July 22, 2024 • 40 mins
As we near one year since starting In The Thick of It, we're working on a celebratory episode. In the meantime, we'd love for you to catch up on some founder stories you may have missed.
Last year, we kicked off the podcast with our first guest: Chelsea Curtis, Founder & Managing Partner of Seaport Consulting, a successful Salesforce consulting firm in Boston, MA. Chelsea shares her path to entrepreneurship, discussing the challenges and triumphs she encountered along the way. She highlights the importance of taking risks, building strong client relationships, and sticking to her values. Chelsea also provides valuable insights into the hiring process and the significance of investing in technology for business growth. Whether you're a founder or aspiring entrepreneur, this episode offers valuable lessons and inspiration for building a thriving company.
***
About Chelsea:
Chelsea is a four-time certified Salesforce professional with over 10 years of experience consulting, implementing, and supporting the Salesforce platform. As Managing Partner, Chelsea oversees all aspects of the business and directly manages the consulting team. Prior to founding Seaport Consulting, Chelsea worked as a technical project manager who successfully led a company-wide Salesforce implementation, and played golf professionally on the LPGA Futures Tour. In addition to leading Seaport, Chelsea sits on the board of Mass Golf, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that is dedicated to advancing golf in Massachusetts, and serves as the chair for their diversity, equity, and inclusion committee.
About Seaport Consulting:
Seaport Consulting is a Boston-based consulting firm who helps companies implement, integrate, and enhance Salesforce. Seaport's approach marries your goals, your people, and your processes with a customized Salesforce solution that's right for you.
To learn more, visit seaportconsulting.com.
***
If you or a founder you know would like to be a guest on In The Thick of It, email us at intro@founderstory.us
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hey, listeners, this is Scott Hollrah.
It's hard to believe that we launchedIn The Thick of It almost a year ago.
As we're nearing our first anniversary,
we're working hard on a celebratory episode.
In the meantime, we'd love for youto catch up on a founder story
you may have missed.
This week, we're going backto the very beginning and are pleased
to share with you the story of SeaportConsulting with founder Chelsea Curtis.
(00:23):
Well, I am so excited to, kick off our
our very first podcast episodewith a dear friend, Chelsea Curtis.
Chelsea and I first met,I don't know, five, six, seven years ago.
just as I wasgetting my firm off the ground
and she was kind of thinkingabout doing something
and, Chelsea were really excitedto hear your story today.
(00:46):
Thanks for joining us.
I'm really happy to be here, Scott.
Thanks so much.
So just introduce yourself.
So my name is Chelsea Curtis.
I am from Boston, Massachusetts.
I actually grew up on Cape Cod, so,nice summer community, but we were there
full time and I started a businesscalled Seaport Consulting.
(01:08):
And we are a Salesforceconsulting firm working with small
to medium sized businesses.
And we implement sales forceand support our clients
who utilize the Salesforce platform.
Grown up on Cape Cod.
Like, I don't know,
like I picture this very idyllic lifestylelike everything's just perfect.
And, you know,tell me a little bit about your grown up.
(01:31):
It really is.
And I think growing up thereand having that be
all you know is you take it for granted.
So you grew up in a small town,
sleepy,especially in the winters, restaurants,
clothes, stores, clothes, and a lot of uswere just really itching to get out.
(01:52):
And so I ended up going to GeorgetownUniversity in D.C.
and a few of my other friends, we werewe were like, ready to hit the big city.
You know, get out of this small town.
And we got to our citiesand we were like, wow,
we really had it made on Cape Cod.
We were right by the ocean,you know, on the beach,
(02:12):
feeling that kind of sea salt breeze.
so a lot of usmade it back for the summer,
and we really appreciate itmore when we got older.
Isn't that funny?
You take things for grantedwhen you're there,
and then when you go away,you realize how good it was.
This has been 18 plus years now.
My wife and I've been married forfor 18 years, and we did our honeymoon in
(02:34):
Maui.
And I can still rememberdriving from the airport to the hotel.
It was late at night.
It was I don'tI said it was 10 or 11:00 at night,
and we're looking out over the ocean,and we saw
what looked like a rainbow at night.
And we were just perplexed at this.
And we get into the hoteland we ask the person at the front desk,
(02:56):
what was that that we saw?
And they go,oh yeah, it's called a moonbow.
Like, no big deal.
I'm like, are you kidding me?
How is this not a big deal?
But when you when you live in itevery day,
it just kind of becomes old hat.
So I get it.
Well,so you've been in Boston for how long now?
Ten years.
I moved back to Boston in 2011.
(03:18):
2012.
So you've been there a while.
I imagine, like most major metro areas,you've seen a lot of growth
and change there.
It's unbelievable the the amount Boston
has grown,the construction, the buildings going up.
Our companyname, seaport, is the area in Boston.
And it used to be just rickety old docks.
(03:40):
And then you had a legal seafoodand harpoon brewery
and you could see the oceanvery expansive.
And now there's just it,it buildings everywhere.
It looks like the new kind of almostlike Financial District.
So it's incredible.
I think we met for drinks down theresomewhere a while back when I was in town,
and that is like a booming,hip, thriving upper town.
(04:03):
It's it's a it's a fun, fun area.
And I feel very luckyto have gotten Seaport
consulting.com the domain for, Seriously.
For that area. Yeah, it's been great.
I would have thoughtyou'd had a arm wrestle somebody for that.
So an interesting fact,that I think people would,
you know, want to know about you.
You're a collegiateand professional athlete.
(04:26):
Tell us a little bit about that.
Yeah.
So I, I started playing golfwhen I was seven years old.
My parents
threw me in a golf camp, and that wasit was kind of love at first sight.
And I started playing in tournamentslocally and then statewide
and then regionally and nationally,and I was lucky enough to get recruited
(04:46):
by different schools and ended upgoing to Georgetown and played there.
And I actuallyI graduated around the time of,
the recession, Great Recession, and,you know, not a lot of job opportunities.
And I was at the peak of my golf game.
I had just come off a reallygreat tournament, with a lot of big names.
(05:07):
So I, I decided to give it a shot.
And I qualified for what at the timewas called the Feature Store.
It is now the Epson Tour, which is thedevelopmental tour, underneath the LPGA.
It was an amazing experience.
I played on it for two years.
My first year was able to get to the,16th on the money list,
(05:30):
made it to final stage,LPGA, Q school, and playing
with all these LPGA ladiesand a little bit starstruck
and eventually decidedto come back to Boston and get a real job.
But it was an awesome experience.
I'm just so impressed that peoplelike you go out and actually try it.
(05:52):
I mean, there's so many people that aren'twilling to to take that risk, and
and you did.
And, you know, maybe that'swhy you're a successful business
owner today, that you got some comfortwith some risk like that.
When I was thinking about this podcastand coming on,
I that's exactly what I thought about washow much golf has given me the tools
(06:14):
to be a founder and a business,and to start my own business.
The game is just it's an individual sport.
There's a lot of exposure of yourself.
You're personallyputting yourself out there to either
succeed or see, you know, fail.
And there's a lot of failures in golf.
There's a lot of things that,you know, it's not a game of perfect.
(06:37):
And I've learned a lot through golfthat it's really helped me in business.
We have a couple of,collegiate athletes at my firm,
and they're superstars.
I think that playing at that level,it develops a certain mental toughness.
And I was talkingwe have a fractional CFO, outside CFO,
(06:57):
and we were talking about hiring
and the kinds of candidatesthat they are looking for.
And and he said somethingreally interesting to me.
He said, man, I think you need to go outand find a former college baseball player
because they are used to winningabout 30% of the time,
and they keep going after it,and they make great salespeople.
And when he said that,something really clicked.
(07:18):
And so anyway,I think that there's a lot to be said for
how sports prepares youfor life in business.
So talk to me about that transition from,you know, traveling around the country
playing the most beautiful golf coursesthat America has to offer
to, as you put it, a real job.
Well, what was that first job?
(07:38):
The first job was sales
and marketing associateat Schnitzer Property Services,
and they're a
construction management firmjust outside of Boston.
But my journey to get there was
it took me some months after the tour,
I felt a little lost as towhat do I want to do next.
(08:00):
And I started applying for jobs,
and it was the first timewhere I was feeling
rejection from other people
that I didn't have the experienceor the skill sets that they wanted,
because they're looking at my resumeand saying, well, that's great.
You played golf, that's cool, but I needsomeone who can jump in and start working.
(08:25):
So it was eye opening and I landed at SPS
and it was an amazing experience.
That's where I fell into Salesforce.
They were looking and evaluatingSalesforce back in 2011, 2012,
and that's when they asked me.
They said, do you want to take this on?
(08:46):
If we do this?
And I said, yeah, let's do it.
You know, what is Salesforce?
And, you know, back in 2012, I mean,
that was before lightning even existed.
It was before trailhead was rolled out.
I looked I decided to golook this up because I remember
telling my parents I was like,this company has something to it.
(09:07):
I think maybe you shouldlook at their stock and the stock price.
Back in 2012, January was $26.
And it's in the mid one hundreds,but it's been as high
as, I don't know, high to 300hundreds in the last year.
Yeah crazy.
We committed to Salesforce and I helpedimplement Salesforce with a partner
(09:31):
and we really came out of itincredibly happy.
We were able to see,key metrics, data in an instant.
Whereas before we had separate systemsthat were integrated,
we integrated the accounting.
From a construction management standpoint,you know, resource
management is so importantin being able to forecast so
(09:54):
sales and pipeline, but then alsothose closed one opportunities,
being able to see grossand net profit against it.
So having that accounting data
come in and see that informationwas incredible at the time.
How big of a companywere they when you were there?
So we had about 60 full time employees.
(10:17):
Plus they had, you know, subcontractors.
And that was a huge partof what we ended up tracking in Salesforce
too, is being ableto manage those subcontractors.
And they were doing about,
I want to say 25 million in revenue.
And we exploded to 4050 in
just a matter of yearsafter we got Salesforce.
(10:40):
That's amazing.
So from there,is that the company that you left
to start seaport,or were you someplace in between?
Yes, I was at SPSand once we got through several
different iterationsof implementing Salesforce, integrating it
with different tools, that'swhen I said, I really like this.
(11:02):
I want to keep doing thiswith other businesses.
And I went off on my own.
And that's when I met you, Scott.
You were one of the first peopleI worked with going out on my own.
And the way that we were connected,I think it was, man, it was
it was serendipity.
I think it was somethingthat was really good for both of us.
I was at a point of growth in my businesswhere I didn't want to keep working
(11:26):
nights and weekends,and you were at a point
that you were thinkingabout kind of branching out.
And and we got connectedby a random mutual associate.
And, and here we are, all these all these years later.
So I know for me, like, I canI can very, very easily
pinpoint that moment when it was like,okay, I think I'm going to do this.
(11:50):
Do you have like that, that crystal clear
point in time that I was like, yes,this was this was that that turning point
that made you say,I'm going to make the jump.
And I would say that I really lovesolving business problems
and utilizing the Salesforce platform.
And that was my initial jump into, let's,let's try this.
(12:11):
Let's, let's be an independent contractor.
Let's go workand see that the real moment for me
was as I was, you know,getting into the consulting world
as I was workingwith these various partners and companies,
I started to realizehow important communication was.
(12:33):
And while there was an incredible amount
of technical abilityand what people were doing,
it was actually amazing to me how
how much technologywas secondary to people.
And the more you can actually
really make those connectionswith your clients
and be that bridge between technologyand your client,
(12:55):
you have that really clear communicationwith them.
That was the piece to success.
That's where I saw the most successfulimplementations and the best engagements.
And that was my moment of saying,I can do this.
I can build a business around this, aroundgreat client experience and quality.
(13:16):
I think that wewe share a very similar mentality.
Technology by itself is is worthless.
You know, wewe have to implement technology.
We're people and we're business processconverge with the systems.
You know, if we just go throw throwsome software out there into the wild,
it's it's never really going to bea benefit to anybody starting a business.
(13:39):
You, you went from playing golf
to having, a steady paycheck.
When you start a business,you typically, you know, don't start
with tons of revenue. Day one.
Was that a scary transition?
It was scary.
And especially living in Bostonand having more expenses.
(14:02):
City.
It's an expensive city, especially whenyou like oysters and all the fashions.
I'm okay on the oysters, but I do.
I do love a good old fashion.
And that's another thingthat we really connected on.
Scott Whistlepig was the
you know, you were the first onewho introduced me to Whistlepig.
Oh, it's so good.
But it was incredibly scary.
(14:23):
I but I do go back to golf and think aboutI was not getting a consistent paycheck.
I had to go perform to get paid.
And so it was a familiar feeling.
Golf is all about controllingwhat you can control,
and you have to let goof the things you can't control.
And you have to focus on the hereand now in the process.
(14:46):
And it's tough
not to think about outcomes at the time,but you, that's how you succeed.
And so that's I really took again,a lot of my learnings from golf
and put that into the businesswhen I was getting started.
And if I remember correctly,tell me if I'm wrong here.
But when you were playing golf,
you definitely weren't flying aroundon private jets, sponsored by Nike.
(15:08):
And I don't even thinkyou were flying around at all.
I'm pretty sure you were, like, literallydriving your car from city
to city across the country each weekto get to your tournaments.
Yes. Yeah.
So being on that, on that tourjust below the LPGA, it was not glamorous.
We would pack upour cars and I had a Honda CRV.
(15:31):
I put the seats in the back downand I organized.
It was basically a closetand then some golf clubs
and we would drive around the countryfrom about
March or Aprilall the way until September.
And the way they had the tour structure.
You start in Florida and then you drivedown the south to Texas,
(15:51):
and then you go back up into the Midwestto Iowa, Michigan, Indiana,
and then you start driving backeast through Kentucky or Ohio,
over to the northeast,and then back down to Florida.
So as eastern half of the country,you didn't make it out to the Pacific.
At the time.
The tour did not make it pastkind of that Texas
(16:13):
line, but, I believe they havesome tournaments out there. Now.
Once you've been to Texas, I mean,
you really don't needto go anywhere else anymore.
Barbecue, beer, bourbon, all any.
All all good stuff.
So what fears did you have going into it?
And did any of those fearsactually come to, to pass?
(16:37):
Did any of those things actually,that you were scared of or worried about?
Actually happen?
Even though I was comfortablein that unknown,
I still had that fear of failure.
It feels just more personalbecause you are starting the business.
It's if you don't make it, it's your faultor you did something wrong.
(17:01):
And so there was that fear of failure.
As we were getting started,the fear of not
knowing what was going to happenor what to do next.
A lot of it was really learningon the fly, which I loved.
But it's scary.
And as far as coming to pass, I
bring it backto kind of the moment of communication
(17:24):
and you realize the importance of itand, you know, starting out
seeing some of those travel projectsor seeing things that happen
and really learning from wherecan you be better clear and simple.
Just because you say something to a clientdoesn't mean they understand.
Same with an employee.
(17:45):
You know, just because you say something
to anyone doesn't meanthat they're going to understand
or that they understand the wayyou were trying to communicate it to them.
That's for sure.
Have any of those thingsled to significant hurdles
or problems in the business?
hurdle for us has been hiring.
I think one thing is thatI think I could have been
(18:08):
more aggressive with our growth plan,but at the same time,
hiring has been a huge hurdle for usfinding the right people,
finding people with the same values as us.
And obviously, you know, the skill setsof, of and people who are passionate
about working in Salesforceand, helping our clients.
(18:30):
So it's it's been,I think, more challenging and more time
consuming netthan I even expected for that piece.
So you talked about hiringbeing a challenge
and you're not hiringif you're not growing.
So talk to us about youryour kind of growth trajectory.
(18:52):
You know,you don't have to give specific numbers
or anything like that, but kind of whatwhat has the growth been like.
So we are actually we're going to double
our headcount and revenue from last year.
So we're on track to do that for 2022,which is pretty incredible.
That is awesome.
How did y'all fareduring the height of the pandemic?
(19:15):
It was a really interesting time.
I would say initially when the pandemicfirst hit, there was a clear
pause that a lot of people took and said,what's going to happen?
How is this going to shake out?
We're not going to commit or spend money.
But it didn't takelong for people to realize,
(19:35):
oh no, we are
working remotely now and working on paper
and spreadsheets on a serveris not going to work moving forward.
And being that my backgroundis in construction management for my
previous job, we found a nice little nicheof construction,
manufacturing, industrials,and we saw a huge increase in interest
(19:59):
and need for Salesforce,a cloud platform, to be able to work.
And so that actually has really
pushed us forward through the pandemic.
Also, we're working with companies
across the country, and initially
we had a real focus tothe northeast, were based in Boston, but
(20:22):
people are more open to working with usbecause everyone's remote anyway.
And so we have clientsall over the country now,
and we some of themwe've never met in person before.
Isn't that crazy?
In our business,we started some projects that
that have turned into a huge, huge
(20:43):
ongoing relationship and engagementswith with certain customers.
And a lot of themspent a lot of money with our firm.
And until six months ago,I had never met them.
And something about thatjust didn't feel right.
Like you paid us a lot of money,and I haven't had a chance
to actually shake your hand or sit downand have a cup of coffee with you.
(21:03):
And so, thankfully, you know,the world has started opening back up
and people have been receptive,
and we've been getting on planesand going to visit people wherever we can.
And that's I don't know about you,but that's been really refreshing for us.
There's some there's somethingabout the human connection
of being therewith someone that you just can't replace.
And I don't think we'll ever go away.
(21:25):
You know, people during the pandemic,I think
thought, well, does this mean conferencesdon't need to happen ever again?
And I think we've come to the answerof no.
If I have to sit throughanother virtual conference,
I don't know what I will do,but it won't be pretty. I mean,
is this not sustainable?
When you start a small business,
(21:47):
at least in the early days,most people have to do everything.
And I think in doing everything,you quickly figure out
what are the things that you like doingand what are the things that you
loathe doing.
What are the parts that you like the most
and what are the parts that you likethe least?
Great question.
(22:08):
So it is true.
I was doing everything.
I was the accountant, I was H.R.,I was working on projects,
I was managing consultants, I was sales,
I love working with clients,solving problems,
being able to show business outcomes,
(22:30):
KPIs, reports, dashboards,
being able to see clients touch somethingthat we help build every day
and it becomes the backbone of theirorganization is just so rewarding.
So that's what I lovefrom a client perspective.
And then with our with our people,with our team,
(22:51):
it's just I mean,we work with such great people who care
so much and work so hard,and you go back to the sports
and athletes, there's a level of gritthat I think is necessary
with consultants to be able to do this joband being able to give them the
the space to learnand grow has been awesome.
(23:14):
And so the things that take me awayfrom those two things
are the things that, you know,some of them are tedious.
I might loathesome of them I'm okay doing,
but I don't like thatit's taking me away from things,
having to learn accounting,having to learn all the tax filings
and things that a business needs to know,you know, insurance, all of that.
(23:37):
It's it's quite the black hole of thingsthat is just
expansive in its knowledge.
You mentioned having to learn accounting.
What was your degree in college?
I was a biology major.
Yeah, because, you know,
Salesforce Consulting and accounting,they're so close to biology, right?
Yeah, exactly.
I've not used my my degree once.
(23:59):
I will say that.
But I think, you know, the science isyou think very
logically lots problem solvingwhich has been great.
But man, the first timeI got into my QuickBooks, I was like, I
don't know what this is.
Yeah, debits and credits, you know.
Yeah.
Journal entries.
I don't have a card for that. Yeah.
(24:21):
You talked aboutyou're going to double this year.
What do you attribute your success to?
What has caused that?
You know, straight upcurve in your business.
So going back to our values,
our guiding light of great
communication, great client experiencequality, we've done an amazing job
(24:47):
of retaining clientsand working with them.
After our initial projector implementation.
70% of our business is recurringclients, existing clients.
And so having that base tothen just grow upon
with new business is reallywhat has accelerated our growth.
(25:10):
We really love working long termwith clients and being there.
So you work on a projectwe maintain with managed services support,
and then we figure out whatthat next project is.
That's a huge part of it.
Outside of hiring, what do you see
as hurdles to that continuedlevel of growth?
(25:32):
That is a great question.
It's also is the peopleorganization of it, and having individuals
grow into managers to be able to hirethose people underneath them.
So a lot because we are smallbusiness is still on me.
So being able to have people move up,
to be able to manage othersand start to grow that.
(25:55):
But another piece and I'm
very proud of this, is we've been ableto grow the business organically
without taking any investment money,
any taking on any debt or any loans.
I've not taken a single loanand it's it's been amazing.
I mean, that gives me the power to saywe are going
(26:17):
to make decisions based on quality versushaving to think about growth
in a way that a tech companywho's taking VC money would have to,
but that that does meancash flow constraints.
And do we continue on that path,
or do we eventually take money to helpgrow faster?
That's something that a lot of,a lot of small business
(26:38):
owners are going to have to grapplewith at some point?
Like you, we've been able to grow
organically without taking outside money,
and you do get to a certain pointwhere when you get to a certain
critical mass, 1or 2 of months can be really difficult.
But you also look out and you go, hey,I know that this is just a season
(27:02):
and we've got to maintainour staffing levels,
we've got to maintain these other things,and we've got to make it
through this lean period,because we know there's something great.
On the other side.
And that's a difficult thing.
When there is money available.
Do you do it?
Do you do it or do you not do it.
And thatand then that's one of the challenges
of being a businessowner is we're not given the right answer.
(27:26):
We don't know what that right answer isuntil we get to the other side.
And so you really have to look at all
the information providedand make that decision and commit to it.
That's a great segueinto another question that I have.
You said you don't know the right answeruntil you get to the other side.
You've been at this for several years.
(27:47):
If you could go back and talk to yourself
right as you were starting seaport,what would you tell yourself?
I would say that it's okay
to really just jump in and go for it,
and that it's really important
to find what your value isand stick to it.
(28:09):
And again, use that as your guiding light
to be able to make decisionsbased on that.
It makes it really simple to say,is this the right decision?
If our goal is to have great clientexperience and quality,
and we have walked away from projects
that we didn't thinkwe could execute on 100%,
(28:32):
and we've walked away from clientswho we didn't think
had the same values as us.
That had the right expectations in mind,
who didn't see us as a valued partnerand a mutual respect
and more of like a client vendor andand that's what we're always looking for
is that partnership with our clientsand that mutual respect.
(28:57):
It's refreshing to hear other peoplesay that because we're the exact same way.
There are times that we have walked awayfrom huge,
huge projectsand I have slept better at night
knowing that that money wasn'tgoing to hit the bank, but also that
I wasn't going to have to,you know, guide my people through
(29:18):
what was going to be a difficult projector a difficult client.
And I think that what that speaks to is
how much you, Chelsea, value your teamand you want to create
a great atmosphereand a great environment that they want to.
They want to get up andand work hard for each day.
And that's really hardwhen you've got that client
that just doesn'thave realistic expectations.
(29:39):
I totally agree.
What surprises have you had along the way?
Is there something that was like, well,I just never really thought of that.
I think the big surprise
and I kind of already mentioned this,one of the biggest surprises for me
was the fact that I could grow thiswithout taking money.
I really did think that even to get it offthe ground,
(30:01):
we would we would need some sortof funding to make this work.
But we've been able to bring on peopleand have, you know, the benefits
and everything that we need for peopleto feel like they have security
to do this joband work with us on our team.
That's really been the biggest surpriseso far.
Where do you seethe company in 3 to 5 years?
(30:26):
I see us continuing
to grow and continuing. Our.
Mission and our values of being ableto work with great clients,
continuing that processof being able to bring on new clients
and work with themlong term on their entire plan.
With Salesforce as the platform.
(30:48):
We've workedwith so many other applications
and systems because Salesforce integratesso nicely with other tools.
So we're learning a lot of tools as well.
What tools outside of Salesforcedo y'all use internally
that you are at a pointnow that you just couldn't live without?
We use Konga right nowfor DAC Gen as well as E sign,
(31:11):
although we also have pan to doc working
and then we use form assembly
for different formsand time tracking as well.
And were evaluatingDevOps tools at the moment.
So we're looking towards getting somethingthat will really help us save time.
(31:33):
Most of
my focus right now is on acquiring toolsthat can really create efficiencies
with our consultants,just because that is finite, our time.
And so the more we can save people'stime, the better.
I think it's important,even in a small business,
to really invest in technology and systemsthat can help you grow in scale.
(31:53):
And I think that a lot of small businessestend to overlook that in the early days,
and they find themselveshaving to invest more
by doing things manuallythan if they would,
you know, put the money into toolsthat that would automate things.
So one of my favorite podcasts,it highlights businesses
(32:14):
that have typically growninto these massive, massive companies.
They've been bought out or gone public.
And almost every one of those stories
has a nearly catastrophic moment.
Have you had any of those at support,or have you been able to to escape that?
(32:34):
We have not had a moment like that yet,
and I say yet so we can chat foryears to see what happens.
Fair enough.
Well, if somebody came to you and in fact,
I imagine that people have come to youthat were thinking about
(32:55):
starting their own businesses,what advice would you give them?
I think this is somethingthat people say a lot,
but it's so true, isyou can't be afraid to fail.
You got to put yourself out there.
You have to be vulnerable.
It's just part of what you need to do.
You really need to start that businessand you have to go all in
(33:17):
if you want to be successful.
And it goes back to finding that value.
What's going to be your guiding lightto to really make
those decisions, focuson that and push forward.
That's sound advice.
So looking back in your yearsof doing this, what has been the absolute
pinnacle that the absolute highest highthat you have experienced?
(33:42):
I think I'm in it right now.
The fact that we're going to doublein both headcount and revenue
this year based off of our projections,I mean, even if you look at just
the first half of this year,it is more than double last year.
So I'm in it right now.
We have, head of operations, we havea head of sales and we have consultants.
(34:08):
And it really feels likethe team is coming together
and we're ready to just continuingto grow and grow and grow.
That's awesome.
Is there anything that you have tried that
you expected to work that didn't?
And I guess, conversely,is there something that you have kind of
taken a risk on that has turned outbetter than you expected it to?
(34:30):
Something that I tried and didn't work?
Let me start with the other question.
So I think our managed serviceshas done really well,
and it's something that I didn't
I wasn't sure if that was going to work,
but I think we're going into a new era
(34:51):
where systems are becoming
a lot more challengingto maintain day to day,
and it feels like there's
a lot of need for sales ops, rev ups.
Those are becoming incrediblyimportant roles, but maybe not necessarily
(35:11):
a lot of people who have beenin those roles as we start to expand that.
And so we've been able to take a chancethere.
on trying to figure outhow to manage that.
And, sellthat business has worked really well.
Something that hasn't worked.
I'm blanking.
Anything come to mind for you, Scott?
I can think of, a couple thingsthat we probably rushed into that,
(35:35):
probably should have taken a little bit
more timeand due diligence to to work through.
We've implemented some systems internallythat on the surface looked great,
pulled the trigger a little too quickly,and, we get partway through our own
implementation of an expense managementtool, for example.
And it was very clear very quicklythat it was not going to to work.
(35:59):
There have been a couple of
product partnershipsthat we have stepped into.
And to your point earlier about
like you said, youyou really have to jump in with both feet.
You can't really kind of
hover on the surface or dab want somethingyou really, really got to commit.
And there's a number ofof these partnerships that I've gone
(36:21):
into probablywith unrealistic expectations about.
Yeah, we're going to
we're going to join this partner programand things are just going to
magically take off.
And I've got people internallythat are reminding me
that we really do have toto jump in with both feet.
We can't dabble and expect thingsto really take off and be successful.
(36:41):
And I want to look at the partsof our business that have been successful.
It is because we have just fully,fully thrown ourselves at those things.
That makes a lot of sense.
And you did make me think of one thingthat we've been struggling to do,
which is implement a really great way
of tracking time against projects.
(37:03):
I think as consultants, that is something
that is important and is a challenge.
And so
as much as
we make recommendations to our clients,
sometimes it's hard to practicewhat you preach.
And we're still a small businessjust trying to keep our head above water,
and we're still working through our owninternal operations as well.
(37:26):
Well, Chelsea, thanks so much for beingour first guest and so proud of you.
It has been awesome to to get to see yougrow your business over these years.
I love our check ins periodically and wishyou just nothing but continued success.
Scott, I, I feel so honoredthat you would even think of me
for your podcastand you have been an amazing
(37:49):
sounding board, someone whoI really respect and look up to.
I think van is an amazing organizationand we would be so lucky to,
you know, follow in your footstepsof what you've been accomplishing.
And actually,that's a great point to make for future
founders is find your mentors.
(38:10):
It's so important to find mentorsand to have people who can give you
that advice and listen to thembecause they've made those mistakes.
And so and they can give you the insidetips on on how to not do that
and move forward and learnfrom what other people have done.
Thank you so muchfor those those kind words.
(38:31):
and B, I just want to second that.
And when it comes to mentors, mentorship
doesn't have to be anything formal.
I have dozens of people
who I would consider to be mentors,
which I meet with with regularity.
Others, it's infrequent.
(38:52):
Sometimes it's circumstantial and it's,oh my gosh,
what do I do about the situation?
I'm going to call this person.
But it is absolutely crucialas a business owner,
as a founder, to surround yourselfwith with other like minded individuals.
You talked earlier so much about valuesand how you want to work with customers
(39:13):
that share your values.
You want to hire employeeswho share your values, and
I think the same is true in termsof finding mentors who share your values.
So well said. Totally agree.
Well, Chelsea,thank you so much for joining us.
And, checking again down the road.
Sounds great. Thanks, Scott.
(39:41):
That was Chelsea Curtis, founder of Seaport Consulting.
To learn more, go to seaportconsulting.com.
If you or a founder you know would liketo be a guest on In The Thick of It.
Email us at intro@founderstory.us.
Hey, listeners, this is Scott Hollrah.
It's hard to believe that we launchedIn The Thick of It almost a year ago.
As we're nearing our first anniversary,
we're working hard on a celebratory episode.
In the meantime, we'd love for youto catch up on a founder story
you may have missed.
This week, we're going backto the very beginning and are pleased
to share with you the story of SeaportConsulting with founder Chelsea Curtis.
(00:23):
Well, I am so excited to, kick off our
our very first podcast episodewith a dear friend, Chelsea Curtis.
Chelsea and I first met,I don't know, five, six, seven years ago.
just as I wasgetting my firm off the ground
and she was kind of thinkingabout doing something
and, Chelsea were really excitedto hear your story today.
(00:46):
Thanks for joining us.
I'm really happy to be here, Scott.
Thanks so much.
So just introduce yourself.
So my name is Chelsea Curtis.
I am from Boston, Massachusetts.
I actually grew up on Cape Cod, so,nice summer community, but we were there
full time and I started a businesscalled Seaport Consulting.
(01:08):
And we are a Salesforceconsulting firm working with small
to medium sized businesses.
And we implement sales forceand support our clients
who utilize the Salesforce platform.
Grown up on Cape Cod.
Like, I don't know,
like I picture this very idyllic lifestylelike everything's just perfect.
And, you know,tell me a little bit about your grown up.
(01:31):
It really is.
And I think growing up thereand having that be
all you know is you take it for granted.
So you grew up in a small town,
sleepy,especially in the winters, restaurants,
clothes, stores, clothes, and a lot of uswere just really itching to get out.
(01:52):
And so I ended up going to GeorgetownUniversity in D.C.
and a few of my other friends, we werewe were like, ready to hit the big city.
You know, get out of this small town.
And we got to our citiesand we were like, wow,
we really had it made on Cape Cod.
We were right by the ocean,you know, on the beach,
(02:12):
feeling that kind of sea salt breeze.
so a lot of usmade it back for the summer,
and we really appreciate itmore when we got older.
Isn't that funny?
You take things for grantedwhen you're there,
and then when you go away,you realize how good it was.
This has been 18 plus years now.
My wife and I've been married forfor 18 years, and we did our honeymoon in
(02:34):
Maui.
And I can still rememberdriving from the airport to the hotel.
It was late at night.
It was I don'tI said it was 10 or 11:00 at night,
and we're looking out over the ocean,and we saw
what looked like a rainbow at night.
And we were just perplexed at this.
And we get into the hoteland we ask the person at the front desk,
(02:56):
what was that that we saw?
And they go,oh yeah, it's called a moonbow.
Like, no big deal.
I'm like, are you kidding me?
How is this not a big deal?
But when you when you live in itevery day,
it just kind of becomes old hat.
So I get it.
Well,so you've been in Boston for how long now?
Ten years.
I moved back to Boston in 2011.
(03:18):
2012.
So you've been there a while.
I imagine, like most major metro areas,you've seen a lot of growth
and change there.
It's unbelievable the the amount Boston
has grown,the construction, the buildings going up.
Our companyname, seaport, is the area in Boston.
And it used to be just rickety old docks.
(03:40):
And then you had a legal seafoodand harpoon brewery
and you could see the oceanvery expansive.
And now there's just it,it buildings everywhere.
It looks like the new kind of almostlike Financial District.
So it's incredible.
I think we met for drinks down theresomewhere a while back when I was in town,
and that is like a booming,hip, thriving upper town.
(04:03):
It's it's a it's a fun, fun area.
And I feel very luckyto have gotten Seaport
consulting.com the domain for, Seriously.
For that area. Yeah, it's been great.
I would have thoughtyou'd had a arm wrestle somebody for that.
So an interesting fact,that I think people would,
you know, want to know about you.
You're a collegiateand professional athlete.
(04:26):
Tell us a little bit about that.
Yeah.
So I, I started playing golfwhen I was seven years old.
My parents
threw me in a golf camp, and that wasit was kind of love at first sight.
And I started playing in tournamentslocally and then statewide
and then regionally and nationally,and I was lucky enough to get recruited
(04:46):
by different schools and ended upgoing to Georgetown and played there.
And I actuallyI graduated around the time of,
the recession, Great Recession, and,you know, not a lot of job opportunities.
And I was at the peak of my golf game.
I had just come off a reallygreat tournament, with a lot of big names.
(05:07):
So I, I decided to give it a shot.
And I qualified for what at the timewas called the Feature Store.
It is now the Epson Tour, which is thedevelopmental tour, underneath the LPGA.
It was an amazing experience.
I played on it for two years.
My first year was able to get to the,16th on the money list,
(05:30):
made it to final stage,LPGA, Q school, and playing
with all these LPGA ladiesand a little bit starstruck
and eventually decidedto come back to Boston and get a real job.
But it was an awesome experience.
I'm just so impressed that peoplelike you go out and actually try it.
(05:52):
I mean, there's so many people that aren'twilling to to take that risk, and
and you did.
And, you know, maybe that'swhy you're a successful business
owner today, that you got some comfortwith some risk like that.
When I was thinking about this podcastand coming on,
I that's exactly what I thought about washow much golf has given me the tools
(06:14):
to be a founder and a business,and to start my own business.
The game is just it's an individual sport.
There's a lot of exposure of yourself.
You're personallyputting yourself out there to either
succeed or see, you know, fail.
And there's a lot of failures in golf.
There's a lot of things that,you know, it's not a game of perfect.
(06:37):
And I've learned a lot through golfthat it's really helped me in business.
We have a couple of,collegiate athletes at my firm,
and they're superstars.
I think that playing at that level,it develops a certain mental toughness.
And I was talkingwe have a fractional CFO, outside CFO,
(06:57):
and we were talking about hiring
and the kinds of candidatesthat they are looking for.
And and he said somethingreally interesting to me.
He said, man, I think you need to go outand find a former college baseball player
because they are used to winningabout 30% of the time,
and they keep going after it,and they make great salespeople.
And when he said that,something really clicked.
(07:18):
And so anyway,I think that there's a lot to be said for
how sports prepares youfor life in business.
So talk to me about that transition from,you know, traveling around the country
playing the most beautiful golf coursesthat America has to offer
to, as you put it, a real job.
Well, what was that first job?
(07:38):
The first job was sales
and marketing associateat Schnitzer Property Services,
and they're a
construction management firmjust outside of Boston.
But my journey to get there was
it took me some months after the tour,
I felt a little lost as towhat do I want to do next.
(08:00):
And I started applying for jobs,
and it was the first timewhere I was feeling
rejection from other people
that I didn't have the experienceor the skill sets that they wanted,
because they're looking at my resumeand saying, well, that's great.
You played golf, that's cool, but I needsomeone who can jump in and start working.
(08:25):
So it was eye opening and I landed at SPS
and it was an amazing experience.
That's where I fell into Salesforce.
They were looking and evaluatingSalesforce back in 2011, 2012,
and that's when they asked me.
They said, do you want to take this on?
(08:46):
If we do this?
And I said, yeah, let's do it.
You know, what is Salesforce?
And, you know, back in 2012, I mean,
that was before lightning even existed.
It was before trailhead was rolled out.
I looked I decided to golook this up because I remember
telling my parents I was like,this company has something to it.
(09:07):
I think maybe you shouldlook at their stock and the stock price.
Back in 2012, January was $26.
And it's in the mid one hundreds,but it's been as high
as, I don't know, high to 300hundreds in the last year.
Yeah crazy.
We committed to Salesforce and I helpedimplement Salesforce with a partner
(09:31):
and we really came out of itincredibly happy.
We were able to see,key metrics, data in an instant.
Whereas before we had separate systemsthat were integrated,
we integrated the accounting.
From a construction management standpoint,you know, resource
management is so importantin being able to forecast so
(09:54):
sales and pipeline, but then alsothose closed one opportunities,
being able to see grossand net profit against it.
So having that accounting data
come in and see that informationwas incredible at the time.
How big of a companywere they when you were there?
So we had about 60 full time employees.
(10:17):
Plus they had, you know, subcontractors.
And that was a huge partof what we ended up tracking in Salesforce
too, is being ableto manage those subcontractors.
And they were doing about,
I want to say 25 million in revenue.
And we exploded to 4050 in
just a matter of yearsafter we got Salesforce.
(10:40):
That's amazing.
So from there,is that the company that you left
to start seaport,or were you someplace in between?
Yes, I was at SPSand once we got through several
different iterationsof implementing Salesforce, integrating it
with different tools, that'swhen I said, I really like this.
(11:02):
I want to keep doing thiswith other businesses.
And I went off on my own.
And that's when I met you, Scott.
You were one of the first peopleI worked with going out on my own.
And the way that we were connected,I think it was, man, it was
it was serendipity.
I think it was somethingthat was really good for both of us.
I was at a point of growth in my businesswhere I didn't want to keep working
(11:26):
nights and weekends,and you were at a point
that you were thinkingabout kind of branching out.
And and we got connectedby a random mutual associate.
And, and here we are, all these all these years later.
So I know for me, like, I canI can very, very easily
pinpoint that moment when it was like,okay, I think I'm going to do this.
(11:50):
Do you have like that, that crystal clear
point in time that I was like, yes,this was this was that that turning point
that made you say,I'm going to make the jump.
And I would say that I really lovesolving business problems
and utilizing the Salesforce platform.
And that was my initial jump into, let's,let's try this.
(12:11):
Let's, let's be an independent contractor.
Let's go workand see that the real moment for me
was as I was, you know,getting into the consulting world
as I was workingwith these various partners and companies,
I started to realizehow important communication was.
(12:33):
And while there was an incredible amount
of technical abilityand what people were doing,
it was actually amazing to me how
how much technologywas secondary to people.
And the more you can actually
really make those connectionswith your clients
and be that bridge between technologyand your client,
(12:55):
you have that really clear communicationwith them.
That was the piece to success.
That's where I saw the most successfulimplementations and the best engagements.
And that was my moment of saying,I can do this.
I can build a business around this, aroundgreat client experience and quality.
(13:16):
I think that wewe share a very similar mentality.
Technology by itself is is worthless.
You know, wewe have to implement technology.
We're people and we're business processconverge with the systems.
You know, if we just go throw throwsome software out there into the wild,
it's it's never really going to bea benefit to anybody starting a business.
(13:39):
You, you went from playing golf
to having, a steady paycheck.
When you start a business,you typically, you know, don't start
with tons of revenue. Day one.
Was that a scary transition?
It was scary.
And especially living in Bostonand having more expenses.
(14:02):
City.
It's an expensive city, especially whenyou like oysters and all the fashions.
I'm okay on the oysters, but I do.
I do love a good old fashion.
And that's another thingthat we really connected on.
Scott Whistlepig was the
you know, you were the first onewho introduced me to Whistlepig.
Oh, it's so good.
But it was incredibly scary.
(14:23):
I but I do go back to golf and think aboutI was not getting a consistent paycheck.
I had to go perform to get paid.
And so it was a familiar feeling.
Golf is all about controllingwhat you can control,
and you have to let goof the things you can't control.
And you have to focus on the hereand now in the process.
(14:46):
And it's tough
not to think about outcomes at the time,but you, that's how you succeed.
And so that's I really took again,a lot of my learnings from golf
and put that into the businesswhen I was getting started.
And if I remember correctly,tell me if I'm wrong here.
But when you were playing golf,
you definitely weren't flying aroundon private jets, sponsored by Nike.
(15:08):
And I don't even thinkyou were flying around at all.
I'm pretty sure you were, like, literallydriving your car from city
to city across the country each weekto get to your tournaments.
Yes. Yeah.
So being on that, on that tourjust below the LPGA, it was not glamorous.
We would pack upour cars and I had a Honda CRV.
(15:31):
I put the seats in the back downand I organized.
It was basically a closetand then some golf clubs
and we would drive around the countryfrom about
March or Aprilall the way until September.
And the way they had the tour structure.
You start in Florida and then you drivedown the south to Texas,
(15:51):
and then you go back up into the Midwestto Iowa, Michigan, Indiana,
and then you start driving backeast through Kentucky or Ohio,
over to the northeast,and then back down to Florida.
So as eastern half of the country,you didn't make it out to the Pacific.
At the time.
The tour did not make it pastkind of that Texas
(16:13):
line, but, I believe they havesome tournaments out there. Now.
Once you've been to Texas, I mean,
you really don't needto go anywhere else anymore.
Barbecue, beer, bourbon, all any.
All all good stuff.
So what fears did you have going into it?
And did any of those fearsactually come to, to pass?
(16:37):
Did any of those things actually,that you were scared of or worried about?
Actually happen?
Even though I was comfortablein that unknown,
I still had that fear of failure.
It feels just more personalbecause you are starting the business.
It's if you don't make it, it's your faultor you did something wrong.
(17:01):
And so there was that fear of failure.
As we were getting started,the fear of not
knowing what was going to happenor what to do next.
A lot of it was really learningon the fly, which I loved.
But it's scary.
And as far as coming to pass, I
bring it backto kind of the moment of communication
(17:24):
and you realize the importance of itand, you know, starting out
seeing some of those travel projectsor seeing things that happen
and really learning from wherecan you be better clear and simple.
Just because you say something to a clientdoesn't mean they understand.
Same with an employee.
(17:45):
You know, just because you say something
to anyone doesn't meanthat they're going to understand
or that they understand the wayyou were trying to communicate it to them.
That's for sure.
Have any of those thingsled to significant hurdles
or problems in the business?
hurdle for us has been hiring.
I think one thing is thatI think I could have been
(18:08):
more aggressive with our growth plan,but at the same time,
hiring has been a huge hurdle for usfinding the right people,
finding people with the same values as us.
And obviously, you know, the skill setsof, of and people who are passionate
about working in Salesforceand, helping our clients.
(18:30):
So it's it's been,I think, more challenging and more time
consuming netthan I even expected for that piece.
So you talked about hiringbeing a challenge
and you're not hiringif you're not growing.
So talk to us about youryour kind of growth trajectory.
(18:52):
You know,you don't have to give specific numbers
or anything like that, but kind of whatwhat has the growth been like.
So we are actually we're going to double
our headcount and revenue from last year.
So we're on track to do that for 2022,which is pretty incredible.
That is awesome.
How did y'all fareduring the height of the pandemic?
(19:15):
It was a really interesting time.
I would say initially when the pandemicfirst hit, there was a clear
pause that a lot of people took and said,what's going to happen?
How is this going to shake out?
We're not going to commit or spend money.
But it didn't takelong for people to realize,
(19:35):
oh no, we are
working remotely now and working on paper
and spreadsheets on a serveris not going to work moving forward.
And being that my backgroundis in construction management for my
previous job, we found a nice little nicheof construction,
manufacturing, industrials,and we saw a huge increase in interest
(19:59):
and need for Salesforce,a cloud platform, to be able to work.
And so that actually has really
pushed us forward through the pandemic.
Also, we're working with companies
across the country, and initially
we had a real focus tothe northeast, were based in Boston, but
(20:22):
people are more open to working with usbecause everyone's remote anyway.
And so we have clientsall over the country now,
and we some of themwe've never met in person before.
Isn't that crazy?
In our business,we started some projects that
that have turned into a huge, huge
(20:43):
ongoing relationship and engagementswith with certain customers.
And a lot of themspent a lot of money with our firm.
And until six months ago,I had never met them.
And something about thatjust didn't feel right.
Like you paid us a lot of money,and I haven't had a chance
to actually shake your hand or sit downand have a cup of coffee with you.
(21:03):
And so, thankfully, you know,the world has started opening back up
and people have been receptive,
and we've been getting on planesand going to visit people wherever we can.
And that's I don't know about you,but that's been really refreshing for us.
There's some there's somethingabout the human connection
of being therewith someone that you just can't replace.
And I don't think we'll ever go away.
(21:25):
You know, people during the pandemic,I think
thought, well, does this mean conferencesdon't need to happen ever again?
And I think we've come to the answerof no.
If I have to sit throughanother virtual conference,
I don't know what I will do,but it won't be pretty. I mean,
is this not sustainable?
When you start a small business,
(21:47):
at least in the early days,most people have to do everything.
And I think in doing everything,you quickly figure out
what are the things that you like doingand what are the things that you
loathe doing.
What are the parts that you like the most
and what are the parts that you likethe least?
Great question.
(22:08):
So it is true.
I was doing everything.
I was the accountant, I was H.R.,I was working on projects,
I was managing consultants, I was sales,
I love working with clients,solving problems,
being able to show business outcomes,
(22:30):
KPIs, reports, dashboards,
being able to see clients touch somethingthat we help build every day
and it becomes the backbone of theirorganization is just so rewarding.
So that's what I lovefrom a client perspective.
And then with our with our people,with our team,
(22:51):
it's just I mean,we work with such great people who care
so much and work so hard,and you go back to the sports
and athletes, there's a level of gritthat I think is necessary
with consultants to be able to do this joband being able to give them the
the space to learnand grow has been awesome.
(23:14):
And so the things that take me awayfrom those two things
are the things that, you know,some of them are tedious.
I might loathesome of them I'm okay doing,
but I don't like thatit's taking me away from things,
having to learn accounting,having to learn all the tax filings
and things that a business needs to know,you know, insurance, all of that.
(23:37):
It's it's quite the black hole of thingsthat is just
expansive in its knowledge.
You mentioned having to learn accounting.
What was your degree in college?
I was a biology major.
Yeah, because, you know,
Salesforce Consulting and accounting,they're so close to biology, right?
Yeah, exactly.
I've not used my my degree once.
(23:59):
I will say that.
But I think, you know, the science isyou think very
logically lots problem solvingwhich has been great.
But man, the first timeI got into my QuickBooks, I was like, I
don't know what this is.
Yeah, debits and credits, you know.
Yeah.
Journal entries.
I don't have a card for that. Yeah.
(24:21):
You talked aboutyou're going to double this year.
What do you attribute your success to?
What has caused that?
You know, straight upcurve in your business.
So going back to our values,
our guiding light of great
communication, great client experiencequality, we've done an amazing job
(24:47):
of retaining clientsand working with them.
After our initial projector implementation.
70% of our business is recurringclients, existing clients.
And so having that base tothen just grow upon
with new business is reallywhat has accelerated our growth.
(25:10):
We really love working long termwith clients and being there.
So you work on a projectwe maintain with managed services support,
and then we figure out whatthat next project is.
That's a huge part of it.
Outside of hiring, what do you see
as hurdles to that continuedlevel of growth?
(25:32):
That is a great question.
It's also is the peopleorganization of it, and having individuals
grow into managers to be able to hirethose people underneath them.
So a lot because we are smallbusiness is still on me.
So being able to have people move up,
to be able to manage othersand start to grow that.
(25:55):
But another piece and I'm
very proud of this, is we've been ableto grow the business organically
without taking any investment money,
any taking on any debt or any loans.
I've not taken a single loanand it's it's been amazing.
I mean, that gives me the power to saywe are going
(26:17):
to make decisions based on quality versushaving to think about growth
in a way that a tech companywho's taking VC money would have to,
but that that does meancash flow constraints.
And do we continue on that path,
or do we eventually take money to helpgrow faster?
That's something that a lot of,a lot of small business
(26:38):
owners are going to have to grapplewith at some point?
Like you, we've been able to grow
organically without taking outside money,
and you do get to a certain pointwhere when you get to a certain
critical mass, 1or 2 of months can be really difficult.
But you also look out and you go, hey,I know that this is just a season
(27:02):
and we've got to maintainour staffing levels,
we've got to maintain these other things,and we've got to make it
through this lean period,because we know there's something great.
On the other side.
And that's a difficult thing.
When there is money available.
Do you do it?
Do you do it or do you not do it.
And thatand then that's one of the challenges
of being a businessowner is we're not given the right answer.
(27:26):
We don't know what that right answer isuntil we get to the other side.
And so you really have to look at all
the information providedand make that decision and commit to it.
That's a great segueinto another question that I have.
You said you don't know the right answeruntil you get to the other side.
You've been at this for several years.
(27:47):
If you could go back and talk to yourself
right as you were starting seaport,what would you tell yourself?
I would say that it's okay
to really just jump in and go for it,
and that it's really important
to find what your value isand stick to it.
(28:09):
And again, use that as your guiding light
to be able to make decisionsbased on that.
It makes it really simple to say,is this the right decision?
If our goal is to have great clientexperience and quality,
and we have walked away from projects
that we didn't thinkwe could execute on 100%,
(28:32):
and we've walked away from clientswho we didn't think
had the same values as us.
That had the right expectations in mind,
who didn't see us as a valued partnerand a mutual respect
and more of like a client vendor andand that's what we're always looking for
is that partnership with our clientsand that mutual respect.
(28:57):
It's refreshing to hear other peoplesay that because we're the exact same way.
There are times that we have walked awayfrom huge,
huge projectsand I have slept better at night
knowing that that money wasn'tgoing to hit the bank, but also that
I wasn't going to have to,you know, guide my people through
(29:18):
what was going to be a difficult projector a difficult client.
And I think that what that speaks to is
how much you, Chelsea, value your teamand you want to create
a great atmosphereand a great environment that they want to.
They want to get up andand work hard for each day.
And that's really hardwhen you've got that client
that just doesn'thave realistic expectations.
(29:39):
I totally agree.
What surprises have you had along the way?
Is there something that was like, well,I just never really thought of that.
I think the big surprise
and I kind of already mentioned this,one of the biggest surprises for me
was the fact that I could grow thiswithout taking money.
I really did think that even to get it offthe ground,
(30:01):
we would we would need some sortof funding to make this work.
But we've been able to bring on peopleand have, you know, the benefits
and everything that we need for peopleto feel like they have security
to do this joband work with us on our team.
That's really been the biggest surpriseso far.
Where do you seethe company in 3 to 5 years?
(30:26):
I see us continuing
to grow and continuing. Our.
Mission and our values of being ableto work with great clients,
continuing that processof being able to bring on new clients
and work with themlong term on their entire plan.
With Salesforce as the platform.
(30:48):
We've workedwith so many other applications
and systems because Salesforce integratesso nicely with other tools.
So we're learning a lot of tools as well.
What tools outside of Salesforcedo y'all use internally
that you are at a pointnow that you just couldn't live without?
We use Konga right nowfor DAC Gen as well as E sign,
(31:11):
although we also have pan to doc working
and then we use form assembly
for different formsand time tracking as well.
And were evaluatingDevOps tools at the moment.
So we're looking towards getting somethingthat will really help us save time.
(31:33):
Most of
my focus right now is on acquiring toolsthat can really create efficiencies
with our consultants,just because that is finite, our time.
And so the more we can save people'stime, the better.
I think it's important,even in a small business,
to really invest in technology and systemsthat can help you grow in scale.
(31:53):
And I think that a lot of small businessestend to overlook that in the early days,
and they find themselveshaving to invest more
by doing things manuallythan if they would,
you know, put the money into toolsthat that would automate things.
So one of my favorite podcasts,it highlights businesses
(32:14):
that have typically growninto these massive, massive companies.
They've been bought out or gone public.
And almost every one of those stories
has a nearly catastrophic moment.
Have you had any of those at support,or have you been able to to escape that?
(32:34):
We have not had a moment like that yet,
and I say yet so we can chat foryears to see what happens.
Fair enough.
Well, if somebody came to you and in fact,
I imagine that people have come to youthat were thinking about
(32:55):
starting their own businesses,what advice would you give them?
I think this is somethingthat people say a lot,
but it's so true, isyou can't be afraid to fail.
You got to put yourself out there.
You have to be vulnerable.
It's just part of what you need to do.
You really need to start that businessand you have to go all in
(33:17):
if you want to be successful.
And it goes back to finding that value.
What's going to be your guiding lightto to really make
those decisions, focuson that and push forward.
That's sound advice.
So looking back in your yearsof doing this, what has been the absolute
pinnacle that the absolute highest highthat you have experienced?
(33:42):
I think I'm in it right now.
The fact that we're going to doublein both headcount and revenue
this year based off of our projections,I mean, even if you look at just
the first half of this year,it is more than double last year.
So I'm in it right now.
We have, head of operations, we havea head of sales and we have consultants.
(34:08):
And it really feels likethe team is coming together
and we're ready to just continuingto grow and grow and grow.
That's awesome.
Is there anything that you have tried that
you expected to work that didn't?
And I guess, conversely,is there something that you have kind of
taken a risk on that has turned outbetter than you expected it to?
(34:30):
Something that I tried and didn't work?
Let me start with the other question.
So I think our managed serviceshas done really well,
and it's something that I didn't
I wasn't sure if that was going to work,
but I think we're going into a new era
(34:51):
where systems are becoming
a lot more challengingto maintain day to day,
and it feels like there's
a lot of need for sales ops, rev ups.
Those are becoming incrediblyimportant roles, but maybe not necessarily
(35:11):
a lot of people who have beenin those roles as we start to expand that.
And so we've been able to take a chancethere.
on trying to figure outhow to manage that.
And, sellthat business has worked really well.
Something that hasn't worked.
I'm blanking.
Anything come to mind for you, Scott?
I can think of, a couple thingsthat we probably rushed into that,
(35:35):
probably should have taken a little bit
more timeand due diligence to to work through.
We've implemented some systems internallythat on the surface looked great,
pulled the trigger a little too quickly,and, we get partway through our own
implementation of an expense managementtool, for example.
And it was very clear very quicklythat it was not going to to work.
(35:59):
There have been a couple of
product partnershipsthat we have stepped into.
And to your point earlier about
like you said, youyou really have to jump in with both feet.
You can't really kind of
hover on the surface or dab want somethingyou really, really got to commit.
And there's a number ofof these partnerships that I've gone
(36:21):
into probablywith unrealistic expectations about.
Yeah, we're going to
we're going to join this partner programand things are just going to
magically take off.
And I've got people internallythat are reminding me
that we really do have toto jump in with both feet.
We can't dabble and expect thingsto really take off and be successful.
(36:41):
And I want to look at the partsof our business that have been successful.
It is because we have just fully,fully thrown ourselves at those things.
That makes a lot of sense.
And you did make me think of one thingthat we've been struggling to do,
which is implement a really great way
of tracking time against projects.
(37:03):
I think as consultants, that is something
that is important and is a challenge.
And so
as much as
we make recommendations to our clients,
sometimes it's hard to practicewhat you preach.
And we're still a small businessjust trying to keep our head above water,
and we're still working through our owninternal operations as well.
(37:26):
Well, Chelsea, thanks so much for beingour first guest and so proud of you.
It has been awesome to to get to see yougrow your business over these years.
I love our check ins periodically and wishyou just nothing but continued success.
Scott, I, I feel so honoredthat you would even think of me
for your podcastand you have been an amazing
(37:49):
sounding board, someone whoI really respect and look up to.
I think van is an amazing organizationand we would be so lucky to,
you know, follow in your footstepsof what you've been accomplishing.
And actually,that's a great point to make for future
founders is find your mentors.
(38:10):
It's so important to find mentorsand to have people who can give you
that advice and listen to thembecause they've made those mistakes.
And so and they can give you the insidetips on on how to not do that
and move forward and learnfrom what other people have done.
Thank you so muchfor those those kind words.
(38:31):
and B, I just want to second that.
And when it comes to mentors, mentorship
doesn't have to be anything formal.
I have dozens of people
who I would consider to be mentors,
which I meet with with regularity.
Others, it's infrequent.
(38:52):
Sometimes it's circumstantial and it's,oh my gosh,
what do I do about the situation?
I'm going to call this person.
But it is absolutely crucialas a business owner,
as a founder, to surround yourselfwith with other like minded individuals.
You talked earlier so much about valuesand how you want to work with customers
(39:13):
that share your values.
You want to hire employeeswho share your values, and
I think the same is true in termsof finding mentors who share your values.
So well said. Totally agree.
Well, Chelsea,thank you so much for joining us.
And, checking again down the road.
Sounds great. Thanks, Scott.
(39:41):
That was Chelsea Curtis, founder of Seaport Consulting.
To learn more, go to seaportconsulting.com.
If you or a founder you know would liketo be a guest on In The Thick of It.
Email us at intro@founderstory.us.
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