What is the biggest challenge in your career or job?Without sounding cliché, the biggest challenge is work-life balance. Building a technology startup from idea to concept, and then to sustainable growing business, with no technology startup experience — along with trying to be a supportive husband to a wife who also has a busy career and a present father to three young kids — is the hardest thing I’ve ever done. So, the biggest challenge for me is keeping up with it all and juggling everything successfully.
What’s the most rewarding part of your job? The most rewarding part of my job is establishing a team and a culture from the ground up. It’s quite fulfilling to bring together bright, smart and capable people with different skill sets who have the same goal of exponentially building and improving our company’s offerings, and to watch them come together, develop camaraderie and get better every day. In the beginning it was three of us — COO Rich Pink, Rohit Sinha, who is now our chief technology officer, and I — at the helm of our startup, but over time, we have invested in bringing on more team members with different capabilities. We continue to grow our team so we can help our commercial construction clients more effectively manage projects through objective and transparent data analytics that are traditionally only available through the hiring of expensive consultants. I believe that we’re only as strong as our team, and investing in people is a powerful way to grow a company and serve clients. Sharing the knowledge I’ve gained with other startup founders is extremely fulfilling as well.
What’s the hardest business lesson you’ve learned? I’ve learned that my vantage point, and my opinion about the best solution to correct a major industry problem, is not enough to build a successful business. It takes getting the right fit between product and market, which is achieved by gathering the opinions of numerous people in the industry in an unbiased and authentic manner, and by spending thousands of hours developing experience and expertise. I believe this is what’s called the innovator’s dilemma, and I’ve lived it.
How has the construction industry been impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic?Covid-19 threw a wrench into the construction industry that will inevitably lead to overruns, delays and disputes. But, in my opinion, the industry has not yet realized the ultimate exposure that will result from the pandemic. Construction projects are long-term endeavors; therefore, it’s difficult to stop in the middle of a project without causing severe financial loss (which is likely why it was considered essential work during the pandemic). For the most part, ongoing projects keep moving forward while battling through the challenges that affect them. I believe this will catch up to the industry in the next six to 12 months in the form of excessive overruns, inefficiencies and claims upon closeout. That being said, many projects that were in the planning phase will ultimately be put on hold, and the industry will likely realize the true economic impact of the pandemic in 2021.
How has your company specifically pivoted during this uncertain time? At the onset of Covid-19, we didn’t know what to expect but we did know many people were nervous and unsure of how to manage effectively through the new realities. We stepped into that gap. Instead of “selling” our product, we thought it would be more meaningful to provide target customers with near-term guidance on how to manage through the uncertainty. To do that, we used the skills we gained in our former careers as consultants. We put ourselves in their shoes and compiled several white papers on topics they needed to consider, controls they needed to put in place and processes they needed to implement in order to minimize exposure to risk. This built trust and credibility with prospective customers, and ultimately resulted in interest in our business. Additionally, we’ve shifted our focus and approach to selling to more general contractors. Prior to Covid-19, we sold more frequently to owners and developers as a means of them overseeing contractor performance. Less frequently, we sold to general contractors and construction managers as a means of them effectively managing and optimizing their projects. This has essentially flip-flopped, because risk management and project controls are now more important to contractors and economic uncertainty is leading many owners to freeze spending.
What have been some of the busiest areas in Atlanta, where construction has been most prevalent, over the last year?Midtown Atlanta seems to be the most lucrative area in terms of new construction projects, which I believe was also the case last year. This is true in the corporate office and multifamily residential building spaces in particular. I believe the landscape will soon change, because going forward more people will work from home, requiring less office space and a reduced need for people to live in the city. I do foresee an uptick in the industrial sector being less dependent on other countries to produce goods and services, and an increase in infrastructure projects to combat the economic issues that will continue due to Covid-19.
What are your own professional and personal goals for Q4 and into 2021?Professionally, we seek to triple our annual recurring revenue in 2020 as compared to 2019, and we’d like to triple it again in 2021. We also want to double the size of our team by the end of 2021. In terms of personal goals, as I mentioned, at the top of my list is continuing to strive for work-life balance. I’d like to spend more time with my family, maybe do some traveling and definitely do more of the things I love with those who matter most.
Where in the metro area do you enjoy spending your free time and why?I’m a bit of a homebody these days, so I enjoy being close to home in Sandy Springs. If my wife and I are going out to dinner or for a night on the town, we enjoy checking out some of the restaurants in Midtown, Brookhaven or Inman Park. If I’m going away from Atlanta, I like to be active outdoors by heading to the Blue Ridge Mountains and spending time at a lake. My free time is usually spent with my family and friends, because that’s what brings me the most joy outside of work.
Michael Pink
- Born in: New Jersey
- Lives in: Sandy Springs
- Age: 42
- Current job: CEO, SmartPM Technologies Inc.
- Previous job: Senior manager, Capital Construction Consulting Group at Deloitte
- Education: Bachelor’s degree, Georgia Tech; MBA, New York University
- Family: Wife Melanie; Children Mason (age 8), Mirabelle (age 6), Maximus (age 5)
- Hobbies: Snow skiing, golfing and fishing
