'Wear people down'

John West is a LinkedIn junkie. After meeting someone new, West sends him an invitation to connect on the networking site as soon as he gets to his computer.

“LinkedIn is the greatest tool of my lifetime” for business development and recruiting, he says.

That means a lot coming from West, an expert in the recruitment industry in Tampa who has run both startups and a $500 million business. He led Tampa-based System One, a recruitment firm acquired by Monster.com's parent company, TMP Worldwide Inc., in 2000. West is currently chairman of Hire Velocity, a candidate-screening firm with offices nationwide, including one in Lutz.