Citing the business trends and strategies that are paying off for American companies with “the next billion-dollar ideas,” Forbes magazine named Business Talent Group (BTG) to its list of the 100 “Most Promising Companies” for 2015.
Co-founded seven years ago by Palisadians CEO Jody Greenstone Miller and president Amelia Warren Tyagi, BTG is one of only four female-led companies named to the list.
Forbes’ fourth annual ranking of high-growth, privately held companies with under $300 million in annual revenue appeared in its Feb. 9 issue.
Rich Schmitt/Staff Photographer
“It’s exciting to make that list. And you’ve got to live up to it. That’s what we’re working every day to do,” Miller told the Palisadian-Post over tea with Tyagi at her Palisades home.
BTG pairs high-end independent professionals with major corporations, non-profits and other clients for project-based work.
In this regard, the firm is ahead of a business trend that will see companies and organizations increasingly rely on the growing independent talent market.
A recent study by The Freelancers Union and Elance/Odesk found that 53 million people – one-third of the U.S. workforce – are freelancers.
“Often it’s a company that wants to get something done that requires a certain expertise,” Tyagi said, adding that many businesses are working to improve on big data and social media issues.
“We spend a lot of time and energy vetting the talent,” Tyagi said.
Prior to launching BTG, Miller was working as a venture capitalist. She knew a lot about interactive TV and when companies would ask her to do consulting, she would form teams of former consultants.
For a project in the mid-2000s that involved children’s media, Miller enlisted Tyagi who had experience in the field.
“It became clear this was a great marketing opportunity,” Miller said of the realization that led her to raise money from world-class investors to start the business.
BTG opened simultaneously in New York and L.A. and now has additional offices in Austin, Chicago and San Francisco, with clients in 16 countries.
Most of the independent professionals, or talent, at BTG have MBAs and anywhere from five to 20 years of experience in their fields, including management consulting and corporate experience among others.
“If you want to have the best solution, you’ve got to think outside the people in your building,” Tyagi said candidly.
“It’s exciting to see other people add to and enrich a vision and then execute it,” Miller said. “We have plans to be the global platform, and we intend to intensify and grow as fast as we can.”
Although BTG has roughly 80 employees, a talent pool of more than 3,800 independent professionals and three consecutive years of 60 percent growth, the women at its helm are as grounded as ever.
“There was a time when Jody and I did everything from getting the mail to working on the website to handling the talent. There was a time when we did it all, and it’s fun to have a team of people now,” Tyagi said. “Jody and I always had big plans and a big vision, but we have to be humble and remember when it was just the two of us sitting at this table.”
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