7 questions to celebrate Spaulding Ridge’s 7th anniversary
Spaulding Ridge celebrated its 7th anniversary on February 1st—and no one is more proud and excited than Founder and CEO Jay Laabs. In this interview, he shares highlights from Spaulding Ridge’s 7th year and hints at what may be coming next.
It’s hard to pick a single thing! For one, adding Data Clymer to the band was a big event. This acquisition added dozens of new bandmates in our Twin Cities office while expanding our data capabilities at the same time. It’s been so gratifying to see these new bandmates get involved and make an impact for Spaulding Ridge and for our clients.
It was also exciting to see the expansion of our APAC team. We moved into new offices in Bangalore and Pune and expanded our resources in Jaipur, allowing us to be a more competitive offering for companies around the world. Building that team allowed us to hit 600 bandmates, which is an incredible milestone so early in our history as a company.
All this growth has enabled us to do great work for our clients too. By building a bigger company that can do more for enterprise businesses, we were able to close the largest deals in Spaulding Ridge history. It just goes to show how investing in people will pay off every time.
Finance transformation has always been an area where Spaulding Ridge excels. We’re keeping it a big priority in 2025. As the band grows, we can be an even better strategic partner to the office of the CFO, driving business outcomes through process and technology solutions.
We’ll also focus on several industries where we have the clients, experts, and offerings to do more. Manufacturing, retail, high tech, and private equity are all major growth areas. Industry aside, we seek out companies exploring new paths for growth and willing to transform to meet their goals.
And finally, we’ll keep investing in the band. We recently welcomed a CFO, Ralph, as well as several new Managing Directors to Spaulding Ridge, and throughout 2025 we have more strategic hires planned. More to come!
The number one thing is always our people. When we started Spaulding Ridge, it was one thing to have a few dozen people living the company’s values. Now we’re at 600 people, and it’s even more inspiring to see the dedication our bandmates bring to work every day and how they advance our culture forward. Whether they joined the band as an intern, as an experienced hire, or through a strategic acquisition, everyone is on board with the mission.
And of course, the work this team has done has always been something to be proud of these past seven years. Both the work we’ve done with our clients and how we’ve served our communities has really made an impact.
One of the biggest ways this showed up over the last year was in awards. Our individual consultants, our workplace, our work with our tech partners, our growth, and even our internship programs all received awards over the past year. It’s nice to see outside recognition of the work we’ve put into Spaulding Ridge.
You learn quickly running a business to expect the unexpected. Spaulding Ridge has a few foundational principles—our people strategy is a big one, and our focus on partnership with clients is another—but we’ve survived by being ready to pivot at a moment’s notice.
We’ve experienced a lot in seven years. For example, seeing how the pandemic upended the whole business world. When everything shut down, were ready to help our clients move to the cloud and plan for greater uncertainty. In 2021, we had no idea how disruptive AI would be for every business on the planet, but as it continues to evolve, we’re helping our clients apply it in practical ways to support their business needs.
Chances are, there will be more surprises in 2025. We can’t predict the future, so we’ll invest in our strengths and make sure we’re ready to pivot again when we need to.
I’ve been in a few bands myself (and I still love playing music around the office), so a band is my first point of reference when I think about how a group should work. Think about it this way: A good band has to have a good drummer. But no matter how good the drummer is, they can’t be constantly taking 20-minute drum solos. The best musicians know when to step up and when to step back. It’s the same with Spaulding Ridge. We look for people who don’t always need to be the center of attention, who want the collective to succeed more than they want to show off. That’s what the band is to me: everybody working together towards one vision. Plus, like being in a band, being at Spaulding Ridge is fun!
AI is obviously a big deal for companies in our space. Spaulding Ridge has already announced several offerings that use AI, and there’s more that we can do there. It’s a big opportunity for companies that can get it right, and things are moving fast. The hard part is, too many companies don’t have a great handle on their data. AI relies on accurate inputs to give you accurate outputs, so if you have a data problem, you’ll also have AI problems.
We feel like we have a double advantage here. Spaulding Ridge has the data experts who can make sure your information is solid and complete, and we have the AI experts who can build cool new tools for you on a strong data foundation. For companies still trying to figure out their first steps, we’re a partner who can help through the entire journey. It’s an exciting time, and it gets more exciting every day.
I’m a big Patrick Lencioni fan, especially The Ideal Team Player. We built Spaulding Ridge’s people model around that book, and I come back to it every now and then to understand how to improve what we’re doing here.
More recently, I just read Coach: Lessons on the Game of Life by Michael Lewis. The book is about Lewis’s high school baseball coach, and about the many lessons he learned through sports. As a CEO, I’m grateful for what my coaches taught me about putting in extra work, or about being a better teammate, and I recommended this book to the rest of the band in hopes they can learn something from it too.
Tough question! As you can probably guess, I’m a big music guy. Kings of Leon, Pearl Jam, and Twenty One Pilots were all on my Spotify Wrapped for 2024, and I love the music I grew up with like Smashing Pumpkins, Nirvana, Stone Temple Pilots, that kind of thing. I got a chance to see the Pumpkins a few months ago with some people from work—great show.
As for podcasts, Rattle and Pedal is a big one for me. It’s hosted by two guys who know a thing or two about running a professional services firm, and they always have interesting things to share. They were nice enough to have me on the podcast a few years back, which was fun to do. I also listen to The Intelligence from the Economist to stay up to date on what’s happening in the world.
I unfortunately don’t have much time for TV between parenting and running a company, but I just finished both Manhunt and The Night Agent. Unwinding with a good thriller always helps at the end of the day. I’ve got a long list of recommendations from our bandmates, and hopefully I’ll have some time to watch some of these while I’m traveling to meet with clients and visit our global offices in 2025.
Thank you!
