Building this business is hard

August 8, 2024: A lot has changed since my last newsletter of Jan 20. Let’s catch up.

If we haven't met yet, welcome! Shoot me message, would love to connect.

Today the business has ~20 full-time folks and we are spread across 3 geographies - Atlanta, Brazil, and Bangalore. We are quickly scaling through the growing pains but still feeling them all. Happy to answer questions because in January I had 0 employees and now have ~20.

I plan to write more to give me an outlet of the stress of the daily grind.

In February I brought in an incredible business partner into the company. Dan has surpassed my expectations and it will go down as the smartest business move I make in my career. We worked together at OneTrust so had a good working relationship but getting to know him on a more personal level reinforces my respect for the guy. Incredible operator and GTM leader. He’s a good balance to my infinite energy of stress.

At the micro level, running the business is very much a rollercoaster. Within any given week I can expect a kick in the nuts followed by a high five from a client. Sometimes the same client. And sometimes the same day.

At the macro level, we continue to trend up and to the right. We are hitting our quarterly projections and have line of sight to how the end of year will end up. It’s very cool to be on the ‘business’ side of things. Figure out how we can juice pipeline and negotiate payment terms so we can meet our revenue goals.

We brought on a fractional CFO in June and the role has been a huge asset to how we run things. Pre-CFO we were flying blind and running off intuition. Now we have more data at out finger tips to make big decisions. Not sure if he reads this but I need to negotiate his rate down. ;-)

2023 —> 2024 we’ll see a revenue increase of 4x while maintaining strong margins thanks to our ability to deliver quick due to our experienced team and to our global workforce.

Last week our senior leadership team talked about the right type of organization design for the firm. This is something we will continue to think through. Typical consulting pyramid, reverse pyramid, rectangle? I’m in no rush to commit as the business will tell us if we listen hard enough.

Hm turns out I have a lot to talk about. I will write more. For a while I felt bad about working things other than the business but realize it’s important for me and the business to have a little space, even if just for a quick blog.

What questions do you have?

The End

2024 2H is about building for me. If you’re building, shoot me a text so we can schedule something. 404-731-7814.

Go big!

- Nik Fuller