Family Dinner Recap: Andrew Durlak of Scout RFP

Co-founder of Scout RFP Andrew Durlak, whose leading sourcing and supplier engagement platform was acquired by Workday for $540 million in 2019, spoke to residents at The Garage on April 10. Scout RFP is a company that creates software to improve the efficiency of customer procurement for businesses.

Andrew graduated from Case Western Reserve University in 2007 with a degree in Management. At first, he did not have a desire to become an entrepreneur at all, and went into investment banking. He started as an analyst at Harris Williams, where he learned about working in a fast-paced environment, the value of hard work, and becoming proficient in various tasks at once. He then went to private equity with Prospect Partners in Chicago, where he helped with improving operations for companies with high revenue. There, he helped find new investment opportunities and met founders largely from industrial and manufacturing companies.

Through his experience in private equity, Andrew learned that companies were often bogged down by the procurement process when attempting to expand rapidly, which prevented companies from opening new branches. One example of this was Uber, which was attempting to rapidly expand, but could not due to the procurement timeline taking up to three years to fulfill their requirements. To address this issue, Andrew then decided to start a company with his network of connections that he had in the industry. He presented his idea to thousands of customers through cold calling and emailing. At the beginning, he started by setting up new businesses every three or four months, but often failed. Eventually, as Andrew pitched these ideas to various companies, the idea gained traction.

When Andrew decided to start Scout RFP, he mentioned that the main path to his success was to rapidly offer companies his idea and attempt to find success through volume. For his company to catch on, he stated that he connected with over 7,000 procurement professionals, which then helped him to predict questions and perfect answers about his ideas. Another path to Andrew’s success was understanding the game that he was playing through speaking with people in the industry. In his case, Andrew stated that his main insight was that he was engaging with large corporations that made emotional decisions, which allowed him to pinpoint an area of focus for selling the product. He encouraged Residents at The Garage to find this “game” that they are playing by communicating to higher-ups at companies and attempting different courses of action to see what works.

Andrew ended his talk by providing general advice for becoming more successful. He stated that the most general advice that he has for growing entrepreneurs is to realize what gives you energy, and apply it into your professional life. Andrew spoke about how he realized that investment banking was not fulfilling for him, and instead chose the fast-paced and “sprint”-like nature of operating a startup. Finally, he posed the question to the audience: “do sprints really give you energy?”

Residents left The Garage curious and ready to ponder the material from Andrew’s talk.

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