When San Francisco-based TrueAccord opened an operations office in Lenexa in 2019, it projected hiring about 50 people per year for three years, but the company already has surpassed that estimate.
Founded in 2013, TrueAccord is an automated, consumer-friendly, machine-based collection system.
TrueAccord netted a $49.02 million venture capital investment last year, the most of any company in the Kansas City metro area. TrueAccord's deal was big enough to rank it No. 3 in the Midwest region.
It now has a total of about 400 employees, including 180 people in its Lenexa operations center, making it the company’s largest office. It has about 175 people working remotely from all over the U.S. and about 145 people, mostly product and engineering employees, in San Francisco.
Several years ago, the company knew it wanted to move out of San Francisco. It looked at about 12 different cities before it picked Lenexa.
"We were asking: Did the area have tech talent and operations talent? Were there other contact centers to pull talent from? Were there other tech companies that we might pull engineers from?" TrueAccord Corp. CEO Sheila Monroe said. "We settled on Lenexa, and we’re extremely pleased with the amount of talent that we’re finding there."
TrueAccord grew its revenue by 122% last year after growing 68% in 2019, Monroe said. The company projects growth of between 60% to 70% this year.
It initially leased a 12,000-square-foot office in Lenexa but added another 6,000 square feet a few weeks ago. Monroe thinks that space will fill up quickly.
"I’m reminded every day that we made the right decision going into the Kansas City area because our employees are fantastic. The work ethic is great. We been able to find good talent. We haven’t struggled with that. So it’s lived up to what we needed it to live up to so far, and we’re committed to the area," Monroe said.
TrueAccord currently has about 60 job openings. It's particularly interested in adding engineers.
Regulatory changes in the collection business have propelled the company's growth, Monroe said.
It’s pushing companies away from the traditional method of harassing people with phone calls, which are becoming increasingly easy to block or ignore. Instead, it contacts people to learn the type of communication they prefer. Then the company allows clients to self serve by setting up payment plans.
So far, the approach is working.
“One thing people don’t realize in the debt collection space is that there is definitely some consumer choice on who they’re going to pay,” Monroe said. “They’re going to choose to pay the company that has been kind to them, patient with them, talked to them in the way they want to be talked to and isn’t harassing them."
TrueAccord thinks it can expand the approach to collections for industries it hasn't previously touched, such as utilities and health care.
“Medical practices in particular are very sensitive about how their patients are being treated and our model works really well for that,” Monroe said. “It resonates really well with health care providers, because they’re looking at it as frictionless and non-threatening. It enhances the relationship with the doctor.”
TrueAccord is expanding into other areas of the consumer debt cycle. The company wants to manage early stage delinquencies, such as people who forget to pay their bill and need someone to remind them.
“We really just want to serve this population that’s been forgotten by their financial institutions and be there for them,” Monroe said.
