Photo | Courtesy of Andrew Hoffmann
Andrew Hoffmann, founder of ZehnTek
July 28, 2020
Q&A: Westborough IT startup cashes in on remote working push
Westborough business information-technology provider ZehnTek is, in many ways, still in its infancy. Founded in late 2018, founder Andrew Hoffmann, who has worked in the field for years, says his plan is to grow the company to a national presence. Hoffmann spoke with WBJ about what it’s like to run a startup during an international pandemic and elaborated on exactly what he believes ZehnTek, which works with a variety of businesses, including manufacturers, can offer the business community.
So can you tell me what it is exactly that ZehnTek does?
We're less than two years old. But essentially, we're a reseller of computer products and solutions to businesses, right? So you would consider us an IT solutions provider, or a B2B reseller of technology.
How do you source your products?
We're partnered with the four largest distributors in the world. In our business, we all basically source products from the same place. Distributors have warehouses all over the United States. So we connect directly with them, and we drop ship products. That's one way. And then the other way is directly through manufacturer relationships. So we'll be partnered with either software companies or cloud companies or, in some cases, hardware companies, and we'll source directly from the manufacturer and drop ship to the to the customer, or drops hip product directly to us, where we'll integrate a solution and then we'll deliver that solution to the customer.
Do you sell at a discounted rate?
Typically. Some of the stuff is commodities, so we sell lots of laptops and monitors and peripherals and accessories. We compete with everybody from Amazon to Walmart.
But when businesses buy in bulk, there's different requirements they have. So, we may not always be cheaper, but we're integrated in with their own procurement processes. There's value there, but then the other items customers will buy from us will be high-level advanced storage systems, like a complex data center compute-type stuff, networking-type stuff, and that's not something a customer typically would buy online.
As the company’s founder, what made you decide to start ZehnTek when you did?
Well, I've been in the business for 22 years, and I've helped lots of other companies build and grow. So at some point, you just got to do it yourself. It's fun building other people's companies, but it's more fun building your own.
Okay, so what has it been like running a startup company during a time of absolute craziness in the world?
We're fortunate in the business we're in specifically. We're a B2B technology provider. Financially, there's certain elements of this that have been quite beneficial for us because customers are looking at us to help them figure out how to transition to this new normal, to use the cliche.
So, we have clients in all different sorts of industries, and they're all trying to figure out how to help their people work from home. They're all trying to figure out how to reduce the amount of sort of on-premise technology they have and do more in the cloud. Because the more they do in the cloud, the less they have to support on-site. So they're trying to change this working dynamic and they need companies like ours that really know our stuff and can help them make that transition.
As a young startup, one of our biggest challenges was trying to figure out how we handle a really quick spike in business. So we've had to hire, but then internally with our own operations were like everybody else. We have to figure out how we work from home, how our systems are going to operate, how we're going to do more video conferencing.
Aside from desktops, what other technology have you seen an increased demand for as people transition to work-from-home?
We have a running joke you have to wait a really long time for headsets and webcams. Webcams are almost still virtually non existent, not only because of the business demand, but education. You have all of these kids now jumping online, and a vast percentage of those households either didn't have a webcam, or only have a webcam on mommy or daddy's machine.
What are some of your goals for ZehnTek? What’s got your attention right now?
I had a very clear vision before I started the company, and everybody's pulling in the same direction. They know clearly what that vision is. We are focused on high growth, and we're looking to compete at the national scale.
Where are the majority of your customers now? Are they national, yet? Or are they primarily based in New England?
Most of them are headquartered here. And I think that's the sort of the trend at least for now. Because our primary sales and marketing operations are here, our connections are here, but a lot of our customers are big enough they have a national presence. So it makes sense to work with us because we can drop ship products and through our different partner networks we have services at a national level already.
What are you excited about?
We created a packaged managed service for small businesses, specifically for startups, professional offices, law firms, accounting offices - the really small companies. So we created a package called Total IT, which essentially allows those business owners to completely, soup to nuts, hand off worrying about IT.
So we'll come in and say, "Listen, this is your business. Here's all the things we can do." You can just literally hand the whole thing off to us, and we'll advise you from a proactive perspective and make sure you're leveraging technology to the maximum benefit. That way, they can focus on their business.
This interview was conducted and edited for length and clarity by WBJ Staff Writer Monica Busch.
WBJ Web Partners
Most Recent
Most Recent
Anonymous
July 29, 2020
I couldn't have said it any better... I have worked with Andrew in my past and it was always competitive. I joined the ranks and work as a cohesive unit beside him and the team. Having passion, execution, and an alluring culture is paramount for us. To grow and share our experiences collectively instills a strong work ethic. Working with, and for someone with a great vision is a breath of fresh air. Jimmy Flahive .
1 Comments