Phoenix, AZ ( September 26, 2019 ) – Announcing the launch of Outlier, a Phoenix-based $1B business with an aggressive growth plan to invest $50M in Arizona-based businesses per year. Founded by David Tedesco, Outlier’s unconventional model includes both acquiring and starting its own companies that are niche leaders across multiple industries. It has a global network of over 12,000 team members, 1,000 offices and $1B in revenue.
Outlier owns eight businesses with investments in over 20 additional companies. All of Outlier’s businesses are consolidated into a single organization, enabling the deployment of resources, people and capital where they work best to grow existing companies and fund new acquisitions or start-ups.
“We’ve always found that being creative in how we do things has more value than copying somebody else. Our approach takes the best parts of institutional investors and entrepreneurial start-ups and removes the downsides of those models to create something that is definitely different and hopefully better,” stated Tedesco. “The $50M we plan to invest in Arizona businesses will not come from a fund but from our balance sheet, giving us complete control of our growth and direction.”
The company has accelerated its growth through a shared services model in key areas like technology, customer service, data science and digital marketing. This provides its businesses with access to top talent and fully customized services without having to bear all the cost or find the talent at the individual company level. Further, it provides career opportunities for its team members – the Outliers – in the most challenging fields.
“We continue to see the measurable impact of our shared service model,” states Tedesco. “For example, our in-house technology team has built enterprise-level systems that are shared across businesses but are also customized to each company’s specific needs. This is a huge competitive advantage in that most organizations have to rely on outdated technology and third-party tools, both of which hinder efficiency and growth.”
In addition to significant growth, Outlier is entering markets ripe for disruption. InDispense, one of its start-ups, has taken aim at the traditional drug store model. As Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego highlighted in her State of the City address, “InDispense robotic pharmacy will change the way Americans get prescriptions using automated delivery.”