In November it was named on Deloitte’s Fast 50 list of New Zealand’s fastest-growing companies.

All told, the Series A round brought in around NZ$25m and takes the young firm’s all-time venture capital haul to NZ$33m, including a 2022 seed round.

Projectworks was founded in 2019 by Julian Clarke, Matthew Hayter and Doug Taylor, who previously worked together at a consultancy.

They figured they could create a software platform for automating the process of running a consultancy – then sell it to other consultancies.

The result was Projectworks, which automates the likes of time tracking, project management, expense tracking and revenue forecasting.

In keeping with the temper of the times, part of the Series A funding will go towards developing new AI tools – including one that will aim to spot employee burnout before it happens by analysing a range of metrics, which could include simply how long they take to fill in a timesheet.

San Francisco-based Mark Orttung – the American tech veteran who took over as the firm’s chief executive last year – told the Herald it is working on a range of LLMs (large language models).

There are about 55 staff today (with around 40 in New Zealand and the balance in the United States), with plans to boost numbers to 75 by year’s end, split between Wellington and Silicon Valley.

The US is its key market for growth, but the firm also wants to expand its business in Canada, the UK, Australia and Europe.

Projectworks’ cloud-based system costs US$37 per user per month.

Last year, it made 557 on the Inc 5000 list with around 800% growth over the past three years.

The firm hasn’t released financials, but Orttung says there are 600 companies with tens of thousands of users operating across more than 50 countries using Projectworks today.

His target is to boost that to 10,000. The target market is not the PwCs and Deloittes of the world but small to mid-market consultancies. Many operate in niches.

“We think they’re going to be the ones who really can take best advantage of the AI tools and really can thrive in this new economy,” Orttung said.

The Hi-Tech Award judges said Projectworks has “carved out a clear niche in the professional services world, building a smart, practical software platform that grew from solving internal pain points of their own consulting business, to supporting over 600 consultancies in more than 50 countries”.

The judges added: “Projectworks is a stand-out example of how a New Zealand company can quietly and successfully go global by focusing on what services firms actually need”.

“They’ve executed well and built a solid pipeline of innovation for future growth.”

Taking on the world from Wellington …

Hayter, who shifted to chief product officer after Orttung’s arrival, said the Hi-Tech win reflected the “blood, sweat, and tears” of the team over the years.

“We’re here today because of the people who believed in us from the start. We were backed by ambitious Kiwi consulting firms – many of whom were scrappy young start-ups like us – and it’s because of them that we grew. It’s because of them that we are here today, taking on the world from Wellington.”

In his acceptance speech, he said persistence was the most important attribute for start-up founders.

“Like many Kiwi tech stories, we started as just a couple of guys with some big plans, but no real idea what we were doing.

“So there have been a lot of sleepless nights, wrong turns, moments when we were pretty sure that we wouldn’t make it.

“But although it’s been hard at times, I’ve learned that when you boil it down, the important things are really quite simple.

“For the aspiring founders, or early stage founders in the room, work with smart people who you enjoy spending time with, listen to your customers and make sure you’re solving actual problems.

“Enjoy the journey, because it’s going to be a long one and, most importantly, keep going. The world’s run by the people who just keep showing up.”

… With a bit of Silicon Valley

Orttung has been charged with building an R&D team in Silicon Valley.

It was the best place for attracting talent, he said. “Access to capital,” was another reason.

“A lot of the US investors are looking for an American company,” he said. Projectworks switched its registration to the US last year.

He delivered on the capital front. Ten Coves managing partner Steve Piaker said his firm had backed one of Orttung’s previous companies, Bill.com (acquired by expense management firm Divvy for US$2.5 billion in 2021 and one of six venture-backed startups that Orttung has been involved with).

“It’s a good time to challenge the status quo,” Piaker said.

“With the latest advances in project intelligence, specialists with lean teams and deep experience can go toe-to-toe with larger firms — and win. Projectworks is the first end-to-end solution built for consultants from the ground up.”

Nod from clients

“Projectworks was the first solution we came across that really felt like the future. It’s lightweight and nimble, not a big, clunky ERP [enterprise resource planning programme],” said the Mississippi-based Marc Foster, Vice President at Cypress Environment and Infrastructure.

“We’ve been growing like crazy the last few years, and it’s reassuring to know Projectworks understands the challenges of firms like ours. It doesn’t force you into a particular way of doing things. I love how it integrates with our accounting software, because it makes hiring so much easier. No matter where you are, you can always find someone who knows how to run QuickBooks.” Projectworks also integrates with Xero.

“We’ve grown our team 10X over the past decade and recently made a major move into the US market- an exciting but complex transition for any company,” said Christian Nolden, president of Groundline Engineering, USA, an engineering consultancy that has offices in NZ, Australia and now North America.

“We needed a project automation solution that could keep up with our pace, but more importantly, one that was easy to adopt and didn’t require months of onboarding or training. Before Projectworks, we were juggling multiple disconnected platforms and relying heavily on spreadsheets just to get basic insights.

“Pulling data manually was time-consuming and error-prone, especially as we expanded globally. It was clear we needed a better way.

“Projectworks was quick to set up, intuitive to use, and immediately gave us a single source of truth for all our projects. Within days, we were syncing teams across countries, tracking progress in real time, and making faster, more confident decisions.”

Chris Keall is an Auckland-based member of the Herald’s business team. He joined the Herald in 2018 and is the technology editor and a senior business writer.