How Austin's Startup Community Made Our First Event a Big Success

On August 8, 2019, we had the unique pleasure of hosting our first of many planned startup events in Personiv's home city of Austin, Texas.

Smart Outsourcing for Startups and Incubators was an evening dedicated to getting some of Austin's biggest thinkers and fearless disruptors into the same room to meet with, learn from and network with one another. Hinged on the concept of using outsourcing as one of many tools to scale nascent companies into profitable industry leaders our inaugural get-together came at a time when Austin itself is growing faster than ever.

As the face of and faces in Austin change to reflect an ever-more global community with ever-more exciting ideas and ideals, it's critical now more than ever that we work to connect professionally and personally on our most basic shared level: the human one. It's people that make ideas into action plans and action plans into exciting companies. It's people that work behind the scenes to grow and improve those companies. And it was people that powered our first idea-sharing, network-building, and solution-seeking get together a great success.

Here's what that looked like.

Valuable Insight Provided by Expert Speakers

Tim Witucki, our SVP of Sales and Global Development kicked things off by introducing our guest speakers and providing his insight on how startups can leverage outsourcing to move low-impact tasks that aren’t critical to a startups’ central vision out of the way. Witucki explained that outsourcing anything that’s secondary to a company’s central purpose, product, or service allows that company to focus wholly on what they’re truly offering and creates an environment for innovation to thrive and profits to grow.

Earl Ameen, Founder, CEO, and Global Advisor of The Grey Owl Company spoke next, reminding us that the word “corporation” has its etymological roots in “corpus”, the Latin word for “body”. Ameen encouraged everyone in attendance to nourish the startups, businesses and professional endeavors they devote so much time and love to by thinking of them this way -- as whole bodies that can and should be enabled to strengthen and grow.

Expanding that definition outward, Ameen urged attendees to see to the health of the greater body of the business community by coming together in the spirit of collaboration and yes, sometimes competition, to foster a greater sense of communal innovation. Speaking from experience, he concluded with a piece of hard-earned wisdom: that like all bodies, companies, and startups will sometimes flag or fail to perform as they could. In those moments, we can benefit from trusting a third party, like an outsourcing provider, to take on a part of the burden and make the body whole again.

Al Dampier Jr., DPH, Managing Partner of the Dampier Consulting Group, expanded on Ameen’s analogy. “If your company is the body,” he told attendees, “the CEO is the head.” Founders and CEOs, he said, have the unique responsibility of following the timelessly relevant missive to “know thyself”. Understanding and developing corporate identity sometimes requires an objective step back, according to Dampier, and an ability to take honest stock of what your company is and what its function is — what it truly does well. Everything outside of that category can be outsourced to keep core operations and the path forward efficient and unobstructed by extraneous concerns.

Finally, Megan Weis, our VP and General Manager of Finance and Accounting Services gave an insightful talk that went directly to the point — that for a startup, capital is king, and outsourcing is instrumental in preserving the precious financial resources that startups need for research, development and critical operations. When it comes to finance and accounting services (FAO), moving the necessary but low-impact work of keeping the books straight offshore solves a number of problems at once.

There’s already a lack of qualified accounting professionals stateside, and certified professional accountants come at an extra premium. For a nascent company or startup with wafer-thin margins, this poses an obvious problem. If they can find a qualified CPA, they’ll be using a chunk of precious capital to simply keep the financial gears turning instead of devoting that same capital to growth and development tasks.

The same talent, Weis explained, is available in droves overseas, rigorously qualified, and represent a 50 to 75 percent cost savings. Whether the grind in question is as small as data entry or includes every aspect of the accounting process, options exist to meet that need. Skilled accountants in Manila, Weis pointed out, have even helped design and refine existing processes for stateside clients who either haven’t established their own or have established less-than-efficient ones.

Networking as Unique as Austin Itself - Austin Startup Events Done Right

After our speaker remarks, attendees were able to network in Native Hostel’s ‘Romper Room’, a modern and eclectic space that perfectly reflected the slice of Austin’s startup community using it. The industries represented varied widely and participants included the founders of eCommerce, data science and growth hacking startups as well as an inclusivity-focused accelerator for underrepresented minorities in tech.

It was a space for exchanging ideas, experiences and the occasional battle scar as professionals from different geographies and generations met and made dialogue over drinks. Throughout the networking portion of the event, the evening’s speakers participated in a casual walking Q&A in this exciting atmosphere. We know for a fact that our next Austin startup events are going to be a big hit too!

Further Resources Within Reach and on Demand - Be on the Lookout for More Austin Startup Events

There was ample opportunity for our Meetup participants to gather more information on the ways Personiv could partner with them to leverage outsourcing for needs that encompass a variety of low-impact tasks:

Sales: Reimagining Sales Growth Through Next-Level Outsourcing

Our diverse platform of people-powered sales solutions can meet the needs of companies looking to improve lead generation, up- or cross-sell their offerings, prospect new leads or simply establish or improve inbound and outbound sales pipelines. Our coaching methodologies and talent approach give you access to a team of strategy-minded salespeople as invested in your company's growth as you are.

FAO: The Winning Blueprint For An Efficient And Effective Finance And Accounting Team

Personiv’s FAO Service can migrate client data from inefficient and outdated systems that require manual intervention into a single, cloud-based accounting platform. And for CFOs who don’t wish to change their accounting platform, we’re happy to deliver our services using your current technology. Our solution is flexible and designed to work for you and our services are both proactive and collaborative. Our goal is to build a trusting relationship – one in which we provide you with personalized service and enable you to become a strategic partner to the business.

Back Office Services: To BPO or not BPO — The Pros and Cons of Outsourcing Your Back Office Support

Personalized solutions delivered by top talent is what sets Personiv apart. Our virtual team members can help in a wide variety of areas including routine accounting tasks, data entry, transaction support and more. Allowing us to partner with you to migrate your back-office tasks offshore will make your time your own again. At a 50 to 75 percent savings on these services, you can put your resources back into your company's core purpose, too.

We want you to have that same access, even if you couldn’t make the event. You can join the Efficient Startups of Austin Meetup to stay aware of any future Austin startup events or get in touch to get up to speed.

We hope to see you next time!