Today we’d like to introduce you to Jon Winsett.
Jon, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
After graduating from Georgia Tech, I quickly moved into a career within the tech sector with a few companies. Ultimately, I became the SVP of Sales for a publicly traded software company. Realizing the great price differences our customers were paying for the same products, I landed on the idea of creating a company that would protect corporate buyers from paying too high of price on their IT purchases, kinda like a Kelley Blue Book for technology.
In 2003, I started the company with a couple of colleagues – and hit the tech conference circuit. We were won several “Best Solution” awards and we knew we were onto something. Within 3 months, we had 12 clients. We focused on building the best team and culture and prepared to scale. Today we have over 450 clients and 60 team members. We rank in the top 20 Best Place to Work in Atlanta ever year, with a #2 ranking in 2017. This is out of 700 submissions. 🙂
We have a serious drive for philanthropy – mostly benefiting underprivileged children. We run parallel campaigns throughout the year and donate one full day for the entire company to spend at the Salvation Army sorting center.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
At every inflection point of growth, the wheels fall off in different ways. Sometimes it is sales, sometimes it is service delivery. As we grew, our team required more support. So, for example, moving to a payroll system and providing benefits was a big step that sent ripples through our organization.
To grow a company without outside funding is a tricky business. You have to wait for revenue to build up, then when the team can’t take it anymore, you invest in more resources. Hyper focused on margin and hyper focused on team morale. Two things that are sometimes at opposite ends.
NPI – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
We have grown into being the premier IT cost optimization service firm through the use of price benchmark analysis, IT vendor intelligence and negotiation strategy. The world’s most sophisticated companies rely on us for their external market visibility and vendor expertise. Companies like Morgan Stanley, MetLife, JP Morgan Chase, Halliburton, American Airlines, REI and Time Warner use our data and intelligence to ensure they pay the right price for their purchases. I enjoy the fact whenever I watch HBO or CNN, they are benefiting from NPI services.
But mostly I’m proud of our team that delights our customers every day and consistently ranks as the happiest teams in Atlanta.
What is “success” or “successful” for you?
Happy clients, happy team members and happy accountants.
Contact Info:
- Address: 271 17th St NW
Suite 550
Atlanta, GA 30363 - Website: www.npifinancial.com
- Phone: 404-591-7505
- Email: jwinsett@npifinancial.com
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