Why this veteran tech CEO is excited to work with Millennials

by Jess Ryan
May 10, 2016

Photo via Facebook / Connect First, Inc.

 

 

Steve Bederman has a distinguished career.

He's been the CEO of a number of companies and even founded his own tech company, TouchStar Software, in the late 1990s. Now he’s CEO of Boulder-based

, a call center tech company, and he's drawing on that background to steer the company toward success. 

Throughout his career (including his current tenure), Bederman has established a reputation as “Mr. Fix-It,” capable of leading the team through periods of major growth.

By combining a dedication to keeping promises and a collaborative process-building model, Bederman and Connect First are working to make integrity a standard in an industry so often content with accepting mediocrity as the norm.

For Bederman, all commerce begins with an idea. “People don’t buy the commodity,” he said. “They think they might be, but instead they’re buying the promise we provide them.”

The key to a successful business relationship, according to Bederman, is to build solid technology that meets those promises.

“When a customer chooses us, they’re giving us a gift,” he said. “They’re putting their whole company in our hands...we’re going to return that by meeting promises to them.”

He said at Connect First, they keep promises with relentless effort, passion, integrity and sound processes.

“All the good intentions in the world won’t mean anything to a client unless it’s sustainable and scalable,” he said.

It’s a very holistic approach to how to work within an organization, and according to Bederman, it’s working.

Traditional business deals rely on handoffs: sales hands off to implementation, implementation hands off to support. That often leaves customers with a support person who had nothing to do with the sale.

“There’s a risk in every handoff,” said Bederman, “and we don’t have the right to treat clients that way. If we allow these handoffs to happen and create gaps, it can be tragic.”

When he came on as CEO of Connect First in October, that's what the process looked like. But he worked with the mostly-Millennial team of around 50 people to change what had been put in place.

“They’re the hungriest bunch of people I’ve ever run into in terms of wanting to be excellent and recognizing they don’t have all the answers,” he said. “I lead them on the right path and give them a voice. All I really do is remove the obstacles and provide strong vision and values."

Now, the implementation team is involved in the sales process from the beginning of the sales funnel, so when they implement they’ll have already been working with the client. To improve customer relationships, the support team acts as customer advocates. They constantly work with an understanding of the business model, culture and dynamic of that customer, and Bederman said they develop a relationship where they’re working more for the customer than they are for Connect First.

With a commitment to transparency and promise-keeping, this new process has pushed Connect First into a new period of growth. And Bederman said their competitors are starting to take notice.

“They realize they need to change, too,” he said. “My goal is to plant these seeds in every company I work with so we have more integrity in business.”

Bederman is passionate about this topic; for him, “commerce is the way to social improvement.” He believes if more companies — and individuals — were to demand integrity and refuse mediocrity, we’d see major changes in the way we do business together, interact on a personal scale, or even raise our children.

“I love Connect First because of our people and our willingness to work toward keeping promises,” he said. “It not only makes us grow rapidly, but it makes us do it in fashion with pride, integrity and promise.”

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