Five Years of A-CX: from a Pandemic Launch to AI (and Beyond)
A-CX is now 5 years old! We officially incorporated on March 2, 2020—just nine days before the WHO declared COVID-19 a pandemic. While it may not have seemed like the perfect moment to launch a company, we’re grateful we did. Starting earlier could have meant getting stuck with empty offices and outdated processes; waiting longer might have drained our motivation to start at all. In just five years, we’ve learned a lot, adapted to change, and evolved our focus along the way.
We wanted to write this blog to share the most important lessons we’ve picked up and to celebrate this milestone. A-CX today differs from the one we set out to build—but that’s exactly how growth should feel when you listen, adapt, and keep moving forward.
We want to highlight the three core elements of our growth and the foundations of our strategy. We believe that focusing on only one or two will not be sufficient for long-term success—you need all three.
- Grow as a team – Helping people learn, adapt, and thrive.
- Grow as a company – Maturing processes, constantly renewing, and staying focused.
- Grow as a business – Increasing revenue and ensuring healthy profitability.
Below are the top things we have learned from the journey so far.
Tip 1: Rethink the Route
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When the pandemic hit, many companies decided to pause and see how things would unfold. We did the opposite—continuing to build A-CX and using the global slowdown as an opportunity. Our thinking was twofold: first, we didn’t believe the pause would last very long, so we wanted to be ready when the world sped up again. Second, by adapting to a new reality early, we hoped to gain a competitive edge once business returned to normal.
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It can be tempting to follow conventional wisdom, but sometimes you have to zig when everyone else zags. By keeping our foot on the gas, we positioned ourselves for a faster restart. If you truly believe in your idea, pushing forward can pay off—even when everyone else is hitting the brakes.
Tip 2: Ask and Offer Help—Your Network Will Respond
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During the height of COVID, people had time and a willingness to talk. We ended up interviewing around 150 people for feedback on our business plan and, through those conversations, found our first clients. We reached out to as many folks as possible and have kept that same approach—wandering off the beaten path to make new connections.
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Don’t be shy about asking for help. Most people are happy to lend support if your ask is reasonable. Meanwhile, when you make offers or introductions, you can help others find what they’re looking for—often creating a win-win. It’s not just transactional, either: one of our earliest principles was sharing success with the team, rewarding referrals, and passing on knowledge freely. People did the same for us, so we’re simply paying it forward.
Tip 3: Doing the Right Things Is Hard
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Companies love measuring performance—benchmarks, KPIs, best practices, you name it. That’s the easy part: evaluating whether you’re doing things right. But measuring whether you’re doing the right things is much trickier. Projects typically start with a clear goal, yet different teams can veer in different directions over time. Everyone might think they’re on track, only to end up with a result that isn’t quite what the customer wants.
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We’ve encountered these misalignments in several client projects, and we prepare for them by acknowledging that course corrections are inevitable. By spotting potential pitfalls early and sharing our real-world product experience, we keep everyone focused on delivering meaningful outcomes that serve the end user and the client’s needs. Being transparent with our clients about challenges and expectations is crucial to ensuring our final deliverables align with what truly matters.
Tip 4: Focus on the Core—Outsource and Automate the Rest
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Starting in the thick of COVID gave us extra time to integrate and automate just about everything. One of the big reasons for doing so was limited time and money: We bootstrapped A-CX using our own funds, so every expense had to be justified. We focus on sales and delivery—the two core processes—and automate or outsource almost everything else.
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Opportunity cost is often overlooked. It’s the concept that saying “yes” to one thing means saying “no” to something else. People sometimes hesitate to say “no” or don’t see it as their place. We’ve nurtured a culture where focusing on the core work is encouraged, and trimming away distractions is seen as smart, not selfish. One advantage of running our own show is having the final say over where our time goes.
Tip 5: New Things Aren’t Always That New
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We’ve heard clients say, “We want to build an AI product.” Our response is often, “Do you want an AI product, or do you want a meaningful product that uses AI where necessary?” Typically, people want something that truly helps their customers, with AI as one possible tool.
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Exciting new technologies—AI, mobile, cyber security, cloud—can be easy to chase for their own sake. At the end of the day, a product still needs to solve a problem effectively with a secure backend, usability, and a real purpose. AI also brings unique data-related challenges: any AI system is only as good as the data it uses, and ensuring that data is properly collected, cleaned, and managed is often a significant (but not entirely new) undertaking. AI just brings these requirements into sharper focus.
The cherry on top: Avoid Difficult Individuals
Throughout our five-year journey, one guiding principle has never changed: don’t work with—let’s call them “difficult individuals.” (We used a more colorful word originally, but we’ll keep it light here!) This principle might sound cheeky, but it’s a big reason we love running our own company. You can choose the people you work with—and surrounding yourself with the right team makes all the difference! We strive to build a team that values mutual respect, takes pride in delivering excellent work, and knows how to have fun. Running our own company gives us the freedom to stick to that principle.
We’re incredibly grateful to everyone—team members, partners, clients, mentors, and friends – who have joined and helped us on this journey. If you think we can help you, or if you can help us, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
