In The Thick of It

I'm a believer of doing what you

need to do today right every day.

You've got to get today right.

And one day turns into a week.

A week turns into a month, a month turns into year.

Get these things right, do the right things every day.

And they just add up.

They just add up.

And for me, that's a little bit easier

to digest, and it has served me well.

Welcome to In the Thick of It

I'm your host, Scott Hollrah.

In this episode, I had the chance to learn the

story of Hector Perez, founder and CEO of Quantum FBI.

His journey from working in his father's print shop

as a teenager to leading a successful finance and

accounting firm with offices in New York and Columbia.

Hector and I discuss the importance of wowing clients

with exceptional service, how company values impact hiring, and

what progress looks like day to day for founders

in the midst of growing and building their business.

He has a passion for bringing clients

value through financial insights and is focused

on building a mission driven culture.

Hector, thank you so much for being a

guest on in the thick of it.

We're grateful to have you today. Sure.

Great to be here, Scott.

Well, man, let's start with this.

Where are you currently based out of?

I personally live in Westfield, New Jersey, but

our office is out of New York City. Great.

And I know we'll talk more about this as we

get further into the conversation, but you've got offices other

places in the world as well, is that right? We do.

We're headquartered in New York City, as

I said, but we also have an

operation out of Columbia and South America. Awesome.

Let's take a trip down memory lane.

Where did you grow up?

I am a New Yorker, born and raised.

It comes out in your voice.

Does it?

So what was it like?

You grew up in the city?

I grew up in one of the New York suburbs.

As far as I'm concerned, growing up was just great.

I'm one of four boys.

We had a great childhood.

I'm sure there were some challenging times, but if

there were, we didn't know anything about it.

And it was just a great cHildhood, really.

What did your parents do?

My mom worked as a seamstress, and

my dad owned a printing business.

Worked for one for a long time.

And at some point, he, like me, decided, hey, I want

to go out on my own, and built a company himself.

As a kid growing up, were you

working in the printing business with him?

No one got out of working in the printing business.

Everybody worked in the printing business,

but it was great experience.

It was really a great experience, and a lot

of things that I learned from that experience that

I didn't realize was valuable to me, even today.

But you just pick up on a lot of things.

What were the kinds of jobs your dad had you doing?

Accounting, for one.

But we had to get on the machines

like anybody else, dealing with people issues, hiring,

working with the landlord contracts, pricing, those types

of things he kind of threw us into.

And how old were you when

your dad started the business?

Probably was 14 years old.

Okay, so you were a teenager.

It's not like you were seven, eight

years old working a printing press, right?

No, I wasn't seven or eight years old.

But early on, when he.

I can remember at the age of eight, sometimes

I would go to work with him on Saturdays,

right, when he was managing the printer press for

someone else's business, he would have us come in

sometimes on Saturdays, and we'd stuff boxes and make

sure that things were aligned properly.

We teach us how to check to make

sure quality control, those kinds of things.

Things that an eight year old could possibly do.

And did you get paid, or was this just

part of the expectation of being a family member?

Cuban sandwich at lunchtime. There you go.

Got to earn your keep.

They were good, though.

What was school like for you?

Were you good student?

Did you go to public school, private school?

Yeah, I went to public school.

I went to high school, Richmond Hill High School.

I think school was okay.

I was a good student.

Got into college, tender pace University,

and was a good student there.

Goal out of school was to get a job at a big four firm.

Mission accomplished.

I think seven months before graduation,

I already had my job.

So all of that worked out as well

as it could have, I think so.

When I was in school, all of my friends that went

into public accounting, we had a five year program that they

had to go through where you got your bachelor's and your

master's in that time, because to sit for the CPA exam,

you had to have a certain number of hours.

Was yours a similar kind of a program?

This is where the difference in our age

shows, because I am pre five year program.

So I got away with the four year program, but

definitely had to sit for that long, difficult exam.

Do you still have nightmares about the CPA exam,

or was that, like, a no big deal?

Let's say I didn't pass four on my first shot, but we

got it done in, I think, three rounds, Badge of honor.

It suited me well, and I never had to do it again.

There you go.

I've said this before many times, but among the

happiest days of my life were the days I

completed managerial and financial accounting in college.

I was not a C student, but I got C's in

both and couldn't have been happier just to have passed.

So God bless you for making it all

the way through and actually getting the CPA.

I am with you. Thanks.

Let's go back to, you were at Cooper's and Librand,

and few years in Price Waterhouse came in, became PwC.

What was that transition like?

Was it kind of a non event?

We had the rumblings, but as far as

I was know, it was business as usual.

I was on a pretty large account.

Nothing changed there, even two years after the transaction,

because we just kept on doing what we were

doing, and it was pretty seamless for me.

So one of the things that always boggled my

mind for my friends that wanted a public accounting

was they're based out of the Dallas office, but

every week they were someplace else.

And it was because the local partner that was

out of the Dallas office had a relationship with

somebody in San Francisco, and because they had the

relationship, it was Their account, it was their team.

Was it like that for you?

And were you traveling a ton for me earlier?

At least in the time where I was

part of audit, I didn't travel as much

because I was focused on financial services.

New York City being the financial know.

I was going downtown, Midtown, but it was all New York

City for the most part while I was in audit.

Things certainly changed later on in my career.

So you talk about when you were in audit.

Where did you go to after audit?

I think it was six or seven years in.

I was lucky enough to get tapped by the

vice chairman of the firm to join him.

He was the CFO of the firm at the time,

and I went in to work in the office of

the CFO, working at PwC, but focused on PwC.

So I got a chance to look at PwC

as a business, which was a very interesting perspective.

Most of my colleagues didn't really

think about the firm that way.

As a business, we were more focused on

client service, but it was a really worthwhile

experience for me, and that was all internal,

and I did that for about three years.

The vice chairman, before he joined, he became the CFO

of the firm he used to lead M A.

So after about three years with him,

he said, okay, you're done with me. Go do deals.

You're a deal guy.

And that took me to M A

advisory, and that's when the travel started.

And travel was pretty brutal.

It was gone for not days, but weeks at a time.

And I did a lot of transactions

in the US and Latin America.

So I was down in Brazil, Argentina, Chile, a lot.

And I think that's what probably helped

me get into Colombia and feel comfortable

kind of starting an operation out there.

And as far as the work you were doing in M.

A, was it actually advising and helping put

together the deal structure, or were you part

of the team doing all the due diligence,

know, quality of earnings, that kind of stuff? Right.

So they call the financial due diligence.

So it's quality of earnings, quality

of assets, really, on the assessing

the companies from a finance perspective. Okay.

So by the time you got involved, the deal

structure was already kind of in place and you

were helping the acquiring firm make sure that they

were getting what they thought they were getting.

Yeah, that's one of the things about

being an accountant, you get called last.

So all that stuff was done ahead of time, and we came

in kind of on the back end trying to make sure, okay.

Make sure that the numbers work, and

now we're getting into substantiating the valuation.

Right.

So at that point, it's pretty far down the process.

And they'd call us in, and that was a

lot of work, but it was toward the latter

part of the transaction, I would say, yeah.

So is that a lot of late nights and boardroom pizza?

Late nights, long days, many weekends.

Many times you thought you were

coming home, but you weren't.

But I will say that all sounds bad,

but it was probably, prior to quantum, probably

the best work I'd ever done.

I learned so much about transactions, about companies, what

they look at, how to really analyze them.

It wasn't repetitive.

It was, as the leader of my

group would call it, the Fast lane.

So at this point, you're probably, what, mid 30s, early

30s, yeah, I would say I was in my mid

thirty s at that point, really doing well.

It was rough work, but I think really great work.

Were you married at the time?

I kind of got married in the middle of

it, so at first when I started, I wasn't.

But then midway through, I did get

married while I was in that group. Okay.

Most people that stay at a public accounting

firm for 15 years, they go the partner

track, and that's it for them.

After 15 years, what caused you to say,

I think I'm going to pull out?

Primary thing was 2008 happened and financial

crisis, the deals were drying up because

I could operate in Latin America.

I was still pretty busy doing transactions in

Brazil, but eventually that dried up as well.

And I remember the firm was getting a little

iffy on the group, and my mentor at the

time said, things are getting a little iffy.

Maybe you should get out of

there until things come back.

And what they counseled me to do

is to go back to audit.

And I said, oh, no, not audit anything, but not audit.

So after a little bit of arm twisting,

I agreed to do it for a year.

I committed only one year.

I said, if the deals aren't

back in one year, that's it.

That's why I'm hanging it up.

One year later, I was gone.

For those who remember the financial

crisis, it was pretty significant.

The company that I worked for at the time closed

its doors on July 5 or 6th of 2009.

And so, yes, I remember it was quite brutal.

I think I was fine with it.

I think the deal's work was pretty grueling.

They pretty much owned you at the time, and you

can just get the call, get on the next plane.

So I don't know if I was.

Maybe I got an easy out, to be honest.

I don't know how sustainable it was for

me and what my objectives and goals were

in life, starting a family, all that.

But for me, whoever who does it, it's great.

But I think, for me, I wasn't really sure

anyway, so I think it just worked out.

What happened after PwC.

I think after PwC, I took a gig at a boutique

consulting firm working for private equity, catering toward private equity, and

I did that for a couple of years, and then I

got asked to join TIAA to help them with some large

transactions they were trying to get done.

So my deal experience in financial

services really worked well with that.

It was a former colleague that knew my experience.

He asked me to go there and help

him with that, and I did that.

So I joined Tia.

We got some deals done, and that was great.

It worked out well.

But eventually there was a little deal fatigue,

and I was looking for another role.

At the time, my wife was at Columbia Business School

getting her MBA, and I learned that espousal benefit was

that I could go to class for free.

So I knew I had a two year

window to take advantage of this opportunity.

So I decided to leave, put on a backpack

and a baseball cap, and go to class.

You weren't going to get the degree at the end.

You weren't going to sit for the exams,

but you got to audit all these classes.

And just soak up the knowledge. That's right.

And first class I took was entrepreneurship.

And there it starts, going back

to TIA for just a minute.

For those who don't know, can

you talk about what they do?

I mean, it's a big name, but I don't

think it's quite the household name that PwC is. Right.

TIA is a very large retirement company.

It's kind of a little bit.

It caters to basically the public good, those

who are in teachers, doctors, all those who

need to invest their money for their future.

So it's a retirement shop, if you will,

and an asset manager, that being a big

part of their business, are probably managing.

At the time I was, there was 850,000,000,000

in assets, close to a trillion in assets.

They're probably more now.

I was leading the FPNA for the asset

management division, and I think you'd mentioned there

was still some deal stuff there.

Were you making investments in privately held companies,

or were you figuring out where in the

public markets you were going to invest?

We were primarily buying up

other asset management shops.

So they wanted to increase their asset management presence

and really build that arm of the business.

And they were doing it.

Certainly they had one internally.

But if they were really going to do

that, they needed to acquire more asset managers,

and I was helping with those.

And you might see right now that their asset manager

arm is now rebranded as Nuvine, a TIAA company.

And Nuvine was one of those large transactions.

You've got to see a lot of deals over

the years, to the extent that you can talk

about it without violating any long standing confidentiality agreements.

What was one of the most interesting ones

that you got to be a part of?

Yeah, I think the more complex the

deal, the more interesting it is.

I think when you start getting into other territories.

I remember one deal in particular.

The client was from the UK.

The target had operations in Brazil, Argentina, Chile.

I had a team from the US.

So we're going know, we're talking about working

with three continents and four different time.

You know, it really showed me a lot of what I could do.

You're dealing a lot with lawyers.

You're getting all these people together and really

battling out issues around a transaction, which is,

as I said, it really tests your skills,

but that's where you learn the most. Yeah.

I got to imagine, with that many countries in

play, that there's a lot of cultural differences, too.

And you're dealing with language, you're dealing with

time zone, you're dealing with geography, but cultural

norms in Brazil are probably a little bit

different than they are in the UK. Yeah.

For, you know, that's where you learn how to flex.

Right.

And I think that's when you learn the most. Right.

When you're most uncomfortable and you realize when you come

out on the other end of it and you were

able to pull it off, you learn a lot about

yourself and what you're able to do.

And no doubt that was probably the transaction

I was most paranoid about going in, but

taught me the most about myself. Right.

What you can do and just step by step.

What do I have to do first? What do I have to do second?

What do I have to.

Third, what can I make sure I

don't drop the ball on this?

All the other things are important, but

these three things are the most important.

Make sure you get those right, and you just

evolve from, you know, also relying on your team.

Very important.

But even though Peter sees a great firm and you

always had their back, so jumping back to kind of

where we were a minute ago, your wife is getting

her MBA at Columbia, big top business school, and you

get to ride along for free.

What was that like?

Yeah, well, since I wasn't working at the time, I got

very involved with her cohort, so they got to know me.

I was at drinks after class, I was there.

International trip I was there.

Events on the weekends, I was there.

So that allowed me to build

a great relationship with her cohort.

And before I knew it, because they knew

my background, they'd say, hey, Hector, I know

someone needs some help in finance.

Would you help them out?

And there went my first gig, and then there

was a second, and then there was a third.

So that's how I really got started,

really thinking about going out on my

own, because I was enjoying that work.

I personally didn't go back and get a

master's, but pretty much everybody I know who's

gone through an MBA program, the cohort gets

really close, and it has, for many friends

of mine, it's created other lifelong friendships.

Are you still tight with that group of people?

Yeah, absolutely.

I mean, from there, you go to weddings,

you meet the parents, you attend other events.

You're going to their house,

they're going to your house.

You can go vacationing together.

So it's just like any relationships, you're a person

who appreciates relationships that would be no different.

And so we have kept in touch and are kind

of tight with a few folks there, for sure.

So you make these connections, you built these

relationships, and they know Hector's the accounting guy.

He's the deal guy.

And they just start saying, hey, I've got

a friend that could use your help.

Here's a project, right?

Just one, then another, then another.

And were those projects pretty similar in nature,

or were they all over the board?

They were similar in nature.

When you think about what they were

going through, it was pretty similar.

I think that's what really got

me thinking about launching a firm.

I said, okay, well, I see these similarities.

I would define the key issues to be the following.

If I were going to put some

strategy behind this, what would I build?

What would I build to really solve this problem?

And I just started going about it that way.

I remember even putting a business plan

together, and I even got two Columbia

professors to go through my business plan.

That's how close I was with the cohort.

And they were more than happy to do that with you.

More than happy to do that.

They were great.

Very valuable, those projects.

You got a front row seat, and that

kind of was the inspiration behind starting quantum.

Yeah, I think that was where it started.

And I think then you had to kind of

really start doing some market research and say, what

is really the solution, what is happening and why

is it happening and where is it going?

And one of the things I noticed is that

whether you're talking about a private company or early

stage company, or even large companies like the ones

that I've worked at before, the world of finance

has some similar issues around technology, around data.

But I also noticed that with everything getting into

the cloud, there was more data around than anything.

And most people weren't really using the data.

It was just kind of sitting there.

And you can learn a lot from your

company if you just analyze the data.

But these companies didn't have the ability to do that.

They were basically using finance in its simplest form

and not really leveraging the power of it.

So I started to ask senior finance people,

CFOs, VPS of finance, why is that?

So I polled people for the better part of

six months, I mean, across industries, around the country,

different stages of maturity, to understand where folks were

with data and their finance functions.

And I heard a lot of

things, but there were three things.

First of all, no one was where they wanted to be

as it related to data, but everyone felt the pressure of

data and the need to get up to speed on data.

But I wanted to understand why.

And I heard three common reasons why

they weren't where they wanted to be.

And that's what I thought.

I went out to solve for those three things, and

those were, didn't have the budget, don't have the talent,

skill set, and don't know where to start.

And those were the three things that we sought

to set, three problems that we sought to solve.

So when you're talking to these senior finance professionals, did they

have a clear idea of what they wanted to be able

to do with the data, or was it more of a,

I know we have data, I know we should be doing

something, but I don't even know what that is.

I think they had an idea that they know that

what they needed to do, they wanted to do more,

but they couldn't do more because they didn't have the

tools or the bandwidth or the budget to do more.

They were asked to do more.

But it was almost like you had one hand tied

behind your back because you know this information is there,

but you spent so much time doing the basic stuff

that you couldn't get at the more valuable stuff.

And that was a source of frustration for

just about every finance person I talked to.

And these groups that you were working with at the

time, were they primarily New York, New Jersey, Northeast US,

or all over the US and different industries?

That's what I found quite interesting, that no matter where

I went, no one was where they wanted to be.

But there were three reasons that

I kept hearing over and over.

So your dad had the print shop, and you got a front

row seat for what it was like to run a business.

You get great experience at PwC, you get to

audit a Columbia MBA, starting with an entrepreneurship.

Got this.

You found these commonalities among

these businesses that need help.

Do you remember the moment that you

just decided, hey, let's go do this? I do.

I guess coming from a family that has entrepreneurship

in their background, besides my dad, my brothers, and

I have two brothers that are entrepreneurs as well.

So it was always around, and I always wondered,

if I had it, could I pull this off?

So I thought, if not now, when?

And it's something you really

have to think about, right?

Because I was recently married, want to get

a family going, have aspirations in your life.

It was going to go a certain way.

And up until then, I was a big corporate

guy, so I really had to think about, but

I really was enjoying what I was doing.

And I know that I myself, even though I

was part of large organizations, I was frustrated by

the data issue myself as a finance professional.

So if you're a big company, you have

some money you can throw at the problem.

Doesn't mean you have it.

All right, but you can throw that.

BuT if you're in the middle market

or early stage company, not so much.

But I also understood that there was an opportunity.

When you get around these companies,

they can make decisions much faster.

When you are part of a large organization, the layers

of decisions, the layers you have to go through to

get an approval on something you might give up before

you get the yes you're looking for.

Totally understand that having to deal with

larger, more bureaucratic organizations was part of

what caused me to make my jump

and get to work in smaller organizations.

And sounds like there's some shared experience there.

Going back to that 14 year old kid working in the

print shop, was it in the back of your mind that

early that you might want to do something on your own?

Or was it something that came

along in college or at PwC?

I think when you're a kid, you always hear about

having your own business, having your own business, particularly if

you have, your father has his own business, and you

can see the way your life changes when that happens

and things go well, you're aspired to do the same.

And so that was something I would have in the back of

my mind, but I didn't know what business it would be.

I didn't want to be a preshow,

but I thought we could do something.

I could do something as a kid.

And then eventually, when you go into big corporate and

that was your goal, then you're pretty happy there.

Big firm like that, a lot

of fanfare, flights, business class.

You're kind of liking that, right?

But eventually that wears off and you

start thinking about life a little differently

and you start thinking about other things.

So I guess, what year was it that quantum came to be?

We launched Quantum in 2016.

And when you started, was it just yourself

or did you have a team in place?

It was just me at the beginning, and

it was more as an advisor to these

companies, really, what is that you need?

How can I help you with the background that I have?

And as I went through these companies and I

saw the commonalities, I said, you know what?

The need that they have is well before, right, you

can be an advisor, but you have to analyze information.

And if information you have is not good,

then, as they say, garbage in, garbage out.

And that's something that was a bit of a challenge.

So we sought to improve the finance function almost

from the ground up, every transaction being put in

with more data around the transaction so you truly

can cut, slice and dice, flip and turn the

information that you have, which will help you make

better decisions going forward.

Without that visibility, it's pretty hard.

How did you find those first few customers?

So, besides the relationships at Columbia, which got

me my first few, it became referrals, PwC,

former colleagues, other professionals that knew what we

were doing, and it just became referrals.

And referrals was the greatest source of

clients for us, and frankly, still is.

I was just going to ask, has that changed? Still is.

Do you remember your very first day? Yes.

What was that like?

I remember the very first day I had

to meet with a client at a WeWork.

I'd never seen a WeWork.

I saw a sign somewhere, but I didn't know what

it was, so I went, oh, that's pretty interesting.

But even then, I thought there was only one.

And the second gig was at a different WeWork.

I was like, oh, there's more than one.

If you ever been to WeWork, they're just

full of businesses, just people launching businesses.

So that was another thing.

I'm around all these people who are trying

to launch businesses, and they would constantly have

events around entrepreneurship and building businesses.

And that's another thing.

Rarely did you find one around finance.

Did you end up having a

WeWork membership at some point? I did. Okay.

And did that turn into

a good networking referral source?

Another good networking source. Right.

Because you have businesses from businesses of that size,

and when you come to find out that they're

even larger companies who are taking offices in a

WeWork because of its flexibility, because the atmosphEre, there's

a bit of a culture.

There was a bit of a culture there at the

time, and entrepreneurial folks tend to, like, know you go

in the building, and it's just full of businesses.

New York City has the most

WeWork offices on the planet.

So there were many.

So I started to run the WeWork circuit.

So your very first day, you got a meeting at

WeWork, and had you already signed a contract with this

group, and you were launching with business, or was this

more of a get to know you and let's see

if we can work together kind of a situation?

It was more a get to know you, really.

This is what our situation is.

There was a founder who.

This is not her first one.

She founded another company.

She was part of a founder group

with another company that did very well.

And somewhere along the lines with that firm, they were

trying to raise capital and were having a hard time

doing it because their books weren't in order.

So they ran into some trouble.

And she learned enough from that lesson that

she should not get behind that way again.

So she wanted it done right from the beginning.

And that's how we started with them.

And how long did it take you guys

to hammer out your first contract with them?

Yeah, I think I had the meeting, and within

a week, we were signed, we were engaged, and

off we went, getting them to just set up

just infrastructure, understanding what they had, infrastructure, getting to

think about how to look at the business, because

there's information here and there's information there that you

should probably be looking at as well.

And off we went.

You had your first client in a week.

Most founders, I mean, it might take months

or even longer to get that first deal.

Was that a big confidence booster for you, knowing that

you were going to have a paycheck or at least

revenue coming in right out of the gate?

I think that was helpful. Right.

So, you know, you had some

cash flow there, expenses were low.

It's just me, but I think

I wasn't satisfied with just that. Right.

I wasn't satisfied with going in there and

just doing what someone asked me to do.

I wanted to provide a solution that

was broader because I saw this issue.

If they had that issue, many

of these companies have this issue.

So how do you build something that is really

impactful, that can really give these companies a know?

When I was in M A, part of the thing that

I needed to do is look at the quality of earnings.

And companies are valued on a multiple to EBITDA. Right.

So every dollar that I find for which they're

not going to get credit, it's not really a

dollar, it's a multiple of that dollar.

And when you don't have your.

I felt that my job was to

ask you three questions you couldn't answer.

And if I ask you three finance questions around

your financials, that can cause doubt about their accuracy.

That purchase price was going down.

There's a bit of shame looking at it

from the other side, because here are founders

who look to build a business.

They put all their heart and soul into

this business, and because their financial act isn't

together, it could really cost them.

I think that's tragic.

The businesses that you were working with at the

start, or maybe even today, are they businesses that

are bringing you in knowing that there is an

exit in the near term, or are you coming

into organizations at all stages of growth?

Yeah, I would say that today the companies

that we work with are more growth oriented.

So they're not really the early stage startups,

but they're companies that are growing fast.

Have high aspirations, big plans.

They've been through a couple of rounds this

series, A-B-C they've been acquired by priority firm.

They're doing roll ups, so

they're doing more strategic things.

And those are the companies that

we tend to work with today.

So I think further along than

the ones I worked with before.

But I think what we're offering

caters well to these companies.

So you landed your first deal in a week.

What was the growth like from there?

Yeah, I think it's kind of a slow and steady. Right.

First of all, doing a harm.

Second of all, you're building, you're kind of

understanding what's happening out there and you are

certainly want to service the client well, but

you also want to protect the brand, right?

Because the brand is.

I was the brand, right.

So very careful not to do

anything that would harm them.

But before you know it, I couldn't keep up by myself.

So I hired the first person, the second person,

and just built even thinking through our internal human

capital model to really get these things done in

the way that I thought they needed to be

done for this segment of client.

And that's when I started looking for offshore

operations technologies that really supported the function, really

putting in analytics and business intelligence into the

work that we do, which was taking these

companies beyond what they were traditionally getting from

the finance function.

So how far into the business was it that

you made that first and second and third hire?

I think I had my first hire within a year,

and we went on for a little while together.

Can't remember exactly.

Was it another six months or ten

months later where we had the third?

But then things started to grow rather quickly.

And I think when COVID hit it just really

opened the floodgates as companies started to realize that

they needed to really understand their company, they needed

to get on the cloud for those who weren't

on, because they needed to operate even when they

couldn't go in their offices.

They needed to be able to understand and look

at various scenarios for how they're going to manage

through this uncertainty that everyone was going through.

You can't really analyze your numbers because it

takes you so long to get them.

They realized quickly that that was not a

good way to run your finance function.

So we got a lot of work then,

in terms of your first few hires, advice

that I've heard given out over the years.

A lot of people tell you that the first person

you need to hire is an admin person to help

with the task that detracting from you growing a business

based on kind of what you just described.

It sounds like the first few hires were more

hectors that were out there actually doing the work.

Is that a fair assessment? That is fair.

It definitely wasn't an admin.

I needed more brain power and capabilities to

service our clients because the demands were getting.

They were getting high.

They were asking a lot of us stuff that I couldn't do.

Honor just wasn't enough time.

So I didn't worry about admin.

I was doing those things myself.

But quickly we had to build the

team to support because the projects were

getting larger and demands were getting higher.

And it was really a great thing because you think you're

going in for this, but then they realize what you can

do, and then they ask you, what about this?

Can you help me with this?

Can you help me with that?

And then they tell someone and you get another call.

So quickly, we had to ramp up the team.

Me making my first hire was one of

the absolute most difficult decisions that I have

ever made in running this business.

It sounds like for you it was an easy decision.

It was a very clear decision.

We have to do this.

Was it difficult to find that

first hire, those first few hires?

It's still difficult to find talent.

It was difficult then, it's difficult now.

I don't see that changing, primarily because you

want to find, certainly people with the technical

capabilities, but when you're a small team, cultural

fit is really important, right.

You don't want it to be a revolving door. Loses time.

It's not good for you, it's not good for

them, but you really want to find the team

that's going to be around for a while.

You invest a lot in these folks.

When you hire them, it takes them

a while to ramp up and be

as productive, reach productivity, optimal productivity.

So you have to make these decisions very carefully.

So it's a tight labor market, and maybe back in

20, 16, 17, it was not quite as tight.

But how did you present a compelling offer, a

compelling reason for that first person to join?

I mean, I think about it.

I've worked for big companies, I've worked for small

companies, and sometimes with the smaller companies, you're kind

of going, am I going to get a paycheck?

What did you do to attract that talent?

Interestingly enough, I think there are a lot of

people who want to be involved in something entrepreneurial.

They want to feel that they've been part of something.

They're not just there carrying on and no one cares.

Right.

But they feel close to what is happening.

And they know that they've been able

to leave their mark on what exists.

And my commitment to them is that

we're going to do some great things.

I'm going to bring them along for the ride.

They're going to learn not only doing things from

an accounting perspective, but they're going to look at

things in all these different businesses, and we're going

to see some really cool businesses.

And I think at the time, for me, just

the whole entrepreneurial thing was really taking off.

Right.

You hear a lot about it.

Everyone wanted be an entrepreneur, right?

Wanted to be in tech, wanted to go out on

their own and just were, let's say, disenchanted with some

of the experiences they had had at larger firms.

So I listened for those things during interviews.

Did you find people through your network?

Did you find people through job boards, LinkedIn,

getting people to your website and applying there?

Certainly found people through the network.

But there was a point where I had to hire

a part time recruiter to help me find time.

It just wasn't fast enough in terms of the talent pool.

And I needed someone to, I said

I'd work to do right every day.

So I needed someone to screen them first because

I couldn't spend all my time doing that.

So I hired someone to help me identify talent,

screen them, and work through them through the negotiations

to the point where then I need to hire

a permanent recruiter, an HR person.

Tell me about the name Quantum.

What inspired that?

Why not name it Perez Consulting?

Well, as I thought about the issues that were out

there in the space Quant, because it's math, right.

And accounting is associated with math.

Quantum was whole science as well.

And so quantum kind of brought those two together

because it was about the math around accounting, but

also it was about science and data science.

And I thought those two worlds needed to come together.

And every day I was seeing how that was part

of the issue that I was seeing, those two worlds

weren't coming together, and the gap was widening every day.

So I came up with Quantum.

And the FBI stands for finance

and business intelligence again, because those

two worlds need to come together.

The world of finance and data must come

together because that's the modern day finance function.

Took a long time, though. I love that.

And for our listeners, the name of the

company is actually Quantum FBI, not just quantum.

So that's the FBI reference there.

Well, thanks for sharing that.

So when you started the business, I guess talk

a little bit more about the vision for how

the company was going know, grow and what the

service offering was going to be like.

And maybe how does that early vision

compare with what you're doing today?

Is it pretty close, or were there things that you

discovered along the way that you are doing different?

Yeah.

So at first I thought I was just going to

be a senior finance person giving advice to these companies.

As I stated, when you look at their numbers and you

say, okay, this is what's happening, and you present a solution,

and they say, no, you get around the rest of the

management team and they say, that's not correct.

I said, it is correct. These are the numbers.

And they say, yes, I understand you believe

it's correct, but the numbers are wrong.

That showed me that there was a

much broader issue, a much bigger issue.

Many companies couldn't even get their numbers right,

and that happened on a couple of occasions.

That's when I knew I had to

expand it again, garbage in, garbage out.

So we needed to create a firm that was able to

help companies, A, get the basics right, and then B, embrace

data and solve for those issues that they were having.

They didn't have the talent, they didn't have the

budget, and they didn't know where to start.

So the idea is, you partner

with us, we have the talent.

We are a group of finance professionals that are

technology enabled and data driven, and it would take

a company a long time to build that, and

it would be costly to do that.

But we've got that dialed up.

So we work with these finance folks in a

combination of a team that's US based and based

out of in a nearshore environment, which keeps the

cost down, that then gets redeployed toward the more

strategic things that a finance function should have.

Analytics, financial planning analysis, scenario analysis, really more

data, better reporting, forecasting those types of things

that up till now they didn't have because

they spent all their budget on the basics

and weren't getting those things right.

So we came up with a solution of

find the right financial management platform, architect.

That solution with other supporting platforms, bringing

the cost down because you're automating and

whatever still has to be done manually,

you move to a lower cost environment.

What you're doing is, you're right, sizing

or aligning the value of the exercise

with the cost for the exercise.

And that's where I think a

lot of companies were missing it.

And what we do now is become a permanent partner

to them that they know that they can call in

because we have the transactional folks that can support them,

but we also have the senior, more technical folks that

can help them with the more complex issues that a

growth company is going through.

And maybe just to kind of elaborate on that again,

for people who may not be familiar with the concept,

is it fair to say that you effectively become the

finance and accounting office for many of your customers?

We do.

We become that function for many customers or partner

alongside their internal team, where we either play the

supporting role to their internal team or we play

the more strategic role for a more junior team.

But we do that again, leveraging technology and

with a data lens so that you better

understand the drivers of your business.

Going back to that first day, that first client,

and where you are now, I think you said

something a minute ago that stuck out.

It sounds like you started with the idea that you

were really just going to be kind of an advisor.

Is it fair to say that it evolved into this

technology play and the near shoring of manual things?

Or was that the plan from the get go?

It wasn't.

When you're out there, one of the most important

things you can do is listen to your clients

and see the commonalities and understand not only where

things are, but where things are going.

As I talked about, the cloud and seeing how

one client does things that is so much more

efficient than the way another client does it.

So you start to understand those differences,

but you're also keeping on top of

what the movements within the industry are.

As I said, cloud data, FP A, the

amount involved with those just different technology solutions

that cater to the finance function.

Being on top of those.

It has really called for finance functions to evolve.

So we do a lot of finance transformation

work to bring these companies a modern day

finance function, which is really what they need.

So technology is a big, important piece of what you do.

Were you a technology person before you came into this?

I wasn't.

I think over time you start to learn what's happening

in the space and you get familiar with different platforms

that are out there, and the more you invest time

into them, the more you understand, and they help you

understand the way things are moving.

But you also build a cohort of

people that are just like you who

have similar interests, and together you evolve.

Would you describe yourself more as being more of

a technology firm than a services firm, or more

of a services firm than a technology firm?

I think at our core we are finance

professionals, but we are, as I call it,

a technology enabled and data driven.

And I think I don't want to minimize those

things because those are the big differentiators you can

have good core finance skills, and at the heart

of it, you must have those, right?

But it has to be done in

a more efficient and effective way.

And it's got to bring down the silos that used to be

up when things were on premise that are no longer around.

Right.

Because cloud has just changed the game.

How did you develop that technology skill set?

Different conferences, different platforms.

We're partnered like Sage Intacct.

Sage Intacct is a great company that kind of

teaches you what's going on around this particular platform.

It's cloud based.

They're looking to automate things.

All these platforms are looking to automate

and change the way finance is done.

So transforming the finance function through

technology is something that every company

should be thinking about right now.

So let's talk a little bit about kind of the

size and shape and structure of the company today.

So you mentioned early on that you've got a near shore

group in Colombia and you got people in the US.

What's kind of the breakout?

How many folks do you have here in North

America, and how many do you have in Colombia?

We are probably 70 30.

Columbia, in terms of the mix, and they're more

the folks that are doing the transactions and processing

the transactions, doing day to day accounting, and then

we have the more senior folks in the US. Okay.

And I know certainly your travels with PwC

influenced it, but how did you settle on

Columbia is where we're going to set up.

Mean, you know, whenever you're thinking about outsourcing,

you tend to hear the typical, know, you

get a lot of folks going to India,

you hear people talk about the Philippines.

I thought it was really important if our clients were going

to feel that we were an extension of their team, that

we can talk when they're available to talk, that as far

as they're concerned, we're just down the hall.

So we needed to have an initial environment.

And once you start looking at that, you

kind of really have to kind of narrow

it down to a couple of territories.

And I visited a couple of territories three times each.

Really got to understand that market, talk to people,

go to universities, talk to the private sector, talk

to folks in government, even to really understand their

economy, where they're going, and certainly what the investment

of the company was, just what their political environment

was, and I ended up settling on Columbia.

Did you experiment at all with

the more traditional legacy offshore?

I mean, did you ever try

things in the Philippines and India?

Or did you just know right out of

the did, and, you know, it presented the

types of issues that I expected it would.

So I knew that just wasn't right for me for the

kind of service that we were looking to provide our clients.

And about when did you start the near shore operation?

Probably four years in now. Okay.

It's been going a while.

I think about me personally.

I got to believe there's others like me that

would find the process of setting up a shop

in another country as kind of overwhelming and daunting.

Imagine you've got to get incorporated there, whatever

their equivalent is of establishing a legal entity.

You've got different HR requirements, you've got

different payroll requirements, you've got local labor

laws, all kinds of things.

Were you nervous about that at all or

how did you get comfortable doing that and

all the mechanics that you had to learn?

Yeah, I think that probably my previous experience

in the region helped me out a lot. Right.

Going through those experiences where I felt paranoid because I

wasn't sure I was going to succeed, but on the

other end of it, I learned a lot and realized

that I could, gave me the confidence to do that.

I didn't do anything.

I visited a number of times until I was comfortable.

It wasn't until I was comfortable, yes, this

can be done, but I was exploring. Right.

And I think that's what business building is about.

Right.

You have to think about how to build

your service, what you're offering the market, and

how to bring that value to the market. Right.

The solution that you're trying to bring, that

typically calls for some innovative solutions, whether you're

going into a new environment, a new market,

using new tools, different partnership structures.

I think really that's the role of a CEO. Right.

You got to solve the problems.

And oftentimes it may not be there or it's

there in other places in a different form. Right.

But you've got to feel it out.

I would never have done it unless I kicked

the tires and was out there meeting people.

Sometimes I would sit there and just look around,

sit down and look around until I got comfortable.

So I know that there are some, for lack of better

term agencies out there that will help you do your filings

in other countries and help you stand up in office.

Did you work with somebody like that, or

were you rolling up your sleeves and calling

people and doing it on your own?

Yeah, I think whenever you approach something like

this, first part is fact finding, and I'm

not going to start from scratch. Right.

So you find these agencies, you find others

who have done it, you find articles, you

understand what's happening in the space.

You read a lot, all the information you could

find as you're doing your due diligence and you

learn a lot, and then you decide, okay, this

is the model that's going to work for me.

That model works for some, but for what I'm trying

to build, this is the way I think makes sense.

And sometimes you get it right from

the beginning and sometimes you don't.

But at the end of the day, you do

have to know what's happening in the region.

You meant to make sure that

you get all those things right. It can be done.

Clearly, you may have already said everything

already about it, but what advice would

you give to somebody who's considering that?

I think it's also worth noting that there

is a big, big movement toward nearshoring.

I mean, when I think about people in my

network, I bet I could name off without even

thinking about it at least half a dozen people

that have set up nearshore, and it seems like

it's coming up in more and more conversations.

So what advice would you have for

somebody who's thinking about doing it?

Well, I think as you come into

this, you have to try different things.

We've got a shortage of talent in the United

States as it relates to accounting, finance, and that

if you're tracking the numbers going into the profession,

you know that's just going to grow. Right?

That shortage is going to get worse.

Put together the baby woman who are retiring,

we're going to have a shortage of folks

to do this work, and it's pretty important.

Wall Street Journal had an article about public

companies are now blaming their control deficiencies on

the fact that they can't find accountants.

They're putting that in their filings.

So this is an issue that's coming, and we have

to find innovative solutions and technology could be part of

it, but sometimes you have to go into other markets.

So my thoughts are, don't be afraid of these things.

Rather than put your arm out and say, I'm not

going to do that, or I can't do that, you've

got to figure out how to do that.

And what I found in my experience is that there

are more people willing to assist you in the process

than, you know, you just got to ask.

That's a good word.

So you've been at this since 2016.

Have you had any moments where you kind of looked

at and just said, pinch me, are we really here?

Has this really happened?

I do have those moments.

I think I have those moments because when

you're first starting out, right, you're just trying

to get to this place, right.

And you're trying to be conservative in terms of

your expectations so you don't let yourself down. Right.

But when you find, and this has been our experience,

you go to help a client and then you went

to help them on something for a couple of months,

and now it's been three years, and you're still in

there helping them with all kinds of things.

And that's incredibly satisfying, but it shows how much of

a need there is for the services that you provide.

And once it starts, it just continues to go.

Just make sure you do good work, do

right by your clients, things will be fine.

One other thing I'll say is I

tend to plan in short time frames.

I'm a believer of doing what

you need to do today right. Every day.

You've got to get today right.

And one day turns into a week, a week turns

into a month, a month turns into a year.

Get these things right, do the right things every day.

And they just add up.

They just add up.

And for me, that's a little bit easier

to digest, and it has served me well.

So a lot of entrepreneurs I talk to, ones that

have grown and the company's become more than just themselves.

They're no longer a solopreneur.

They've had to give up parts of the job

along the way in order to grow the company.

Are there parts of what you were doing in

your early days that you're no longer doing now? No.

Interestingly enough, we've just expanded our

services based on market demand.

So you go in and you're doing accounting and finance,

but there's more of a request on the FP a

side or on the analytics side, or you're know, can

you do more in terms of interim CFOs?

And we look at those things, we

listen to the market and we assess.

We have a team that just considers these

offerings and whether it makes sense for us

to get into those things or not.

And sometimes we say yes.

And sometimes we say no.

What about for you personally?

Does Hector's Day today look just like Hector's

Day looked in 2016, or are the kinds

of activities that you're carrying out and the

things that you're responsible for?

Has that shifted?

Yeah, I definitely have people now under me that are

more senior doing some of the things that I used

to do, which allows me to focus more on the

firm and growing the firm and staying closer to the

clients and really thinking about our operations more.

So it definitely has expanded and I've needed to call in

more senior folks to help me expand and build a firm.

But I think that's just natural, and it's

probably exactly the way it should be.

What are the parts of the job that you still

do today that just invigorate you and excite you?

And then maybe on the flip side,

what are those parts of the job?

And I know there's got to be some that you're just

like, oh, gosh, I wish I didn't have to do this.

Staying close to client client

service has been my career. Right?

Starting out at PDBC, 15 years of that

stuff, other than when I was working internally

and even then, the internal clients I had,

I've always found that to be rewarding. Right.

You've got someone who's got an issue, they're looking

for you to help them solve those issues.

And when you come out on the other side and

they're glad you were there, that's incredibly satisfying for me.

So I like to engage with clients sometimes not

as much as I used to, but definitely stay

close to the clients to hear where they are,

what they're doing, because we've got a lot of

clients doing really interesting things.

I learn a lot from those things, so I try

to keep that, although not to the same degree.

The things that I find are challenging, probably.

Talent acquisition is probably the most

challenging piece of the whole thing.

I love being around the team.

I love spending time with them.

Even in Columbia, I'm there at least once a

quarter, engaging with the team, thinking about what they

want in terms of career development, encouraging them to

come up the way I came up. Right.

Because these are folks who are trying to

become better professionals, and I'm out a lot

after what I was taught at Peters.

So getting around them was important.

But the talent acquisition piece has got

to be the most challenging, for sure.

What role has been the most difficult to hire for?

I think just the more senior they are, the

harder it is to hire for, for sure.

But mid level manager, the need out there is

so strong, they're really hard to hire for.

So you've got to find new ways of incentivizing

them and keeping them focused and know that someone

else is knocking on their door too.

That's an excellent point.

SOmeone else is knocking on their door too.

So has there been anything that you have

tried that has not worked out like you

hoped it would or expected it to?

I think on the finance side, you come up with

this strategy, you think this is exactly the solution that

they need, and sometimes they didn't take to it as

they weren't as enthused as I was about the solution,

it called for me to approach it a different way.

Sometimes you have to meet them where they are.

They're not ready for that yet, but,

you know, you can still help them.

Okay, we just have to back it up.

Let's start with where you are, and we'll get a multi phase

plan to get you where I think you need to be.

And I think when you approach it that way and

you're on the same wavelength, it's not about me, it's

about them, and you want to get them there.

So as you build trust, things get easier when they

see that things are possible, when they see that they're

better able to bring that value to the business, which

really is what they want to do. Right.

We're here to support the business.

Finance is my business, but most

businesses finance is not their business. Right.

So our job as finance professionals is

primarily to support the core business.

And so that's what we need to do.

Understand what the needs of the business

are and build something to support that

business and help our clients do that.

Our worlds aren't that far apart.

In fact, we partner together on some things.

But I think this will resonate for you.

It can be really frustrating to be in this consultative position

and see what's going on with an outsider's set of eyes

and say, no, I've seen this before at other places, and

this really is what you need to do.

It's really hard when the client doesn't quite see the vision

and take to it the way that you want them to.

You can lead them to water,

but you can't make them drink. Right.

I have a view on those kinds of things.

Sometimes you just have to get them to neutral.

Don't try to get them all the way there.

Get them to neutral.

Get them open and show them.

And once you start showing them, they'll get there.

They'll get there.

Don't give anyone anything they don't think they

need, and they'll be much more receptive, I

think, to things as you bring them up.

And it's just the way I've learned over time.

I'm passionate about it, just not

quite that passionate about it.

Focus on the business issues and you can get there.

If knowing what you know today, if you were going

back and starting over, what would you do different?

That's a question that comes around a lot.

This is a journey I don't tend to.

I would have done this.

I think you're learning along the way.

That's part of this whole process.

I might have started sooner.

I might have started sooner, because, as I said,

m a work was the most grooming, probably the

best work I had ever done to that point.

And I think much greater pride in what

we've been able to do now than that.

It just feels different.

And you understand the value that

you're bringing to these companies, companies

that are doing really great things.

Maybe going back to family for just a second.

What does your wife do now with Columbia MBA?

And what is your family like?

My wife is senior finance person at BNY Mellon.

So she was a business CFO for a time,

and now she's working on some major projects.

I won't get into details on that stuff, but

she works at a big bank, global bank.

And you guys have kids? Yeah.

So we had three girls, two grandchildren. Girls, too.

And they kept me pretty busy. That's great.

How has being a business owner shaped

your family or impacted your family?

That's another one of these benefits. Right.

I do travel quite a bit, getting out to

clients, and it is conferences and clients and different

things that you have to be out there for.

But I get to walk my kids to

school just about every day, which is great.

It allows me to do that, and it also

allows them to see me and what I do.

And we have a lot of conversations about that.

We have a lot of conversations around building

businesses, because I do think it's an option

for people more than they think.

And I think a lot of folks are interested in

it, but don't know how to go about it.

And I like that they get to see both sides, right?

They get to see their mom, who's in

corporate, and their dad, who's an entrepreneur.

So they get to see both worlds there.

If a budding entrepreneur came to you today

and said, hey, I'm thinking about doing something,

what advice would you give them?

If you really want to do it, go for it.

Just eyes wide open. Right.

For me, it was the kind of thing where when I

started to do this thing, I didn't apply to anything because

I didn't want to get lured away by the money.

As far as I was concerned, I was burning the ships.

This is what I'm doing in the second

half, and it brings me great satisfaction.

So I encourage anyone who truly wants

to do it to go for it.

And as we know, it doesn't

always work out for everyone. Right.

But I think the process is one that you

will learn from, will develop you as a professional.

As a person, you'll learn a lot about

yourself as you go through this thing.

But it's been a fantastic journey for me, and I look

forward to continuing it and continuing to grow the firm.

What's next for Hector and what's next for Quantum? FBI?

Yeah, I mean, continuing to work on our clients.

As I said, we launched this

interim CFO side of the House.

Now, a lot of questions about that interest in that.

That's great.

But continuing to bring this value to

our clients, I think the finance industry

is still changing in massive ways.

You've got AI and how that's

going to impact the finance space.

So there's no shortage of things to get up to speed on.

And my hope is that we can bring all of that to

a client who may not have the time to be on top

of all these new technological advances as it relates to finance.

But finance makes its way through just about every

single thing at a company, one way, shape or

form that's going to show up through financial statements,

some way really uniquely positioned to see how we

can help a company understand what's driving that company

and help their plan in the future.

So we're sticking to that.

Is there anything that you had hoped to

talk about that we haven't covered yet?

I think I want to hear about your podcast and the

great idea because I think this is a really great thing.

And when we were prepping for this, you talked about

how one of the ones that we like, we both

listen to kind of gives a particular perspective.

But I like this perspective because I think it would

have been valuable even to me, as I was coming

up, to hear someone who's in the thick of it,

which is really great name in the thick of it.

And it's really encouraging.

I think it gives folks, for some, it'll give them

what they need to make the decision to go forward.

So I think it's a great thing

you're doing for many aspiring entrepreneurs out

there because sometimes they just need that.

They need to hear from a regular

person and what their journey was like.

So I think it's great. Thank you.

Well, Hector, thank you so much for being a guest, and

we look forward to sharing your story with the world.

Great Scott.

Thanks for having me. Thank you.

That was Hector Perez, founder and CEO of Quantum FBI.

To learn more, visit quantumfbi.com.

If you or a founder you know, would like

to be a guest on In the Thick of It,

email us at intro@founderstory us.