Today we’d like to introduce you to Shay Dunne.
Shay, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
My husband, Jim, and I were both doing really well in our careers in our 20s. We both made great money. He was in real-estate development, and I was in advertising.
I thought advertising would be my “forever career” and I loved it. But the hours were LONG, and I was traveling all of the time.
Jim also loved real estate development, but when the market crashed in 2008, his role basically went away and he was forced to look into other options.
Over the next few years, we tried different things. Jim worked for a real-estate private equity firm, while I tried a different role that I hoped would give me more work/life balance.
In our early 30s, neither of us really loved what we were doing. As the private equity firm fizzled, Jim began consulting in real estate and found a niche in energy – saving commercial property owners money on their electricity and natural gas spend.
Energy consulting was something that just clicked with Jim, and he wanted to start his own company. The problem was, no one starts their own company and immediately has a great income. Could we really go from two salaries to one (at least initially) and be okay? It was scary, but we thought it was worth the risk.
It was stressful. I was making decent money, but life didn’t get less stressful as we started our family, first with our daughter Addie in 2011, then with our son James in 2013.
Over these couple of years, the energy consulting company, Op2mize Energy, started to slowly grow. I was helping out on nights and weekends, but what it really needed was another full-time employee who could focus on business operations and marketing. Jim just couldn’t do it all. If we wanted the company to succeed, he was going to need another full-time person to help out.
While I was helping write the job description for the Director of Operations for Op2mize Energy, a job opportunity in advertising came along that I felt like I couldn’t turn down. It could have been a potentially great career move for me. But the problems of the past hadn’t gone away – the hours, the travel, and now that we were in the suburbs, a hefty commute.
Then, I realized as I was writing the job description for Jim’s company, that I wanted this job. I could run operations and work on marketing and help grow the business. I would be the best employee because I was truly invested in the company’s success. But if Jim going out on his own was scary when it was just the two of us, having me go out with him when we had two kids was even scarier.
I was anxiously going back-and-forth between the job offer in advertising and going to work with my husband when I had a conversation with my financial advisor (who also happens to be my father). I asked him “Is it reckless of us to put all of our eggs in this one basket? We have two kids. It seems crazy to take the risk.” And he said to me “If you’re going to take a risk, it may as well be on yourselves.”
So, we did it. I went to work with Jim. And it was the best decision we ever made (aside from getting married and having our kids, of course). At first, it was completely awful – just because of the anxiety of throwing everything we had behind this company. But in my first year of working full-time at Op2mize, the company’s revenue doubled. Then, we doubled it again the following year, and have continued to grow steadily ever since. Over the last five years, we’ve developed strong relationships in the energy industry that allow us to be selective about the energy products and contract terms that we’re delivering to our clients. We also have a team of business development representatives that have been key in helping us expand nationally and (as of 2017 in Canada), internationally.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Deciding between a job with a guaranteed, steady-paycheck with health insurance and a 401K, and a job that I had just created with none of those things was almost gut-wrenching. It was choosing the known, safe option (with the downsides I could predict), vs. choosing the unknown (with ups and downs I had never even thought of).
I think people see successful start-ups and they just see a company doing well and people reaping the benefits of that success. But what they don’t see is those first few months or years of anguish over “is this going to work?”, and “are we in the red or in the black next month?” or “what do we do next if this doesn’t work out?” It’s taken the better part of a decade to get the company to where it is. And we feel great about the work that we deliver, because we know we’re doing right by our clients.
Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Op2mize Energy – what should we know?
Op2mize is an energy brokerage and consultancy firm. We put together strategies and competitively shop electricity and natural gas supply for businesses. Essentially, we work to reduce electric and natural gas costs and risk for manufacturers, hospitals, office buildings, and other large commercial users.
We can do what we do for almost any large business. Without out of pocket cost to our customers, we can analyze what they’re spending on energy, put together some options, and if we have an option that works better for them, great! If not, that’s fine too. At least they have an understanding of what is available and where they stand.
We’re just really straightforward. We never go for high-pressure or “you’re going to miss out” tactics. It’s just not who we are. We really want to be someone our clients can trust and rely on. Sometimes when we put together a proposal for a potential client, we discover they are best off continuing to do what they’re currently doing. And we’re happy to tell them that they’re already well-situated. And that’s why we know that they’ll come back to us again. Maybe next time they’ll still be well-situated. Or maybe we’ll have a better option for them.
It comes down to this – we know what we’re doing, and we’re honest with people. That’s really all that people are looking for.
Any shoutouts? Who else deserves credit in this story – who has played a meaningful role?
My husband for having the vision for the company and believing that we could make it work for us and our family.
Contact Info:
- Address: 1415 West 22nd Street, Tower Floor
Oak Brook, IL 60523 - Website: op2mize.com
- Phone: 773-771-2034
- Email: sdunne@op2mize.com
- Twitter: @op2mizeenergy
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