Meet Grant Davies | Principal. Digital Strategy

We had the good fortune of connecting with Grant Davies and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Grant, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
I had been a software engineer and a consultant for fortune 500’s for years and I often saw a lack of value in the work being produced by external vendors we hired, lack of alignment, budget over runs and often more interesting in billing than solving real problems. I felt I could do it better and start providing services to small businesses, building websites, and adult learning software (for adults that didn’t finish highschool) for different organizations. I was also working a lot of hours for a consulting firm and I felt that if I was going to work so many hours, it had to be more than just a “job”, but a real career where I could make an impact on my clients lives and on my own.

What should our readers know about your business?
Bluetube began as a music company, Bluetube Productions, in collaboration with one of my best friends, Michael Kohler. He was the real talent, providing music and audio for Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, and many other TV programs. While working with him on audio, I was also building websites on the side. We split the company into two, and I ran Bluetube Interactive, which later became just “Bluetube Inc”.

We started building numerous performing arts websites as we learned their system, called Tessitura. They all needed websites to showcase artists, sell tickets, allow people to choose their seats, and buy subscriptions, etc. Initially, we hired contractors, but that became expensive, so we began hiring employees who wanted to be part of a small but fun company. Our first office was in a warehouse in what is now Krog street. It was great except for when you were on a conference call, and somebody used the bathroom 🙂

We got into mobile apps early, building mobile applications for businesses. That was exciting and helped us find some really talented people from project managers, to UX designers to software engineers. None of us had MBAs or were formally trained in business, but we figured it out, often did it wrong, and learned the hard way 🙂 We grew the business, and what I’m most proud of is the culture we built. We worked hard, had a lot of fun, and some people even started families during their time with us. We provided opportunities to people who didn’t go to college for computer science or design. They worked hard, learned the skills, and became experts in our field. We always prioritized quality over money. If we found that money was more important than the product we were delivering, we talked to our team members and made it right. We didn’t get it right every time, but doing what was right by the customer was always more important than just making money. We had many loyal clients who became friends, many of whom I still keep in touch with, and they still call me when they need help or advice in their business or job. We moved offices many times and our final office was on Peachtree near the High Museum of Art. It was really modern, had a great city view and by then we had grown to about 60 employees and we were doing great work for many organizations. We felt like we had finally grown up 🙂

We would never have had the success we had without the leadership team I had around me, Paul, Dave, and Keyur, and the employees. I’m not naming them or I’ll miss someone out and hurt someone else’s feelings. Our people really believed in what we were doing and wanted our clients to be successful, not just have a job. We also had advisors from other companies that had been around longer than us, had more experience in different areas we could get advice from. We also had those trusted clients that helped our company grow and when we made mistakes they knew we’d make it right and trusted us to do so.

In 2016 we were approached by Perficient for acquisition. It was a great fit. We had got to the size where we needed so much change to continue to grow and we were ready to have more help and support and grow without some of the challenges of running the business day to day. We were successfully acquired in 2016 and I’ve been there since. Some of our people moved on and some are at Perficient and got promoted into different roles and groups. I am really happy we decided to do that.

If I could change anything I’d pay for experience when you can, by hiring someone who is really good at something that you are learning. We didn’t know HR or operations or finance, we eventually figured it out. We did project management early on when we should have hired project managers. I think I would have worked a little less. When it’s your business you work crazy hours and that takes a toll on your family, your friends, and your health. Managing stress is something really critical for a small business owner.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Inman park to go for drinks and food

Rathbuns Steak for dinner and a cigar

Phillps arena for concerts and events

Go checkout the graffiti at the Krog Street Tunnel

Walk the belt line and stop everywhere for a drink or a bite to eat.

Buford highway for every kind of food you want (you’re getting the theme here right ?)

Got To Yehbo Beach Haus and ask Heyward to make you a cocktail, he’s a master

Find out where **Eric Simpkins is working and get him to make you a drink too 🙂

find a friend with a fast car and have them take you to tail of the dragon, there is nothing like a day out in the mountains in the twisties.**

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I had an old boss who introduced me to the book “How to Win Friends and Influence People” by Dale Carnegie. Initially, I thought it was a manipulative book until I read it. It encouraged me to take a more focused, genuine interest in people, something I was already inclined to do. I worked for Robert Miller (Bob), who helped me become a better manager and communicator before starting the company. I also collaborated with various small companies, like Tribal Chicken, that specialized in design work. They provided opportunities and work that I simply would not have found on my own. We also partnered with other firms like Three Squared. A great friend of ours, Chris Tilley, collaborated with us on all kinds of interesting work, from games like “Defend the Dome” to interactive experiences for manufacturing firms.

Paul Pezzano was a great friend from my car hobby, and we ended up working on projects together. I eventually invited him to join the business. His skills, knowledge, and approach complemented mine; together, they helped us form and grow a real business. Paul’s wife even did a stint as a project manager and helped us keep things in line 🙂 Paul and I still joke that we built the Atlanta Symphony’s website in my basement the first time. Dave Kellogg joined us later as an account manager, but he also did everything else: culture, HR, hiring, facility, office planning, making sure we all had coffee and Tylenol when needed 🙂 Dave had a really good pulse on our culture, identifying problems before they were entirely visible. Keyur Vimawala joined us as CTO; he brought rigor to some of our forecasting and technical abilities we had been missing, and he asked annoying questions. They were good but annoying 🙂

And most of all I thank my wife, she saw me quit my job and really run the company, she saw me happy, stressed, excited, upsets, happy, grumpy and all the emotions and states you can imagine, she had to support me working crazy hours and often putting the business first, I could not done it without her.

Website: www.perficient.com

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/grantmarkdavies/