 This is JSA TV the newsroom for tech and telecom professionals. I'm Dean Perine and welcome to JSA TV I'm coming at you on location from beautiful Chicago, Illinois at the Mavenwave offices Mavenwave is celebrating 10 years of continued growth in 2018 So we thought we'd take a chance or take an opportunity and then and talk with the guys who founded the company first office Mr. Jason Lee Jason. Good morning, Jason. Thank you for joining us on JSA TV Jason again is one of the co-founders of the company and he's going to be our first victim this morning Jason so again, I mentioned that you are celebrating a 10-year anniversary a relatively big Milestone, so I'm a fly on the wall now. Why don't you? Take us down a trip down memory lane. Why don't you tell us a little bit about the idea to to start the company sure If I kind of put us back in 2008 when we were forming the idea for the company a Couple things were apparent to us, and we weren't clairvoyant in this but a couple things were apparent what our careers had told us was one we're on the Beginnings what was going to be a large next revolution and transformation in the IT industry for organizations cloud was in its early days Data was becoming into its own at that point in time And when we look back at our experience as a type of work that we'd like to do what we thought companies needed While the technology changes solutions changed the key ingredient was that ability to Impact and affect that change inside organizations So how do we take Process and technology solutions and make them consumable and make organizations truly be able to change who they are in doing So and what we found throughout the years was doing that is just it's about great people and great talent It's those folks that you know I mean the folks that you know the ones who are influential you know the ones who make those types of things happen every Project has one or two people who are kind of the key catalyst to making it all happen And when we sat back and thought about what the next ten years is going to bring her 15 or 20 That talent wasn't going to go away that need wasn't going to go away and in fact a lot of our thinking was that With the rapid advancement of technology and the ability to consume it faster You're going to need even more of that because your organization has more cycles to go through more quickly So really when we thought about it we said look we think organizations are going to have a sustained need For people who can come in in a very positive way and help organizations through these types of changes And we felt in our backgrounds that we had the ability at least to Attract the right kinds of talents and build the right kind of culture to Groom and bring those types of folks to bear on a daily basis So that was really kind of the thinking behind it at the time Outstanding so you mentioned ten years ago. Let's stick with that theme for just a moment Clearly you had expectations of the company ten years ago Why don't you tell why don't you talk a little bit more about what those expectations were and what they might be now? Yeah, sure. I guess I'll break it up into three or four areas In the last one being you know financial expectations because that was actually you know, you never know where that's going to go I think that's important. Yeah, it's important You need to do it for a reason but all the ingredients have to be right So the first was people when I you know I sat back and I personally as far as one of the three founders when I thought About what it was I wanted to do and why to come back and do another organization and company like Mavenwave It truly it sounds Corny I guess but it really was people I mean that the one fun part about this business every organization says it's their people Of course, everybody means it. We're in a services business our product and our solutions are people its talents And so what's fun about that as it becomes very much not about you very quickly It becomes about this organization enabling great talents to go do great things That's what's exciting to me And so while the business of consulting and the solutions we were doing was always exciting to I like the dynamic nature I like creating value for organizations. I like the dynamic change and what's happening The part that I really enjoyed doing of it was watching the organization itself for watching these talents Thrive in their own careers and they can all get jobs elsewhere But at least for the short period of time watching this organization build upon itself And so the the days I reflected on the most when I sat down were a day that we just had recently And that's our company days. So everybody has their company days every quarter, etc And when you think back to going from four people in a conference room to 20 people in a makeshift room to Running out different conference halls. That's the fun part. That's when you see an organization come together And it really comes to life So the first part was that was my motivating factor for me was I wanted to see if we can create a culture Which is fantastic and great talents who truly enjoyed being here and doing what they do The second part is the solutions have to matter everybody wants to be working on problems that have an outcome that matter to somebody And in our business, it's often hard to find things you can point to your friends and say we did that we did that We're usually not in that kind of limelight But within the sphere of the company and who we are you want to feel like you're doing things that matter to Organization that somebody on the client side will come back and say that made a huge difference And thank you for what you did and so you have to position yourself for those kinds of solutions And that's really another part of what we wanted to do The last piece is growth so from a growth perspective We had a business plan the business plans only as good as the ink on the paper as to what we thought it was going to be And it was based in what our history had told us in building organizations similar And we had a plan in a 10-year plan, and I'm happy to say I think we're going to be within about 5 to 10% of that plan Which would thank you. It's fun. I don't know if that's luck or skill, but some combination I go And it certainly wasn't me alone. There's a lot of people involved in it So we're pleased with where we've ended up so far. That's that's fabulous. So you talked about business plan No, no business plan is complete without a legit mission. We talk about mission all the time in business Why don't you tell our viewers a little bit more about what that mission is for you? As I mentioned earlier, we're you know Disruption is happening all around us I mean we're looking at a time and and and again, this isn't clairvoyant by me But at least serves as the narrative for the way we think about things we're sitting in a time where You have start-up organizations like never before who can come in Greenfield and take on it in an industry in a matter of years You've got organizations that are traditional rich legacy organizations that have great value and grace assets That need to totally retool themselves for this next leg of growth or this next leg in the industry and so What what we hope and seek to do is and the the moniker used for that is digital transformation That's become a very overused word in the industry, but it still represents what it is It's the ability of Creating the types of digital experiences these companies need to go to market and serve their customers their employees their partners Etc that requires a whole different set of thinking for a lot of these these companies They're moving from you know building systems technologies to building products and building products is a very different journey for them So what we seek to do is in the areas of data analytics infrastructure cloud mobility Is be able to bring those types of solutions and affect that kind of change in the organization that that's often the technology itself? It's the process associated with it most importantly is helping organizations understand how they re Reengineer themselves they consume it and support it on an ongoing basis. So we want to be that digital partner for them We won't be their only digital partner There's plenty of folks that are helping serve these organizations But we want to be in problems that matter for these teams and really helping them do something different than they've done in the past Outstanding and I'm telling you you segue better for me than I could ever segue for myself because I'd really like to talk about partnerships right now I know of a very high-profile partnership that you have with Google I know a lot of people often will will think of maven wave or think of Google when they think of maven wave very often Why don't you talk a little bit about that partnership? Yeah, I mean if we build on the disruptive part of what we just discussed You know Google started off in a place that was attacking the cultural part of organizations All right, they were unlocking their G-suite and put collaboration type tools into organizations And I'd had a little experience in that previous in my career and well It's a fantastic mission and I thought that there's no better place for organizations to start back in 2009-10 when they're just getting their arms around multi-tenant cloud Infrastructures and that idea of releasing control and is consuming these services on a subscription basis It's a fantastic place for organizations to start and more importantly if they're going to begin a digital transformation The culture is what needs to be in the change first How do I really get my organization communicating and engaging differently to unlock all these new innovative things that we want to do? so for us when we when we saw who Google was the mission that they were on and unlocking what they do into these large organizations and Looking at who's going to bring that type of positive disruption to the traditional players in the space Google to us Stood out as somebody that we think is going to be a major player whether they win the market or not is Not the most relevant fact for me It's that they're going to be Influential and they're going to be working with customers doing very innovative things and we want to be a part of that And we thought partnering with them and allowing us to come in and help Enable their technology and engineering inside organizations and work very closely with them was was a fantastic place to be I think the second part of that is it's got the partnerships got to work and you know In my experience these partnerships usually last about two to three years and the reasons are very natural It's just that you both evolve in a way that your needs may not align anymore And so usually go into them cautiously optimistic that you think you're gonna You know get get good value and the best way to make those work is be transparent throughout and so for us They were at a place that the types of customers they were trying to go after the enterprise level clients They wanted to go work with we're in the sweet spot of who we were and so I think that from that side From that aspect we both found a very healthy relationship from the beginning We've been able to maintain that today no relationships without its challenges But I think we've we've proven that over the last seven or eight years Working together that we can do some really nice things and fun things in the market outstanding outstanding So last question before we have a little bit more fun here And I tried to make sure that we didn't throw around buzzwords willy-nilly, but I'm probably used a lot Well, no you haven't so so far so good, but I mean I'm gonna throw one out Data analytics and the incorporation of the integration of and those analytics into overall business strategy Obviously a very very big Topic in front of mind for many people. Is this something that maven waves saw coming? Did they see the wave coming? I saw the wave coming. Yeah, I'd certainly yes, but I wouldn't say that we were the only ones you saw coming by any means I think that the rule of data is upon us So if you want to go to some other game of Thrones reference or something We're the rule of data is coming for the next 10 to 15 years And it's not just the role of data and I think that Unfortunately data data analytics gets the same type of overuse that cloud got seven eight years ago where the concept itself Is the discussion versus the solutions you're trying to enable through it? And I think when we when we really looked at what does it mean to organizations and the types of solution we're doing? We were already beginning to do a lot of these things with our customers whether it was cloud around prem prior to some of our Current work that we're doing It it was more what they were trying to do and so the digital experience We talked about earlier digital engagement. You want with the customers Is requires insights and data consumer weren't a consumer led era now a consumer led employee a consumer led A partnerships consumer led folks in the market they want the experience They want products and services that are adding and enriching value to them And so they're dictating and so companies that are succeeding are the ones that know how to harness groom and bring that data And bring it back in a positive way to whatever it is that I'm doing whether it be the process or the insights I'm trying to drive or the coffee. I'm trying to go get on the corner that that is what's driving a data driven era And I think that what's making it different is one that awareness But two the cloud is now being able to make that available It's right It's unlocking the liquidity of this data and being able to consume it in ways in fact that nobody fathomed we could do In years past so to me that that's what's really driven it and so it's been a it's been a build-up to this I mean systems forever have been about unlocking and been using data to facilitate processes now It's really about data driving those processes and data driving the experience in the direction of our products and technology So to me that that's kind of what we've been focusing on and it takes a lot of shapes and forms and doing so But it's still really at the core of what we've always been trying to do and how do you how do you take process technology solutions and unlock Value for whatever the mission is for that organization, so a few buzzwords in there But that's kind of the idea I get it I get it and you can't you can't have this discussion without kicking them around a little bit So quickly before we jump into a little bit more fun I've been in your office now for probably two hours this morning And one of the things that you said early on really jumped out at me And that is this culture that you have created this collaborative culture from the offices I saw there in the back To the the way your team works so mission accomplished there now. Thanks. Good. I'm glad I felt that way Jason pleasure to have you on JSA TV. We appreciate it and thank you viewers for watching JSA TV. We'll see you soon