Meet Andrew Wallace, the CEO of PortoSpire, building clients’ web presence from the ground up using a base subscription model with à la carte options. PortoSpire partners with its clients to develop and grow their brands.
Having spent over a decade honing his storytelling skills through entertainment before transitioning to tactical IT roles, Andrew brings a blend of artistic and scientific mindset to every effort he undertakes. While working in live performance art, Andrew performed with widely varying and diverse groups, from small intimate shows to several large-scale productions with hundreds of individuals working behind the scenes to keep everything running.
After transitioning into IT roles, Andrew focused on breaking down complex problems into smaller and easier-to-digest portions.
“I often found myself in roles acting as a bridge between those more technically minded with those driving the business. Building from my previous experiences in entertainment, I began moving into roles helping to plan and lead projects. This eventually led to the role I hold today as CEO, in which I use a blend of a variety of experiences to tell the story of what the organization can be and how we can get there together.“- Says, Andrew.
Helping Clients Share their Stories
After working for several organizations, Andrew has witnessed how difficult it can be for new ideas to take hold and for small businesses to break into tight-knit industries to bring those ideas to market. Providing a humane environment and opportunities to help others succeed and launch their stories drove Andrew to build PortoSpire. This effort aims to take the positives of company cultures while leaving negatives behind and reducing the barriers for small businesses to reach their target audiences.
Under Andrew’s leadership, PortoSpire serves clients nationally and beyond with its small but mighty team of five. The organization’s geographically distributed team operates with flexible scheduling and asynchronous collaboration.
Since the early 2000s, PortoSpire’s team has taken a story experience approach to all its projects. Andrew and his team’s commitment to storytelling through experience has driven everyone to learn, grow and provide high-quality solutions on and off the web.
After moving its primary location to central Ohio and restructuring the organization in 2016, Andrew decided to refine PortoSpire’s storytelling experiences to standardize and automate its processes further. It strives to provide opportunities for great brand stories to help small businesses thrive and individuals take control of their web presence.
“We work with small businesses, solopreneurs, and individuals looking for a customized web presence to share their stories. Our scaling solution helps small businesses be prepared for growth and scale without the up-front costs.“- States Andrew.
Under Andrew’s leadership, PortoSpire has taken the lessons learned and honed skillsets to build a highly scalable and optimized platform. This allows the company to offer an extremely low barrier to entry and a solution that grows with clients’ needs.
A Different Organization
“Our community and our workplace are global. On the map, a client or colleague may be 5,000 miles away, but they are always right next door with the right technology. We recognize and embrace this fact and have gone one step further by weaving this truth into the fabric of our DNA. These tapestry threads stand proud alongside all other forms of diversity that make our team who they are. Our staff are proud members and allies of the LGBTQIA2+ community and come from various backgrounds and ethnicities. We break the molds that formerly defined what would and would not make for a solid partnership.“- Explains Andrew.
For those just getting to know the organization, it is very easy to say. “They do websites.” While it may not be entirely inaccurate, it would also be a gross understatement. PortoSpire helps its clients to bring their stories to the common people in a digital format. Their hub will likely be a website, but their story is much more than that. A client’s story can be seen through a logo, color scheme, mission, and value. PortoSpire brings its clients’ digital selves to life through its deep understanding of storytelling and technology.
Breaking Traditional Molds
Under Andrew’s leadership, PortoSpire continues to break traditional molds with its organizational culture, just like everything else. With 100% virtual staff, Andrew and his team work when the time is most convenient for all, including their families and clients.
“We believe that “traditional” policies and practices are not going to foster the best work; neither is basing the worth produced on the number of hours spent nor being “visible” to leaders. Our compensation model reflects that value at its core by providing all base wages equally across the board with the added commission on all work produced. This incentivizes working smarter and producing valuable work, not on keeping butts-in-seats nor honing the unneeded skill of pay negotiation.“- Andrew says.
As time is valuable, Andrew actively discourages employees from working long hours. PortoSpire’s full-time week is 32 hours, as time away recharging helps in smart work and brings a complete human experience to the work. Thanks to this level of trust and flexibility, PortoSpire’s staff are highly engaged in work and bring their highly authentic selves to each project the company undertakes.
Future Roadmap
As the organization’s leader, Andrew focuses on continuously learning new skills. He also strives to strike a balance between having a clear vision that is flexible enough to respond to change but not too flexible that the team fails to make any meaningful progress.
PortoSpire strives to provide opportunities for great brand stories that help small businesses thrive and individuals to take control of their web presence. While others aim to grow their organization at a rapid pace, PortoSpire is focused on sustainable growth one story at a time.
