Anybody who runs an organization is aware of how vital the back-office is to the entrance workplace. They’re just like the wings of a aircraft, if one isn’t working correctly, the aircraft may go down. However whereas there are answers by the truckload for entrance workplace operations, back-office hasn’t had the identical evolution. Till now. CuroWork co-founders Daniel Paik and Andy Chen had been each looking for options to the dysfunction of back-office tradition, and collectively, they’ve discovered it.
In 18 years of back-office, it all the time bothered Daniel that back-office groups had been caught in a cycle of being overworked, lacking main venture deadlines due to the thousands and thousands of little fires that wanted to be put out, and on high of that, main burnout of key group members, generally so extreme that they only stop. He thought the answer could be discovered at CCI the place the corporate offered administration consulting and operational excellence options to billion greenback firms. So the plain query when he had over 1,000 energetic duties in his backlog was to ask, “do now we have an answer for back-office?”
He found that although there have been lots of and 1000’s of pages of greatest practices devoted to managing the workflows and processes for operations total, little or no was devoted to back-office operations. There wasn’t a tremendous resolution anyplace. Daniel knew if may determine the usual to measure and handle back-office work and groups, it may assist enhance not solely his life however all his colleagues.
The eureka second for CuroWork got here when one in every of Daniel’s group members turned of their two weeks discover. When she was requested to jot down down what she did earlier than leaving, they found that she was engaged on an earthly activity for over 70% of each month that would have been fastened with one e mail from Daniel to the opposite senior leaders on the firm.
For the final 10 years, Daniel was on the lookout for an answer, a option to greatest handle back-office groups, and in hindsight (because it usually is) was merely, “Why are we asking our groups to doc what they’re doing after they stop? We must always have that all the time obtainable and handle that!”
This simply so occurred to be the precise problem Andy was coping with when he was working back-office operations at his earlier startup. Expectations and workloads in back-office are exhausting to align and result in stress and frustration in groups if deadlines get pushed out or missed. “Certain, I may throw the duties to be completed on a guidelines, however I had no option to describe the overload I used to be experiencing to my government group. With out that, there wasn’t a simple option to provoke including a brand new rent to perform our lofty objectives. We’re simply considered as price facilities.”
The Beginning of a Partnership
The hunt to rework back-offices from price facilities to development engines for firms is strictly what introduced the pair collectively. A serendipitous assembly between Daniel and Andy led to the founding of CuroWork. Andy explains, “We had been very fortunate to have met. Funnily sufficient, it was at a YC Co-founder Matching pace courting occasion for VR startups. As a result of I had been working within the back-office, I understood instantly what Daniel was attempting to unravel and knew that there wasn’t a transparent device on the market to handle it.”
On Daniel’s finish, this was a very long time within the making. He had tried to discover a co-founder for over eight months. He interviewed over 100 engineers from juniors to CTO’s. “Once I met Andy, he understood the issue as a result of he had been there. And fortunately he had a product and design background so when he took what was in my head and put it down right into a mockup – it lastly unlocked what CuroWork could possibly be.”
Andy’s background in structure served as an surprising however strong basis for product growth. His journey from designing buildings to digital experiences was easy, because of his observe document of profitable awards and managing high-profile initiatives at Tesla and Disney. By combining his expertise creating world class experiences together with Daniel’s experience, the 2 set to work constructing the following massive factor for back-offices.
Milestones and the Path Ahead
Nonetheless, CuroWork didn’t simply spring into existence; it underwent rigorous validation. The duo managed to enhance a back-office group’s capability from averaging two to 6 main initiatives a yr by optimizing their workflows. In flip, they grew the corporate’s income considerably. Early testing with these key customers laid the inspiration for the product’s core options that assist firms rework their back-offices from price facilities into development engines and aggressive benefits – filling a vital want within the present marketplace for CEO’s, CFO’s, and back-office leaders.
After CuroWork’s MVP launch earlier this yr, the group has expanded the platform’s options that cater to back-office leaders and managers. “We’re within the ultimate phases of growth on our Beta and are gearing up for a closed launch.” Daniel explains additional, “The grand imaginative and prescient is to make it so that individuals can do extra of what they need in life. Whether or not that’s rising their profession within the quick time period, to spend extra time with their household, or to only journey extra. It’s about fixing what’s fallacious with company tradition, after which serving to individuals be extra productive so as to stay extra of their life on their very own phrases.”
The story of Daniel and Andy’s collaboration is a testomony to the ability of numerous experiences and innovation. With CuroWork, they goal to reshape company tradition and assist people obtain a greater work-life stability. As CuroWork continues to develop and evolve, it’s evident that the longer term holds thrilling prospects for this duo and the end-users of their groundbreaking platform.
Join CuroWork Beta waitlist at www.curowork.com to find how they’re reshaping the way forward for back-offices.
