Innesa Burrola
Founder and CEO
San Diego, CA
My Role
Innesa Burrola is the Founder and CEO of Boutique Recruiting, a premier headhunting firm renowned for its personalized approach to connecting exceptional talent with companies in search of top-performing professionals. With over 20 years of experience in the headhunting and sales industry, Innesa has built a company that redefines recruitment by forging authentic relationships and delivering transformative, long-term placements. Under her leadership, Boutique Recruiting has earned a spot on the Inc. 5000 list for five consecutive years and has become one of SIA's Fastest Growing Staffing Firms.
Innesa's entrepreneurial journey is as compelling as the results she delivers for her clients. Immigrating from the former Soviet Union at the age of four, she grew up navigating challenges that fortified her resilience and ambition. By age 27, after being unexpectedly fired from her corporate role while raising two young children, she founded Boutique Recruiting alongside her sister and husband. Her tenacity and vision have since positioned her as a Forbes Top 40 Business Leader Under 40 and a recipient of accolades such as the San Diego Business Journal’s CEO of the Year and Women in Business Award.
By deprogramming individuals from corporate scripts and fostering cultures of trust and openness, Innesa helps organizations achieve sustainable growth while reducing turnover. Boutique Recruiting’s holistic approach includes a rigorous client-vetting process that ensures aligned expectations, empowering companies to find not just employees but true extensions of their culture. The company’s distinctive philosophy—where talent is valued as much as sales and employees are empowered to embrace their boldness has forged a new and significant niche in the recruitment space.
Innesa’s personal story of resilience and growth combined with her innovative business strategies, makes her a sought-after voice on leadership, sales and business. As a member of the Forbes Business Council, she regularly shares insights about trends, challenges and behaviors in the job market. Outside the office, Innesa is passionate about personal and spiritual development, yoga, nutrition and organic living. She is also a devoted wife and mother of three, balancing her flourishing business with her commitment to family and community.
Through Boutique Recruiting, Innesa has not only built a business but a platform for transforming workplace culture and redefining success. Her motto, “We find the candidates you can’t,” reflects her firm’s expertise in identifying top-tier talent to provide tailored solutions that help organizations grow and thrive with the right people.
What I love most about my role
What I love most about what I do is seeing people flourish in an environment I created. Watching my team grow, achieve things they never thought possible, and gain access to opportunities that might have
otherwise been out of reach is incredibly rewarding. Boutique Recruiting has become a
place where people can accelerate their careers, make great money at a young age, and
build a life for themselves much sooner than they might have otherwise. I also love
creating new things and watching my ideas come to life. It’s so satisfying to see
everything working so well together, knowing that it all just started as a vision in my
head.
How I define success
Loving what you do and being exceptionally good at it.
The best piece of business advice I ever received was
Treat it like a game that you have to win.
What would I tell my younger self
I would tell my younger self to have more boundaries. When I first started, I was emotionally and energetically exhausted by being too empathetic and it was affecting my health, so I had to learn how to do business without it impacting me so much. I was so personally invested in every outcome so I had
to learn how to separate myself from the emotions of the business.
What 2B Bolder mean to me
Being bold means doing something unexpected- that thing that feels uncomfortable but is necessary. It’s about having the courage to be yourself unapologetically, even when it goes against what you’ve been told to do. Boldness is trusting your gut, going your own way, and honoring yourself before
conforming to someone else’s expectations.
Years of Experience
10+
I recommend you focus on developing these 3 skills to succeed in a role like mine
I know the question asks for 3 but I truly have 4 that are equally important and play a huge role in my success. Creativity - Intuition - Persistence and Resilience