Ever wondered how an IT maestro turns the tide during challenging economic climates? Jeff Roberts of Innovation Vista joins us to recount the storybook transition from passionate IT aficionado to the mastermind of a consultancy firm, navigating the choppy waters of the pandemic's onset. We venture into the strategic intricacies of bootstrapping a business that shuns the traditional bench model, opting instead for a dynamic network of freelance C-level IT consultants. Jeff's narrative is a testament to adaptability and foresight, highlighting how deep industry knowledge can be the linchpin for providing strategic IT leadership that resonates with clients.
The digital transformation wave is here, and with it, AI has become the talk of the town for small to mid-sized businesses wrestling with the "to automate or not to automate" conundrum. In our dialogue with Jeff, we peel back the layers of AI implementation, examining the delicate interplay between the perceived need to keep up with technology and the tangible benefits it can offer. As Jeff imparts his wisdom, listeners gain an insider's perspective on evolving their business models with AI—striking the right balance to fuel efficiency and growth, while establishing a strong brand presence in a saturated marketplace. Join us and uncover the tangible strategies that can help your business not just survive, but thrive in the digital era.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Hey folks, welcome back to the growing Lean podcast
sponsored by Lean DiscoveryGroup, an award-winning app
development firm based out ofVirginia.
This is your host, dylan Burke,also known as Deige, and I'm
happy to be here today with JeffRoberts, founder and CEO at
Innovation Vista.
Welcome, jeff.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Well, thank you, dylan, for having me on.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
It's my absolute pleasure, jeff.
So, to get us started, can youtell us a little bit about
yourself, your background andhow you ended up at Innovation
Vista?
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Sure, yeah.
So I have been an IT person forreally my entire life, from the
time I was a teenager, justfascinated with computers and
what they could do, so studiedthat in college, spent my whole
career in that space, had achance to enter management for a
(00:55):
finance company in my 20s andreally have been in IT
leadership since then, had acareer as a CIO at five
different mid-sized companies,mainly around finance and real
estate, up to 2019, and thecompany I was last CIO for was
(01:17):
acquired by a large competitor.
Rather than try to find anotherCIO role, I decided to found
Innovation Vista instead andbegin to offer some of the
things I've had some successwith as a CIO to small and
mid-sized companies.
Maybe who can't afford thatfull-time C-level IT leader.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
Okay, that's awesome.
And when did you start?
This was in 2019, correct, late2019, yes, so right before
COVID.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
horrible entrepreneurial timing.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Although there were some silver linings in the
clouds definitely at 2020 was arough year, though, but gave me
a chance to get my feet under meand figure out really where the
opportunity was going to be inthis space.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
Yeah, 100%, and I can imagine it's not a terrible
time to have been doing whatyou're doing, because people are
looking to scale down andremote work was becoming normal,
so it was actually quite a goodtime to enter the industry
market.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
Yeah, well said For sure, conducting business via
conference call like this,virtually remotely that has been
a game changer for what we do.
And yeah, I just I think thedigital transformation of the
whole world, sped up by probablya decade or more with what
(02:50):
happened in those 12 months.
And so, yeah, it has been agrowing need, a growing sort of
understanding, I guess, ofbusiness leaders of how
fractional executive serviceswould work and more of a
willingness on their part tothink about that for their
(03:12):
company.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
Yeah, for sure.
And since you launched, when,which period has been has seen
the biggest growth for you?
Was it that initial launchingperiod or was it more?
Speaker 2 (03:25):
You know we well, whatever traction we had early
in 2020 was shut down in Marchand held on pause for about six
or seven months until the fall.
But since the third quarter of2020, we've grown every quarter,
so it has been, you know, justkind of a steady ramp up.
(03:49):
It's not exponential growth,but that's probably good for me
to keep my sanity as we grow andto be able to build some
processes and get the rightsupport team and outsourced
partners and things like that inplace.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
Okay, amazing, and for something like this, I can
imagine that retention is a hugeKPI for you.
So if you've grown everyquarter, does that mean you
retaining most of your customers?
Speaker 2 (04:18):
It is Well the ones where that makes sense, right
yeah?
We have some clients that engageus for a project opportunity
where there's sort of a definedstatement of work and goal and
the achievement of which meansthe end of the project.
So we don't count that as aclient loss.
(04:38):
But yeah, a lot of what we dois more ongoing the virtual CIO,
the IT advisory kind ofservices.
That's really a company wantingus to join their IT leadership
team or to serve as the ultimateIT leader on an ongoing basis
(04:59):
and help them navigate thechanging landscape and AI and
data analytics and all thethings that have changed so much
over these last few years.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
Okay, yeah, 100 percent, and can you help me
understand a little bit moreabout how it works, because I
can imagine you've only got somuch time that you can dedicate
or spread yourself over, right?
So do you have other peoplethat you bring on when you get
full?
Speaker 2 (05:28):
Exactly, yeah, actually, I was intrigued by the
whole subject of your podcastjust for this reason, because
I've spent a lot of timethinking about how do you grow a
services business and how doyou really scale something like
this.
So we've made a couple ofchoices early on that have
proven to be really powerful forus.
(05:52):
The first was that we would notbuild a bench A lot of
consulting firms.
They hire a few experts andthen they hire marketing and
sales to go find projects forthose experts to work on, and
that might be better on a marginbasis than what we're doing.
(06:13):
That's debatable, but where itfor sure falls short is
especially in the C-level ITworld we live in.
The industry knowledge is justcritical.
It makes all the difference.
And trying to serve new clientswho walk in the door with
(06:35):
whoever it is that might be onthe end of the bench for us that
doesn't have an active clientjust really troubled me, and
I've seen other firms make thismistake.
It's just a square peg and around hole.
No matter how smart that personmight be, if they haven't worked
in the vertical that thatclient operates in, they're not
(06:55):
going to know what they need toknow to really be strategic and
they spend the first couple ofmonths of an engagement asking a
bunch of questions rather thanbringing ideas to the table.
So we avoided that 100 percentand started from the outset,
building a network instead of abench, and so what we've done is
(07:16):
that all of the freelance CIO,CTO, CISO, CDO kind of
consultants out there worldwidein English speaking markets
everyone that I can find thatI've not yet spoken to we reach
out to more on an ongoing basis,and we are approaching 400
(07:40):
consultants that have made thecut for us, so to speak, that we
feel comfortable with them.
You know kind of serving clientneeds in certain kinds of
companies, certain kinds ofprojects, and we know what those
are and they know about us andthey're comfortable being
subcontracted when those kindsof projects come up.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
OK, yeah, that makes a lot of sense.
So basically you're kind oflike a marketplace connecting
fractional CIOs to businesses.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
We are.
In some ways it's a little bitof a brokerage and a guide into
this very complex ecosystem offreelance IIT executives.
We do some things to supportour consultants after they're on
an engagement as well, so we gopast just the matchmaking
(08:35):
component of it.
We've got some intellectualproperty, especially around
finding revenue streams withtechnology, market share
improvements for clients usingtech capabilities, things like
that.
But for sure, the main powerthat we bring is the expertise
(08:56):
that's already in the mind ofour consultant.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
Yeah, 100%.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
And how does it?
Speaker 1 (09:03):
work from a business perspective.
Do you take a cut of their payor does the business pay you a
finder's fee?
Speaker 2 (09:11):
We're generally compensating the consultant and
then invoicing the client andwe're taking less than our
competitors.
We're taking a minority of thebill rate.
Okay, most editors, you knowthere's there's a variety of how
they operate, but many takehalf or more of the bill rate
(09:33):
when they have found a client,or the consultant.
So you know, we try to be aslean as possible in terms of our
operation, our back office.
I sort of practice what Ipreach.
We've outsourced a lot toexperts and we've done that on a
fractional basis and on atransactional basis, as opposed
(09:53):
to hiring a bunch of full timesupport staff, and that's let us
really keep our overhead costsvery low so that we can keep
less of that bill rate.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
Okay, amazing.
Yeah, sounds like an epicbusiness model.
I love that.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
It's worked.
Yeah, it's.
What really is powerful is thematch we can make for the client
because they often are blownaway that we can find someone
that has done something similarto what they're looking to do in
their industry or somethingadjacent, even if it's leaving
edge.
We can find someone who's who'sdone something that's very
(10:32):
relevant and really helps themknow the landscape and their way
around the block, avoiding themajor mistakes and bubbles.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
Yeah, 100%.
So do you?
Do you give them a couple ofoptions and then they have some
interviews and then choose theright fit?
That I'd work.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
Often they trust us to make the choice and we'll
just bring the very best matchto the table.
Okay, there are a few.
Some it's a client preferencething and we're okay to do some,
you know identify two or threefinalists in some cases and let
them make the choice.
So we operate either way.
(11:12):
But but often they're coming tous because they realize that
they don't really know how todiscern who's the best choice,
right?
Anyone could Google or do aLinkedIn search for freelance
CIO and you will find over 1000of those people out there at any
(11:32):
one time.
And you know choosing okay,well, who's the right person for
my project in this industry?
And we're trying to do this.
And we are, you know, formal,with committee control
structures, or informal, as asmall, you know, family owned
business.
Just understanding what reallymatters is a lot of where we add
(11:58):
value to the whole equation.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
Okay, that's awesome.
That's awesome, and we spokeabout how the pandemic boosted
us 10 years, like into thefuture, technologically speaking
.
How has AI entering the gameaffected your business?
Because I believe that's alsoboosted us another five to 10
years, if not more.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
Absolutely.
Yeah, it's.
You know it's funny, it is.
I tell people a lot that AI hasbeen the inverse of a lot of it
problem solving from years past, where before you identified a
business problem and you went towork determining what could be
(12:41):
done technologically in order tosolve that AI, it came so fast
and so powerfully particularlywith the launch of chat, gpt
three publicly last Novemberthat it was sort of a problem in
search of solutions, and we hada lot of mid sized companies
(13:03):
reach out and say look, you know, we want to do something with
AI.
We're not sure what that is.
We want your help indetermining our AI strategy, or
our board of directors wants usto do something, or our
competitors are doing it and wewant to be able to tell our, our
customers that we're doingsomething also.
(13:23):
So the fear of missing out andthe pressure from from powers
that be an ownership groups hasbeen really significant in the
space, especially for small andmid sized companies, and where
we can help is just, you know,navigating and guiding them
around the landscape of the artof the possible.
(13:45):
There's a tremendous amount ofhype still around AI and people
have made promises and claimsabout capabilities that are
nowhere near ready for primetime, or if they are, they would be
so cost prohibitive in terms ofthe analysis and CPU and cloud
(14:07):
load that it would be really notfeasible to do it.
So we help them navigate thatand the tradeoffs between what's
possible and what's possible.
For 20% of that cost.
That gets you 80% of the waythere and so, yeah, there's a
(14:27):
lot of value add there just frompeople who have run successful
AI projects and started up AIprograms.
We've got several hundred ofthose in our network and that
experience, even if it's only acouple of years, you have a
couple of years head start onthe rest of the world.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
Yeah, exactly 100%, and that's kind of what we do is
we build AI-centric tools tohelp supercharge business growth
, and it's part of us, too, likegrowing lean.
We help them do it for as cheapas possible in as quick amounts
of time as possible, and it'sbeen awesome.
It's great to see what ispossible and how it actually
(15:09):
does help businesses.
We're not just selling theproduct, we helping their
business grow, so it's reallycool.
Are there any tools that youuse within your business that
helps automate your workflows ormakes your processes more
efficient?
Speaker 2 (15:25):
Yeah, absolutely.
Again, like you said, part ofgrowing lean and part of
practicing what we preach, so tospeak.
We have some AI that helps uson our marketing front outreach,
customized messaging fordifferent audiences.
We've got some RPA automationthat helps us just with basic
(15:48):
back office paperwork andtracking and things of that
nature.
So we are fairly high tech atthe same time as we're helping
our clients to figure out how tobe high tech.
Speaker 1 (16:01):
Okay, that's awesome.
I love that.
And back to the business sideof things what have been the
biggest challenges or obstaclesthat you've faced and how did
you overcome them?
Speaker 2 (16:12):
You know, I think, a lot of standard business
challenges like branding, justvisibility and awareness in the
market, getting the word outthat we exist.
This was a bootstrap company, soI bought the web domain.
It had never been operatedbefore, no one ever heard of
(16:34):
innovation, vista, and now weneed people to know that we
exist.
So just a lot of challengesaround that, and it's been very
humbling, to be honest with youas a tech business leader just
how difficult that really is,because mindshares, they call it
we just are bombarded every daywith marketing messages and
(16:57):
advertising and so forth, andeven if someone hears about us,
the likelihood that theyremember that the next day is so
low that it just needs thisconstant sort of freshness and
constant effort in order to stayin front of people's minds and
(17:17):
for them to think about us whenthat need does arise and when
the time might be right for ourservices, because often when
they hear about us the firsttime, it's an intriguing idea.
A lot of people like what we do, but if it doesn't fit, they're
going to discard that and moveon to the next thing on their
(17:37):
to-do list.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
Yeah, 100%.
That's.
Couldn't agree more.
And you said you bootstrappedthe business right, so have you.
Are you still completelybootstrapped, or has there been
any collaborations orpartnerships that have helped?
Speaker 2 (17:53):
you.
Well, we have plenty ofpartnerships, but not in an
equity form.
You know the nature of what wedo being focused on C level
services really means that weneed partnerships in order to
bring solutions to our customers.
So we are not, you know, doingcustom software development or
(18:15):
system hosting or supportservices or any of the other
things that a lot of IT servicecompanies do.
And that's on purpose, becausewe tell people we are the
opposite of land and expand.
We are there to give you thebest guidance we can, not to
find work for more people backat the home office.
And that's in stark contrast toa lot of consulting firms out
(18:39):
there, obviously.
But it means that when we makerecommendations that they need
to upgrade a certain system orthat the economics of a custom
software package might makesense for them in certain ways.
We want to bring reallyreputable and talented groups to
(18:59):
the table so that we can helpmake that happen for them,
rather than just to get them towork, rather than just throw the
recommendation over the walland, you know, don't do anything
to make it happen.
So we're constantly looking forpartners in that way and, you
know, people that work well withus and understand how we want
(19:19):
to treat clients.
But up to now we are stillbootstrapped and we've not had
to bring in an outside partneror anyone like that.
I'm very reluctant to do thatunless they're really really
aligned with my vision for howthis model really ought to give
(19:39):
clients the very best option fortheir IT strategy and
leadership, and I don't knowthat that partner's out there
they might be.
Never say never, I guess.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
Yeah, 100%.
I appreciate your time today,Jeff.
Thanks so much for yourinsights.
Before we go, if you could giveone piece of advice to other
business owners looking tosucceed in this ever-changing
technological world, what wouldthat be?
Speaker 2 (20:11):
Great question.
I would say don't be afraid todo something different.
And that sounds a little bitcliche, but you know this
growing, lean and building anetwork instead of a bench.
You know, a lot of peopleassumed when I mentioned to them
that I was starting thisconsulting firm that I would do
(20:33):
it the very traditional waybecause companies have succeeded
doing it that way and Iprobably could have and maybe
succeeded in some form.
But I would have looked likeeveryone else.
And so I would say you knowentrepreneurs that have their
own idea that you really want tooperate differently, and
(20:54):
especially if your differenceslead to better outcomes and
better results for the client.
Go with it and really believe init, because they can tell the
difference.
The word gets around.
Reputations build, and honestly, in both directions.
If reputations are good, thenthat's an asset for you.
(21:18):
You know from then on, as yougrow, if your reputation is bad.
I have a feeling it would bejust impossible to overcome that
at some point.
So go with your gut and,especially if it means taking
better care of the client, don'tbe afraid to be different 100%.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
Thanks so much for that, jeff, and thanks for being
on the show.
What is the best way for peopleto reach out to Jeff Roberts if
you have any offers for them totake advantage of If they're
looking to follow your journey?
Speaker 2 (21:50):
Yeah, so I'm posting pretty actively on LinkedIn and
an X.
We've got a website, innovationVISTAcom, where we've got a
library of our thoughtleadership pieces, webinars,
things like that that they'reout there for free for people to
peruse and certainly we welcomea message.
(22:12):
If anyone has a question, we'rehappy to chat.
It doesn't need to lead tobillable revenue for us.
I just love talking about thisstuff and we would be happy to
get on a call at any point.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
Amazing Thanks.
So much, jeff.
Thank you.
Have a great rest of your day,you too.
Hey folks, welcome back to the growing Lean podcast
sponsored by Lean DiscoveryGroup, an award-winning app
development firm based out ofVirginia.
This is your host, dylan Burke,also known as Deige, and I'm
happy to be here today with JeffRoberts, founder and CEO at
Innovation Vista.
Welcome, jeff.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Well, thank you, dylan, for having me on.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
It's my absolute pleasure, jeff.
So, to get us started, can youtell us a little bit about
yourself, your background andhow you ended up at Innovation
Vista?
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Sure, yeah.
So I have been an IT person forreally my entire life, from the
time I was a teenager, justfascinated with computers and
what they could do, so studiedthat in college, spent my whole
career in that space, had achance to enter management for a
(00:55):
finance company in my 20s andreally have been in IT
leadership since then, had acareer as a CIO at five
different mid-sized companies,mainly around finance and real
estate, up to 2019, and thecompany I was last CIO for was
(01:17):
acquired by a large competitor.
Rather than try to find anotherCIO role, I decided to found
Innovation Vista instead andbegin to offer some of the
things I've had some successwith as a CIO to small and
mid-sized companies.
Maybe who can't afford thatfull-time C-level IT leader.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
Okay, that's awesome.
And when did you start?
This was in 2019, correct, late2019, yes, so right before
COVID.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
horrible entrepreneurial timing.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Although there were some silver linings in the
clouds definitely at 2020 was arough year, though, but gave me
a chance to get my feet under meand figure out really where the
opportunity was going to be inthis space.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
Yeah, 100%, and I can imagine it's not a terrible
time to have been doing whatyou're doing, because people are
looking to scale down andremote work was becoming normal,
so it was actually quite a goodtime to enter the industry
market.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
Yeah, well said For sure, conducting business via
conference call like this,virtually remotely that has been
a game changer for what we do.
And yeah, I just I think thedigital transformation of the
whole world, sped up by probablya decade or more with what
(02:50):
happened in those 12 months.
And so, yeah, it has been agrowing need, a growing sort of
understanding, I guess, ofbusiness leaders of how
fractional executive serviceswould work and more of a
willingness on their part tothink about that for their
(03:12):
company.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
Yeah, for sure.
And since you launched, when,which period has been has seen
the biggest growth for you?
Was it that initial launchingperiod or was it more?
Speaker 2 (03:25):
You know we well, whatever traction we had early
in 2020 was shut down in Marchand held on pause for about six
or seven months until the fall.
But since the third quarter of2020, we've grown every quarter,
so it has been, you know, justkind of a steady ramp up.
(03:49):
It's not exponential growth,but that's probably good for me
to keep my sanity as we grow andto be able to build some
processes and get the rightsupport team and outsourced
partners and things like that inplace.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
Okay, amazing, and for something like this, I can
imagine that retention is a hugeKPI for you.
So if you've grown everyquarter, does that mean you
retaining most of your customers?
Speaker 2 (04:18):
It is Well the ones where that makes sense, right
yeah?
We have some clients that engageus for a project opportunity
where there's sort of a definedstatement of work and goal and
the achievement of which meansthe end of the project.
So we don't count that as aclient loss.
(04:38):
But yeah, a lot of what we dois more ongoing the virtual CIO,
the IT advisory kind ofservices.
That's really a company wantingus to join their IT leadership
team or to serve as the ultimateIT leader on an ongoing basis
(04:59):
and help them navigate thechanging landscape and AI and
data analytics and all thethings that have changed so much
over these last few years.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
Okay, yeah, 100 percent, and can you help me
understand a little bit moreabout how it works, because I
can imagine you've only got somuch time that you can dedicate
or spread yourself over, right?
So do you have other peoplethat you bring on when you get
full?
Speaker 2 (05:28):
Exactly, yeah, actually, I was intrigued by the
whole subject of your podcastjust for this reason, because
I've spent a lot of timethinking about how do you grow a
services business and how doyou really scale something like
this.
So we've made a couple ofchoices early on that have
proven to be really powerful forus.
(05:52):
The first was that we would notbuild a bench A lot of
consulting firms.
They hire a few experts andthen they hire marketing and
sales to go find projects forthose experts to work on, and
that might be better on a marginbasis than what we're doing.
(06:13):
That's debatable, but where itfor sure falls short is
especially in the C-level ITworld we live in.
The industry knowledge is justcritical.
It makes all the difference.
And trying to serve new clientswho walk in the door with
(06:35):
whoever it is that might be onthe end of the bench for us that
doesn't have an active clientjust really troubled me, and
I've seen other firms make thismistake.
It's just a square peg and around hole.
No matter how smart that personmight be, if they haven't worked
in the vertical that thatclient operates in, they're not
(06:55):
going to know what they need toknow to really be strategic and
they spend the first couple ofmonths of an engagement asking a
bunch of questions rather thanbringing ideas to the table.
So we avoided that 100 percentand started from the outset,
building a network instead of abench, and so what we've done is
(07:16):
that all of the freelance CIO,CTO, CISO, CDO kind of
consultants out there worldwidein English speaking markets
everyone that I can find thatI've not yet spoken to we reach
out to more on an ongoing basis,and we are approaching 400
(07:40):
consultants that have made thecut for us, so to speak, that we
feel comfortable with them.
You know kind of serving clientneeds in certain kinds of
companies, certain kinds ofprojects, and we know what those
are and they know about us andthey're comfortable being
subcontracted when those kindsof projects come up.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
OK, yeah, that makes a lot of sense.
So basically you're kind oflike a marketplace connecting
fractional CIOs to businesses.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
We are.
In some ways it's a little bitof a brokerage and a guide into
this very complex ecosystem offreelance IIT executives.
We do some things to supportour consultants after they're on
an engagement as well, so we gopast just the matchmaking
(08:35):
component of it.
We've got some intellectualproperty, especially around
finding revenue streams withtechnology, market share
improvements for clients usingtech capabilities, things like
that.
But for sure, the main powerthat we bring is the expertise
(08:56):
that's already in the mind ofour consultant.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
Yeah, 100%.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
And how does it?
Speaker 1 (09:03):
work from a business perspective.
Do you take a cut of their payor does the business pay you a
finder's fee?
Speaker 2 (09:11):
We're generally compensating the consultant and
then invoicing the client andwe're taking less than our
competitors.
We're taking a minority of thebill rate.
Okay, most editors, you knowthere's there's a variety of how
they operate, but many takehalf or more of the bill rate
(09:33):
when they have found a client,or the consultant.
So you know, we try to be aslean as possible in terms of our
operation, our back office.
I sort of practice what Ipreach.
We've outsourced a lot toexperts and we've done that on a
fractional basis and on atransactional basis, as opposed
(09:53):
to hiring a bunch of full timesupport staff, and that's let us
really keep our overhead costsvery low so that we can keep
less of that bill rate.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
Okay, amazing.
Yeah, sounds like an epicbusiness model.
I love that.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
It's worked.
Yeah, it's.
What really is powerful is thematch we can make for the client
because they often are blownaway that we can find someone
that has done something similarto what they're looking to do in
their industry or somethingadjacent, even if it's leaving
edge.
We can find someone who's who'sdone something that's very
(10:32):
relevant and really helps themknow the landscape and their way
around the block, avoiding themajor mistakes and bubbles.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
Yeah, 100%.
So do you?
Do you give them a couple ofoptions and then they have some
interviews and then choose theright fit?
That I'd work.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
Often they trust us to make the choice and we'll
just bring the very best matchto the table.
Okay, there are a few.
Some it's a client preferencething and we're okay to do some,
you know identify two or threefinalists in some cases and let
them make the choice.
So we operate either way.
(11:12):
But but often they're coming tous because they realize that
they don't really know how todiscern who's the best choice,
right?
Anyone could Google or do aLinkedIn search for freelance
CIO and you will find over 1000of those people out there at any
(11:32):
one time.
And you know choosing okay,well, who's the right person for
my project in this industry?
And we're trying to do this.
And we are, you know, formal,with committee control
structures, or informal, as asmall, you know, family owned
business.
Just understanding what reallymatters is a lot of where we add
(11:58):
value to the whole equation.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
Okay, that's awesome.
That's awesome, and we spokeabout how the pandemic boosted
us 10 years, like into thefuture, technologically speaking
.
How has AI entering the gameaffected your business?
Because I believe that's alsoboosted us another five to 10
years, if not more.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
Absolutely.
Yeah, it's.
You know it's funny, it is.
I tell people a lot that AI hasbeen the inverse of a lot of it
problem solving from years past, where before you identified a
business problem and you went towork determining what could be
(12:41):
done technologically in order tosolve that AI, it came so fast
and so powerfully particularlywith the launch of chat, gpt
three publicly last Novemberthat it was sort of a problem in
search of solutions, and we hada lot of mid sized companies
(13:03):
reach out and say look, you know, we want to do something with
AI.
We're not sure what that is.
We want your help indetermining our AI strategy, or
our board of directors wants usto do something, or our
competitors are doing it and wewant to be able to tell our, our
customers that we're doingsomething also.
(13:23):
So the fear of missing out andthe pressure from from powers
that be an ownership groups hasbeen really significant in the
space, especially for small andmid sized companies, and where
we can help is just, you know,navigating and guiding them
around the landscape of the artof the possible.
(13:45):
There's a tremendous amount ofhype still around AI and people
have made promises and claimsabout capabilities that are
nowhere near ready for primetime, or if they are, they would be
so cost prohibitive in terms ofthe analysis and CPU and cloud
(14:07):
load that it would be really notfeasible to do it.
So we help them navigate thatand the tradeoffs between what's
possible and what's possible.
For 20% of that cost.
That gets you 80% of the waythere and so, yeah, there's a
(14:27):
lot of value add there just frompeople who have run successful
AI projects and started up AIprograms.
We've got several hundred ofthose in our network and that
experience, even if it's only acouple of years, you have a
couple of years head start onthe rest of the world.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
Yeah, exactly 100%, and that's kind of what we do is
we build AI-centric tools tohelp supercharge business growth
, and it's part of us, too, likegrowing lean.
We help them do it for as cheapas possible in as quick amounts
of time as possible, and it'sbeen awesome.
It's great to see what ispossible and how it actually
(15:09):
does help businesses.
We're not just selling theproduct, we helping their
business grow, so it's reallycool.
Are there any tools that youuse within your business that
helps automate your workflows ormakes your processes more
efficient?
Speaker 2 (15:25):
Yeah, absolutely.
Again, like you said, part ofgrowing lean and part of
practicing what we preach, so tospeak.
We have some AI that helps uson our marketing front outreach,
customized messaging fordifferent audiences.
We've got some RPA automationthat helps us just with basic
(15:48):
back office paperwork andtracking and things of that
nature.
So we are fairly high tech atthe same time as we're helping
our clients to figure out how tobe high tech.
Speaker 1 (16:01):
Okay, that's awesome.
I love that.
And back to the business sideof things what have been the
biggest challenges or obstaclesthat you've faced and how did
you overcome them?
Speaker 2 (16:12):
You know, I think, a lot of standard business
challenges like branding, justvisibility and awareness in the
market, getting the word outthat we exist.
This was a bootstrap company, soI bought the web domain.
It had never been operatedbefore, no one ever heard of
(16:34):
innovation, vista, and now weneed people to know that we
exist.
So just a lot of challengesaround that, and it's been very
humbling, to be honest with youas a tech business leader just
how difficult that really is,because mindshares, they call it
we just are bombarded every daywith marketing messages and
(16:57):
advertising and so forth, andeven if someone hears about us,
the likelihood that theyremember that the next day is so
low that it just needs thisconstant sort of freshness and
constant effort in order to stayin front of people's minds and
(17:17):
for them to think about us whenthat need does arise and when
the time might be right for ourservices, because often when
they hear about us the firsttime, it's an intriguing idea.
A lot of people like what we do, but if it doesn't fit, they're
going to discard that and moveon to the next thing on their
(17:37):
to-do list.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
Yeah, 100%.
That's.
Couldn't agree more.
And you said you bootstrappedthe business right, so have you.
Are you still completelybootstrapped, or has there been
any collaborations orpartnerships that have helped?
Speaker 2 (17:53):
you.
Well, we have plenty ofpartnerships, but not in an
equity form.
You know the nature of what wedo being focused on C level
services really means that weneed partnerships in order to
bring solutions to our customers.
So we are not, you know, doingcustom software development or
(18:15):
system hosting or supportservices or any of the other
things that a lot of IT servicecompanies do.
And that's on purpose, becausewe tell people we are the
opposite of land and expand.
We are there to give you thebest guidance we can, not to
find work for more people backat the home office.
And that's in stark contrast toa lot of consulting firms out
(18:39):
there, obviously.
But it means that when we makerecommendations that they need
to upgrade a certain system orthat the economics of a custom
software package might makesense for them in certain ways.
We want to bring reallyreputable and talented groups to
(18:59):
the table so that we can helpmake that happen for them,
rather than just to get them towork, rather than just throw the
recommendation over the walland, you know, don't do anything
to make it happen.
So we're constantly looking forpartners in that way and, you
know, people that work well withus and understand how we want
(19:19):
to treat clients.
But up to now we are stillbootstrapped and we've not had
to bring in an outside partneror anyone like that.
I'm very reluctant to do thatunless they're really really
aligned with my vision for howthis model really ought to give
(19:39):
clients the very best option fortheir IT strategy and
leadership, and I don't knowthat that partner's out there
they might be.
Never say never, I guess.
Speaker 1 (19:52):
Yeah, 100%.
I appreciate your time today,Jeff.
Thanks so much for yourinsights.
Before we go, if you could giveone piece of advice to other
business owners looking tosucceed in this ever-changing
technological world, what wouldthat be?
Speaker 2 (20:11):
Great question.
I would say don't be afraid todo something different.
And that sounds a little bitcliche, but you know this
growing, lean and building anetwork instead of a bench.
You know, a lot of peopleassumed when I mentioned to them
that I was starting thisconsulting firm that I would do
(20:33):
it the very traditional waybecause companies have succeeded
doing it that way and Iprobably could have and maybe
succeeded in some form.
But I would have looked likeeveryone else.
And so I would say you knowentrepreneurs that have their
own idea that you really want tooperate differently, and
(20:54):
especially if your differenceslead to better outcomes and
better results for the client.
Go with it and really believe init, because they can tell the
difference.
The word gets around.
Reputations build, and honestly, in both directions.
If reputations are good, thenthat's an asset for you.
(21:18):
You know from then on, as yougrow, if your reputation is bad.
I have a feeling it would bejust impossible to overcome that
at some point.
So go with your gut and,especially if it means taking
better care of the client, don'tbe afraid to be different 100%.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
Thanks so much for that, jeff, and thanks for being
on the show.
What is the best way for peopleto reach out to Jeff Roberts if
you have any offers for them totake advantage of If they're
looking to follow your journey?
Speaker 2 (21:50):
Yeah, so I'm posting pretty actively on LinkedIn and
an X.
We've got a website, innovationVISTAcom, where we've got a
library of our thoughtleadership pieces, webinars,
things like that that they'reout there for free for people to
peruse and certainly we welcomea message.
(22:12):
If anyone has a question, we'rehappy to chat.
It doesn't need to lead tobillable revenue for us.
I just love talking about thisstuff and we would be happy to
get on a call at any point.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
Amazing Thanks.
So much, jeff.
Thank you.
Have a great rest of your day,you too.
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