Spotlight Series: Tom Riglar.
Legacy Club shines a light on some of our members to see what makes them and their business tick.
We spoke to Tom Riglar, CEO of innovative App developers, Morrow.
Please tell us a little bit about you the person (not you the business owner): Tom the business owner and Tom the person have a lot of overlap! That's partly because my business partner is my best friend of 15 years. When I'm not working, my ideal day is a late morning cycle followed by a leftfield gig in town and then winding down with a smokey scotch!
Describe your business in less than 30 words: Designing, developing, supporting and consulting on innovative apps, marketplaces and backend services for pioneering organisations.
What industry or sector does your business fall in to?: We're sector agnostic but only work with specific leading-edge tech.
What did you do before you started your business?: I was the lead mobile app developer for a scaleup.
What have been the biggest struggles that you have encountered, and what did you do to overcome them?: The biggest challenge was communicating our value to prospects. As developers, we knew our impact was beneficial but distilling that into a sales and marketing strategy was tricky.
I overcame that by completely pivoting my professional skills so that I become a marketeer. That involved reading lots of books and attending lots of courses.
Have you had any external investment to date?: No
What has been the impact of COVID-19 on your business and did you make any changes, or pivots?: When COVID hit, we lost 50% of our pipeline overnight. It was a challenge but did give us space to work on the business, not just in it. That allowed us to develop our processes and capabilities so then when things did pick up we could capitalise on them.
Do you struggle with, or have you found any of the following barriers to your business growth?: People & Talent, Leadership Capacity
Do you have any business hero's, if so, who are they?: Blair Enns is my current favourite for advice around pricing, positioning and anything agency related. Also Susie McFarland, she's my business coach and is paramount to the strategic focus we have at Morrow.
Financial Rewards or Business Awards?: Financial Rewards
What was the last book you read?: The Challenger Sale by Brent Adamson and Matthew Dixon
Tell us something totally unique about your business: We are the only Expo.dev (a React Native tool) certified consultancy in Western Europe.
Finally, please tell us what we can look forward to with your business in the next 12 months.: We're massively expanding our capabilities in marketplaces and augmented reality. So if you're looking at building a marketplace or AR app, come say hi!