Global custom software development company Sphere Consulting, headquartered in Chicago, is a startup that's had impressive growth - moving from a staff of five when it launched in 2005 to as many as 90 employees today. With offshore R&D offices in Ukraine and Russia, Sphere Consulting specializes in a variety of services such as custom application development, advanced analytics, business intelligence, system integration, search engine optimization, online marketing and quality assurance. Sphere Consulting was also sponsor of midVenturesLAUNCH.
CEO Leon Ginsberg, who was a member of the Startup Advisor committee at midVenturesLAUNCH, answered our questions via email about where the drive for his startup came from, how he keeps Sphere Consulting competitive, why he chose Kharkov, Ukraine as the place to outsource employees, and what role word-of-mouth referrals play in moving the company forward.
Introduction by Shannalee T'Koy
Interview by Meagan Lopez
midVentures: What led you to start your own company? Do you come from a family of entrepreneurs?
Leon Ginsburg: I am an entrepreneur at heart. I followed my grandfather’s path who was an entrepreneur in the automobile industry in Kharkov during the Soviet times. Back then, entrepreneurship was different; there wasn't a lot of room for initiative and development but he was able to succeed in a grey market economy.
mV: If your father hadn’t known students in Kharkov, where would you have gone to search for qualified employees at competitive prices?
LG: I would still go to recruit talented engineers in Ukraine and Russia. I was born and raised there, and am very familiar with their political, economical and cultural dynamics. I know how to do business in these countries. They are known for one of the best in education systems in the world for math, science and technology.
mV: Having grown from 5 people to 90 people in five years, what do you look for in potential candidates?
LG: First, I look at their technical skills, but I look for them in the context of their ability to interact with people. Their general conceptual skills are also very important. I like our employees to not only be able to complete specific tasks, but to think strategically and be customer oriented.
mV: How does Sphere Consulting continue to stay competitive? What tools or resources do you use to keep on track and up to date with the most current software and practices?
LG: The technical industry continues to change rapidly and just as with medical science or law we must keep abreast of both current and past trends, in addition to supporting our existing customers’ needs. Because we need to have this knowledge at multiple levels within the organization, we address the needs accordingly. Our leadership team has a wide background in technology and business across multiple verticals , therefore we focus on attending and speaking at technical and industry conferences. The reason for this is that an organization’s leadership needs to be capable of seeing trends not just in technology, but business trends as well. Additionally, we spend a significant amount of time listening to industry experts, customers, and potential customers to find out what problems they are trying to solve.
The technical team has a responsibility to stay current on technology trends, assessing the maturity and stability of new technologies and their impact on clients and Sphere. We don’t try to be a jack of all trades when in comes to technology, rather we focus on specific core and emerging technologies that will accelerate our growth over our competition and simultaneously provide a positive impact for our clients. Our engineers regularly speak at and attend conference, author white papers and learn through custom and self-paced training.
Internally our tools and processes continue to evolve and we refine them dynamically. We rely heavily on cloud based project management tools, source control, internal and project specific wikis. Our primary means of communication is Skype. Over the years we have also developed a variety of proprietary tools that enable a higher level of productivity. They provide us a significant competitive advantage. Our whole approach is extremely agile in all that we do within our organization and in all our engagements with clients, giving us flexibility without compromising on quality.
Stay tuned for the rest of interview tomorrow on www.midventures.com
