Room to Grow

When AgileThought first opened its doors for business in 2004, it couldn't have known that the nation's economy was about to be turned upside down, or that Florida's unemployment rate was about to go from around 4% to 12%.

But the Tampa-based business software company appears to have shrugged all that off, with revenues increasing from $1.1 million in its first full year of business to a projected $10 million in 2011.

The firm, which creates both business software from scratch as well as provides custom patches for existing programs like SharePoint, has thrived from its headquarters on Florida's Gulf Coast. All three of its lead executives -- CEO David Romine, Chief Product Officer (and former CEO) John Wagner, and Chief Technology Officer Ryan Dorrell — met in Sarasota in the 1990s while working for Arthur Andersen before moving the business to Tampa.

Indeed, Arthur Andersen is essentially the birthplace of the idea of AgileThought. All three executives, plus new Chief Operating Officer Jeff Alagood, spent time with the accounting firm in its Global Technology Organization, a software-focused division of the company.

Now, roughly seven years after Romine, Dorrell and Wagner began talking about starting a business, AgileThought opened its second location in the U.S. in Chicago. And Romine says there could be “two or three” additional locations in AgileThought's short-term future, while revenues are expected to double to $20 million by 2014.

Strong growth is nothing new for Romine and AgileThought. From 2005 to 2008, the firm's revenues grew by more than $1 million each year, with zero sales reps on staff. In fact, the company just hired its first salesperson in September.

Romine says the key to AgileThought's growth has been its ability to connect with customers -- not always a given in the IT industry. In addition to professional versatility and experience (employees average 14 years in the industry), Romine looks for people who are approachable, accessible and humble when making new hires.

That focus on both accessibility and flexibility is how AgileThought competes with both smaller firms with a local presence — like Austin-based Catapult Systems, which has a Tampa office -- or larger players in the consulting space, like Accenture.

And it's why Romine and his colleagues started the business in the first place. “We could do it the way we felt was correct,” Romine says, which to him means working closely with clients to achieve solutions, even if what's needed isn't exactly what's written in the project's contract.

Customers have responded by recommending AgileThought to their business partners, enabling the firm to grow at a healthy pace through most of the recession. Revenues took a step back in 2010, Romine says, but maintaining a focus on key clients helped the firm recover the following year.

Now the problem isn't achieving growth, but rather managing it. To that end, AgileThought hired Jeff Alagood, a former senior director with PricewaterhouseCoopers, as its new chief operating officer in February. The addition has paid off; Romine says Alagood has been “absolutely key” to the company's successful growth this year.

But while doubling revenues is an appealing prospect, Romine is more focused on maintaining the company's current culture and practices, to the point where Romine refers to expansion as a “second priority.” When a business moves too far too fast, “you lose your culture,” Romine says.

Sometimes, however, immediate expansion is necessary, especially when your original headquarters is quickly getting crowded. That's the case for AgileThought, where staff has grown from 21 employees to 72 in two years. So the company is moving, from the Westshore district to a new location in Rocky Point that offers twice the square footage of its original building.

As for the growth of its business elsewhere in the U.S., AgileThought already works with a number of clients outside of Tampa, in major metros like New York City and St. Louis. Before the company establishes its third or fourth physical office, Romine says he'll have to find a trustworthy and talented leader for each new marketplace, which isn't always easy.

But if all goes to plan, Tampa will have another $20-million-a-year technology firm on the tail end of a decade of substantial revenue growth.

And Romine will be at the head of that growth. It's been less than a year since the son of the police chief in St. Pete Beach took over for John Wagner, the company's first CEO and another Arthur Andersen vet. But he's ready to accelerate AgileThought's growth.

“I have the desire to take the wheel,” he says.