How a non-techy entrepreneur has committed his career to radical transparency in the software industry by building ideas at cost.
I remember when I was 11 years old I heard a story about a friend’s grandmother who was a widow…
She needed her fireplace to be cleaned and called a local service to visit her home to get a quote…
A gentleman came to her house…
Treated her like gold…
Asked tons of questions about her past…
And then took a look at the fireplace…
He said, I wish I had good news, but we need to replace your entire fireplace or you will be at risk of danger if you ever use it.
He quoted her $25,000 and because she was absolutely petrified she wrote a check on the spot and booked her appointment.
Later that day, she spoke with her son and shared her story.
Her son was appalled and said you MUST get a second opinion and this time I am going to be the one asking for the quote.
The son came over one day and when he got the second opinion, the quote was $500 to clean the fireplace, nothing less, nothing more.
The morale of the story is this…
Do What's RIGHT, Regardless Of Who Is Watching
The first fireplace repair person saw a fearful, naive, and ill-informed person that he was certain he could take advantage of and made every effort to get what he wanted regardless of it served or did not serve the person on the receiving end…
Stories like this happen ALL OF THE TIME, but I remember when I was 11 years old - it hit me and it hit me hard.
How could someone use their power for wrong?
How could someone lie and then look at themselves in the mirror?
How could someone do this?
These questions were raging out of control and I made a commitment that day to do the opposite of what I heard in this story.
Now, I had NO IDEA what this meant, I just knew that somehow and someway the TRUTH would be told by me and I would disrupt any industry I entered that was riddled with smoke and mirrors…
And I am proud to say the software industry will NEVER be the same from this moment forward…
If you don’t mind, can I share one more story with you?
One of my companies is called SYNDUIT.
SYNDUIT was founded in 2011 as a marketing agency and it scaled VERY quickly.
Within one year, hundreds of clients, massive team, beautiful office, and from anyone’s perspective...wildly successful company.
But for me...something was missing...
Each new client meant that I had to hire someone to manage that client and the one thing I hate in business is when a company can only scale through hiring.
So at the end of 2012, I decided that SYNDUIT was destined to support 1,000,000 small business owners, but not as an agency, rather a Virtual Marketing Department (VMD) aka SaaS marketing software.
There was one problem though and this is where the story is going to speak to your soul…
I am an entrepreneur, but not an engineer.
I could not build this solution and I was faced with a brilliant idea dying inside OR finding a way…
So I started to speak with other software entrepreneurs to find out HOW software is built and I learned there is only TWO ways…
Way #1 - Build your own team which is VERY expensive, very time-consuming and very risky because it is VERY hard to find the right talent.
Way #2 - Hire a development company to build your idea for you!
Well, Way #2 was the only way that I saw my vision for a VMD to come to life so I started to interview dozens and dozens of prospective companies until I found one based out of Massachusetts that seemed to understand the vision.
I got a quote of $750,000 and 10-months of time and I said, let’s do it!
At the end of 10-months, I was given the product which was 50% of what I expected and my final invoice showed a scary number…
$1,500,000!!!
The company missed its estimate by $1.5 million and delivered only half of what I expected…
BONKERS, but all too common in the software development space.
The one good thing that happened is that this software development company hired a contractor who happened to be a mile from my original office so there was someone on site with him.
This man was Mani Soundararajan who was originally from India and owned a very large development company before he sold his equity to his partner and moved to the USA to create a better life for his beautiful family.
Mani and I hit it off and then one day Mani did not show up at work.
I called numerous times and finally Mani told me that when the project was done he would share why he left…
Well, a few months later and some massive financial bruises as well, the project was complete and it was time to call Mani.
Ring, ring ring…
“Hey Mani, it’s Jared and I have two questions for you…
#1- Will you come back?
#2- Why did you leave?”
Mani said, “I will start tomorrow and I left becauseI could not handle watching you get taken advantage of by this Massachusetts based company.”
Please read this again…
“I left because I could not handle watching you get taken advantage of…”
Okay, this is REALLY important…
I want you to know that I GET YOU!
You are just like me…
An entrepreneur who is NOT techy that has TONS of tech ideas and you have no idea where to go in order to create your ideas.
This was and is the reason I launched CILA Labs…
But the truth is…
It’s because of my friend's grandmother who would have been brutally taken advantage of…
And I happen to know that the software industry is a place where nearly EVERY non-technical entrepreneur sees their ideas and money evaporate quickly.
I said this earlier and I will say it again…
Do What's RIGHT, Regardless Of Who Is Watching
This is one of my CODES (aka Values) in life and business because even if NO ONE knows, I know and the label I associate with ONLY is that of DAD and if I break this CODE, then I am dishonoring my children and I will NEVER do that…
This is why I decided to build a relatively large development team in India starting in 2015 (all contractors initially) and paid everyone exceptionally well.
But they were all contractors which has a host of limitations and Mani and I decided to setup a company in India to employee each of these beautiful people so that they could have it all.
This is why CILA is the answer for non-techy entrepreneurs with technical ideas because when you work with us, we are building you a dedicated team of ROCKSTAR talent consisting of 10-15 people to Create, Innovate, Launch, and Accelerate your idea AT COST!
We don’t make any profit unless you do…
Yes, we charge you the cost of each person…
Yes, we take a percentage of equity in this new business…
Yes, we take insane responsibility to ensure this new business is successful.
This is called RADICAL TRANSPARENCY in the software industry and I am committed to making this the new norm either by winning every opportunity to serve non-techy entrepreneurs and/or because other software development companies realize that resistance is futile and doing what’s right is the only way forward.
Regardless of which happens - I am committed to changing this industry forever AND launching 100’s of companies that change industries, communities, and even the world.
Take it from me, this is the opportunity of a lifetime if you are a non-techy entrepreneur with a technological idea.
I have a track record and the team, you have the idea and the drive, and TOGETHER we will achieve more!
And btw, thank you for reading this story.
I wrote it for you…
Literally, for you because I hear you, I see you, and what you say matters to me because we are cut from a common cloth and we are meant to work together.
Live with Intention,
Jared