tech

Connect with Karen:

I'm Karen Somal, a recruitment technology specialist with years of experience helping agencies improve their systems, processes, and use of technology. I've worked on CRM implementations, automation projects, data transformation, and business process improvement across the recruitment sector. I'm also the founder of Athena CRM, a platform created to give recruitment businesses a more flexible and configurable approach to managing their operations. I'm passionate about using technology to solve real business challenges while keeping people and relationships at the heart of what I do.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karen-somal-35569117/

Check out more episodes of the Talent Titans Podcast:

Why Contingency Recruiting is Dying: https://youtu.be/BAE9lrl8z74

Master Niche Recruiting: https://youtu.be/RoRWQ5bwPm0

Connect with Suky:

Award-Winning Advisor & Industry Voice | Founder: Canadian Staffing Summit, Talent Titans, Recruitment Professionals Forum | Backing Bold Moves in Staffing, Tech & Investment — No Clickbait, Just Real Talk

Suky doesn't just observe the staffing industry — she helps shape it.

She's built platforms where the industry's most honest conversations happen:

🔹 Canadian Staffing Summit

🔹 Talent Titans Podcast

🔹 Recruitment Professionals Forum

For over two decades, Suky's helped recruitment businesses scale with integrity — from internal team builds to boardroom strategy. She works with agency leaders, tech innovators, and the investors backing the future of staffing.

But here's what Suky doesn't do: copy-paste playbooks, fluff-filled advice, or empty hype.

She believes in smart growth, real talk, and community over competition.

Her work sits at the intersection of:

People + Performance

Tech + Disruption

Strategy + Soul

Whether she's coaching founders, advising SaaS firms, or connecting those quietly rewriting the rules — one thing holds true:

Suky backs those who build.

www.eliteglobalrecruiters.com

Grab of a copy of "How to Launch a Staffing Agency: Plan to Profits in 90 Days or Less"

Talent Titans is sponsored by Ascen. Ascen is an employer of record that helps staffing and recruitment agencies hire employees compliantly throughout the US and Canada. Ascen's all-in-one, white-label platform handles onboarding, timesheets, payroll, benefits, insurance, invoicing, and funding so you can grow quickly in the US and Canada without worrying about back office and paperwork. Visit ascen.com to learn more.