Success Stories
Background
During the “hockey stick” phase of growth, Allied Pixel was experiencing the growing pains that many businesses do. The volume of sales was creating pressure on the technology, people, and processes that served them well as an early-stage company, but the structures were now breaking down resulting in issues delivering on time and ensuring quality. The small team of high-integrity sales and client services leaders were on the front lines managing expectations and were feeling the need to throttle back on sales to ensure what was committed could be delivered to clients’ satisfaction. At a time when the company was having great success in sales, celebration was not the sentiment being felt. Stress was high.
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After a rapid assessment of the operation, a set of recommendations aligned to Allied Pixel’s goals for scale was presented. With a collaborative approach, a plan of action with clear, prioritized steps was created. The multi-faceted plan included support in identifying a strategic technology partner and providing support in scoping of business requirements. This partner is still in place today.
In Their Words
“As a business owner, sometimes you can’t see “the forest through the trees" when it comes to objectively identifying business challenges and solutions. Lesley took a deep dive into our operation and came back with a detailed plan that was immensely valuable as we navigated the next phase of our business growth. Since engaging her, we have increased capacity by over 100%, reduced late deliveries by 80%, and reduced the error rate by 75%. Those are significant numbers for us! I can say with confidence we wouldn’t be where we are without her help. She saved us time, money and helped us chart a smarter path forward.”
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Bill Haley, Owner
In Their Words
“As we looked to scale-up our production to meet demand, my first thought was to engage Lesley for guidance. From my past work with her, I knew Lesley had just the expertise we needed to take Allied Pixel to the next level. Lesley gave us clear strategies to implement that have allowed us to grow from 50 clients in 2021 to over 125 in 2022. I have no doubt the solutions she proposed and help us implement will allow us to continue to scale while also being able to provide a client experience that will retain and expand our customer base.”
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Tom Mikowski, VP of Business Development
In Their Words
“With Lesley’s leadership we more quickly moved to the post revenue phase of our business. The combination of her industry knowledge and product strategy chops allowed us to rapidly dial in on business requirements for the MVP build and launch of our first paid offering to high schools. She skillfully collaborated with our diverse team to create alignment in our strategy, priorities, and to ensure our marketing and client services content and positioning were aligned to our product strategy.”
Jon Carson, Co-founder
In Their Words
In Their Words
“As an entrepreneur I needed market intelligence and a winning, go-to-market strategy. Lesley was right there with both. Her insight into both the selling side and the buying side was immensely important to us as we developed our story, our pitch, and our targeting. Three years later, her advice is still working.”
Jack MacKenzie, CEO
In Their Words
“Lesley was a tremendous asset to our team. There were two strategic initiatives she led for us over the course of a year – one was related to a strategic acquisition, the other was in new vertical development.
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M&A: When we were working on the acquisition of NC3T, she created a structure which required that we articulate the specific value drivers of the deal. The short list of value drivers became the charter for all activities post transaction. Her experience leading integrations was evident, which created an opportunity for a younger professional on her team to grow by working with Lesley to link the value drivers to the development and management of an integration project plan. As a result, the company held focus on the prioritized activities that would drive value to the business, while we deprioritized items we knew could wait for later. As the CEO, it was a relief knowing the integration was in good hands, and we quickly realized results.
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New Vertical Development: Lesley was instrumental in helping us understand how to productize and sell one of our core offerings to the higher ed market. She worked directly with the product team to make the necessary improvements as well as guided the product strategy for a secondary offering for higher ed that will be launched later this year. She worked with internal and external resources to create client enablement content to ensure client success and retention. And finally, she created the go to market strategy and identified our first higher ed focused account executive. She put the ball on the tee for us, and we are excited to scale by leveraging the foundation she’s established.
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We will continue to engage Lesley as needed because we can trust her expertise and can count on candor in providing feedback. I’m also appreciative of the positive impact she made in building up other young professionals in our team. I’m grateful for the impact she made at YouScience. She will remain a trusted advisor and friend.”
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Edson Barton, CEO
In Their Words
“I had the pleasure of working with Lesley as our company was figuring out how to grow in a new market. Her approach to understanding customer needs, coming up with competitive pricing models, and the ability to bring different departments together under one vision is a unique gift and skill she will bring to any project or organization. Not only is Lesley an amazing business leader, but she’s an amazing mentor and colleague that is motivated to grow the people around her. She coached and mentored me on several projects and initiatives I was working on. As a young woman in a field overly represented by men, she gave me the support, tools, and encouragement to see the potential in myself, which is truly invaluable!”
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Amanda Johnson, Product Manager
In Their Words
“Lesley was an integral part of the complicated acquisition of NRCCUA by ACT, Inc. Lesley had the market knowledge and strategic skill to identify the opportunity for ACT and NRCCUA to partner. She listened to the priorities of two organizations with similar missions but different structures and histories and proposed a market-centric solution in structuring a successful outcome for all involved, including the clients. Post transaction, her unique ability to understand and solve operational issues was critical in working out the melding of these two great organizations.”
Don Munce, former Chairman and CEO, NRCCUA
In Their Words
I first worked with Lesley at ACT performing technical due diligence on the largest and most strategically significant acquisition in the history of the company. A key area of our business was struggling and the acquisition had the potential to take us from a laggard position to the industry leading innovator. It was a bold and audacious proposition and Lesley single-handedly brought her leadership on board and got them bought into the value proposition. At a celebration dinner when the deal was locked one executive raised a toast: “I’m reminded of a 99 yard touchdown drive that wouldn’t have happened without the game saving play starting at the one yard line that kept the drive alive and got us out of the end zone. And in this case the person who made that play was Lesley.” Lesley deftly applies disciplined product development practices based on years of industry experience along with her personal passion to facilitate the creation of products and services that customers will use and love. She has the vision to see possibilities that others miss, the courage to take on what may look impossible, and the skills and experience to ensure successful execution.
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Jim Lewis, Principal Enterprise Architect, ACT