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Celebrating one year of the GTI diligence and investigations platform: The thrill of the ride

It’s been a busy year since we launched our diligence and investigations platform. In our second founder interview, we chat with our COO, Matt Hunt.

8
December
,
2021
Photo by Charlotte Coneybeer on Unsplash
Turbo rollercoaster image featuring riders travelling midloop.

Celebrating one year of the GTI diligence and investigations platform: The thrill of the ride

Startup life is exciting and for the team here at Ground Truth, we’ve had a thrilling roller coaster ride of a year since we launched our diligence and investigations platform. In our second founder interview, we chatted with our COO, Matthew Hunt to find out what he’s learnt from the ride so far.

What have been your biggest lessons of the last year?

It might seem quite an obvious one, but I've had it confirmed that there is a huge demand for our services. There’s a gap in the market that isn't being adequately served and many clients are ready for an alternative way of procuring, and accessing, investigative research services.

Working directly with on-the-ground sources was, and still is, a new way of working but there are just so many benefits - transparency and flexibility being just two of them.

We thought there would be lots of interest, but until you take the leap, you don't know if the theory is correct.

The other big lesson for me was around growing our network. Previously I’d assumed that there are a finite number of good quality network partners. In the first year alone, I’ve been amazed by the calibre and variety of partners we have brought onboard and who are doing really valuable research for our clients, and we've just scratched the surface.

And how have the Network Partners found this new way of working?

The feedback so far has been overwhelmingly positive and they are glad to see some innovation in the space, especially around collaboration. It’s really bringing a community together and that is important when you regularly work alone. The industry hasn’t changed much in the last fifteen years and it’s typically been quite analogue so this is a big leap forward.

Network partners are getting more insight into the client requests, the purposes of it and they're not as far down a long, complicated information chain. The ease of having project communications in a secure environment is also making a big difference.

We’ve also seen Network Partners benefit from the ability to use the platform themselves - not just to win work, but also to get their existing projects completed in a way they haven’t been able to previously. So for example, a project that they otherwise wouldn't have taken on because of resources or languages is now possible because they know they can use our platform to access additional resources.

What have been the biggest accomplishments to date?

The biggest accomplishment for me by far is seeing such positive client feedback on reliable, well-executed projects completed through the platform. It’s a huge thrill seeing such a high caliber of the clients requesting their work to be done by our network partners on a daily basis.

And the biggest challenges?

Keeping up with demand has proved challenging on the odd occasion but we’ve been able to meet that head on with investment in both the platform and network expansion.

Would you change anything?

If I could go back and change one thing it would be to grow the team sooner. They’ve brought so much to the business and helped us grow the product and brand.

What’s on the horizon for the platform?

In the coming months and years I think we’ll see clients use the platform for more complex multi-jurisdictional requirements in line with global business requirements. With the upcoming platform developments we’re going to be in a great position to handle these for our clients in a frictionless and efficient way.

Want to see the platform in action? Get in touch with us today and discover how you can build your in-house investigative capabilities.