After more than 20 years as a corporate executive in operations, sales and human resources, Jerry Rutter and his friend Tom Riggs set out to break the cliches and do something different.
They spent two days mapping out their dream company, one that would ditch stale corporate approaches and hollow claims about people being important without action to back it up.
After leaving their reliable corporate jobs, they poured their life savings into launching their new company December 6, 2016. It had no name, No clients. No revenue. Not even a website.
From a modest office and with four additional employees — people Rutter and Riggs urged to wait to join on until they could offer something more stable — MindWire was born.
Today, with a team of 15, MindWire has more than 150 clients in 24 countries. It operates in a larger, nicer office and has demonstrated a 56% annual growth rate. The company offers workforce analytics and management consulting, using the best available science, tools and data.
MindWire has also developed and brought its own proprietary workforce analytics dashboard to market. Clients use the dashboard to enhance analysis, measurement, performance and decision-making when it comes to human capital.
MindWire’s Glassdoor ratings from its employees are nearly perfect: five-star overall rating. 100% would recommend MindWire to a friend. 100% approve of the CEO. Comments include “A special place … A company that really gets you … Best career decision to date … Best place I’ve ever worked … Great atmosphere for growth and better people.”
Rutter, the president of MindWire, said self-awareness has been a key to his growth as a leader.
“You can’t assume that every time you communicate a new initiative that your team both understands the purpose and agrees with it,” Rutter said. “In other words, yelling from the top of a mountain does not influence others, and it certainly doesn’t help them carry the message down to their own team members. I had the assumption that the way I drive, communicate and operate was the same as everybody else — this simply is not the case. I had to learn self-awareness of my own styles and how to pivot to be effective with others.”
MindWire notes that 50% of its clients are referrals from other clients, and it has a 90% client retention rate. That kind of feedback says the company is moving in the right direction.
As the company grows, Rutter said he aims to stay ahead of the curve via networking and reading books.
“In this ever changing world, you need to read, meet new people, and constantly be interested in what’s new and different in order to stay above the current,” he said.
