Talent: Bryan Burkhart. Photographer: Reinhardt Kenneth. Jacket, shirt, and pants, Brunello Cucinelli.
In entrepreneurship, the most incredible moment is being able to ring the iconic New York Stock Exchange Bell at the realization that a dream now became a listed reality. It can take decades for companies to reach this point, but we get to speak to a fascinating entrepreneur who rang it at just 28 years old for Callidus Software. Bryan Burkhart spent his youth learning about business from Texas to California before founding H.Bloom. With the acquisition of H.Bloom by Tenth Avenue Holdings, Burkhart ventured on to creating Worksmith, Inc., a software platform for facilities maintenance and experience management. Since 2015, the company has grown quickly earning a place on the 2024 Inc 5000 List of Fastest Growing Companies in America for its third consecutive year. We took the chance to meet with Burkhart and learn more about Worksmith, his love for the business world, and advice he would give budding entrepreneurs aiming for their chance to one day be able to ring the NYSE Bell.
Jacket, shirt, and pants, Brunello Cucinelli.
Harper’s Bazaar Vietnam (HBZVN): Can you tell us how Worksmith, Inc., your software platform came about—what was the initial spark?
BRYAN BURKHARRT: Worksmith is a facilities and experience management platform for retailers. We help luxury brands, direct to consumer brands, and other types of retailers create and maintain extraordinary physical environments for their customers. Through a combination of easy-to-use software, a curated network of high-quality local service providers, and a dedicated team of Account Managers with deep expertise in this field, we deliver a delightful managed-service to our customers. And, in the process, we help small local service providers to generate more sales and run a more efficient operation. Since we started back in 2015, the Worksmith platform has been available everywhere in the United States and Canada, but I was so excited to participate in this interview, because we are now expanding internationally! Our platform has just recently been deployed in Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand, and over the next few years, we will be expanding throughout the rest of Asia, Europe, South America, Australia, and the Middle East.
Suit jacket, pants and shirt, Etro. Shoes, Giorgio Armani. Sunglasses, Brunello Cucinelli.
The initial idea for Worksmith actually came from my last company, an eCommerce business called H.Bloom, which was acquired several years ago. Similar to Worksmith, H.Bloom built a network of local service providers, but focused exclusively on delivering one type of service. At H.Bloom, we served a number of national retailers, and one of them was a well-known luxury coffee brand. I had the opportunity to meet with one of the executives at that coffee company in New York City, who described the process of building out luxury boutiques around the United States in order to provide a warm and welcoming place for customers to experience the brand. Then, he went on to lament the difficulties associated with managing hundreds of local service providers – providing repairs, maintenance, cleaning, dry cleaning employee uniforms, etc. — in order to maintain the boutiques (typically 10 service providers per store on average). The challenges he experienced were numerous: finding and vetting vendors, scheduling jobs, making sure service providers showed up at the right time and place, confirming completion, receiving dozens or hundreds of invoices and paying dozens or hundreds of vendors….every month!
Suit jacket, pants and shirt, Etro. Shoes, Giorgio Armani. Sunglasses, Brunello Cucinelli.
At the time of that conversation, I had spent the previous four years at H.Bloom building out a network of local service providers, developing software to automate the many manual processes, and growing a team of people to oversee the delivery of our service in case something went wrong.
I was having a light bulb moment during our conversation! Those last four years had uniquely prepared me for this opportunity – to build a new software company based on my previous experience, but one that could deliver dozens of services to the best retailers in the world, automate the entire process, and have a team of experts oversee the jobs to ensure successful completion.
As a result, Worksmith was born (and the luxury coffee brand became our first customer….and is still a customer today!).
Jacket, shirt and pants, Etro. Shoes, Giorgio Armani.
HBZVN: In business, for any company going through a scale up is extremely difficult and stressful at times. Worksmith is recognized on Inc. as one of the fastest growing companies in America, has scaling up been challenging for you and how did you overcome these hurdles?
BRYAN BURKHARRT: At Worksmith, we have been so honored to make the Inc 5000 List of fastest growing companies in America. What’s interesting to me, though, is that we haven’t really focused on scaling yet. The Worksmith platform is a two-sided marketplace, connecting luxury retailers with the wide variety of local service providers necessary to create and maintain an amazing experience for their customers: repairs, maintenance, cleaning, dry cleaning of employee uniforms, tailoring of customer garments, flower delivery and beverage delivery.
Jacket, shirt and pants, Etro. Shoes, Giorgio Armani.
Two-sided marketplaces are initially very hard to build. It is a difficult balancing act to get a few things right simultaneously: easy-to-use software that automates manual processes; a network of service providers who know how to use the software and consistently do a good job for the customers at a competitive price; and team members who care deeply about the success of customers and service providers alike, and who have the experience to deliver successful outcomes consistently.
The first few years at Worksmith, frankly, were challenging. It took us a while to achieve the balance and deliver on the vision of great software, great service providers, and great, caring, experienced team members. But, by focusing on perfecting our platform and delivering successful outcomes to customers, we have been able to grow at a relatively fast clip. Now that we have built our comprehensive solution, we will spend the next several years ramping up our goto- market initiatives in an effort to grow even faster. We want to help more customers, and deliver more revenue to service providers, faster!
Jacket, shirt and pants, Versace. Shoes and sunglasses, Brunello Cucinelli.
HBZVN: Where do you hope to take Worksmith, Inc. ultimately?
BRYAN BURKHARRT: I love that Worksmith, today, is a company that delivers successful outcomes to customers, provides a great stream of revenue to service providers, and provides our team members with a terrific place to work.
At the beginning of next year (2025), we will celebrate 10 years of business at Worksmith. We are growing fast, generating cash, and enjoying sustained profitability. Our business operates in a large, fragmented industry, and now that we have developed the comprehensive solution for facilities and experience management – easy-to-use software, a curated network of high-quality local service providers, and a dedicated team of caring folks with deep experience in the industry, I hope to do this for a long time and build a very big business.
Jacket, shirt and pants, Versace. Shoes and sunglasses, Brunello Cucinelli.
HBZVN: From your early days with Callidus Software to founding H.Bloom, and also writing for the New York Times, what made you fall in love with the business world and what leaders have inspired you?
BRYAN BURKHARRT: The business world is vast and encompasses a lot of different things, but entrepreneurship is pretty unique. I love the creative process that is involved with entrepreneurship. I’ll never forget the first time I walked into a large, early customer of Worksmith’s, a well-known national retailer, and saw my point of contact using the Worksmith software on his laptop. I couldn’t believe it! Just a few years prior, that software had just been an idea in my head. But by the time of that meeting, as a result of the hard work of our team who had developed the software platform and convinced retailers to use it, that idea had become a reality. How cool!
Shirt and pants, Versace. Shoes and sunglasses, Brunello Cucinelli.
HBZVN: There are so many out there that dream of being an entrepreneur, and many are just starting the first steps in their pursuit. What advice would you give to them, especially during those moments they feel like giving up entirely?
BRYAN BURKHARRT: Two thoughts:
One: Take great care of your team, who will, in turn, take great care of your customers (and in Worksmith’s case, our local service providers as well). When you are earnest in your pursuit of building something great, you can withstand temporary setbacks, because everyone around you appreciates that you are striving to deliver a successful outcome over time.
Two: Rhino it! I’ve told this story many times, but it is so powerful that it is worth repeating. Years ago, a famous historian named Paul Johnson wrote a column in Forbes Magazine called the Rhino Principle. In the article, Johnson describes the rhino and its particularly unique trait: the ability to charge over and over again until its threat is vanquished, or its goal is accomplished. Johnson goes on to compare the rhino and its unique trait to that of successful entrepreneurs, for whom persistence and resilience are of paramount importance. I agree!
Shirt and pants, Versace. Shoes and sunglasses, Brunello Cucinelli.
An ARTCODED @art.coded production.
Talent: Bryan Burkhart.
Producer: Gina Kim Park @ginakpark.
Photography: Reinhardt Kenneth @reinhardtkenneth.
Fashion Stylist: AJ Verma @ajbeverlyhills of Lotus Beverly Hills @lotusbeverlyhills.
Men’s Grooming: Jael Serrano @serranostudiosla.
Lighting Director: Suimay Lee @suimaylee.
Digitech: Rania @ranias_archive.
Location: 503 DTLA @503dtla.
Special thanks to Danny Benvegnu @dannybenvegnu.
Harper’s Bazaar Vietnam
