"'For me, it's always been about creating a work environment we all want to be in, ' Optimal Workshop CEO Andrew Mayfield says. "Where curiosity is celebrated, boldness and accountability encouraged and things like office dogs, obsessive recycling, and spontaneous lunch trains are just part of who we are."
"'For me, it's always been about creating a work environment we all want to be in, ' Optimal Workshop CEO Andrew Mayfield says. "Where curiosity is celebrated, boldness and accountability encouraged and things like office dogs, obsessive recycling, and spontaneous lunch trains are just part of who we are."
When the likes of Uber and Yelp want to make their websites more appealing, they turn to Wellington's Optimal Workshop.
Now that roster is set to expand after a $10 million injection from Pioneer Capital, which has also taken 60 per cent control of the business after buying shares fromfounders and managers.
The deal, revealed today, was wrapped up on December 21, and contributed to what a Simpson Grierson survey said was a record year for New Zealand merger and acquisition activity, with 124 during 2021 - or 55 per cent more than 2020.
Optimal has a history of bucking the status quo within the global user research industry. It deals in "information architecture" - or how to organise the words, photos and videos on a website in the most user-friendly format and help them find the information they need, fast.
Its User Research Platform, which includes pandemic-friendly remote testing options, helps clients make evidence-based decisions about which online tweaks will work, and which need to go back to the drawing board.
Optimal was founded more than a decade ago by Trent Mankelow and Sam Ng. The pair were frustrated at the poor usability of many websites and wanted to create better testing and research tools for website professionals.
BNZ and Vodafone NZ were early customers, then multinationals piled in, including huge names like Bank of America, CNN, the BBC, Nokia, Nasa, Intel and GE - as well as the aforementioned Uber and Yelp.
Revenue hit $10m last year chief executive Andrew Mayfield says.
There are now more than 350,000 Optimal Workshop accounts spread among users in more than 132 countries.
Staff numbers had more than doubled since 2018 to 70.
Things were humming along quite nicely. Why a private equity player onboard?
"I'd never really felt like we'd needed to push anything. We've grown organically grown to this point. And I guess I've started feeling comfortable enough that we had the foundations for a great company in place. And our team were getting particularly hungry. They want to make a greater impact. They wanted to go faster."
Mayfield had been projecting 20 per cent growth this year. He says Optimal will now likely top that.
There are plans for more product development and, in parallel, more hiring.
He's likely to recruit for 35 to 40 new roles this year as Optimail boosts numbers by 50 per cent.
Many laypeople think "newshound" is just an expression, when in fact highly-trained dogs have long been used to both guard newsrooms and sniff out the best copy pic.twitter.com/P8YdJHam5r
"We've found it a bit hard to hire. It's taken a bit longer to find the right people," Mayfield says. Now, "I'm pleased. It opens up the pool. We can hire people wherever they are again. And if they want to come closer, they can. Although we will hire internationally as it suits customer needs. But it's still convenient to have people in similar time zones."
In terms of customers, the pandemic has been a mixed bag for Optimal. "We lost a number of small clients but gained a number of big ones," Mayfield says.
Offshore suitors, but ultimately a local pick
Mayfield says Optimal spoke to a number of private equity suitors, including several offshore.
Why go with local outfit Pioneer Capital?
"Pioneer really seemed genuine in their intent to align with us and the culture that we've created and the company we want to be. They weren't going to try and try and swing us around. They just gonna back us and we can go."
And what is that culture?
"'For me, it's always been about creating a work environment we all want to be in, ' Mayfield says.
"Where curiosity is celebrated, boldness and accountability encouraged and things like office dogs, obsessive recycling, and spontaneous lunch trains are just part of who we are."
Pioneer capital investment director Shayne Shepard - who is taking a seat on Optimal's board, says the investment will support Optimal Workshop's goal of improving the digital world around us, so more people have better experiences online."
"Pioneer really seemed genuine in their intent to align with us and the culture that we've created and the company we want to be.
He adds, "So much of the internet today has Optimal Workshop's fingerprints on it, and demand in the user experience world is more pressing than it's ever been. This investment gives Optimal Workshop additional resources to build and innovate."
Shepard told the Herald that, in a super-tight labour market, it really stood out how Mayfield had managed to retain staff in what has become an industry-wide war for talent.
"The more I delved into it during due diligence, the more I admired the culture that he's built."
Kiwi ex-pat Kirsty Traill has also joined Optimal's board. The former NZ Trade and Enterprise adviser is now based in San Francisco as a professional investor and director.
"I have been impressed by Optimal Workshop's great growth trajectory, strong leadership team, and exceptional customer focus," she says.
"With this investment from Pioneer Capital, I truly believe Optimal Workshop is poised to really transform the way the world navigates online."
Ngāi Tahu, NZ Super Fund onboard
Pioneer's previous investments include Christchurch-based Natural Pet Food Group, which has grown strongly in the US, Japan and China and was last year acquired by global private equity firm KKR; buy-now-pay-later company Laybuy, which recently listed on the ASX, apple marketer Rockit Global, whose product is now grown in nine countries and sold in 27 countries; utility billing and information systems vendor AgilityCIS, with offshore operations in Australia, the USs, Japan, the Middle East and India; and Molemap with skin cancer surveillance clinics across New Zealand, Australia and the US.
The firm's backers include the NZ Super Fund, which has committed $260m across three funds; Iwi investors, including Ngāi Tahu , who have collectively committed around $100m; and Kiwiwealth's Kiwisaver funds which have committed $50 million into the latest fund, the $300m-plus PCP IV.
New Zealand based and broad, including superannuation, Kiwisaver, community trust, Iwi, university, foundation, fund of funds, family office, high net-worth and the Pioneer Capital team. Most notably, the New Zealand Superannuation Fund, which has committed $260 million across three funds, Iwi investors (including Ngai Tahu) who have collectively committed c.$100 million and recent addition Kiwiwealth's Kiwisaver funds which have committed $50 million into the latest fund.
Photo / Dean Purcell
POSTSCRIPT: Get staff scanning
Most of us now scan a QR code before we enter the supermarket. It helps that it was made mandatory during Delta, and that you're often under the watchful gaze of a security guard.
But as you go back to work under red amid the Omicron outbreak, you might have noticed many of your colleagues forgetting to scan as they waltz into the office, juggling coffees, phones and bags.
How has a firm that specialises in user experience tackled this problem?
"At the Optimal Workshop office, where we have up to 70 employees coming in and out every day. We know that some of the time they might have forgotten to sign in at the door," CEO Andrew Mayfield says.
"To stop this becoming a problem, our office experience manager sends out the QR code via Slack, our main internal communication platform, three to four times per week, as a reminder to scan if employees haven't already done so. This minor change has coincided with an uptick in sign-in rates for employees."
