What’s it Take to Grow a Company?

While we’re anxiously awaiting our final placement on the Inc. 500 list of America’s fastest growing private companies, I’ve been getting the question “How the heck has Synapse grown by nearly 1000% in just 3 years?” I typically answer with a tongue-in-cheek response, like “Luck!” or “Bribery”, but in reality I know the truth all too well.

The truth is not as appealing: it took a dedicated team of people, who continually look for the best way to serve our customers, and a lot of hard work.

Like many entrepreneurs, at first I thought I could build a great company on my own, without anyone’s help. I was stubbornly driven and willing to do whatever it took to get results. After falling on my face a few times – and lots of sleep-deprived months of work – I realized that I couldn’t do it all. What I really needed was a team of people to help make it happen. So, over the years, we refined our hiring and training processes to get the team of people in place that we have today. Developing that team of passionate, dedicated, hard-working Synapsians is one of our proudest achievements, and the cornerstone to our success. We simply wouldn’t be where we are today without each one of them.

Always looking for ways to improve the level of service to our clients is another key to our success. I’ve always felt that my main role as CEO is to listen to what our clients want and then figure out ways to deliver. That’s why I’ll never give up the main sales role in the company. But that attitude bleeds through to everyone in Synapse. Here, customer service is NOT a department; it’s a way of life. In fact, our value statement sums it up perfectly: We lead every business decision with the question, “What’s best for our client?”

Beyond brains and talent, even the best people have to work hard to put it all together and make it happen. Working on weekends, frustration, celebrations, mistakes and sleepless nights…we’ve done it all (and more) to keep the commitments we made to our clients over the years. It’s been a fun, crazy ride, and the result was always worth it. Because in the end, our clients know that we come through for them.

I’m looking forward to stepping on that stage in September and accepting the Inc. 500 award on behalf of our team. And when I’m up there, I’ll take time to thank our awesome Synapsians (past and present) and our loyal clients for helping Synapse make the list. I can’t wait to see where the next three years takes us.