b'It was absolutely brutal;Creating more by working together the worst time ever, recalls Ian. We were all in a stateBut the driving force behindvery hierarchical. They have of shock. At that point ourthe businesssharing ideas,tightly prescribed roles and business was really small. Wecollaborating and realisinganything outside these roles had grown it from nothingthat partnering can buildisnt for them. So when were and had about 60 people.something truly innovativehiring, were always looking Wed spent the first few yearshas remained the same tofor people that are different working really hard togetherthis day.than the normal. We want and feeding off each other.Meeting people who havepeople who want to be more We were just hustling anddifferent skillsets but shareof a Swiss army knife. So we trying to find our first clients. a similar vision is a hugeend up with more interesting Suddenly, Ian was extremelypart of the entrepreneurialpeople. That culture of isolated. He was not onlyjourney, he reflects. It waslearning and accountability is trying to cope with grief butincredibly exciting when mereally big in the business.also the loss of business, asand Jeff first shared our ideasTheir work in solving the a large part of their salesand realised we could createchallenges relating to scaling pipeline went becausesomething great together. Idisruptive, high growth of everything Jeff wasstill feel the same thrill todaybusinesses has helped working on.when were talking to start- acquire an impressive ups about how we can helproster of clients in social It was hard, hemedia, ecommerce, FinTech, reflects. I had to gothem grow and becomeSaaS companies, online more innovative.out there and startAcknowledging that his start- food ordering platforms tapping in to otherup journey was very muchand consumer goods sales networks, but wea steep learning curve, hesmanufacturing. had a good reputationkeen to share advice otherFor Ian, who left a career and we were startingentrepreneurs embarking onworking with investment to win repeat work andthe same path.bankers to set up Enshored, the tech sector is not only get referrals. We lostPerhaps the biggest lessonthe vanguard of change, but a third of the businesshe would pass onto to otherultimately a better fit for at the beginning ofstart-ups, though, is thathim personally. the year but we wereyou reap what you sow. I do believe in karma, he says.We like working back on track by theWhen you do good work forwith these clients, he summer. your clients it pays off. Fortyadmits. Theyre a lot By 2020, they werepercent of our clients comeless adversarial and employing 1,000 peoplefrom referrals and that tellswant you to succeed. and had made it onto theits own story. These tech companies annual Inc. 5,000 list of theAnother lesson he wishesdont have a finite view, fastest growing companiesto emphasise is the need tothey have an infinite in America. hold people accountable formindset and always In the space of a few yearsperformance and give staff abelieve they can create Enshored had been able tostrong sense of ownership in the work they do.more by working make good on the dream that Ian and Jeff had sharedWe try to keep our structuretogether. Thats been when they first toasted avery flat, he says. Mostour guiding principle beer together.outsourcing companies arefrom day one.24'