Baobab Partners: Our Global Start-Up Story

When Baobab Partners CEO Stratten Waldt left a full-time position to become a freelancer, he had no idea that he would be running a global business just 3 years later. But an innovative approach to business and his can-do attitude resulted in happy clients, and as the business took off, he quickly realised that he needed to hire a team. Stratten partnered with a fellow Duke student, and together they founded Baobab Partners in late 2017. 

In 2017, while Stratten remained in the US, his business partner was pursuing further studies in the UK. Having a CEO and CTO on opposite sides of the planet may seem crazy to many, but for this duo it worked extremely well. The time difference made it easy for his partner to fit work around his studies and it was during this time that they found their first hire, a fellow Masters student based in the UK. It quickly became apparent to both that hiring internationally was the logical approach. They could hire the person with the best skills who would be the right fit for the team without geographical limitation and moreover, they could offer services to clients round the clock without resorting to insomnia.   

From the beginning, they took every opportunity to develop an intentional work culture based on a strong sense of internal cohesiveness. They emphasized that while Baobab was still young and in the early stages of development, clear communication was a top priority, along with mutual respect and transparency. This ethos has been maintained across all aspects of operation, from sales to expansion and hiring to internal processes. 

Three years later, Baobab Partners has offices in both New York City and Lagos, Nigeria. Our employees can be found around the world, from the U.S. to the Dominican Republic, Canada, United Kingdom, Nigeria, Kenya, and more. As a small company, we consistently check in on a more personal level across these international boundaries, and have learned to work effectively with varied time zones and diverse cultural backgrounds. Clear communication is imperative in this line of work, and it is something we actively work to maintain both internally and with our clients.

In light of the unprecedented scale of COVID-19, the intentionality and sense of responsibility with which Baobab is run is more apparent than ever. Our team is flexible and able to adapt to unexpected situations. We are committed to supporting our clients every step of the way. Our experienced team is always ready to maintain our high level of efficiency and professionalism in our work while continuing to provide skilled services with excellent results. 

CRM explained

Photo by Caspar Camille Rubin on Unsplash

What is CRM, why do we need a CRM system, and how do you choose which provider is right for your business? 

In today's world it can often feel like we are overrun with acronyms, abbreviations and technical jargon; we all hear CRM, KPI, GDPR and so forth on a daily basis. But it’s often easy to lose sight of what CRM really means and its value for your business. 

CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management. But how do those three words become the basis for the enormously diverse online systems which we see today? Customer Relationship Management isn’t new, since the world began,  there has been known value in taking an interest in your customers and building rapport to gain repeat business. Fast-forward to victorian times and shopkeepers kept customer details on cards and filed them so as to ensure customers receive a personal touch and any member of staff could assist them without having to ask questions a customer had previously answered on previous visits. With the birth of computers came the opportunity to store this information digitally so as to eliminate the need for large filing cabinets and speed up the process of finding information while a customer is waiting. In the late 90’s, the first CRM online solution was born, today CRM systems can offer a world of opportunity for businesses big and small. With the era of online shopping and the change in the high street. 

Knowing every customer as businesses did a hundred years ago is today impossible. In fact, there may be times where you have no human interaction at all with a customer on their journey through your sales process. Yet customers today still expect when they contact your company for assistance that the customer service representative they are talking to is able to access the relevant information about their account to assist them. Similarly, for sales your boss or board will expect you to be able to give them progress reports on sales, new leads, etc or updates on the status of a particular account or deal. CRM enables you to have all that information and much, much more at your fingertips 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It’s easy therefore to see that (providing your system is well set up) CRM can be a real game changer, streamlining and automating the day to day running of your business. 

So now you know you need CRM, how do you choose a CRM system that works for your business?

CRM systems vary greatly in terms of capability and thus, in price. Most bill per user per month and within that may offer different packages on capability at different costs also. Here you should take a ‘Goldilocks and the three bears’ approach; do some research, some solutions may be too big or too small for your business and it pays to find one which is just right. Start by listing features that are important to you and ordering them in terms of how important they are to you and your team. For larger businesses, you can do this by sending out a survey to staff and getting their views on what they want. 

What’s next? 

Want to know more about potential CRM solutions for your business? 

Drop us a message and our team will be happy to walk you through some potential options.