Finding Purpose Beyond Growth: The Outlier Approach

Aug 28, 2025

We've been helping companies manage data for over a year now. When we first started Outlier, we had no clear goals. When more companies showed interest than Mike and I could handle alone, we brought others on board.

This created sudden pressure to find new clients - you don't want projects ending without the next one lined up, or people won't have work. So you hustle. Then, while hunting for new clients, you think, "Let's see how big we can grow this business."

The Growth Trap

When your goal is growth and you're building a "pipeline," you resist turning down work. This means taking on projects that aren't enjoyable due to:

  • Culture issues

  • People problems

  • Technology constraints

  • Lack of autonomy

We've reset our focus. Our goal is no longer growth, but fulfilling, impactful work.

What Makes Work Fulfilling and Impactful?

Let's break it down:

Impactful Work

We want projects that make a real difference for clients. Mike and I both worked for large corporations and did our share of busy work. We left those companies for smaller, more dynamic businesses for a reason. We don't want to end up back in that position.

Good signs of impactful work:

  • The CEO shows interest in the work

Bad signs:

  • You're talking to only one or two people in the business

Fulfilling Work

There's overlap with impactful, but a couple of other things are important:

Autonomy

Part of our value comes from deciding how to solve problems. Without autonomy over tooling and methods, much of our value stays at the door, and we become bodies thrown at a problem.

Clients should care and have opinions, but without some freedom, the work becomes rubbish.

Mastery

Joy in consulting comes from exposure to different business environments and challenges in a short time. We need diverse clients with varied problems.

Specializing in a single area like marketing analytics wouldn't work for us. The problems become too consistent across businesses, and we wouldn't feel stretched.

Who Needs Our Help?

We understand what projects and clients we want - but who would want us?

Every business leader needs a consistent view of how their business performs.

"Consistent" means:

  • Everyone shares the same perspective. No one thinks revenue is growing while others see decline.

  • Data interpretation remains stable week to week. A good week stays a good week when viewed later.

Common Scenarios

Companies come to us because they lack this consistent view. Typical scenarios:

  1. The reporting owner is overwhelmed
    The person responsible for reporting has no time. Perhaps an exec handled it but now needs to fundraise.

  1. Leadership changes
    The previous reporting owner left the company.

  1. Growth outpaced processes
    The company grew quickly. You once understood performance by:

  • Reading support tickets

  • Talking to your few customers

  • Downloading Stripe data

Now you lack time for these activities.

Where We Thrive

Outlier excels in small, scrappy, fast-moving startup environments. This is where we have the most experience and feel most comfortable.

Let's Talk

If you:

  • Lack a consistent view of business performance

  • Run an early-stage company

  • Want to hear how we've helped Plain, Honest, Caura, Lovespace & Tiney

Let's talk.