Episode 1: From Startup to QMS Leader feat. Brant Engelhart

Christian (00:12)
Welcome to the Q-Cast I'm Christian Reyes and I'm gonna be your cruise director for the next 20 minutes. This is our first episode of the Q-Cast and this is a show where we break down quality, not just as a principle, but as a foundation. Quality is one of those pieces of business where there's a lot of jargon involved and there's ISO standards and FDA this and EU that, and it can be quite overwhelming. And really the goal of our podcast is to simplify that for you. And who better to do that than professionals that have been in the trenches

for decades. Today, I get a chance to sit down with one of those professionals, Brant Engelhart. He's the founder, CEO, and president of QT9 Software. QT9 has multiple software products, has been in the market since 2005, and services over a thousand customers. With 70 plus employees in multiple global locations, QT9 is a market leader in the QMS, and I myself have been here since 2014 for just over a decade. So I've seen firsthand how Brant has been able to pivot the company

and make strategic decisions to really ensure that the culture quality has not changed through scaling. And who better to hear from than the founder himself? So without further ado, let's jump in.

Brant (01:22)
job out of college was doing everything in IT for a small manufacturer. So I did everything. I did their email administration, their network administration. I took them out of the dark ages of Novell networks and the Windows networking. If anyone knows what that is. ⁓ And then ⁓ designed their website, their first one they have, clearly have a new one, 20 something years. ⁓ And ⁓ wrote their ERP system.

Christian (01:27)
Okay. ⁓

Brant (01:52)
Okay. So my background is actually manufacturing in the plastic supply chain. That's where I started. I've obviously worked with tons of industry since then, but ⁓ that's where I started at and ⁓ they had to get ISO 9001 certified. So I became the de facto quality manager. yeah, that's kind that's pretty much how I got started. You know, not just becoming quality manager. mean, I say that in quotes.

We had a consultant who I still work with today through through QT9 software who really gave me the white glove treatment. He held my hand, taught me the principles of quality, taught me everything about ISO 9001. Not only, you know, plus he plopped, you know, ton of paperwork on my desk that I had to clearly automate. So yeah, that's how I got into this and became a consultant, became an auditor and then

Christian (02:38)
I'm sure, I'm sure.

Brant (02:49)
parlayed that into what we're doing now.

Christian (02:52)
Yeah, that's pretty wild path.

Brant (02:55)
It

is a very well. I mean, I started the company when I was 29. I don't. Wow. I look back now. What a crazy decision. But I mean, everything happens for a reason. I got put on this path and I'm happy to be here.

Christian (03:13)
Absolutely, absolutely. And without you being here, none of us would be here. It's worked out well for everyone here. ⁓ So it sounded like kind of the impetus to you writing the QMS was having this consultant come in and say, this is all the documentation that you're going to need.

Brant (03:16)
That's true.

the building. you very much.

Yeah, pretty much. mean, he, you know, stacked a crazy amount of Excel and Word documents and, ⁓ you know, kind of walk me through all the requirements of how much work that I had to do, which I was already doing a lot. And so, and I'm sure most, you know, people in quality can, can, understand that. Yeah. Yeah. A little bit. Yeah. As soon as you get another compliance thrown on your desk, you're like, great. ⁓ so yeah, I just, as a

Christian (03:45)
Sounds like it.

relate to the multiple.

Brant (04:00)
process person, I was like, we're gonna automate all this. There's no way I have the time to do all this. And if it's going to be meaningful, we have to put it in a software. So that was like, you the light bulb went on on his head. And then that's when my training started and passed our first audit with flying colors. And even the auditor was like, you should sell this software. So it was really fun. That was the, was the, that was like the validation I needed right now. ⁓

Christian (04:23)
That one in the secondary light bulb.

here.

So you just heard the great story of QT9's roots and how Brant started it in 2005, but shortly thereafter we were hit with the 0809 financial crisis that affected businesses all over. Let's hear from Brant how he was able to navigate those times and bring us to where we are today.

Brant (04:46)
2008-2009 economic crash came. We to throw that first business plan in the garbage and start over and kind of rebrand ourselves and

Christian (04:56)
Yeah. I mean, I can only imagine how's that for timing. You start a brand new company and yeah, it just, so would you walk me through it all? Like kind of what change or, know, what, what you pivoted to post the 08, 09.

Brant (05:11)
Yeah, I'm great at picking up on processes, how to automate them, but also how to sell them. And ⁓ I'm good at understanding. And what I was understanding is we weren't selling well at the time because the software wasn't ⁓ at the point for aerospace and medical device. Now, if you remember back, I know this going back a long time to 08, but like

the cash for clunkers thing. automotive industry was in and the housing industry was in the dumpster. So it was like make a decision what path you want to go. If you're going to elevate from ISO 9001 to something else. I was already starting to get into aerospace but that wasn't big enough at the time because of the economy. I knew that life sciences was the way to go specifically med device back then and made the decision to grind out some new software, our new modules in our QMS software and ⁓

And then I also at that time built our initial ERP system, kind of took from all the custom ERPs that I'd written, like what I liked the most and put a little bit of my flavor from all the manufacturing processes that I've been a part of. And there was our first ERP and, you know, they worked so well together. You're constantly evaluating ERP data in the quality management system. So it was just kind of natural. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Christian (06:34)
Yeah, natural blend there. So

you sounds like you came up some product differentiation.

Brant (06:40)
Yeah, yeah, I knew I needed to make some changes. I needed to add some modules and I needed to add a little more robustness to the modules we have. Like we had a very weak doc control. We had a weak Kappa module. ⁓ Same with training. And those were like the cornerstone record requirements. Yeah, like I could get away with it with the small mom and pop is 9,001s. But that's not how you grow a business. And so I recognize that right away.

um, was working with some, uh, probably about five or six different med device companies and about 10 to 20 aerospace companies. And what, what do I need to put into this system to, to, uh, be a better fit? Yeah. So, you know, we, we launched right away and in, uh, 2009, I want to say with like four or five new modules.

go after both aerospace and mainly med device, know, inspections module came out of customer feedback module for complaint handling. We may added a lot of robust features to our doc control integrated to our employee training. Uh, so we really was like checking off, you know, the FMEA module, uh, risk assessments, you know, you have to have all your risk management in for anything. Well, now it's in everything, but like back then, I saw, I was the one didn't have much talk about risk management, but it was certainly in 1345.

It was certainly a part of GMP and it was certainly a part of aerospace. So like I had to respond really quickly. So our customers love the updates. 2010 I was firing modules out of a shotgun. ⁓ it was a wild time, but I was responding to the market and understanding where I needed to go. And ⁓ that's kind of what took us to where we are right now.

Christian (08:27)
Surviving the 08-09 crisis is one thing, but where do you go from there? Brant focused in on the customer. They knew what they wanted and they were willing to tell us, we just had to listen. Let's hear from Brant how he rolled that feedback into the business.

Brant (08:40)
I don't want to keep making our customers go back to the well and find more money and especially in the market that we've had for the last decade, like it's gone up and down. So it's like, you know, I don't want to be the company that puts somebody out of business, know, like reduce licensing. You know, that's, that's kind of the way we, my approach has been on this is not to say we won't change in the future. just,

feel strongly about we need to help our customers and if you're charging, if you're nickel and diming them for every module in the system or hard drive space or things along those lines, we've done one major pricing update in 18 years on our customers. I love every part and every little facet that's in here in this company. I love every part of it. So I can kind of see that.

you know that evolution, but I don't know if you were to look 12 years ago. don't know if I would have had the same ambitions back then. I was really happy with what I was doing back then too. You know, I guess my happiness changed. ⁓

Christian (09:43)
Yeah.

Who

would thought that it would grow this much?

Brant (09:50)
You know, we're probably the only bootstrap company that in the top seven competitors in the QMS world that we compete with. Everyone else is private equity back, you know, but we're growing like a weed. It's not stopping our growth. It's not stopping our customer retention. So I think when I had the epiphany on, on where I wanted to take this company and kind of still sharpening that blade as we go, was a wonderful milestone with our software. It's one.

flat price.

Christian (10:20)
That is a very other unique thing about the QMS that has been a differentiator is having a one simple package.

Brant (10:28)
Well, we've really leaned into our business intelligence tool. ⁓ Really big upgrade coming on that this year. ⁓ is. I'm putting a lot of energy and money and time into that product to be something bigger for our customers. And they dovetail so well, but there's other things that we can build within that ecosystem to enhance our manufacturers. And if we keep the same, hey, here's your licensing, you get all the modules, but we're

customer centric, we keep the processes smooth and easy. There's a lot of stuff I've got on the on the horizon. I don't want to really tease a lot of it. But I would say our business intelligence tool is something that I'm really pushing in product design, product design and global strategy. It's the same feeling I had in the beginning building this. It's just a grander scale. Now that we have

a large ERP platform, a large QMS platform, a couple of JSON things, and I've got a couple other things in the works right now, planning those out, allow to intersect, and then also launching new and amazing things in our software. Next year in our QMS is just an absolute game changer for our customers and for us for that matter.

Christian (11:48)
A good product is one thing, but a bad culture will really kill a company, that's something that Brant has understood from day one. Let's hear how Brant has built a culture of quality that has flourished for over 20 plus years.

Brant (11:59)
This

is my life, this is my life's work, this is what I want to do. This is my baby, this is my baby. I've done other businesses and they were fine but they weren't my passion, this is my passion. I'm good at this and I like it and I love my customers and I love my employees. this is, you have to create stuff. How many people get to say that?

Christian (12:03)
This is your baby.

Brant (12:23)
Yeah, we've created something we're still creating today. 20 years in I'm still creating things whether it's a whole new software package. You know, we launched the BI tool who who does that? We launched a commercial earpiece system while we already had an enterprise QMS, you know, like, yeah, that was tough. That's tough. But we did it. You know, so I just this is too much fun. This is what people do when they sell their business. They start creating new things. I just don't have to do that. So like ⁓

Yeah, I don't want any of that. I mean, you hear my annual speech every year to the company. I'm no interest in selling and I do have a dedication to our customers as much as I do the employees. And this is my second family. So there's no way I'm saying, but you guys would be sad if I let if I sold this company, what are we going to do on Fridays at four for happy hour? Like,

Christian (13:12)
Continue whatever we do.

Brant (13:14)
Later in the Even when we have 400 employees, still spinning the birthday wheel. I ⁓ love everything that we're doing. It's fun. It is. Even in our international offices, it's fun. For sure. I still feel like a startup. I mean, I know we're recognized. And we have a ton of customers. ⁓ Forbes recognized us last year.

I still feel like a startup because I'm constantly in creation mode. Yeah. I'm constantly like, could build another software package. You want to build another software package? This is QT9, blah, blah. We'll call it this, you know, fit it right into the manufacturing segment. So I, I know we're not a startup and I know we're a good size company now, but I always feel still. I think if you were to ask Max, if you were to ask Jim, our VP of marketing and sales, you know, I think they'd feel the same way.

Although we have all these employees, we have multiple offices, we're going to open another office here soon and we're having to get another building because we're too damn big for this. Yeah. I, I love the feeling. Not worrying about money helps, but like, but, ⁓ you know, we have something good. Our customers love us and, but I want to create more. like that's the startup energy, right? Convalley, know, ⁓

Christian (14:25)
So.

Definitely. So. Disruptor

mindset.

Brant (14:42)
Exactly.

I love the feeling and I don't know when that's going to go away.

Christian (14:49)
the ⁓

Brant (14:55)
That

means all startups worry about money. We've been around for 20 years. We have a very established customer base and established product. We're not really in that realm. No, I don't feel like a startup and I probably haven't for a long time, probably 11, 12 years. But the energy here is like a startup. Yes. Would you agree?

Christian (15:17)
Absolutely, absolutely. was going say it goes back to what we've talking about with the culture. Yeah. I mean the culture of it just it feels dynamic. I mean there's really no other way to describe it. not coming in getting been getting put in a cubicle and talking to someone.

Brant (15:30)
Yeah,

everyone's up shooting hoops or doing, know, James, our lead QMS trainer is over here bartending half the time, you know, we have fun like a startup here and that's not gonna, I keep buying toys for the office. I don't think that's gonna change, especially in our new bigger office. ⁓ I just love that startup energy without the stress of being a startup.

Christian (15:55)
You've heard how Brant started the business, weathered the financial crisis, and built a winning culture. It's clear success does not come overnight. Life happens. Business evolves. Let's hear how Brant's vision of success has progressed over the last 20 years.

Brant (16:09)
I used to say, I don't want any more than 25 employees. I want to run a fun, awesome software company that's really customer centric. ⁓ But you you can't fight growth. ⁓ So you got to manage it. And ⁓ I did a very good job of managed growth where I didn't want to just add another 500 customers in a year or anything along those lines. But you know, as we started growing and adding more people and getting more customers and we're, you know,

95 % retention rate, no matter how many customers we brought on, like you got to keep growing and you got to change your ambitions. And then honestly, I got part of some, CEO masterminds of other SaaS companies and, that made a very big impression on me. I'm also wildly competitive. So people slightly younger than me, slightly older than me that are doing, you know, two to 15 million more a year than I was. I knew I had the capability to do. was like, okay.

Time to change the ambitions up. Employees out the window, let's go to 150, let's go. Yeah, that really lit the fire and it's why we have such an explosive customer growth and product growth. The core of what I do now is product innovation and design. like it's the stuff that we've got coming out here in the next 18 months is.

Christian (17:09)
fire got lit.

Brant (17:35)
Unbelievable. Yeah, very exciting. So yeah, my ambitions changed drastically right around that 2014 to 2018. Now, once we built our first building in 2019, I was like, Oh, well, this will be our home forever. And I were packed in here and you know, it's on to the next building. So yeah, my ambitions changed drastically. But the important thing is that we still say customer centric.

and we still have a family vibe here and that's really the culture here is wildly important to me as much as it is taking care of the customer. So that hasn't changed and that was that was kind of my strategy challenge right is how do I explosively grow QT9 software but keep this vibe here to keep this culture here but then keep our customers culture as well. that was those were a couple of learning opportunities there but like I feel we're doing a good job at.

Christian (18:27)
Definitely, definitely. I hope you enjoyed hearing about Brand's journey at QT9 Software. Our conversation highlights the very reason this podcast exists. Quality is not static. It's not a box check or some standard that sits on a dusty shelf. Quality evolves, it adapts, and it drives organizations to become stronger over time. Similar to what we heard from Brand here today. In the following episodes, we will be talking with more leaders, innovators, and experts who are helping shape the way that we think about quality in business,

culture and leadership. Thank you for joining us on the first episode. You enjoyed this content. Please like comment and subscribe to the Q-Cast. Until then stay compliant.