Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 20, 2016

If you have a software development background like mine, I’m sure you often get questions about when to outsource, versus building the solution in-house. Outsourcing is defined as contracting the work to another company, usually located in a developing country, like India, China, or Eastern Europe. Factor in all the cost elements.

Outsource Development 53

Outsource Development Outsource Software Review Technical Review 53

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 6, 2012

Customer service has always been reactionary, meaning someone to wake up and answer website email requests. That’s just not sufficient to hold today’s fickle, less loyal, and ready to jump customer. Self-service technologies, social media, and smart phones have created a new set of expectations for high-tech consumers today.

Customer 97

Customer Custom Services Startup 97

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 11, 2012

Since my background includes software development, I often get the question about when to build a solution in-house, versus outsourcing it to a local company, near-shore service, or off-shore organization in China, India, or Eastern Europe. Don’t outsource your core competency. Product or services. Technology level.

Outsource Development 89

Outsource Development Outsource Software Development Software 89

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 17, 2020

Maybe we haven’t seen the results yet, but there are thousands of startup opportunities to offer new alternatives and services, to replace those destroyed by the crisis. Other countries can provide e-commerce with different business models, outsource manufacturing at low cost, and a huge market for new products.

Customer 167

Customer Custom Startup Outsource Development 167

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 15, 2013

Customer service has always been reactionary, meaning someone has to wake up and answer website email requests. That’s just not savvy enough to hold today’s fickle, less loyal, and ready to jump customer. This exemplary customer service is just savvy marketing. Self-service needs to have escape hatches.

Customer 89

Customer Custom Services High Tech 89

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 29, 2023

If your forte is a service, like consulting or web site design, it’s harder to find guidance on what will get you funded, and how you can scale your business. With services, scaling the business often implies cloning yourself, since you are the intellectual property and the competitive advantage. Capture your “secret sauce.”

Startup 111

Startup Training Services Writing 111

socalTECH

MARCH 23, 2020

Irvine-based outsource customer support provider Alorica said last week that it is ramping its "Alorica-At-Home" program, its existing work-at-home program for customer service.

Outsource 113

Outsource Customer Custom Help 113

socalTECH

OCTOBER 15, 2018

said this morning that it is opening up a new, "customer care" center in Phoenix, where it hopes to hire 100, as an addition to its existing customer care operations center in Los Angeles. According to Wag, it plans to hire agents and managers in Phoenix to support its customers, walkers, and dog sitters. READ MORE>>.

Outsource 113

Outsource Los Angeles Customer Custom 113

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 17, 2011

Since my background includes software development, I often get the question about when to build a solution in-house, versus outsourcing it to a local company, near-shore service, or off-shore organization in China, India, or Eastern Europe. Don’t outsource your core competency. Product or services. Technology level.

Outsource Development 90

Outsource Development Outsource Software Development Software 90

socalTECH

AUGUST 9, 2018

Santa Monica-based business outsourcing service provider TaskUs , founded by Bryce Maddock and Jaspar Weir, said this morning that it has raised $250M in an investment round. The investment came from private equity investor Blackstone Group. According to TaskUs, the funding round values the company at $500M. READ MORE>>.

Outsource 100

Outsource Santa Monica Social Media Commerce 100

socalTECH

DECEMBER 15, 2020

San Diego-based outsourced healthcare R&D marketplace Scientist.com said this morning that it will acquire HealthEcnomics.com , which operates an online community of scientists and suppliers of heatlh economics and outcomes research. Financial details of the acquisition were not announced. READ MORE>>.

Outsource 113

Outsource Research San Diego Acquisition 113

Southern California Edison Blog

JUNE 11, 2021

One effective way to address these needs, offload maintenance tasks, and boost performance is to leverage managed solutions from a network services provider. Large and growing enterprises are constantly thinking ahead; in order to expand service offerings and team sizes, upgrading network capacity is often the solution.

Networking 88

Networking Services Design Demand 88

socalTECH

MAY 2, 2016

iQor , a provider of outsourced customer service and support, said Friday that it is planning to hire over 150 people in Simi Valley, as part of a major expansion. Petersberg, Florida--has over 35,000 employees across 18 countries offering up outsource business services. iQor--which is based in St. READ MORE>>.

Outsource 100

Outsource Custom Customer Media 100

socalTECH

NOVEMBER 22, 2019

The two received the Entrepreneur Of The Year 2019 Award in the Services category, one of only 11 categories awarded in the E&Y program. TaskUs recently reached 15,000 employees , by offering up a range of customer service and business process outsourcing services.

Entrepreneur 124

Entrepreneur Southern California Outsource Santa Monica 124

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 2, 2018

If your forte is a service, like consulting or web site design, it’s harder to find guidance on what will get you funded, and how you can scale your business. With services, scaling the business often implies cloning yourself, since you are the intellectual property and the competitive advantage. Capture your “secret sauce.”

Services 72

Services Startup Training Writing 72

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 3, 2020

If your forte is a service, like consulting or web site design, it’s harder to find guidance on what will get you funded, and how you can scale your business. With services, scaling the business often implies cloning yourself, since you are the intellectual property and the competitive advantage. Capture your “secret sauce.”

Startup 174

Startup Training Services Writing 174

socalTECH

JANUARY 7, 2015

Irvine-based customer service outsourcing provider Alorica said Wednesday afternoon that it has paid $275M for the agent services businesses of West Corporation. alorica business process outsourcing west corporation merger acquisition customer service nearshoring offshoring' READ MORE>>.

Offshore 100

Offshore Outsource Customer Custom 100

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 14, 2023

Most consulting services, like marketing, are not scalable, since they must be delivered by experts, and cloning experts is slow and expensive. Investors don’t invest in services startups. I see too many business plans that are really product plans for customers, touting free services and long feature lists.

Tips 135

Tips Invest Startup Outsource 135

socalTECH

JULY 1, 2016

Irvine-based business outsourcing provider Alorica said Thursday that it has acquired Expert Global Solutions, Inc. , a provider of outsourced, customer service and financial collections services. EGS was based in Plano, Texas. billion in 2016 revenues, with 48,000 employees in the U.S.,

Outsource 113

Outsource Acquisition Services Customer 113

socalTECH

NOVEMBER 24, 2020

Los Angeles-based Credit Key , a startup which helps e-commerce merchants offer up instant point-of-sale financing to customers, has raised $33.85M in its Series A funding. Tomich was previously founder of Onestop Internet, which provided outsourced handling of e-commerce for major brands. READ MORE>>.

Commerce 113

Commerce Outsource Los Angeles Sales 113

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 4, 2010

Since my background includes software development, I often get the question about when to build a solution in-house, versus outsourcing it to a local company, near-shore service, or off-shore organization in China, India, or Eastern Europe. Don’t outsource your core competency. Product or services. Technology level.

Outsource Development 51

Outsource Development Outsource Software Offshore 51

socalTECH

JANUARY 24, 2019

Santa Monica-based business process outsourcing provider TaskUs , which provides customer service/experience, business processing, and other services to companies like Tinder, Hootsuite, and Mailchimp, has hit 15,000 employees, as it continues its rapid growth.

Outsource 113

Outsource Santa Monica Equity Services 113

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 25, 2023

For example, only a few people today still think of Amazon as an online provider of books and related goods, now that they have exploded their business world-wide into every product arena, added web services (AWS), television and film production (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer), a bricks-and-mortar grocery chain (Whole Foods), and more.

Outsource Development 140

Outsource Development Outsource Startup Metrics 140

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 25, 2011

There’s a line of thinking in Silicon Valley that you should build product businesses rather than services businesses. It’s nearly impossible to get a services company financed by VCs. Why Shouldn’t Most Services Businesses Raise VC? Why Build a Services Business in the First Place?

Services 332

Services Venture Capital IP Startup 332

socalTECH

MAY 24, 2018

Los Angeles-based TaskUs , which provides outsource customer support and back-end support services for many startups and other technology companies, has named Joe Buggy as its new Chief Operating Officer, the first for the company. TaskUs said that Buggy has more than 30 years of experience.

Outsource 113

Outsource Los Angeles Services Customer 113

socalTECH

JANUARY 12, 2015

Irvine-based outsourcing service provider Alorica said late Friday that it has named James Molloy as the company''s new Chief Financial Officer. Molloy was most recently Alorica''s Chief Accounting Officer, and also has served at Vanguard Logistics Services, BAX Global, The Brink''s Company, and Deloitte & Touche.

Outsource 100

Outsource Services Customer Custom 100

socalTECH

JANUARY 23, 2018

Irvine-based Alorica , which provides business process and customer service outsourcing, said today that it has named Tania King as its new Chief Legal and Employee Experience Officer. King has been Chief Legal and Compliance Officer for Alorica for the company since January of last year.

Outsource 100

Outsource Customer Custom Services 100

TechCrunch LA

APRIL 23, 2019

Former President of BMW manufacturing, Clemens Schmitz-Justen also joined the company as its head of manufacturing — overseeing the contract manufacturing strategy, which will see the company outsource production of vehicles in the U.S. and China, according to one person with knowledge of the company’s plans.

Outsource Development 191

Outsource Development Startup Outsource San Diego 191

socalTECH

JULY 5, 2016

El Segundo-based Wyle , the provider of outsourced engineering and scientific services to the Federal Government, has completed its acquisition of fellow professional services provider KBR. The two companies said they willl combined under the brand "KBRwyle", and continue to service Wyle's existing customers.

El Segundo 124

El Segundo Outsource Acquisition Services 124

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 27, 2014

If your forte is a service, like consulting or web site design, it’s harder to find guidance on what will get you funded, and how you can scale your business. With services, scaling the business often implies cloning yourself, since you are the intellectual property and the competitive advantage. Capture your “secret sauce.”

Services 105

Services Startup Training Writing 105

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 2, 2022

You can’t succeed in business without an operational model that delivers value to customers at a reasonable price, with an underlying cost that allows you to make a profit. A target market is the group of customers that the startup plans to attract through marketing and sales their product or service. Target market. Production.

Sales 102

Sales Customer Custom Outsource 102

socalTECH

DECEMBER 17, 2015

Santa Monica-based customer support outsourcing provider TaskUs --which is based in Santa Monica, but has a vast operation in the Philippines--said it has opened up a new office in Melbourne, Australia. Financial details of the deal with Nimble were not announced, but TaskUs said it will provide 24/7 customer support for the company.

Santa Monica 100

Santa Monica Outsource Customer Custom 100

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 17, 2016

If your forte is a service, like consulting or web site design, it’s harder to find guidance on what will get you funded, and how you can scale your business. With services, scaling the business often implies cloning yourself, since you are the intellectual property and the competitive advantage. Capture your “secret sauce.”

Services 61

Services Startup Training Writing 61

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 17, 2016

For too many small businesses, customer service is still seen as a “burden.” The report also indicates that customer problem experiences continue to increase, up four percent to 54 percent since the last study. These days, relationships and online reviews are key drivers for over 80 percent of new customers.

Customer 56

Customer Custom Startup Satisfaction 56

socalTECH

MARCH 23, 2018

San Diego-based Scientist.com , which operates an outsourced research marketplace, says it has received a data security certification this week. According to the company, it received the SOC 2 certification, which certifies that the company adheres to rigorous information security policies and procedures regarding customer data.

Outsource 100

Outsource San Diego Hollywood Research 100

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 19, 2020

Most consulting services, like marketing, are not scalable, since they must be delivered by experts, and cloning experts is slow and expensive. Investors don’t invest in services startups. I see too many business plans that are really product plans for customers, touting free services and long feature lists.

Startup 154

Startup Outsource Ideas Research 154

TechCrunch LA

APRIL 10, 2019

Publicly traded sensor technology developer, FLIR Systems , is investing in a strategic round of funding for the outsourced drone imaging company, DroneBase. The two companies are also partnering to provide FLIR’s thermal imaging technology and training services to DroneBase’s stable of pilots.

Training 147

Training Outsource Development Outsource Capital 147