Suresh Rachuri - Founder of Maven: Understanding Your Buyer, Being Relational vs. Transactional, and Removing Your Safety Net (Repost)

Callan Harrington  00:01

You're listening to That Worked, a show that breaks down the careers of top founders and executives and pulls out those key items that led to their success. I'm your host, Callan Harrington, founder of Flashgrowth, and I couldn't be more excited that you're here. Happy Holidays everybody, and welcome back to another episode of That Worked. I wanted to share this episode from December of 2022, and I really thought you'd enjoy it, if you haven't listened to it yet. My guest is Suresh Rachuri. Suresh is the founder of Maven. Maven is an IT solutions and consulting business based in Columbus, Ohio. Maven has been solving business challenges through technology and people since 2010. Suresh immigrated from India to Columbus, Ohio at the age of four with his parents and younger brother. Suresh is an avid community leader and has spent the last seventeen years of volunteering as a big brother with the Big Brothers and Big Sisters organization. He also serves on the board of the Columbus Early Learning Centers with a mission to uplift at risk youth. Honestly, I brought this back because I loved hearing Suresh's story. And it's hard not to get motivated when you listen to it. He is one of the most passionate founders, about the people he serves, that we've had on the show. So with that, I'm gonna keep this short and sweet. And let's jump right into it. Suresh, welcome to the show.

Suresh Rachuri  01:41

Well, thank you for having me, Callan. Appreciate it.

Callan Harrington  01:44

Yeah, absolutely. Tell us a little bit about Maven.

Suresh Rachuri  01:46

Sure. MAVEN is an IT consulting, solutions, and staffing firm. I founded it back in June of 2010, and we celebrated our twelve year anniversary not too long ago.

Callan Harrington  01:59

Congrats. That's amazing. I mean, I hear everybody- once you get to that ten year, right? That ten years is the mark. So twelve years is excellent. I always like to kind of kick these off with how did you get here? How did you get to where you're at today? Where did it all start? Yeah, absolutely.

Suresh Rachuri  02:12

Good question! Well, I didn't know I was going to be going into IT. You're talking to somebody that dropped out of high school, got their GED, went to college for their freshman year. And then during college had a family situation, my parents, they both lost their jobs, were hard on their luck, they took their $50,000 that they had in their savings, and they tried to a bite of the American dream. They bought a carry out in Columbus in a little rougher of an area. And one thing led to another, and before you know it,  while I was carefree, and just going to school, and skateboarding, and so forth, I get a call from a family member. And the family member says "hey, your dad's in the hospital, you need to go see your mom right away." I was like, whoa. So, lo and behold, I found out that my dad was hospitalized because he got jumped by some folks who were robbing the store. That freaked me out. My dad's my hero, right?  The person I look up to, and so forth. He's our shepherd, and so forth. That freaked me out. And I didn't want my mom working there by herself. So dropped out of college and worked there with my mom, made sure she was never alone. You know, before you know it, I'd started just running a mini mart and so forth. And then Mom and Dad, Dad got better, and Mom and Dad asked, hey, do you mind running the shop while we go take some Oracle classes? So they went and took some Oracle classes, learned how to code and program in Oracle. And then they both got jobs out in the Carolinas with a defense contractor. Things are going great. And then I set up an assembly line for the carryout. And it's all from the experience I learned working at a pizza shop, Donatos. And so, I created- we got a conveyor belt oven, and then we created this assembly line for all the veggies, and all the meats, and so forth. And before you know it, the subs were selling more than anything else in the convenience store. Were able to save up enough money to buy a second store, a drive-thru carry out. And then when we did that, my parents were like, hey, do you mind if we go get some SAP classes too? Because ERP is more prominent of a role and so forth. I was like, yeah, go for it, go for it. So they took their SAP classes, they became heightened defense contractors. And before you know it, they're like, hey, do you want to buy both stores from us? We'll practically give them to you. I wasn't keen on that. What my parents didn't know during that whole time was I was held up a few times at gunpoint, and so was my brother, but we didn't want them to worry, so we didn't tell them about it. We didn't want to them to get disrupted with their studies and what they were doing. I'm so proud of them and what they're doing. They've done great. They got their piece of their American Dream, living out in the burbs here in Columbus, Ohio. Mom has retired, Dad continues to work for Defense Department. That inspired me. While they were learning, what they didn't realize was I was writing code too. Learning to write code and doing it on my own, self-taught. Taught myself how to code. And then once we sold the businesses, I went into coding, became a software developer, worked for a company, and so forth. I enjoyed that, put good food on the table, and then a little after that, I was on bench, they asked me to stick around and so forth, and I stuck around for a few weeks. And then a month goes by and they're like, hey, I'm asking them, give me something to do. I'm bored. You told me, I can't leave town, I gotta be on call, and so forth. So they asked me if I can help them recruit some talent. I helped them recruit some talent. I really loved the experience of really helping a person get into a new role. To the point my first hire out of that, the lady tried, gave me a big hug, got chocolates and candies from it. It was so rewarding, figured out what my calling was. My calling is to get the right people in the right seats, really understanding a person's motivation, and putting them on the right mission. And this has been a journey for me that I've learned over the years on how to continue to get better and better and better helping people get to the right situation.

Callan Harrington  06:31

So, one, I never knew any of that. That's an incredible story. This transition that you had made, so you're running these two stores. You mentioned you started learning how to code yourself. What prompted that? It sounds like you got a successful thing going, albeit it's coming with some challenges, for sure. What prompted that learning how to code? And why did you want- why learning how to code in particular?

Suresh Rachuri  06:54

Sure, good question. At that time, I didn't have any college education. I was running a couple of convenience stores. And it just seemed like I was running into a dead end situation. I didn't want to own those stores. I didn't want that to be my life. I wanted more for my life. And I just felt like the bridge that gap through technology was the right answer. I noticed my parents doing that. And when they became Oracle developers, and then they became SAP, they were studying BSAP developers. That's when the light bulb moment came on. I said, hey, I can get more if I tried to start writing code, and get a point of entry into information technology.

Callan Harrington  07:40

Yeah.

Suresh Rachuri  07:40

Because that's the future. Which is the future we live in now.

Callan Harrington  07:44

That's- I mean, the fact that your parents were going in to learn how to code on Oracle and SAP, it shows incredible foresight, at that time. You hear about it all the time now. Salesforce, right? People are going and doing the Trailhead and everything, but back then one, that's a pretty big shift from what they were doing. So that's incredible and clearly had a big impact on you. So you mentioned in particular recruiting for this particular person, and that had kind of changed your life. What's that story? What were you recruiting? Who were you recruiting for? What was the position? That sounds like this is one of your first ones, how did you go about figuring out how to do it? Walk us through that.

Suresh Rachuri  08:20

Sure. The first person I recruited, I don't want to say their names. She was working for a company called Diebold, great company, you know, they build ATMs for a living and so forth, I'm sure a bunch of other stuff. She after nineteen years, she was a part of a layoff. And when I called her, you know, recruited her, cold call her, recruited her, you know, I found all this stuff out and discovered, okay, she was at Diebold for nineteen years, she has strong network infrastructure background, she had a certification in Cisco, Cisco network professionals, CCNP. And being a female too, that was very unheard of then.

Callan Harrington  09:00

Yeah.

Suresh Rachuri  09:01

It was great. Everything she was saying that I was interviewing on, she fit the mold very, very well. And then I asked her to come and meet me in person. That's when it got a little weird, and she just wasn't comfortable coming to meet me in person. She just said, no. I didn't take no for an answer. I said, well, I can't do anything until I meet you in person and look you in the eye, shake your hand. So that got her to come in. When she came into the office, she couldn't look me in the eye, she looked down when she talked to me, and she just seemed defeated. And I pulled her into an office, just talk to her one on one, and I put the position aside and everything. I was like, what's going on? What's wrong? She's like, I've been interviewing for almost a full year now, and nobody will give me a job or not a chance. I could tell she felt defeated. You know, she's brilliant. Lo and behold, what we found out was she's been judged by the way she looks. And brilliant. Just a beautiful mind and a beautiful person. So I didn't even think of her for the specific position I brought her in for. I actually called a friend of mine from a financial services institution I used to work at. And I said, hey, can you use someone like this? He's like, we need three of them. And I was like, okay. This is on a Tuesday, I do believe, and he's like can you bring her in Thursday or Friday for fingerprinting, and have her start on Monday. I was like, you haven't even met her yet, I just showed you her resume. He's like Suresh, I know you, I know you deliver great work, great results, we worked together before, bring her in. When that happened, and I went and told her, she gave me this big bear hug, lifted me up off the ground. And I was just like, wow, this is it. Chocolates, candies, flowers... It just felt good. And her career just took off after that.  That's excellent. Why was that so important to you? I've been that person. I've been that person that was judged by the cover. I feel like I had some empathy with her. I felt her energy, a disparity, defeatedness, and I've been there. I wanted to help.

Callan Harrington  11:12

That's excellent. I love it. So you placed your first person. Were you working for a company when you did this? Did you do this on your own? What did that look like?

Suresh Rachuri  11:21

I was working for a company. I was writing code for a company. MIA, I think. They got acquired a while back ago. But that's the company I worked for when that happened, and I made that transition.

Callan Harrington  11:31

So you had this great moment. What do you do with it? Where did you go from there?

Suresh Rachuri  11:36

They wanted me to still code. I wanted to recruit. And we had a difference of opinion. And I put in my resignation and got a job recruiting full time in IT.

Callan Harrington  11:48

That's really interesting. Now, what was that transition like for you, right? Recruiting's very different. Recruiting is a pure sales role, in my opinion. Not saying that there's not more to it, but I mean, the cold calling and the discovery, the skill sets, in my opinion, are very, very, very, very close, if not the exact same. So what was that transition, like for you from coding to moving into more of a sales driven role?

Suresh Rachuri  12:13

Sure. It was challenging, because it's a different world. It was challenging in a way, just you need to be more relational. To be a good recruiter, you need to be more relational, you need to have empathy with your audience and who you're talking to. Finding a job can be stressful for people. What I learned is to have that white glove service, put yourself in their shoes, it's simple, empathy. And understand them, where they're coming from, how they're wired, what are they motivated by? Where do they want to go with this? And really help them find the right place that will feel their motivation and what they want to accomplish? It took a while to figure that out. Took years actually, but the transition was good.

Callan Harrington  13:05

When you say that process of finding the right fit, what's your process for figuring that out?

Suresh Rachuri  13:12

What's my process to figure it out, finding the right fit? Understanding my buyer first.

Callan Harrington  13:19

Okay.

Suresh Rachuri  13:20

Understanding the purpose of the position they are looking to fill. Understanding the culture of the company that this person would be working for. Understanding the demeanor and the mindset of the person and the team this person would work with and for. These are our core essentials, before we even start finding and identifying a talent for it. Understanding the mission of the position, the mission of the group and the ccompany too. And then obviously, there's two buckets to understand if a person is the right fit for the role or not. One bucket is job description requirements. And desirables. The other bucket is are they the right fit for that company? Are they not just a culture fit? But are they a culture add? Will the company give them the opportunity to feel what they're how they're wired, what they're motivated by, and opportunity for them to stay around by helping them accomplish what they want to get done over time.

Callan Harrington  14:38

Yep, absolutely. So you've got all that information, and you're going out and recruiting a candidate. What's the process for evaluating that fit with the candidate? .

Suresh Rachuri  14:48

Sure. We have a thing called SMART. It's just- I'm not gonna give the whole secret sauce away, but somebody's salary, what they're motivated by, what they want to accomplish, any relocation needed with them, and training and education. We can get just those five things learned, we can really understand that this person is the right person to get to the next step in questioning for the opportunity and positions.

Callan Harrington  15:20

Gotcha. Absolutely. So at this point, you're working for somebody, and you're getting into the role, and this is the first time you've been in a full time recruiting role. How are you liking it? How's it going? How's the transition going with you just in general?

Suresh Rachuri  15:35

It wasn't good at first.

Callan Harrington  15:37

What? How come what happened?

Suresh Rachuri  15:39

I just got rejected by everybody. (laughs)

Callan Harrington  15:44

(laughs)

Suresh Rachuri  15:44

Just ah, and then I- Yeah, and I was still a little wet behind the ears as a recruiter and so forth. I was thrown into a role where I didn't really have too much support, I had to learn by myself.

Callan Harrington  15:46

Yeah.

Suresh Rachuri  15:47

And just get to the answers, right. But after a couple of weeks, I just realized, hey, you know, I need to change my game. What is it? And I started just really putting myself in the audience's shoes. And when I started doing that, I was able to hone in on the conversation me and that audience had, but also tap into the conversation that they have, while they're talking to me, with themselves.

Callan Harrington  16:21

What do you mean by that?

Suresh Rachuri  16:22

There's certain behavior driven questions that I ask to understand how they approach the question, and how they answer that question, and so forth. Just really digging into that conversation I have with them, and really understand what else what they might be thinking. There's just some pointed behavior driven questions as part of our secret sauce, I kind of put together. Does that make sense?

Callan Harrington  16:44

I think so. Do you have an example that's not part of one of the ones that you would use? But you would say that somebody could get value out of using?

Suresh Rachuri  16:51

Sure. Just a simple question like what motivated you for this, to even apply for this position? Or what motivated you to talk to me? Right? That's just an open ended question. Some people are like, can you elaborate on that. And some people are like, money. Some people are, you know, there's an array of answers. But based upon the way they ask that, and the tone they ask that, and so forth, has helped me assess that, if that makes sense.

Callan Harrington  17:19

It does. I was just gonna ask, what are you looking for in that world? Right? So if we've got somebody out here, that's a hiring manager for a number of positions, right? What are some things that you would tell them? You know, if you're interviewing, here's one of the challenges, right, I think, and I've interviewed hundreds of people personally, as well. And what I've found is that so many people, you hear the same things over and over and over and over again. Literally, I had a comment today on LinkedIn about this exact subject. And you hear the same things over and over and over again, I know I, as a hiring manager, I'm looking for any little detail where I could see that they did something a little bit extra on whatever it was. That could be, they put up a unique fact that they found about the business, even if they reached out to me via LinkedIn, or just something unique to show that they did a little bit of extra homework, is something that I look for. So I'm curious, you've interviewed thousands of people. What are you looking for, to help them stand out from the crowd?

Suresh Rachuri  18:23

Good question. My responsibility is to, us at Maven, is to do this job, and do this job well. Well, our hiring managers have their day jobs to do, so what I look for is getting it right the first time. I look for somebody who fits both buckets, that I mentioned before, more of the behavior bucket, if they're a culture fit or culture add for that role, and that environment, that company, and tech skills or job description skills that they have. I need to see those two work together and come together. And biggest thing I look for is are they motivated by the mission of that role? How is their behavior when we describe the role to them? Are they excited by it? Are they frumpy by it? Or somewhere in the middle?

Callan Harrington  19:15

Okay, so more you're taking a look at body language, you're taking a look at tone and things like that to get a feel for is this person genuinely interested in this? Or is this somebody that's just kind of going through the motions?

Suresh Rachuri  19:29

Yes.

Callan Harrington  19:30

Gotcha. You know, it's interesting, and I could see that in sales. That's tough. It's a real- it's a challenging- we interview a lot of sales people, leaders, all anybody that kind of grew up in that sales world, and I'm sure you've probably had this on recruiters. They all are super excited. They all come off super excited, because they're selling themselves on the role, whether or not they actually want it or not. How do you approach those situations?

Suresh Rachuri  19:54

Good question. Carefully. Callan, I've got to approach it with the mindset of our stakeholder.

Callan Harrington  20:04

Yeah.

Suresh Rachuri  20:05

Right? The people that would this person appreciate this person being on their team.

Callan Harrington  20:10

Yeah.

Suresh Rachuri  20:11

Would this person be a productive member of the team? Are we doing our customer a good service by even presenting this person to them?

Callan Harrington  20:21

Right.

Suresh Rachuri  20:21

Let alone getting that person to a position over there. That's really how we approach it.  At the end of the day, it isn't just getting the business from our customers, it's continuing to build that partnership.

Callan Harrington  20:26

Yep.  Yeah. And that makes sense. So if I'm hearing you correctly, it's okay, so all things that are equal, who's going to be a better culture fit, right? If I put this in front of them, are they going to look at this person and say, yes, this person, this is somebody that aligns with the values of Flashgrowth. Doesn't mean that they may not be a good person, regardless, but this person sees the world a little bit similar to how we do. Is that fair? I don't want to lead that question.

Suresh Rachuri  21:01

It's a fair assessment. Yeah.

Callan Harrington  21:03

Cool. Perfect. All right, so let's fast forward a little bit. You had worked with a number of companies, and then you made the decision to go out on your own? Why'd you want to go out on your own?

Suresh Rachuri  21:14

I got fired.

Callan Harrington  21:15

Walk us through that.

Suresh Rachuri  21:19

I was with another consulting firm. Great opportunity, I still love them. You know, they gave me opportunity. It gave me a chance. And I was with them for nearly five years. They just said one day, and I was the leading salesperson, I had the highest margin, highest revenue, and so forth, for my line of business, and brought me in a room and they said, hey, we're going in a different direction, we're gonna let you go. Today's your last day.

Callan Harrington  21:45

Why did they do that?

Suresh Rachuri  21:46

You know, I asked. They just said, we're going in a different direction. And down the road, I found out they hired two or three more people to take over my role.

Callan Harrington  21:46

Gotcha.

Suresh Rachuri  21:46

So I think they, they were looking at a business decision. And I think they thought they could probably grow faster with three people. What was interesting is all three of those people attritioned with that company within six months to a year and a half. But it taught me a lesson. First of all, it did a lot of things for me.

Callan Harrington  22:20

Yeah, let's walk through that.

Suresh Rachuri  22:20

Okay. First of all, if I didn't get that swift kick in the, you know what, I wouldn't be where I am now. I'm so happy where I am now.

Callan Harrington  22:28

Before you dive into that? Why? How come? Why would you not have jumped out on your own if that didn't happen?

Suresh Rachuri  22:35

I needed that stability. And then I got put in an unstable situation. And it's like, okay, I'm already here. Let me go ahead and go full time with my situation and figure this out.

Callan Harrington  22:48

You needed that forcing function...  To put you into there. You know, it's interesting. I think a lot, I'm like that. I'm very much like that. I very much need something to be there to motivate me to do it. Because I did the same- I stayed in- I did not try to start a company for a long time, for that exact situation, that fear of not having, let's just call it that safety net. For me, I'm not saying that was a fear for you, but it was a fear for me. To not have that safety net was intense, for sure. So totally understand that being forced into it. So number two, what was the second one that you were going to mention? Yeah.

Suresh Rachuri  23:22

Don't be uber transactional, and think just because you could save money on something, it's the right route to take. So that taught me a lesson with my team, with what I have, not to be just transactional on it.

Callan Harrington  23:38

Yeah. What's it mean to not be transactional?

Suresh Rachuri  23:41

You always have to have a level of transaction, right? When you're in the business world and so forth. What it means to me. I like to be more relational than transactional. I love building relationships. I love understanding people. I love understanding people's businesses. I love helping them solve their challenges, whether it's in tech, or with people, not just, hey, do you have this, this, and this? Cool. Do you mind if I submit you to my customer?

Callan Harrington  24:09

Yeah.

Suresh Rachuri  24:09

That's really transactional. There's two businesses out there. There's really great companies out there. There really are. There's some large enterprise companies, multibillion dollar companies, that we compete with. They have a very strong bullpen environment, where it's smile and dial, you have to make this many calls a day, you have to do this, and so forth. I try to stay away from that transactional world, uber transactional world, and try to add relational to it, but it might also be because we're boutique, and we like to stay boutique. Another thing about what I mean by more relational than transactional is, I love to build solutions around our customers and business. I love to build people solutions around them, I love to build technology solutions around them. I don't want to go in there, oh, we have this, this will help your world better. I want to understand where they are and how we can help their world get better. Just because I have- you know, it's, I see so many people selling a specific tool or a specific thing. And it's only that thing that they sell. Is that really doing that customer a service, or would it be better to come in as an advisor? And let them know, here are your options? Here's your vantage point here, here, and here. That make sense?

Callan Harrington  25:40

I think that makes total sense. And I think that in a service business in particular, especially a boutique, I mean, that is how a boutique typically wins. Right? They do something that a very large company, the market leader is going to probably be the market leader, doesn't mean you can't disrupt it. But in a service business, that boutique typically does something a little bit different. And people, a lot of people specifically want to work with a boutique for that reason. Is that what you're saying essentially?

Suresh Rachuri  26:07

Yeah.

Callan Harrington  26:08

That makes complete sense. And then you mentioned a third thing that you had learned from that?

Suresh Rachuri  26:12

Third thing from that whole experience of being like, nope?

Callan Harrington  26:15

Yep.

Suresh Rachuri  26:16

Never put anyone else in that situation if they didn't need to be.

Callan Harrington  26:20

What do you mean, specifically?

Suresh Rachuri  26:22

I feel like I deliver great results. But I was put in that situation, because the company wanted to have a better bottom line. But the company wasn't hurting. I just don't want to make a decision on somebody because I want to save money, or spread it out and try and make more revenue, and so forth. If that makes sense?

Callan Harrington  26:46

Yeah, I mean, if I'm reading between the lines here, you were producing. Which means if you're producing, you're making a lot of money. They agreed to whatever that comp plan was, and as a result of that, they felt it was easier to let go of you, replace your salary, and well, I should say, your total comp package, with a couple of other more junior people to take on that role. They believe that three junior people would be less expensive. And as a result would be able to match what you were producing.

Suresh Rachuri  27:17

Yes. Match or exceed. Yeah.

Callan Harrington  27:19

Right. And I talked about it quite a bit, where so much of this comes down to the comp plan construction. And I've definitely seen it before, where it'll be a situation where somebody maximizes the comp plan, is making a ton of money. And somebody will get upset because it's like, hey, well, we shouldn't be selling a lot of those. Well, that's I don't- I'm not saying that we should or should not be selling whatever that piece is. But we put a commission on there. And if we put a commission on there, we're telling that person that this is what we want them to do. So when you construct a comp plan, it should be constructed in a way that you just root on the salesperson like crazy. If the salesperson's bringing in ten million a year, and you've constructed that comp plan correctly, then the company should be on fire, it should be crushing it. So I'm a huge believer in that. So that's excellent. All right. I've labored on this one personally too long. I'm gonna move on. So you made that leap by yourself. And you're just getting started. What was that like?

Suresh Rachuri  28:22

It was scary, awesome, all kinds of- a whirlwind of emotions. My brain was going a thousand miles per hour, a hundred different things at once, and so forth. And it was a good experience. I ended up, when I went off on my own, I ended up consulting myself out as a recruiter, supporting a couple of different Fortune 500 companies.

Callan Harrington  28:47

Yep. So you're essentially doing fractional recruiting for these companies? Is that fair to say?

Suresh Rachuri  28:51

Yeah.

Callan Harrington  28:52

Gotcha. So how did Maven evolve into what it is today?

Suresh Rachuri  28:55

Sure. I was stuck. I was stuck on trying to grow the business. It wasn't- the growth strategy wasn't working. I just had a hard time getting into some companies. Columbus is such a relational town, and there's so many great companies out there, right. So many great companies I compete with, so many great businesses out there. Being such a relational town, people have these relationships already, and so forth. It was hard to really get into several different companies. And so I'd have these onesie, twosie gigs, here and there, and so forth, made decent money, I made a good living and so forth. But it wasn't enough for me, I wanted to grow. And I'm just sitting there, what do I do? How do I figure this out? Who is Maven? What is Maven? What are our core values gonna be? Right? And all of a sudden, somebody tapped me on my shoulder and asked me if I wanted to come help the world's largest burrito maker. Like, okay, tell me more. And they wanted to open up their restaurant support center in Columbus, Ohio. Like wow, this is amazing. So I consulted through another company to this company. And shortly within the first three months, you know, there were some challenges there and so forth. They actually asked me if I wanted to continue, but they weren't sure about my team. And I talked to- I said can you give me a couple of weeks? And then I talked to the powers that be at the company I was consulted through. And I said, hey, they might boot everybody on the team except for me. They're like, hey, can you help us out? I was like, yeah, we can figure this out. So they promoted me to a team lead, through my own company to them. And I led the pack. And we turned things around. And before you know it, the entire team was responsible for over 300 plus IT people being placed in Columbus, Ohio for this customer.

Callan Harrington  30:52

Just huge.

Suresh Rachuri  30:53

That's in six months. One of my stakeholders, they're on the IT side, he's like that a boy. I've never seen this before. It's the first time I witnessed something like this. So it's like, great. And that kind of helped me earn my stripes with them.

Callan Harrington  31:08

Yeah, absolutely. Now, what did that mean for you? What did that mean for your company?

Suresh Rachuri  31:13

Oh, it was great. I was ready to I understood this company. I think it's one of the best companies to work for in the whole world. My customer. They're really people oriented people centric. And they're just growing like gangbusters. And they're going to continue to grow. They're going to double in size, I bet, within the next three to five years.

Callan Harrington  31:33

Yeah.

Suresh Rachuri  31:34

Right? So it meant the world to me, and I'm riding off into the sunset. They're like, well, wait, where are you going? I was like, I understand where I want my values to be, and learned a lot from you guys, on values, on business, and so forth. Now I know what I'm gonna do. They're like, well, you added a lot of value to us. We don't want you to just roll off in the sunset. I was like, okay, well... So what they proposed, we work together with that firm I was supporting to this client. They gave them a couple of long term contracts on general managers on down throughout the company in the country. And that company, let me out of my non compete to work with this company. And I was very grateful for that for both businesses. And that really launched us having our first enterprise account.

Callan Harrington  32:20

Absolutely. That's excellent. So fast forward, and you're where you're at today. What are you most excited about? That you've got coming up?

Suresh Rachuri  32:30

This is a rebuilding year. I'm really excited about having my leadership team take more of the reins over from me.

Callan Harrington  32:41

Yeah. How is that going for you personally?

Suresh Rachuri  32:44

It's been tough. It's an ego check.

Callan Harrington  32:47

Yeah.

Suresh Rachuri  32:48

It really is. To show you my vulnerabilities. They're, uh... I jump back into the kitchen. And I feel like sometimes I jump back in, and I create chaos. After I leave, there's just chaos there. And the best thing that happened was my leadership team approached me and said this, and was able to approach me about it, and I made some fine tunings. And I, you know, stayed out of the kitchen, but on standby for help when they need it.

Callan Harrington  33:19

Yeah. Yeah.

Suresh Rachuri  33:20

So now, you know, that helped. So now, I'm excited because I reconnected with skateboarding.

Callan Harrington  33:28

Nice! That's excellent.

Suresh Rachuri  33:31

I reconnect- not reconnect, but I started learning the art of golf.

Callan Harrington  33:39

Yeah, that's gonna be frustrating. That would be frustrating, for sure.

Suresh Rachuri  33:44

I say the art of patience through golf being the conduit.

Callan Harrington  33:48

Yeah, that's a good way to describe it. Absolutely. So now you're in more of this kind of visionary leadership role? What do you see as kind of your role in impacting the company in that position?

Suresh Rachuri  33:59

Oh, great question. I see me really trying to figure out where are we the next three to five years? What is Maven going to be? Where's Maven now? Where are we going? Where's that community now? Where's our community going? Where is tech now, and where's tech going? Where's business now? Where's business going? Trying to understand all of that. I have faith in my team when it comes to to consulting solutions and the staffing side of the house. An area that I'm looking to move further into is product development. We've been lucky here at Maven to develop a couple products, on accident, for a couple of other companies. And now we have this product team. And I'm really adamant about investing in the community too, and starting to build some products off of people's ideation. And a dream of mine is Maven to have that third division, but to help incubate people's ideations, bring them in, create a label out of it. And over time, the more sweat equity that person with the idea brings in to the table over time, the more milestones they attain, I eventually want them to be the primary owner and CEO of that business.

Callan Harrington  35:20

Yeah. So you start to create kind of an in-house incubator and accelerator program, if you will.

Suresh Rachuri  35:26

Yes. Yeah.

Callan Harrington  35:27

Well, I love it. This is such an excellent story, right? You coming from dropping out of high school, dropping out of college, getting involved with tech early to have the foresight in that, to help kind of support your family, and help them accomplish their dreams and in turn, accomplish your dreams. You've got a hell of a story, Suresh. And I'm super grateful you're able to share it with us. I guess, one kind of final note, if you could talk to your younger self today, what would you say in that conversation?

Suresh Rachuri  35:56

Don't be scared to take that leap of faith. I wish I would have taken it earlier, to go off on my own. And two more things. Be humble. And listen, more.

Callan Harrington  36:08

I love it. I love it. Suresh, thank you for joining us today and giving us your time. So many good tidbits and items of wisdom in here. So thank you again, brother, for coming on.

Suresh Rachuri  36:18

Thank you so much for having me, Callan. All the best. And just one more thing, I'm glad you took that leap of faith too.

Callan Harrington  36:25

I love it. I you know, it's funny. I don't know if I could do it any other way. But we will see but yeah, it was tough to do. But awesome. Suresh, this has been excellent.

Suresh Rachuri  36:33

Thank you, sir.

Callan Harrington  36:38

I hope you enjoyed Suresh and I's conversation. And I hope everyone has a great holiday break. If you want to learn more about Suresh you could find him on LinkedIn and the show notes. Also, if you liked this episode, you could find me on LinkedIn to let me know. And if you really want to support the show, a review on Apple Podcast or Spotify is very much appreciated. Thanks for listening, everybody, and I'll see you next week.