Member Spotlight: maven

Member Spotlight by Suresh Rachuri – CEO of maven IT Staffing & Consulting

Provide us with a brief summary of your business’ services.
At maven IT Staffing & Consulting we have 2 main services.

The first is staffing solutions. We don’t headhunt. We connect people by helping companies find full-time or contract employees that are the right fit for all involved.

Second is our IT Project Solutions. Currently, we’re working on a project with an industry-leading national restaurant chain. Our project team is helping with the massive transition of upgrading all of their tech to Windows 10 and installing pin pads at every location.

We built a specialized support team that is laser-focused on all installation issues, both proactive and reactive. We make sure the managers at the restaurants are ready for the engineers to come on-site and if something goes wrong with the software once it is installed we’re there to sort it out.

I’m really proud of this team – they’ve received incredible reviews from the restaurant chain!

Tell us about your company’s mission and values.
We know that motivation + mission = success.

I started maven because of the experience I had personally as a candidate.

Working with recruiters tends to be very transactional – you are just a number filling a void at a company.

I didn’t like that I was just a number. I wanted to build a company that has a corporate conscious and is empathetic with their people. We’re a people-first company – they are our best asset.

Our mission is to best match a candidate’s motivation to a company’s mission.
I’ve even walked away from closing deals because it wasn’t right.

We as people can’t control the cards that are dealt to us, but we can control what we do with them.

When we are working with a candidate we work hard to get to know them beyond their resume. We also make sure the company is aligned on what they truly need out of the position.

If a candidate ends up not getting the job, we make sure to give them feedback so they can improve for next time. I want our candidates to know why they’re not the right fit so they can still grow and get a return on the situation.

What are the services you use the most (or are looking forward to using) from the Columbus Chamber?
maven’s biggest motivation is connection: connecting candidates to companies, connecting people to ideas. The Columbus Chamber is full of incredible companies who are doing such good work! I’m looking forward to meeting with their teams to learn about their needs and how maven can best serve them.

But the most important thing for me is to protect my employees because they have families and lives. I have to keep them working — that has to be my problem and not theirs. It’s my job to keep them employed and to take that stress off their backs.

With the Columbus Chamber I can connect maven with the right business leaders in the city to keep my people working.

How do you stay engaged with trends that you see in your industry?
I keep engaged by asking questions on calls, with fellow business leaders, and of my own team. They all show me where I need to focus my efforts.

Through asking and listening I continue to grow and stay on top of what is coming next. It’s my job as CEO to be connected and agile in order to safeguard my team.

What is your company culture like?
We are very community-focused.

Recently the whole team volunteered at Habitat for Humanity! I didn’t even ask them to do that – they asked me.

They asked for more team activities in the office, so every Tuesday is taco Tuesday, every Thursday we have pizza, and every Friday we do a potluck.

They ask, and together we make sure it happens.

What does it take to be a successful employee at your company?
maven is a staffing company, and in order to be the best we can be for everyone, we have to keep developing our people.

It’s why having a strong sense of community is absolutely critical to us. Our team members have to enjoy what they do and be motivated by the job that they were hired for.

Most importantly, they have to want to continue to learn more.

I’ve made lots of mistakes and people who work with me will make mistakes, but what matters is how they learn and grow from those mistakes.

What makes Columbus such a great place to do business?
There is such a strong sense of community here – from Pride in June to OSU to CCAD to the Arts – we are so connected!

We are really progressing as a community and have such an array and diverse population.

I had a hard time growing up here at first because I was the only Indian kid until high school. I would get asked “what are you?” not “who are you?” That mindset has slowly but surely shifted and has become more open over the years.

I like that we’re never going to be a NYC or Chicago. There isn’t another city like Ccolumbus

Columbus has been great to me, and I feel like maven is a way for me to give back to this community. It’s my chance to connect people to a better life. It’s my chance to make people feel safe and supported.

What pieces of advice have you found to be the most helpful since starting your career?
Don’t make the same mistake – learn from them!

It’s the standard I hold myself to, to be the best version of myself at all times.

How do you achieve a work/life balance?
Work/life balance is tenuous and impossible when it’s just depending on you.

It’s completely possible together.

We all have weaknesses. One of my biggest defining moments was to finally come to terms with what my weaknesses are and put the right people in the right spaces…and then get out of their way.

I put the best people around me – amazing project managers, amazing operators – that support each other to make a system instead of a collection of solo runners

If I hire someone that I need to manage I’ve already failed as a CEO. I want to hire someone that can lead.

Where is your favorite place to have a meeting outside the office?
I like meeting at my clients’ offices because the more I can see their space and their culture and work environment, the better I can connect good candidates to them.