About Signal & StrandWe built this because we’ve been where you are.
For 25+ years, our founder sat in your seat: making the hires, owning the outcomes, and cleaning up after the recruiters who overpromised and disappeared. Signal & Strand is the firm he kept wishing existed. So he built it — in Long Beach, California, recruiting nationwide and in 90+ countries.
AccountableHuman
A model built for impact.
When hiring feels rushed or unclear, teams are left with more noise than answers. The role stays open, pressure builds, and every wrong fit costs more than time. We help teams move with clarity, make better decisions, and build hiring systems that support the people doing the work.
Less noise in the process
Clearer hiring decisions
Stronger systems and teams
“Value isn’t measured by titles or margins, but by how work strengthens people and places.”
The founder storyBuilt on a simple conviction: hiring is judgment.
Kasey (“Kase” to everyone who knows him) Konkright learned what work means from his grandparents. She was a school cook. He was a janitor. Their work was essential, mostly unseen, and woven into their community — and they raised him to believe that work is contribution, that integrity beats recognition, and that success carries a responsibility beyond yourself.
He carried that into a 25-year career inside some of the world’s most demanding companies, sitting in the seats where hiring decisions couldn’t be undone. Global giants and family-run businesses — different scale, different complexity, the same human stakes. Across all of it, one pattern held: the hires that changed everything were never won by volume, process, or optics. They were won by judgment. Listening carefully. Asking better questions. Understanding the work beneath the title.
He also watched what the recruiting industry did with those stakes: extractive fees, rushed searches, systems built to bill rather than to help. So he built the firm he kept wishing existed. Signal & Strand is that conviction with a business model around it — founder-led, relationship-first, priced honestly, and built to give a large portion of its profits back to the community. His grandparents would have expected nothing less.
Braxton & Tootsie
Braxton is a golden retriever in spirit and a rescue mutt in paperwork: all grin, all wag, convinced every stranger on the Long Beach waterfront came specifically to see him. Tootsie is twenty-five pounds of ears, opinions, and unapologetic snack enthusiasm who has appointed herself head of security, treat quality control, and lap allocation. They have never once been on time for a Zoom call. But every morning they remind Kase what actually matters — showing up, paying attention, and loving the people in front of you.
What drives the workClear judgment. Honest communication. Teams left stronger than we found them.
Judgment over volume
We focus on fit, context, and better hiring decisions — not sending more résumés.
Clarity through the process
We keep hiring clear, focused, and easy to move through with confidence.
Work carries obligation
A large portion of our profits goes to community causes, and we recruit pro-bono for the non-profits that can’t afford to get a hire wrong — because service is part of how we work. Our pro-bono work →
How we measure successNot growth for growth’s sake. What improves after the work is done.
How we support teams.
Contingent Search
One critical seat, filled right. Founder-led search, 10% of base within 30 days — with a 90-day guarantee and 100 days of FromJump® onboarding.
Explore service →Recruiting-as-a-Service (RPO)
Your hiring engine, on a flat rate. A dedicated hiring partner embedded with your team, on a flat monthly rate — and it never resigns.
Explore service →