IAM430- Founder and CEO Builds Complex Custom Solutions Through Software

For 15 years, OptimumHQ founder and CEO Simon Chatfield owned a successful custom software development company that built custom software applications for global companies including Apple, ESPN, and American Express, plus hundreds of SMBs. He learned that big and small companies alike faced similar challenges. Business leaders just want software that truly solves their specific needs, and they don’t want all kinds of extra systems they don’t need. Pioneering the concept of dynamic data and company-specific workflows, Simon and his team created a new adaptive software platform to quickly build complex custom solutions without custom code, called OptimumHQ.

• CEO Hack: Taking the time to focus as early as possible
• CEO Nugget: Belief in yourself
• CEO Defined: Being a leader, responsibility holder and the cheerleader

Website: https://www.optimumhq.com/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCY2QdfuGvazqCcYR-5rGb1w
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/optimumhq/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/OptimumHQ
Twitter: https://twitter.com/optihq
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/optimumhq/

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Transcription

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Intro 0:02

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales,, and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO podcast.

Gresham Harkless 0:29

Hello, hello, hello, this is Gresh from the I am CEO podcast and I have a very special guest on the show today, Simon Chatfield of OptimumHQ. Simon, it's awesome to have you on the show.

Simon Chatfield 0:38

Thank you. Happy to be here.

Gresham Harkless 0:40

Super excited to have you on. And what I wanted to do was read a little bit more about Simon so you hear about all the awesome things that he's doing. For 15 years OptimumHQ founder and CEO Simon Chatfield, the only successful custom software development company that builds custom software applications for global companies, including Apple, ESPN, and American Express plus hundreds of small to medium-sized businesses.

He learned that big and small companies alike face similar challenges. Business leaders just want software that truly solves their specific needs. And they don't need all kinds of extra systems that they don't actually need in addition.

Pioneering the concept of dynamic data and company-specific workflow, Simon and his team created a new adaptive software platform to quickly build complex custom solutions without custom code. And that's called OptimumHQ. Simon, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO Community?

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Simon Chatfield 1:28

Let's do it.

Gresham Harkless 1:28

Let's make it happen. So to kick everything off, I want to hear a little bit more about what I call your CEO story, what led you to get started in your business?

Simon Chatfield 1:35

Wow. So it kind of like as you led in the intro, I started by doing, you know, back in 2001, I started my software consulting company. So I had been working for another software consulting company, got to a point where it's like, Man, I could do better, I could be better than these guys. So kind of stuck out on my own a month before September 11.

So it was like August of 2001. And September 11 happened, I was like, Oh my gosh, I've made the biggest mistake of my life. However, everything turned out to be okay. You know, when you're small and nimble, and just starting out, you got a lot of, if you have nothing but opportunities in front of you.

So kind of went through those periods of, you know, scrapping around doing any type of consultant type work, I could get, eventually grew that company up to 60 or so folks, software engineers, project managers, business analysts, again, doing stuff for American Express, Intel, IBM, Apple, ESPN, a bunch of companies that are beloved, or I've heard of at least, and hundreds of small ones.

So it kind of got to a point in 2012, when I started thinking, you know, there's a better way to do this kind of build software for companies. And that and the allure of just saying, hey, if I could build a product, and I wouldn't need to go to the kind of feast and famine of a consulting company or service company when that'd be a fantastic thing.

So actually started building what is OptimumHQ today, back in 2012. In 2014, I was ready to effectively say, Okay, I'm ready to exit the Custom World and go full fledge in the OptimumHQ. That being my first actually sold that company, the first time you go through a company sale, you find out hey, there's actually some strings attached here.

So I had to become the CTO of the acquiring organization for a period of roughly two years. So the the unofficial slash official start of OptimumHQ was in January 2017. So we've been around for about two and a half years now just doing fantastic.

Gresham Harkless 3:22

Nice, I definitely appreciate that. Because I think a lot of times when we are, you know, creating something, it never seems like it's the perfect time. And sometimes we can, it's sometimes things happen. You're like, oh, wow, I shouldn't have done that. But then we can always look back and say, hey, you know, I understand why all those things happen, at least to some degree, and at least they came out, you know, exactly. On a good note, at least.

Simon Chatfield 3:42

Yeah, exactly. We are the culmination of our experiences. So having the ups and downs and the valleys and mountains and all kinds of stuff. It's all part of the learning experience and how you get to the next stage in your career.

Gresham Harkless 3:54

Absolutely. Absolutely. And, I know you talked about, you know, starting out doing the consulting business and switching over to OptimumHQ. I wanted to hear a little bit more about that, and how also you decided to make that shift. And when you are, if it was something that just was that light bulb, that moment that said, hey, I want to actually focus on this instead.

Simon Chatfield 4:11

Yeah, it kind of was a light bulb moment. So it was, you know, it was effectively, going to a point where we found ourselves working with a multitude of different companies, like we said, kind of large and small. And we found ourselves in the custom coding world, you find yourself doing a lot of the same things over and over.

So you see commonalities across all of your clientele, so they all need some level of user management, security, role management, all these kind of typical type building blocks, and it'd be truly custom, you kind of need to start that from scratch or implement into something that they might already have, or really find yourself solving.

You know, 50% of the work is solving things that really don't need a solution because it's just standard stuff, every company kind of needs, where every application kind of needs. So seeing that and seeing that kind of parallel between the different companies. We the first generation have what we call kind of our toolbox.

So we had just a slew of things, say, hey, we just need to bring in user management, we just copy this in and we say, okay, here, you can have this go now as a customer of ours, and we will build upon it. And it got to a point where our toolbox was just getting so strong.

And it's like, you know why, we really have such a tiny little thing that we're actually doing that's custom, that tiny little piece is so critical to that business because that's what makes them unique, right? It's their processes, it's their data, it's their workflows. So that, you know, if we just focus on just that one little thing, I'm like, I think we have something here.

So kind of had that epiphany-type moment. And, you know, and then trying to figure out over a period of what two years until we decided we could do it in four years, or two years after that. So four years total, realizing that, you know, putting together a system that can really realize that vision is quite another story. But so far, it's been going really well.

Gresham Harkless 5:54

Yeah, that makes sense. But I appreciate you for breaking that down. Because I think a lot of times, people, sometimes people have ideas on what to create, and they think you just kind of wake up and it happens.

But a lot of times it happens over having that experience and that expertise that you put in and be able to see kind of the forest for the trees and say, Hey, wait a minute, I've done this on the last 100 or so projects. So maybe this is our in our toolkit, and it starts to build and build and build, and all of a sudden you have a product in there, so.

Simon Chatfield 6:17

Exactly. It's one of those proverbial five-year overnight successes, right?

Gresham Harkless 6:24

That's actually the short version.

Simon Chatfield 6:25

Exactly, exactly. But the ones that are much longer than that, but we're on five years.

Gresham Harkless 6:29

There you go. There you go. So I know you touched a little bit more on Optimum, could you tell us anything additional back that and then also what I would consider like to be your secret sauce?

Simon Chatfield 6:38

Sure. So OptimumHQ is a platform that allows a business to build whatever they need to build without having to write code. That's really the real crux of it is that taking out the software engineers and the need for specific software developers puts the power in the hands of the business that people who say I really have this need.

So being a no-code platform HQ really enables that company to move extremely quickly, inexpensively, and efficiently. And at the same time, have the scalability and stability that they get from their enterprise applications as well. So that's really what the crux of the HQ platform is. And that's kind of broken down into two main pillars.

So we have the concept of datasets. So that could be a database or a spreadsheet or files, etc. And then workflows, which are just things that can create data, they can manipulate data, kind of the typical workflow processes through a business. And that's how businesses become unique. So that's kind of like the two foundational pillars of what OptimumHQ is.

And because we come from the background of the enterprise, understanding enterprise-level security needs, stability needs, scalability needs, getting that ability, not only to the enterprise that can take advantage of it day one but to put that power in the hands of the small business, small, medium-sized business, who might not know exactly what they need. But when they're ready to make something unique for themselves, it's basically therefore we get started.

Gresham Harkless 7:58

Yeah, absolutely. And I think that I'm a real big believer proponent of, you know, beginning with the end in mind. And so if these small to medium-sized businesses have that vision of wanting to grow to be the ESPN, the Disney's, the Apple's of the world, and at least they know they have that framework in place to be able to do that.

And, like you said, the ability to customize and add on to meet in reach whatever needs they have.

Simon Chatfield 8:20

Yeah, and it's interesting, thanks. So beginning with the end in mind is always a good place to be. But the reality and the truth of it is, is that every company is going to change, you know, you can say, hey, this is my end, but very few know what the end is going to look like when they're just beginning.

So the ability to modify and change your business processes, even your core business itself is something that small business and medium business need to need to be able to do. So that's one of the big problems with software development today is that you don't know exactly what the end is when you get started.

So you get these big long software projects that last 6, 12, 18 months, what you knew, you know, 18 months ago, is not what the world is today, maybe a new technology came out a new competitor came into the space, maybe a new client has pushed a new product idea into your court.

So companies are always adapting how they do business. So having that end goal that envision is important. But you also need to realize that when you're going through the software, this process, things are going to change. And that's one of the downfalls of software development is that changes are like the horrible thing around software development.

It's scope creep. It's impossible deadlines, it's shifting deadlines. It's ballooning expenses. It's all that kind of stuff. And when that is, is taken out, or we're really that's out of the businesses control the at the beginning, if you put that back in the business control, they can actually be more responsive and be adaptive. And that's what automation does.

Gresham Harkless 9:46
Yeah, I definitely appreciate that. And I think it's so funny that I usually say that to entrepreneurs or business owners like usually, you know, you want to have your own business because you want control.

You want to be able to organize things you want to be able to make decisions, but a lot of times when it comes to software and technology especially, usually you kind of feel like they don't have control, they can't really figure out what to do.

So I really appreciate you being able to kind of create that and build that gives the kind of the power or the control, or at least the decision-making ability back to those entrepreneurs and business owners, I wanted to switch gears a little bit, and I want to ask you for what I call a CEO hack, and this could be an app or book or a habit that you have, but what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

Simon Chatfield 10:24

I think taking time, you know, there's the proverbial take the time to sharpen the saw. So you know, a really good portion of my day starts around 4 a.m. And I'm not dealing with people this is Oh, you have to wake up at 4 a.m. to be a successful person at all.

But for me that quiet time before the rest of the family starts before the delusion email comes in is just that time that I can use for either myself, if I'm going to be going through, you know, maybe I'm reading a book to expand my knowledge, or I'm catching up on the day's work and putting strategies together for the upcoming quarter or year, or really kind of having that focus time.

As soon as you walk into the office as a CEO, your time you might have a calendar that's choked full, but I guarantee you that at the end of the day, you're going to have three things on your plate, or 10 things or 30, things that you didn't realize were going to happen during the day. So having that time to really get the focus down and really focus on what you're doing is probably the most important thing you can do.

Gresham Harkless 11:21

Yeah, that makes sense. And if you're able to do that as early as possible for like you said, during the world takes hold, and you start to become what I usually always say is like a fireman, because you're always putting out fires, problems and doing all those things that allow you to kind of get that jump on the day.

So you can kind of be a little bit more in control when things happen. So there you go. So now I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO nugget. And this is a word of wisdom or piece of advice. Or if you could happen to be a time machine, what would you tell your younger business self?

Simon Chatfield 11:49

Believe in yourself sooner. So what I mean, is when I first started my business, I was probably 25 years old. I was confident I knew what I could do on the software knew what things I could accomplish. But there was still kind of that nagging thing behind me. It's like I'm getting these clients, I'm like, do they realize I'm just some 25-year-old kid pretending I can do this?

And it took me a while, you know, six months, a year plus to get the confidence in myself that my customers and the people around me already had. So that confidence, you know, and I don't want to say everybody to be arrogant or egotistical or like that it's really just being confident in yourself and being able to make the decisions and say, Hey, I really can't do this. There's probably what I would go back in time and tell myself.

Gresham Harkless 12:37

Nice. And so now I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. And we're hoping to have different quote unquote, CEOs on the show. So Simon, what does being a CEO mean to you?

Simon Chatfield 12:47

It means being the that's a tough one, it means so many different things to me. First and foremost, it's being the leader, and being the person who within your company within your team is not necessarily the person making all the decisions or calling all the shots being the chair, most of the chief cheerleader.

It's being the person somebody can go to so kind of that servant leadership idea, but at the same time not shirking the responsibility that, you know, decisions do need to get made, right? And, you know, not being afraid to make those decisions and whatnot and assisting. But also, it's all about caring as well.

So I really care about each and every one of the employees over OptimumHQ, and caring about them not only as far as their corporate or their Optimum careers, but what's best for the employee and or the person, right? So, you know, at OptimumHQ, it's everything about family first.

So we've got an open policy for that perspective. You know, you got something going on in your family, go take it because your family is what's most important to an individual, to an employee. And I totally get that. And I understand that and I expect that. But even going beyond that, what's important, is what's the best thing for the employee in her act by the company.

And the best thing for the employee is to go expand their career spread their wings and go do something else. I am all for it. And I'm definitely sad if you didn't go and never happened to see an employee go. But nothing makes me happier than seeing somebody take the next step in their career and knowing that I was a part of helping them all the way.

Gresham Harkless 14:25

Yeah, that makes perfect sense. And it definitely kind of speaks to that aspect. And I think a lot of people forget when it comes to businesses, that human aspect, and the people when that when you peel back the onion of the business and systems and marketing and all these things that we're all kind of made.

These businesses are made up of people and people have things that they're going through with their family, they have successes, good things, bad things, and so on and so forth. But to be able to have that culture that allows that to happen and cultivate for somebody to grow as a person is definitely something that's huge. So I appreciate that perspective.

Simon Chatfield 14:54

Absolutely.

Gresham Harkless 14:55

Nice. And Simon I appreciate your time even more. And what I wanted to do was pass you the mic so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional, you can let our readers and listeners know. And then of course, how best they can get ahold of you and find out about all the awesome things you guys are working on.

Simon Chatfield 15:09

The best way to get a hold of me is obviously through a website, email, and all kinds of fun stuff. So go ahead, go to optimumhq.com, and check out what we can do. And I would say as far as parting thoughts, I guarantee everybody out there listening right now, or watching right now is going through some level of of software struggle, right?

So you go through the beginning where you got these base core software that isn't quite doing what you needed to do, and you're bridging gaps with spreadsheets, and then you need to go to the next level, you've got some niche software applications, which are kind of helping you out be unique in the marketplace.

And then you get to the next level of software development or ERP implementations. And then you find yourself doing a whole thing over and over again. So you know, there is a better way to do it. You know, go take a look at some of the no-code platforms, no-code/low-code platforms, take back the control of your company, and build things quickly and efficiently for yourself. And hopefully, give OptimumHQ a try.

Gresham Harkless 16:06

Nice, I definitely appreciate that. And as the saying goes, you know, there has to be a better way and I appreciate you for actually creating that better way so that you can help us out as entrepreneurs and business owners.

We will have your links and information in the show notes as well so that everybody can follow up with you. But Simon, thank you so much and I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

Outro 16:22

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co. I am CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I am CEO podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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