The first calls went out July 15, and the voices at the other end of the line all were Pakistani.
But Fort Worth startup Touchstone Communications Inc. is betting most of the recipients back in the United States didn't have a clue.
"It's kind of like hiring people in the United States 30 years ago," says Tom Slone, who retired from his post as the top consumer executive of former Las Colinas-based Associates First Capital Inc. and launched Touchstone 18 months ago. "We are creating jobs that have a high turnover in the United States. These people have a smile in their voice. Some of them were educated here and went back for their culture."
Touchstone has opened a 50-person call center in Islamabad, the Pakistani capital, with plans to grow to 75 employees by month's end. A staff of seven runs the headquarters at 515 Houston St., in a downtown Fort Worth building owned by Farukh Aslam, Touchstone's vice president of finance and infrastructure.
Aslam, who holds dual citizenship in Pakistan and the United States, pointed the management team toward Pakistan after it drafted a business plan that focused offshore. Slone, Touchstone's president, Carl Caruso, Mike Meyer, vice president of business development, and Aslam together own 62% of the private company.
Slone said the four managed to raise $4 million in a reluctant equity market because of a business plan framed around the efficiencies of using a well-educated, inexpensive Pakistani work force.
The key to attracting investors was the depth of the management team. Slone managed a $33 billion portfolio for Associates First Capital. Caruso ran the company's oil credit-card unit. Meyer founded Dallas marketing firm Meyer & Johnson, which, among other things, helped create Travelocity.
Slone and Aslam have agreed not to take salaries until Touchstone turns a profit. Slone said the Pakistani model should make that happen by next year.
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