Paul Claxton, Reciprocity ROI, LLC Founder and CEO: ‘People are Your Best Asset or Worst Liability, So Watch Your Organization Succeed with the Right People’

“We have access to venture capital funds but are totally bootstrapped. Because of this, we are not a liability to anyone who does business with us.”

In these more budget-conscious times, companies are re-evaluating nearly every business area for potential savings. This has placed a brighter light on the use of consultants. Over the past few years, more companies have viewed outside help as a means to keep costs down, enhance labor force flexibility, and increasingly to introduce innovations.

In light of the foregoing,we’re pleased to present Reciprocity ROI, LLC.

Reciprocity ROI helps software consulting companies continue fostering innovation and best practices by bringing its expertise and best ideas to the table. Reciprocity is a technology-based management consulting agency.

The company was founded in 2016 and is based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It has two additional offices located in San Diego, California, and New York City, New York.

Paul Claxton and TJ Marzano are the founders of Reciprocity ROI, LLC. Paul spoke exclusively to The Silicon Review. Below is an excerpt.

Why was the company set up? And how did you expand your company and its offerings over the years?

Underneath the BAM Businesses, Inc. structure (a leadership-focused consulting company) and set of values, Reciprocity ROI, LLC was originally established as Return on Investment (ROI) technology-based company. However, I noticed a tremendous amount of discontent and distrust within corporate structures. Upon this discovery, I found several areas that needed to be improved within these structures. Such as:

• Everyone a Leader e.g. Leadership,
• Trust and Loyalty,
• Defined and Unwavering Purpose,
• Accountability,
• Responsibility and Commitment,
• Decisiveness and Action.

ZigZiglar once said: “You can have everything in the world you want if you can just help others get what they want.”

This is Reciprocity in its basic sense. When you help others get what they want, that is called giving, and when they receive it, that is called ROI. All of this goes both ways. Reciprocity is about giving your best in any exchange. The world is full of macro and micro exchanges between people, vendors, customers, technology systems, etc. It is the people behind all these exchanges that make up the quality of our lives.

Without these things, Reciprocity is never truly attained, and therefore maximum ROI is never achieved. Reciprocity ROI was created with the intent of focusing on the quality of developing and maintaining relationships in business. We will take another quote from Steve Jobs that it is “Faith in People, Not Technology.” These things are simply the much-needed framework for producing effective Reciprocity which leads to ROI, eventually.

Keeping that in view, Reciprocity ROI has developed an internal team structure and a list of extremely capable channel partners across the globe to address the key necessary elements of a business. Our channel partners and clients have now merged and aligned to become our sister companies (listed below) where we provide ecosystem of products and solutions:

• Industrial Automation and Structural Engineering – www.Cugini-ENG.com – Cugini Engineering Consultants
• Anti-Ransomware, Technology As A Managed Service, and Cyber Security – www.Valerity.com – Valerity Group
• Your Haven – Modular Soundproof Spaces
• Sensory Haven, a division of Your Haven – Sensory Rooms for those with wellness conditions e.g. PTSD, Autism
• FlexForce Fitness – www.flexforcefitness.com
• 5G IoT technology platform – Rypplzz WWW.RYPPLZZ.COM
• VC Fund and Robotics Hub
• Coal Hill Ventures – CoalHillVentures.com

How successful was your first project roll on? Share the experience.

We started our first project in December 2016. The project was very successful, and we were able to deliver over 300k in revenue for our client within the first month of engagement. See more below:

Request— The company asked our help to build its sales pipeline of software architecture and development projects as well as recruit more developers into their organization.

Concern— The company was concerned about the lack of revenue opportunities due to the inconsistency of new software projects flowing into the company. The lack of software projects brought up another concern of not being able to attract and retain manpower to scale and grow the company, which inevitably resulted in losing opportunities due to not having manpower available to win new software projects.

Challenges — The first challenge was that the company did not have any sales/marketing processes, nor any network to drive its brand through referrals and familiarity.

Metrics — After only three short months the representation has > Delivered over $300,000 in revenue opportunities which were over 1000 percent ROI what they paid upfront to retain us. > Generated an additional $1million in the pipeline opportunities. > Recruited over 20 software developers for interviews to help scale their team.

Benefits and Results — Saved the company from downsizing its team of developers due to a lack of software projects flowing in.

Platforms Used — Pipedrive CRM > LinkedIn Marketing > Facebook Marketing,

Methods Used — Cold calling > Relationship Selling > Email Marketing > Channel partner Selling,

Final Thoughts — The COO was very happy and ultimately led into a long-term client contract of which it’s still engaged in work.

What challenges did you face in your initial years?

We faced challenges with team management and recruitment. Many of these challenges could have been avoided by implementing the appropriate team structure. People can be your greatest asset or your greatest liability. In other words, a great team can make your business, but an incompetent team can break it. The first thing you need to spot is opportunities that turn into sales. Subsequently, you need people to sustain the existing revenue from some of the first clients and then you need them to grow additional opportunities and sustain those. Understanding what people are good at, what they want to do, and then employing them to do that is most important. That is how you grow as a company.

How do you maintain your customers’ trust and loyalty?

We have an open-door policy with our customers. In other words, the customer has the right to reach out to anyone in our organization, literally anyone. The person they reach out to has the responsibility to figure out how to get back to the customer within 24 hours. It is that person’s responsibility to also address whatever the customer reached out about and confirm. The reason why customers trust us is that we do everything in our power to meet their demand, which is what we are built on.

What is the most important factor that makes your company lead from the front?

One factor that aided our company to lead from the front: We have patented technologies and products. Moreover, we have access to venture capital funds but are totally bootstrapped. Because of this, we are not a liability to anyone who does business with us.

How does your company contribute to the global IT platform?

We are focusing on tech innovation at the policy levels — that is where real change is made. Tech is embraced and sponsored, and capitalism is created for the greater good of the society at large. This year Reciprocity ROI will be attending policy-led events such as the ‘Pearson Global Forum’ in Chicago: https://thepearsoninstitute.org/ GlobalForum.

Do you have any new products ready to be launched?

This year, we are planning the beta launch of GrytFit, INC. and MeetMazlow.

GrytFit, a mobile app and SaaS platform, focuses on providing technology solutions in the fitness industry for consumers and businesses.

MeetMazlow, a chatbot, and SaaSplatform, focuses on using AI to reduce and/or eliminate PTSD in society at large, but with a priority focus on military veterans.

Where do you see your company a couple of years from now?

I see our company as a global leader, making a change in ways never seen before both at the human and technology levels.

“Our goal is to partner with companies on business strategy to foster their revenue growth through a variety of ways, such as resource consolidation, solution delivery teams and channel partnerships.”