How Mavericks employed 50 and became a six million business in two years
Mavericks’ journey has been quite a ride. It first felt like we were crawling forward, but soon enough we were already taking wobbly steps on our own. By the time the second wave of Covid-19 hit, against all odds, we were sprinting. After just two years, we are at the point of employing 50 people and running a 6 million EUR business. To explain how we got here, let’s first have a quick recap of how Mavericks was born.
Mavericks was born to fill a genuine need
It was early 2018 when people at Talented noticed that there were hardly any employer options for senior software developers who had already worked at Finland’s top software consultancies and wanted to earn more without setting up their own companies. An idea of a software consultancy with minimal organizational fat was born. An idea of a company that could pay more than the others and that would allow the consultants to reap the rewards of their work.
A picture of a company where consultants would have the income level of a software freelancer was painted. Commission based salary would play a big role and operating expenses would be cut to minimum. The idea was built around two numbers; 70% of the revenue would be used for the consultants’ salaries, and a streamlined business model would work fine with the rest 30%.
Test marketing campaign was run during the summer 2018, and developers were very curious about the new kid on the block called Mavericks. The beginning was still painfully slow as the new concept made developers nervous and unsure.
All the hard work finally paid off in the summer of 2019, when Mavericks was officially established and Talented sold the business to Mavericks Software Ltd. At the time we were five people; four developers and the CEO.
Covid didn’t slow us down – headcount was tripled
After Mavericks was officially a real company, our recruitment switched to a higher gear and we started to build our own back office. In the beginning of 2020 there were 10 software consultants working at Mavericks. Great recruitment efforts, hiring our own sales person as well as landing projects from the stable public sector that tends to react slowly to changes really helped us to go through the Covid spring and summer successfully.
In August 2020 we got our very own HR person who took charge of both recruitment and developing its processes. Then the magic started to happen. Ten new consultants were hired during the Autumn 2020 and by December we were 28 consultants and three administration and support people. We tripled our headcount in 2020 and took the first steps in scaling our business.
In 2021 we have already hired over 20 new employees. While writing this in early August, we are 45 consultants and six people in the back office. Our goal is to grow by another 20 people by the end of the year.
Mavericks’ success enablers
There are two major factors that have enabled Mavericks’ success.
Knowing who the company is built for
This is crucial and yet many companies forget about this. From the very beginning it has been crystal clear who we are building Mavericks for – consultants.
This target audience does not care for amusement park-like offices as they mostly work at customers’ premises. They want to have an influence on how and where they work, and focus on what they’re best at and what they enjoy. Mavericks is built around these facts. We focus on the essentials and can therefore pay senior software professionals generously.
Our clear employee value proposition also fits the target audience like a glove. Mavericks combines the best of two worlds: The income level and freedom of a software freelancer, and consultancy’s safety net and sales machinery. Here everyone can impact how, where and how much they work, and build working habits that suit their life situation the best.
Transparency
Transparency is one of our core values and it applies for both customers and consultants.
Clients don’t want to pay for the brand and company premium, and why should they? Our clients know exactly what they are paying for – the value they get from the consultant’s work, and that most of the money goes to the consultants’ pockets. That’s why we can offer world class talent for competitive pricing.
What comes to employees, the senior software consultants, they value transparency and trust and that’s what they’re getting. Every aspect of the business, such as financials and strategy, is communicated openly with the whole company. This way everyone shares an understanding of the business and where we’re headed, and can give valuable insight to how to improve as a company. This aspect has resonated very well for our target audience and many new employees have been surprised that Mavericks really is an open book, not just sugar coated words.
As a closing statement, we were dead certain that Mavericks would fly. It was just a matter of time. Believing in what you do and just pushing through the hard times come a long way. Needless to say that together we have built a fundament for something pretty great.
Mavericks is the go-to software consultancy for the top of their field software professionals who want to get the best of two worlds: The salary level and freedom of a freelancer and the safety net and sales machinery of a consultancy. We are constantly looking for new team members – are you the next Maverick?