Seven engagements, one pattern

Turning around a loss-making home care franchise

The situation

In 2015 BK acquired an existing Right at Home senior home care franchise in Franklin, Tennessee, that was losing money. Coming from a career in technology program management, he had to stop the losses while facing home care's hardest problems: a limited referral base, a staffing structure that needed rework, constant caregiver turnover, and strict state and federal compliance rules.

The approach

• Reorganized the team. Restructured office staff and caregiver operations, and recruited and managed more than 1,500 part-time caregivers over eight years, turning high turnover into a repeatable hiring and scheduling process.
• Built a referral engine. Developed trusted relationships with physicians, case managers and discharge planners at hospitals, rehab centers, assisted living communities and hospices.
• Expanded payer access. Coordinated services with Medicare, Medicaid, TennCare, BlueCare and VA programs, working with billing specialists to open the agency to more clients.
• Kept the business compliant and controlled. Owned budgeting, billing, receivables and payables, and met each state audit and compliance requirement.

The results

• Grew sales and the client base year over year
• Steadily reduced losses and turned the business profitable
• Sold the franchise in July 2023 for more than its purchase price

Why it matters to clients

BK has done what many owners are trying to do: take a struggling service business, fix its operations, grow its referral base, and build value that can be realized in a sale.

Delivering mortgage technology programs for major U.S. banks

The situation

Wipro Gallagher Solutions provided mortgage lending technology to large U.S. financial institutions. Each program brought the same challenges: bank business teams, onshore staff in Franklin, Tennessee, and offshore teams in India working across time zones, under regulatory requirements, on tight schedules, with integrations into each bank's existing systems.

The approach

• Turned business needs into clear requirements. Worked with bank subject-matter experts and technical specialists so every team worked from the same plan.
• Built a new product for one bank. Led the end-to-end creation of a cloud-based wholesale mortgage application that did not previously exist: requirements, use cases, solution definition, planning, governance and implementation through production.
• Coordinated systems integration. Managed integration between the platform and each client's existing systems.
• Kept onshore and offshore teams aligned. Set a steady communication rhythm with clear handoffs, plans, status reports and risk and issue logs, and raised risks early with client and company leadership.

The results

• Client implementations went live successfully
• The new wholesale mortgage application reached production under his leadership

Why it matters to clients

BK knows how to run complex, multi-party technology programs in a regulated industry, keeping executives, business users, vendors and distributed engineering teams aligned through delivery.

Building offshore delivery and requirements discipline

The situation

Dorado Corporation, a mortgage technology company in San Mateo, California, served major lenders during one of the most turbulent periods in the industry's history. Client needs and regulations kept changing, and programs faced infrastructure, budget and resource constraints while lenders expected dependable delivery.

The approach

• Led business analysis. Worked directly with lender stakeholders to document current and future workflows and find gaps between business needs and system capabilities.
• Managed requirements end to end. Kept requirements traceable through design, development and testing, and ran change control as client needs shifted.
• Built offshore operations from the ground up. Built and led the company's offshore teams, defining how work was handed off, tracked and reviewed between the U.S. and India.
• Strengthened quality and release governance. Oversaw QA, testing coordination and release management so each delivery matched the approved requirements.

The results

• Resolved infrastructure, budget and resource challenges without disrupting delivery
• Delivered the projects and programs successfully and on time

Why it matters to clients

BK turns business needs into clear, testable requirements and builds the processes that let distributed teams deliver them reliably.

Building a new lending channel's system from start to finish

The situation

First Franklin Financial, a national mortgage lender in San Jose, California, was building out its correspondent lending channel, through which it buys closed loans from other lenders. There was no application for it yet. The channel needed new requirements, integration with existing lending systems and thorough testing, delivered with a mixed onshore and offshore team.

The approach

• Defined the business requirements. Learned the business with lending, compliance, operations and technical experts, then wrote the use cases, data mappings, rules and processes the system needed.
• Managed the integrations. Coordinated integration between the new channel and the company's existing lending systems.
• Led the QA team. Directed testing to confirm the system matched the approved requirements before launch.
• Ran the project with discipline. Plans, status reports, risk and issue logs and go-live readiness checklists kept the onshore and offshore team on track.

The results

• Took the system live successfully
• Received First Franklin's Key Performer Award in November 2006 for the correspondent lending work

Why it matters to clients

BK can take a business initiative from an idea to a working system, owning requirements, integrations, testing and launch.

Leading an education franchise turnaround

The situation

In 2024 BK acquired an underperforming Huntington Learning Center franchise in Hendersonville, Tennessee. Turning it around meant controlling costs while keeping the teachers and office staff families rely on, rebuilding enrollment, and working within a franchise system and a long-term commercial lease.

The approach

• Reduced expenses. Reviewed every major cost and cut spending without weakening the student experience.
• Retained and developed the team. Kept teachers and office staff through a period of change and invested in training.
• Rebuilt marketing and enrollment. Strengthened local marketing and the enrollment process to bring in new families.
• Worked with the franchisor and landlord. Kept open communication with franchise leadership and negotiated lease terms as part of bringing costs in line.

Progress so far

• Operating costs are lower
• The core teaching and office team has stayed in place and is better trained
• New marketing and enrollment work is underway

Why it matters to clients

BK leads from the owner's seat, with his own capital invested. He knows how to cut costs without losing good people, work within a franchise system, and negotiate with landlords and partners.

Turning a sales company into a software developer

The situation

BK founded GardenCity as a sales and marketing company for technology products. Working closely with customers, he saw that cooperative banks needed software built for the way they worked, and set out to build it himself, at a time when business software was new and Windows and Visual Basic had only just arrived.

The approach

• Learned the domain from the ground up. Worked with banking professionals to learn how cooperative banks operated.
• Built products from scratch. Developed banking, inventory, accounting and financial software through the full development life cycle.
• Adopted new technology early. Made GardenCity one of the first in its market to offer cooperative banking software with a graphical interface.
• Built the organization. Recruited and trained a development team when few people had these skills, and demonstrated products directly to banks.

The results

• Transformed GardenCity from a sales business into a software company
• Delivered a software suite to cooperative banks, manufacturers and small businesses, competing against much larger firms
• Merged the company into MDC Infoway, which BK then helped list on the Calcutta Stock Exchange

Why it matters to clients

BK understands both sides of a technology business: what customers will buy and how the product gets built. That founder experience shapes how he helps organizations adopt technology today.

Merging a startup to scale up and enter the U.S. healthcare market

The situation

GardenCity had proven its products, but growing further meant more capital, bigger clients and a larger team. BK merged it into MDC Infoway, a company formed in partnership with a Michigan medical systems firm. The combined company then set out to win business in the U.S. healthcare market from Bangalore, across distance, time zones and unfamiliar U.S. regulations.

The approach

• Structured the merger for growth. Brought GardenCity into MDC Infoway and integrated the two teams without losing what GardenCity had built.
• Built medical software for the U.S. market. Led a complete medical system built to U.S. standards: HIPAA compliance, CPT coding, health insurance integrations, patient registration, scheduling, billing and claims.
• Entered the U.S. market from India. Quickly learned U.S. healthcare rules, billing practices and client expectations, and built working relationships with U.S. partners and clients.
• Led technology operations. Oversaw delivery of healthcare and banking software for the combined company.
• Took part in the public listing. Was part of the team that listed MDC Infoway as Zoom Exports Limited on the Calcutta Stock Exchange.

The results

• Merged GardenCity into MDC Infoway, then helped list the company on the Calcutta Stock Exchange as Zoom Exports Limited
• Expanded to larger clients, including medical software built for the U.S. healthcare market
• Led technology operations for the combined company for six years

Why it matters to clients

BK has been on both sides of a merger and part of taking a company public, and has learned a new market's rules quickly and delivered in it. He brings that same speed to every client engagement.