Building a strong work ethic on Grandview Avenue
I grew up in the primarily blue-collar town of Dubuque, Iowa. My parents have been married for 52 years and have seven children – I am the third youngest. As a middle-class family, we had everything we needed, but we worked hard for it. I was raised to believe that nothing is handed to you, and if you wanted something, you had to earn it. If I wanted baseball cards, name-brand sneakers, or a hot lunch from the school cafeteria versus my mom’s packed lunch, I had to pay for it. This led me to my first job of delivering newspapers on the famous Grandview Avenue at the age of 10. Grandview Avenue was a tough route. It spans the entire city from north to south with plenty of hills. The road ends on a beautiful bluff overlooking the entire city, which was the spot I routinely took a quick break to catch my breath and take in the view. While it was not fun waking up at 4am on Sundays or going straight from school to my paper route, I now realize that my upbringing instilled positive values that led me to where I am today.
Making the leap into entrepreneurship
My childhood experiences shaped many of the core beliefs that I have brought into my work and family life, including a strong work ethic, accountability, integrity, and never taking anything for granted. I continued to bring these values to every job I had through college and the first decade of my career. I was never too good for a task, never missed a deadline even if it meant skipping a night or two of sleep, and treated others the way I wanted to be treated.
After spending more than a decade at large financial institutions gaining experience in data management and analytics for both corporate and structured finance, I was recruited by my former executive team to join them in starting an investment servicing company as their Head of Analytics and Data Management. I was responsible for all things data and technology. I quickly grew from a savvy analyst to a solutions architect, designing and developing complex solutions to meet the demands of our clients and their investors.
After a few years of becoming more technical than I ever strived to be, I realized my passion for problem-solving in client-facing roles and decided consulting would be a way to combine my financial, technical, and relationship management skills. In 2011, I joined a boutique consulting firm as a Principal in their financial services practice.
Repeatedly seeing the same types of data and technology challenges across clients fueled the entrepreneurial spirit in me. I knew there was a better way to solve common pain points and my mix of expertise working with complex teams, organizations, technology, and financial concepts gave me the professional confidence to start my own consulting firm.
I was clear on the services this new venture would provide and the types of clients I could help, but before I could register the entity, set up a bank account, or build a website, I needed a company name.
I reflected on my upbringing for inspiration and thought about that first job delivering papers on Grandview Avenue. I remembered how the road has many hills and valleys, and twists and turns, and the view at the end of the road where you could see all the parts and pieces of the city. Much like running a business, there are ups and downs, unexpected roadblocks, and forks in the road that require complex decisions to be made. Alas, the name Grandview Analytics. While the metaphor is admittedly a bit cheesy, the connectivity is true. Our services help clients navigate the ups and downs and twists and turns of their technology journey. Working with Grandview, our clients benefit by having a comprehensive view of their business so they can focus on driving growth and making smarter, faster, data-driven decisions.
Delivering Grand Views through our Values
With this confidence, and after building up a network of people who trusted me and enjoyed working with me, I set out to form my own company. My first call was to my co-founder, Chris Lamb, who was my former manager and someone who shares my values of hard work and high ethical standards. Chris saw the vision and the market need. Without hesitation, he was ready to embark on this journey with me.
Today, Grandview Analytics employs over 50 people. As the CEO, I look for many of the values from my upbringing in each of our employees. Our people are everything. As much as we value intelligence and complex problem-solving, we also value soft skills of relationship building and the ability to truly understand and empathize with clients at an individual and personal level. This leads to longstanding relationships built on trust.
We are in a relationship business. No project or task is beneath us; we roll up our sleeves and do whatever it takes to deliver success on every client project. And because we always do the right thing, our clients trust us and continue to rely on us for their mission-critical challenges.
It’s been a long time since my early years in Dubuque, Iowa. The core principles I learned at a young age permeate how Grandview Analytics conducts business – they have been a key ingredient to Grandview’s success.
