My Next Adventure

“Some people see a wall, and assume that’s the end of their journey. Others see it, and decide it’s just the beginning.”– Angeline Trevena

It was Fall 2011. I had just moved to Budapest and taken the reigns as CEO of Organica Water. After trying my own start-up for a bit and then working as a marketer and strategist in the Enterprise Software industry, my most recent positions (post-MBA) had been analyzing companies as a Sell-Side Equity Analyst and Private Equity investor. So, like any good MBA or Wall Street Alumnus, I THOUGHT I knew what I was doing. But - as most first-time CEOs will tell you – I was really just learning on the fly.    

I vividly remember the first “wall” I encountered. We were trying to get a new wastewater solution (a beautiful garden!!) accepted in an industry full of ultra-conservative engineers, so I intuitively I realized we would have to do A LOT of preliminary designs to meet our goals. But each preliminary engineering design was taking hundreds of man-hours over 1-2 weeks, and clients were revising their requests many times before settling on a final version. Simply put, if we didn’t find a way to produce these designs at scale - with rapid speed and low cost – we would be out of business before I could attend my first Summer Goulash Cookout.  

“Always listen to experts. They’ll tell you what can’t be done, and why. Then do it.”– Robert A. Heinlein

So how could we get past this wall? My idea seemed simple: automate! Drawing on my early career experiences in ERP and CRM software, we would (1) break down the preliminary engineering process into steps (2) map out the inputs and outputs of each step (3) write software code that took each set of inputs, ran through calculations and decisions, and generated the required outputs for that step and (4) connect the outputs of each step to the inputs of the next one, ending with the generation of a complete preliminary engineering package with no human intervention. 

Of course there were many experienced engineers who told us this could not be done, and gave countless reasons why. But I had heard that story before – from the accountants and planners (ERP) and the marketers and salespeople (CRM) - and I knew in my gut this was the best way THROUGH that wall. So we had to at least try, and luckily I found a few incredibly talented hybrid engineer/software developers who also believed what many said was “impossible" could actually be done.    

About three years later, after a lot of hard work (and QA/QC), we finally launched the software, and I wrote about it here as my first ever article on LinkedIn.   The software changed EVERYTHING for Organica. Overnight we went from taking weeks and hundreds of non-billable man-hours to deliver a single preliminary engineering design to clients, to delivering MULTIPLE preliminary design options the SAME day at the push of a button. It helped get Organica’s brand recognized globally, as we put the software on our website so anyone could register and get a free design. It opened new business models, as we could now support distribution partners in any geography by giving them access to the tool. And it allowed us to economically scale the business, keeping a small team of engineers focused on value-added (and billable!) work while the number of proposals and projects grew exponentially.

From my perspective, it’s the #2 reason Organica was able to grow from <30 reference facilities in 2011 to more than 130 reference facilities on 5 continents today, and is generally considered one of the best success stories in the water industry. The #1 reason is of course the incredible team we built over the years. And that is the hardest part of what comes next.

“I'm waiting for the time that I can finally say that this has all been wonderful, but now I'm on my way.” – Tom Marshall and Trey Anastasio 

Over the years the design software we built at Organica took on a life of its own. In 2015/16 we started adding new wastewater technologies beyond Organica. In 2017/2018 we began supporting 3rd party customers in a SaaS model, and in 2019 we hired our first full-time commercial software lead and signed our first 3rd party enterprise clients. Then, in late December 2019, we completed the first part of a transaction where we spun the design software business out from Organica into a separate company – Transcend Software - and simultaneously raised a Series A financing round for Transcend.  

I have been acting as CEO of both companies since December, but I am excited to share that after nearly 10 years as CEO of Organica I am currently in the process of transitioning my role.  Starting in July of this year 100% of my time and energy will be spent on my next adventure – building Transcend.

Transcend exists to help Engineering & Construction firms and Technology OEMs (like Organica) automate the preliminary engineering process. Just like ERP and CRM before us, our goal is to automate this core business process in order to enhance the bottom line via cost savings (reducing hours spent on non-billable work) and revenue growth (offering clients more designs in less time). 

Perhaps more importantly, we believe the manual approach to preliminary engineering has limited E&C firms’ ability to respond to the rapidly changing needs of their core clients (water, power, real estate developers), who are all trying to prepare for the existential crisis of our time: Climate Change.  These manual processes consume time and resources, limiting the ability of E&C’s to innovate fast enough to find impactful solutions for our environment and, at the same time, meet their client’s needs. Transcend hopes to leverage its software to transform the culture of these firms and drive business process change that allows the E&Cs to systematically assess new technologies and design approaches that help solve our climate crisis. Being a small part of the solution to the climate crisis is why I joined Organica 10 years ago, and remains what motivates me to today, so expect to see more from Transcend on this front in the coming months and years.  I hope you will follow us on LinkedIn to hear more about our adventures in helping facilitate this change. 

Change is never easy, and transitioning my day-to-day role leading Organica after 10 years has been no different. The part I will miss the most is working so closely with our incredible team – the Organicans – and working together towards our common passion. However the two companies will always remain close, and I will continue to be an advisor of the Company whenever it needs my help.

I leave the business in the capable hands of Akhil Barar, our long-time COO whom I have worked with since Day 1.  Please keep following Organica as its journey in transforming the wastewater industry continues!