1 00:00:04,490 --> 00:00:05,420 Destroy. 2 00:00:05,750 --> 00:00:08,220 OK Troy This is David Jones How are you. 3 00:00:08,230 --> 00:00:09,120 I am well here. 4 00:00:09,130 --> 00:00:10,040 How are you today. 5 00:00:10,060 --> 00:00:10,480 Good. 6 00:00:10,480 --> 00:00:12,370 Thanks for taking the time to speak with me. 7 00:00:12,610 --> 00:00:13,390 Oh my pleasure. 8 00:00:13,390 --> 00:00:14,590 Thanks for reaching out to me. 9 00:00:14,590 --> 00:00:15,390 How are you. 10 00:00:15,550 --> 00:00:16,960 Yeah pretty good. 11 00:00:16,960 --> 00:00:24,920 I'm totally interested in this just because it's looks like it's a really important player in the Chicago 12 00:00:24,920 --> 00:00:32,750 startup scene and not maybe you know that is not Venmo brain treats not these other you know sort of 13 00:00:32,840 --> 00:00:37,850 startups that I don't know seems to seem to come up most often in Chicago but it looks like it's doing 14 00:00:37,850 --> 00:00:38,900 fantastic. 15 00:00:39,250 --> 00:00:39,760 Yeah. 16 00:00:39,860 --> 00:00:42,190 We were getting some wonderful recognition. 17 00:00:42,280 --> 00:00:47,440 And yeah it's it's as I mentioned in my email it's been a fantastic ride. 18 00:00:47,450 --> 00:00:48,780 Cool. 19 00:00:48,830 --> 00:00:55,210 Yes so I mean I was just wondering you know first you know what like what what are you seeing out there. 20 00:00:55,490 --> 00:01:02,110 You know side in terms of you know the positioning within the startup community or like for example 21 00:01:02,120 --> 00:01:05,520 you guys are recruiting a lot of tech people right now. 22 00:01:05,910 --> 00:01:07,710 I don't know what you know what's going on. 23 00:01:08,180 --> 00:01:09,210 Yeah absolutely. 24 00:01:09,440 --> 00:01:15,890 So one of our biggest our biggest area is pretty much where we strongly focus on customer service which 25 00:01:15,890 --> 00:01:17,450 is our operations associate. 26 00:01:17,460 --> 00:01:24,140 So these team members are mainly playing the liaison role between our customers and people that we actually 27 00:01:24,140 --> 00:01:25,520 do business with. 28 00:01:25,520 --> 00:01:31,700 So other than that we do have strong tech side of developers and network engineers and whatnot that 29 00:01:31,700 --> 00:01:34,350 we actually need to so as well. 30 00:01:34,820 --> 00:01:35,270 Yeah. 31 00:01:35,390 --> 00:01:39,240 Cool yeah because I was just checking out the video learning a little bit more about the service. 32 00:01:39,260 --> 00:01:44,870 So these so the customer service side has to just engage with the facilities managers and stuff and 33 00:01:44,870 --> 00:01:47,390 say hey how's it going like that. 34 00:01:47,420 --> 00:01:48,020 Absolutely. 35 00:01:48,020 --> 00:01:54,200 So they're making sure that the customers like let's take sample one of our largest customers. 36 00:01:54,650 --> 00:02:00,090 So whatever they have in terms of their contract go as far as what work they need done. 37 00:02:00,230 --> 00:02:04,670 We contract that worked from them so that we're going to keep your prices stable across the board and 38 00:02:04,670 --> 00:02:09,440 we will actually find the people to maintain the services so that your store managers don't actually 39 00:02:09,440 --> 00:02:15,550 have to mess with that and take away their focus from their daily operations of running their location. 40 00:02:15,560 --> 00:02:20,830 So what are project manager operations managers or associates do they play that leads to the role of 41 00:02:20,820 --> 00:02:26,120 guns I mentioned earlier too or they're contacting the affiliates sourcing out the work making sure 42 00:02:26,120 --> 00:02:30,700 that we can see everything in real time through our technology making sure that everything is being 43 00:02:30,710 --> 00:02:36,050 done from start to finish and making sure also that the customer is actually satisfied with the work 44 00:02:36,050 --> 00:02:38,820 that's being done at each location and service. 45 00:02:38,840 --> 00:02:45,950 So yeah there's a lot of I can see that like a lot of communication with the vendors and basically vendor 46 00:02:45,950 --> 00:02:47,580 management it looks like. 47 00:02:47,810 --> 00:02:49,190 Absolutely cool. 48 00:02:49,190 --> 00:02:51,640 So what's the headcount now of the company. 49 00:02:51,800 --> 00:02:54,880 We're just approaching 300. 50 00:02:55,520 --> 00:02:58,690 And all of all of our own employees work in-house. 51 00:02:58,760 --> 00:03:04,720 We actually just have a couple that work as remote employees in the streets of our company going to 52 00:03:04,730 --> 00:03:09,050 be just different locations in certain regions and areas just representing us and making sure that you 53 00:03:09,050 --> 00:03:12,060 know again everything's satisfied. 54 00:03:12,430 --> 00:03:13,160 Cool. 55 00:03:13,520 --> 00:03:22,130 Yeah I mean and I was also hoping that you could give me your your feedback on the outlook and basically 56 00:03:22,760 --> 00:03:28,130 you know the transition that I'm seeing here which is that I've been working with with a small team 57 00:03:28,610 --> 00:03:36,350 with the Stanford startups lab here in the Bay Area and we got funding to do this project the project 58 00:03:36,350 --> 00:03:37,860 is successful. 59 00:03:37,880 --> 00:03:47,570 It's coming to a close and I have a history in in both management consulting and in in in recruitment 60 00:03:47,570 --> 00:03:50,170 I used to work with Robert Half you might know that company. 61 00:03:50,310 --> 00:03:54,390 I noticed that actually on your profile as well and we've worked with Robert has. 62 00:03:54,590 --> 00:03:55,310 Oh cool. 63 00:03:55,520 --> 00:04:00,650 And so yeah I mean ultimately you know I'm I do have an MBA from a great school and I'm looking to move 64 00:04:00,650 --> 00:04:07,520 into something that's a little bit more you know a little bit more of this sort of operations and maybe 65 00:04:07,520 --> 00:04:09,400 internal consulting type of thing. 66 00:04:09,580 --> 00:04:12,060 And you know I just wondered for somebody who is an expert. 67 00:04:12,080 --> 00:04:18,200 I mean do you see do you see that as a profile match that with you know that would make sense for an 68 00:04:18,200 --> 00:04:20,540 organization that needed somebody like that. 69 00:04:20,600 --> 00:04:22,060 I think possibly yeah. 70 00:04:22,550 --> 00:04:23,300 Yeah that's cool. 71 00:04:23,300 --> 00:04:23,830 All right. 72 00:04:23,940 --> 00:04:30,050 Yeah I mean it's I mean basically is there anything that you would suggest in terms of I don't know 73 00:04:30,080 --> 00:04:36,030 like working on the resume or how to present you know oneself when you're when you're trying to just 74 00:04:36,320 --> 00:04:40,100 sort of just just change function just a little bit. 75 00:04:40,100 --> 00:04:46,370 Not totally but you know just a little bit as far as changing into becoming more of like operations. 76 00:04:46,420 --> 00:04:47,660 Yes exactly fair. 77 00:04:47,740 --> 00:04:52,750 I mean one thing that our department really focuses on what we search out are people with excellent 78 00:04:52,750 --> 00:04:59,170 customer service skills that highlights those skills the skill attributes personality traits are obviously 79 00:04:59,180 --> 00:05:00,550 a huge match. 80 00:05:00,580 --> 00:05:06,030 We can pretty much teach anybody anything but you can't teach anybody niceness as far as the resume 81 00:05:06,040 --> 00:05:09,630 standpoint though what we do look for strong organizational skills. 82 00:05:09,950 --> 00:05:11,740 Multitasking. 83 00:05:12,050 --> 00:05:14,230 Five years. 84 00:05:14,620 --> 00:05:21,390 So those are those are key focal points that we actually to target and any kind of resume. 85 00:05:21,990 --> 00:05:23,940 So what's it like how do you guys. 86 00:05:23,950 --> 00:05:30,100 Is there like a cultural initiative with like create I don't know a certain kind of culture or hiring 87 00:05:30,100 --> 00:05:32,040 for a particular attitude or anything like that. 88 00:05:32,290 --> 00:05:32,740 Absolutely. 89 00:05:32,740 --> 00:05:35,530 I mean our culture here we are a very casual company. 90 00:05:35,530 --> 00:05:41,290 We do strongly believe and enforce positive work life balance. 91 00:05:41,320 --> 00:05:45,910 We like to make work enjoyable instead of just coming in and punching a clock or staring at the clock 92 00:05:45,910 --> 00:05:46,890 counting down the hours. 93 00:05:46,890 --> 00:05:51,550 We want to make sure that you're enjoying coming in and doing what you what you enjoy doing and not 94 00:05:51,550 --> 00:05:53,440 necessarily enjoy every aspect of it. 95 00:05:53,440 --> 00:05:57,700 But we definitely want you to feel that you have a stable career here with the company and that you 96 00:05:57,700 --> 00:05:59,920 enjoy coming into work on a daily basis. 97 00:05:59,970 --> 00:06:00,920 Cool. 98 00:06:01,340 --> 00:06:04,860 Yes so what's so what's your what's your what's your outlook. 99 00:06:04,860 --> 00:06:09,310 Troy I mean I notice that you've really called the ranks with this company I mean where it where would 100 00:06:09,310 --> 00:06:12,250 you see yourself in like five years. 101 00:06:12,300 --> 00:06:16,120 For example continuing with the company. 102 00:06:16,450 --> 00:06:22,560 I would love to consideringly with the company as it is right now I'm actually going for my Ph are on 103 00:06:22,580 --> 00:06:23,400 standing for that. 104 00:06:23,420 --> 00:06:29,670 So I take my time actually in December of this year shortly after the questions. 105 00:06:29,680 --> 00:06:36,400 And so with that I definitely want to develop a stronger recruiting recruitment aspects of for this 106 00:06:36,400 --> 00:06:43,030 company put more metrics into place for the five years that my growth has been so fast it's almost hard 107 00:06:43,030 --> 00:06:44,780 to say with this company. 108 00:06:44,970 --> 00:06:50,860 I know it definitely and I really enjoy the HRA aspect of it and I thoroughly enjoy being on the recruiting 109 00:06:50,860 --> 00:06:52,430 aspect of it as well. 110 00:06:52,540 --> 00:06:55,500 I like meeting people working with people. 111 00:06:55,780 --> 00:07:01,410 Yeah think mentoring and communication with people and you know making sure there is a proper fit and 112 00:07:01,810 --> 00:07:06,610 you know if there's not I definitely want to be upfront with somebody and you know the most pleasant 113 00:07:06,610 --> 00:07:09,910 way possible instead of just being a harsh cut off. 114 00:07:10,210 --> 00:07:11,740 Yeah I understand that. 115 00:07:12,040 --> 00:07:13,300 Cool. 116 00:07:13,630 --> 00:07:14,000 All right. 117 00:07:14,020 --> 00:07:21,100 Well you know I wonder is there if I was to look for opportunities with this what do you think the best 118 00:07:21,100 --> 00:07:24,700 way to approach that is opportunity is a one best way. 119 00:07:24,700 --> 00:07:28,820 We have everything posted through Indeed and LinkedIn actually as well. 120 00:07:28,900 --> 00:07:33,970 Everything does go through our website and everything is then filtered into our applicant tracking system 121 00:07:33,970 --> 00:07:37,330 which is what we use which is a recruiter box actually. 122 00:07:37,330 --> 00:07:42,640 So I guess that's the best way to actually learn more about the opportunities that we offer and we change 123 00:07:42,640 --> 00:07:48,180 just just daily would get actually visiting our website which is just a dot com. 124 00:07:48,390 --> 00:07:50,150 Ok cool. 125 00:07:50,280 --> 00:07:53,710 So yeah I mean I'll definitely I really appreciate the help. 126 00:07:53,820 --> 00:07:59,460 You know my wife and I are moving out to Chicago here in about two weeks. 127 00:07:59,710 --> 00:08:04,980 And as I used to work and live in Chicago for four years so I definitely know the city. 128 00:08:05,250 --> 00:08:06,460 But anyway yeah you know so. 129 00:08:06,480 --> 00:08:08,560 So we'll be out there and. 130 00:08:09,140 --> 00:08:13,620 And you know I'll definitely leave you Illington recommendation for you know taking the time to speak 131 00:08:13,620 --> 00:08:15,890 with me and let me know a little bit about your culture. 132 00:08:16,200 --> 00:08:20,960 I really do appreciate it and I appreciate the perspective on the you know what's happening in the in 133 00:08:20,960 --> 00:08:22,620 the sort of startup world in Chicago.