Skunkworks By HalfSerious

Gregg Dixon is the Co-founder and CEO of Voltus, a company that connects distributed energy resources to electricity markets in the US and Canada. Gregg is a world-renowned expert in commercial and industrial energy management.

Before co-founding Voltus, Gregg was the Senior Vice President of Marketing and Sales and a founding executive at EnerNOC, a leading provider of demand response, energy procurement, and energy intelligence software. He was also the Vice President of Marketing and Sales for Hess Microgen and a Partner at Mercer Management Consulting. He has a degree from Boston College and is a Certified Energy Manager, a Certified Demand Side Management Professional, and a Certified Sustainable Development Professional.

In this episode…

Are you an entrepreneur operating a company in a slow-moving industry? Do you face challenges growing your business? Are you looking for strategies for accelerating growth and building a thriving business?

When Gregg Dixon entered the energy sector, his goal was to create solutions to serve humankind better. As you venture into entrepreneurship, an issue that may surface along the way is that what your trying to accomplish and build may not be aligned with the return investors want. Gregg used his background in management consulting to develop a framework for his company that includes absolute clarity on its goals while delivering returns to his shareholders. Gregg advises that if you're building a business, it's a major mistake if you think you'll figure things out along the way — you must be clear on your objectives and have your strategies in place to accomplish your mission.

In this episode of the Skunkworks Podcast, Eric Bourget joins Gregg Dixon, the Co-founder and CEO of Voltus, to discuss his management strategies and leading a company in the energy sector. Gregg also explains how he built his team, the mistakes he made in business, and how he pivoted to conquer challenges.

Paroon Chadha is the Co-founder and CEO of OnBoard. He started the company in 2003 and serves more than 2,000 organizations and their 12,000 boards and committees in 32 countries. They serve customers in higher education, nonprofit, healthcare systems, government, and corporate enterprise business sectors, to name a few.

Paroon is a member of Forbes Technology Council, sits on five boards, and is an investor in many startups. He is a frequent speaker at conferences and has been widely published in several magazines. He was also named in the Hall of Fame at Purdue University as a Purdue Innovator. Additionally, he is a volunteer in several philanthropic organizations, including Big Brother Big Sister Foundation, Inc. and the United Way of Greater Lafayette.

In this episode…

When starting something new, the first steps you take may seem daunting, and things may not be clear upfront. You may not have a picture of what the results will look like and may find it challenging to achieve your goals quickly.

However, according to Paroon Chadha, luck becomes a core competency if you work hard enough,. With perseverance, things become clear. You have to invest your time and expertise into your goals and, over time, you will achieve success.

In this episode of the Skunkworks Podcast, Eric Bourget interviews Paroon Chadha, the Co-founder and CEO of OnBoard, about the lessons he learned about becoming successful. They also talk about Paroon's experience pitching at a board meeting, his reasons for working with startups, and so much more. Stay tuned.

Sylvain Perrier is the President and CEO of Mercatus Technologies, a company that empowers grocers to create exceptional shopping experiences for their customers. He is the lead inventor of more than 75 granted intellectual property patents in over 15 legal jurisdictions.

Sylvain has a record of architecting and building complex solutions for notable retailers like Smart & Final, Weis Markets, Brookshire's, Piggly Wiggly, Save Mart, BJ's Wholesale Club, The NFL, and Barnes & Noble. He is also featured at conferences and various speaking engagements addressing audiences and regularly interacting with the print, radio, TV, and digital media as a subject matter expert.

In this episode…

Entrepreneurs often find themselves becoming emotionally attached to the first products they create. In the process, they may fail to make changes where necessary and prevent their businesses from scaling more rapidly.

Sylvain Perrier uses four principles that help him become a better business owner and leader. These revolve around being clear on what he wants to achieve, approaching everything like a student, falling in love with the process as opposed to the products created, and allowing himself to stretch in order to grow.

In this episode of the Skunkworks Podcast, Eric Bourget is joined by Sylvain Perrier, the President and CEO of Mercatus Technologies, to detail the four rules entrepreneurs need to build their businesses. Sylvain also talks about the importance of being curious and asking questions, shares his advice on focusing on the important things, and explains why entrepreneurs should never be emotionally attached to their products. Stay tuned.

Jeremy Ruch is the Founder and CEO of Bandalier, a firm that connects fast-growing technology companies with vetted and trained customer-facing talent throughout the United States. Bandalier’s focus is to streamline the interview process for clients looking to scale sales and customer success teams quickly. 

Before starting Bandalier, Jeremy was the Director of Business Advisory (Head of Sales) at Bond Street. He has a bachelor’s degree in public policy studies, markets, and management studies from Duke University.

In this episode…

There are a ton of industries where companies need to scale quickly, but they haven't built an interview process to support that growth. What if someone else could recruit and train employees that can deliver sales opportunities for your business?   

Building customer-facing teams is hard. Often, companies are faced with either offshoring, using low-quality call centers, or building expensive, high-turnover teams to generate appointments.

Jeremy Ruch knew there needed to be a better way. His team recruits and provides ongoing training for customer-facing talent to set them up for success. They are placed in a client's company to help the client scale their sales team quickly. If the talent works out well for the client, the client can hire that person directly into the company. It means the client company doesn't have to bother with the whole interview and hiring process. If the employee and the client aren't a good fit, an alternate company can be found. Listen in to find out if it's just that simple.   

In this episode of the Skunkworks Podcast, Eric Bourget is joined by Jeremy Ruch, the Founder and CEO of Bandalier, to talk about the key elements Jeremy uses to grow his company. They discuss why working with clients that align with your mission is vital, who benefits from their service, how the “try before you buy” scenario when finding talent works both ways, and deciding what kind of clients are the best fit.

Sabrina Parsons is the CEO of Palo Alto Software, the company behind the best-selling business management software, LivePlan. Sabrina's father started it in 1994, and she took over leadership in 2007. Sabrina has overseen the company's transformative transition from a desktop software company to a cloud-based software company. She previously held leadership positions at Commtouch and Epinions and also founded a web consulting company.

In this episode…

Do you have a strategic business plan for your startup? Do you know its benefits and the risks associated with not having one?

A business plan is beneficial for all types of companies, whether small startups, mid-size, or large corporations. Plans help companies visualize future growth, prepare for contingencies, have a clear strategy roadmap, and assist in making critical decisions. This is why Sabrina Parsons made sure that she had a good plan when she changed her company's business model.

In this episode of the Skunkworks Podcast, Eric Bourget interviews Sabrina Parsons, the CEO of Palo Alto Software, about her strategies to transition her company from a boxed software model to a SaaS model. They discuss the benefits of having a business plan and the advantages of using training and content marketing to grow a business.

Bo Davis is the Co-founder and CEO of MarginEdge, a company that provides restaurant managers with the data they need to help them make timely, critical decisions. Bo is also the Founder of Wasabi restaurants, a group of modern Japanese conveyor belt sushi restaurants. Bo used his knowledge of tech and married it with his experience in the restaurant industry to create a way to put real-time data in the hands of restaurant owners. MarginEdge won the Washington Post Best Place to Work in 2020.

In this episode…

Having left the technology industry to become a restaurant business owner, Bo Davis realized that he had a lot to learn. Running a restaurant involves managing employees, providing quality food, handling a lot of inventory, managing cash flow, and a myriad of other variables.

To help alleviate these challenges for himself and other restaurant owners, Bo started MarginEdge. He combined his knowledge of restaurants and tech to build his software company around that core learning and implemented it to manage all the variables that go into running a restaurant. He helps restaurant owners execute their business operations better, drive growth, and protect their margins by using real-time data to help them make timely, critical decisions.

In this episode of the Skunkworks Podcast, Eric Bourget is joined by Bo Davis, the Co-founder and CEO of MarginEdge, to share his entrepreneurial journey from technology to restaurant owner. Bo talks about the lessons he learned from running a chain of restaurants, how he combined his knowledge of tech and restaurant management, his strategies for dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, and why it’s essential to remain focused on execution for the future.

Assaf Karmon is the Co-founder and CEO of TurnoverBnB, an online platform that helps Airbnb vacation rental hosts with turnovers by providing them with the automation to find cleaners and schedule cleaning. It also allows cleaners to find rental owners in their area so they can grow their business. TurnoverBnB’s platform and mobile app automate the whole process.

Assaf has a strong background in software engineering. Before starting TurnoverBnB, Assaf was the Vice President of Engineering at GoShare and Senior Software Engineer at Nokia.

In this episode…

While running an Airbnb business, Assaf Karmon faced a big challenge managing the property's guest turnover and scheduling cleaning services. He was also frustrated that the business was so time-consuming since he started it with the intention of building a passive income source.

To solve the problem, Assaf decided to use his engineering background to create an app that made complex work easier. The app became popular in his community. After getting a steady flow of feedback and many requests for adjustments, he saw an opportunity to create a business.

In this episode of the Skunkworks Podcast, Eric Bourget interviews Assaf Karmon, the Co-founder and CEO of TurnoverBnB, about how he developed a cleaning app to solve his own problem and ended up building it into a business. Assaf explains the pandemic’s impact on his business, talks about his customer personas, and shares how he allocates resources between his products.

Jeff Perkins is the CEO of ParkMobile, a leading provider of smart parking and mobility solutions in the U.S. The company was founded in 2008, and Jeff joined in 2017, taking over as CEO in 2021. Before ParkMobile, he was the CMO of QASymphony and held senior marketing leadership positions at PGi and AutoTrader. Jeff holds an MBA in Marketing from Emory University’s Goizueta Business School.

In this episode…

When implementing or testing the effectiveness of a new SaaS software, your solution must integrate with a client's infrastructure. It should connect and work seamlessly with the client's hardware, technology systems, analytics tools, and enforcement solutions.

As a provider of parking apps, ParkMobile's team guarantees that they have the right APIs and equipment to integrate well with their clients' technologies. It has taken them years to perfect these integrations, which have helped collect parking fees for their clients in different cities.

Jeff Perkins, the CEO of ParkMobile, is Eric Bourget's guest in this episode of the Skunkworks Podcast, where he talks about creating parking apps and leveraging data to provide better solutions to clients. Jeff also explains how ParkMobile integrates its software with clients' parking technologies and shares his strategies for dividing his focus between running a business and planning for the future. Stay tuned.

Chad Pytel is the Founder and COO of thoughtbot, a mobile and web development company. thoughtbot validates, builds, scales, maintains, and supports web and mobile products. Chad has co-authored the books Rails AntiPatterns and Pro Active Record and presented at conferences worldwide. He is the Co-host of the Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots Podcast.

In this episode…

Do you run a consulting company? Are you thinking of creating a product for your market as you steadily grow your business?

For many young SaaS consulting agencies, developing products on the side is a great strategy to stay in business as they grow their customer base and market. However, it means agencies have to overcome many challenges.

In this episode of the Skunkworks Podcast, Eric Bourget interviews Chad Pytel, the Founder and COO of thoughtbot, about how service businesses can develop products without losing their core business focus. Chad also talks about the type of products his company creates, his go-to-market strategy, and explains how he handled copyright issues with one of his products. Stay tuned.

Harish Anand Thilakan (HAT) is the Founder and CEO of Influx Worldwide, a full-service digital media agency. Influx works with some of the largest cinema chains in the US, Asia, and the Middle East. The team at Influx helps companies enhance e-commerce platforms to sell more tickets, drive loyalty, and engage users. Influx has offices in Dallas, Dubai, and Chennai.

In this episode…

Companies in the service industry have experienced considerable changes caused by technological advancements over the years. It’s been accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic and led to the development of new software solutions to meet customer and industry demands.

For Harish Anand Thilakan (HAT), diversifying his business' offerings into other niches have proven to be very beneficial. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit the cinema industry, his company had to be creative. To meet the new demands of the restaurant industry, he began developing new software.

In this episode of the Skunkworks Podcast, Eric Bourget is joined by Harish Anand Thilakan, the Founder and CEO of Influx Worldwide, to talk about building software and product solutions for the cinema and restaurant industries. They also discuss innovation within the cinema industry, challenges companies face developing SaaS products, and how Harish onboards new clients. Stay tuned.