Goodbye, Chris

This month we say goodbye to one of our founders, Chris McCullough, who is leaving us for new adventures. Chris played a major role in building our consulting practice, and we will miss him mightily! We asked Chris about his time and what he has learned at Percolator these past six years.

How many jobs have you had in your life?

28. That’s starting from my first job (at a baseball card store) when I was 14, so I’ve averaged a job per year. I worked in campaigns for a while, so it was pretty common to work on a few different campaigns over the course of a year. But still, 28 is a lot. Needless to say, my six years at Percolator is a record. I like to think I’m maturing.

What have been your favorite projects or clients with Percolator?

That’s a hard one — I’ve worked on a lot of great projects and with a lot of great clients.

The Mountaineers’ project is definitely up there — that was our first big project as a company, and The Mountaineers took a leap of faith to hire us. We got to go deep on strategy, and it was technically challenging. And it was a success! It set a high bar from the very beginning.

Our work with Sacred Heart Community Service is up there as well. SHCS was our first project with a social service organization, and it’s amazing to see the impact they’re having on a daily basis.

I’ve also really loved working with National Young Farmer’s Coalition. They have a small but mighty staff doing really important work, and I’m proud we were able to help.

What are you most proud of as a business founder and owner?

I’m most proud of the team we’ve built at Percolator. We’ve joked that we’re going to write a book on how to hire great staff since we have a 100% success rate. It’s a small sample size, but still!

What advice would you give for running mission-driven businesses?

Make financial sustainability a priority from the beginning. You can’t keep making a difference if your business isn’t profitable. When we started Percolator, we had just left an amazing consulting firm that wasn’t sustainable, and watching that business fail had a major impact on our thinking at Percolator.

What is the most important thing you learned that you’ll carry on to your future endeavors?

That successfully wielding technology is more about people than code.

We wish you the best of luck, Chris!