I couldn’t agree more with your assessment. I’ve assisted a business that leveraged offshore talent across multiple countries to provide staffing services in the USA. They experienced rapid growth, scaling to nearly a 300-person team and $11 million in revenue within three years. However, despite this growth, the founders struggled with operational, cultural, training, scalability, and cross-border regulatory challenges, with churn rates as high as 25%, impacting both customers and employees. In such a competitive space, it became clear that the model was at risk of becoming a commodity service, which highlights the limitations of relying solely on tech-enabled services for long-term differentiation.
The founders brought me onboard to execute a product vision I had sold them on, but they struggled to commit to the necessary budget and resources, constantly caught between the worlds of product development and services. This lack of focus hindered the company’s ability to fully capitalize on its potential. Despite these challenges, we managed to get a decent product out the door on a shoestring budget, which ultimately helped them secure Series A funding and set them on the path toward becoming a product/platform business. Your article really resonated with me and took me back to those times.
I couldn’t agree more with your assessment. I’ve assisted a business that leveraged offshore talent across multiple countries to provide staffing services in the USA. They experienced rapid growth, scaling to nearly a 300-person team and $11 million in revenue within three years. However, despite this growth, the founders struggled with operational, cultural, training, scalability, and cross-border regulatory challenges, with churn rates as high as 25%, impacting both customers and employees. In such a competitive space, it became clear that the model was at risk of becoming a commodity service, which highlights the limitations of relying solely on tech-enabled services for long-term differentiation.
The founders brought me onboard to execute a product vision I had sold them on, but they struggled to commit to the necessary budget and resources, constantly caught between the worlds of product development and services. This lack of focus hindered the company’s ability to fully capitalize on its potential. Despite these challenges, we managed to get a decent product out the door on a shoestring budget, which ultimately helped them secure Series A funding and set them on the path toward becoming a product/platform business. Your article really resonated with me and took me back to those times.
I'm glad it resonated! (though i'm not glad it happened to you :))