Mentorship at root of IT firm’s success
When Alim Somani finished his four-month co-op placement at New York City-based Infusion Development, the company’s chief executive officer offered him a full-time job.
However, Somani, who was just 21 and finishing his degree in electrical engineering at the University of Waterloo in Waterloo, Ont., wanted to start his own business. Rather than lose what he saw as a great talent, Greg Brill, Infusion’s CEO, offered to be the start-up company’s first client.
One year later, in 2001, Brill offered Somani the chance to start up and run the Canadian division of Infusion.
Somani took the opportunity and ran the Canadian arm of the IT consulting firm for a year, spending a lot of time in the field and learning the ropes. In 2003, he became the chief operating officer of Infusion.
“I was 23. I didn’t really know a lot,” he said. “On the one hand I was really excited, on the other hand I was thinking, ‘I don’t know how to do this.’”
But Brill told Somani how much he believed in him.
“He said, ‘I’ve met a lot of people and I’ve met a lot of people of different ages and I don’t think anyone can do it as well as you,’” said Somani.
By 2005, Somani was the president of the company, which now has offices in New York, Boston, London and Toronto. In the past two years the company has grown from 20 to 140 employees and made about $20 million in revenue. This year Somani was named one of Canada’s Top 40 Under 40 by Caldwell Partners.
Somani is quick to direct praise for these accomplishments away from himself and toward Brill and DeBorah Johnson, the company’s chief financial officer.
“I wish I could say it was because I was brilliant. A lot of it was Greg and DeBorah and the early culture they laid down,” he said. “It really comes down to mentorship.”
That culture of mentorship was visible from the first day Somani started his co-op placement.
“We were taken very seriously. We had a seat at the table,” said Somani. “Greg spent a lot of time mentoring us.”
The first time Somani had to write an e-mail to a client, he sent the first draft to Brill. Instead of re-writing it, Brill pointed out what worked and what didn’t and had Somani try again. They sent the same e-mail back and forth a dozen times until Somani had it right.
And when Somani first took over as COO, he spent nearly two hours on the phone every day with Brill and Johnson, getting the kind of support and guidance he needed to be successful.
Like Brill and Johnson, Somani has focused his recruitment efforts on smart, young graduates and continued the culture of mentorship to ensure they reach their full potential, because smart people doing a good job leads to business success.
“If you can take a smart guy and an ambitious guy and you can give him that type of opportunity, instil confidence in him, give him latitude and a support net under him, we could build one hell of a company,” he said. “The real challenge is how do you hire the best people and how do you retain those people.”
Somani has found the best way to retain top talent is to focus on their growth and development. When the company was smaller, this was accomplished with informal events like regular company dinners. But the company’s growth necessitated more formal processes.
There’s a new-employee boot camp, a four-week training course where employees learn the ins and outs of the company. The last couple of weeks are spent working in teams to develop an application, using all the resources available in the company — including people.
“A big part of what we’re trying to teach them is to reach out to the full-time employee who is an expert,” said Somani. “It really builds a sense of team within the company.”
Every month, 10 employees are chosen to have breakfast with Brill and Somani, giving them an opportunity to ask questions and present new ideas.
“We encourage people to bring ideas to the forefront,” said Somani. When an employee is passionate about an idea, Somani will often give him time off his regular duties to research the idea and present a business case. Not every idea is picked up, but it gives employees the chance to learn how to develop, present and defend projects.
Mentoring and developing junior staff is part of every employee’s job and part of the annual performance review.
“You can’t get promoted until you can replace yourself,” said Somani.
Infusion has extended its culture of mentorship outside of the company and created Infusion Angels, partly sponsored by Microsoft Canada. Infusion Angels supports and invests in students and entrepreneurs with viable product ideas.
If the idea isn’t right, but the person is passionate and smart, Infusion Angels will work with him to develop the idea before it makes the decision to invest, said Somani.
Infusion Angels has been up and running for about a year, and just recently made its first external investment in a group of students who have spent the last four years building a gaming engine.
“They had such a passion and a team dynamic that you knew they were going to do well one day,” said Somani.
However, Somani, who was just 21 and finishing his degree in electrical engineering at the University of Waterloo in Waterloo, Ont., wanted to start his own business. Rather than lose what he saw as a great talent, Greg Brill, Infusion’s CEO, offered to be the start-up company’s first client.
One year later, in 2001, Brill offered Somani the chance to start up and run the Canadian division of Infusion.
Somani took the opportunity and ran the Canadian arm of the IT consulting firm for a year, spending a lot of time in the field and learning the ropes. In 2003, he became the chief operating officer of Infusion.
“I was 23. I didn’t really know a lot,” he said. “On the one hand I was really excited, on the other hand I was thinking, ‘I don’t know how to do this.’”
But Brill told Somani how much he believed in him.
“He said, ‘I’ve met a lot of people and I’ve met a lot of people of different ages and I don’t think anyone can do it as well as you,’” said Somani.
By 2005, Somani was the president of the company, which now has offices in New York, Boston, London and Toronto. In the past two years the company has grown from 20 to 140 employees and made about $20 million in revenue. This year Somani was named one of Canada’s Top 40 Under 40 by Caldwell Partners.
Somani is quick to direct praise for these accomplishments away from himself and toward Brill and DeBorah Johnson, the company’s chief financial officer.
“I wish I could say it was because I was brilliant. A lot of it was Greg and DeBorah and the early culture they laid down,” he said. “It really comes down to mentorship.”
That culture of mentorship was visible from the first day Somani started his co-op placement.
“We were taken very seriously. We had a seat at the table,” said Somani. “Greg spent a lot of time mentoring us.”
The first time Somani had to write an e-mail to a client, he sent the first draft to Brill. Instead of re-writing it, Brill pointed out what worked and what didn’t and had Somani try again. They sent the same e-mail back and forth a dozen times until Somani had it right.
And when Somani first took over as COO, he spent nearly two hours on the phone every day with Brill and Johnson, getting the kind of support and guidance he needed to be successful.
Like Brill and Johnson, Somani has focused his recruitment efforts on smart, young graduates and continued the culture of mentorship to ensure they reach their full potential, because smart people doing a good job leads to business success.
“If you can take a smart guy and an ambitious guy and you can give him that type of opportunity, instil confidence in him, give him latitude and a support net under him, we could build one hell of a company,” he said. “The real challenge is how do you hire the best people and how do you retain those people.”
Somani has found the best way to retain top talent is to focus on their growth and development. When the company was smaller, this was accomplished with informal events like regular company dinners. But the company’s growth necessitated more formal processes.
There’s a new-employee boot camp, a four-week training course where employees learn the ins and outs of the company. The last couple of weeks are spent working in teams to develop an application, using all the resources available in the company — including people.
“A big part of what we’re trying to teach them is to reach out to the full-time employee who is an expert,” said Somani. “It really builds a sense of team within the company.”
Every month, 10 employees are chosen to have breakfast with Brill and Somani, giving them an opportunity to ask questions and present new ideas.
“We encourage people to bring ideas to the forefront,” said Somani. When an employee is passionate about an idea, Somani will often give him time off his regular duties to research the idea and present a business case. Not every idea is picked up, but it gives employees the chance to learn how to develop, present and defend projects.
Mentoring and developing junior staff is part of every employee’s job and part of the annual performance review.
“You can’t get promoted until you can replace yourself,” said Somani.
Infusion has extended its culture of mentorship outside of the company and created Infusion Angels, partly sponsored by Microsoft Canada. Infusion Angels supports and invests in students and entrepreneurs with viable product ideas.
If the idea isn’t right, but the person is passionate and smart, Infusion Angels will work with him to develop the idea before it makes the decision to invest, said Somani.
Infusion Angels has been up and running for about a year, and just recently made its first external investment in a group of students who have spent the last four years building a gaming engine.
“They had such a passion and a team dynamic that you knew they were going to do well one day,” said Somani.
