How Southlake Consulting & Technologies Fuel Client Success with Customized Solutions

As a first generation American, Dan Melnick feels a sense of pride, gratitude, and determination. His parents were immigrants from Belarus, who moved to the U.S. to provide their family with greater opportunities. Dan was born in Chicago before later moving to Buffalo Grove and then ultimately to Texas, where he would go on to eventually start Southlake Consulting & Technologies.

“That really is what always motivated me, even to this day,” Melnick said of his heritage, and being the first member of his family born in America. “I feel like being born and raised in this country is the reason I have the opportunities that I do, which I wouldn’t have had if I was born and raised in Belarus.”

Southlake Consulting & Technologies, a software development company at its core, provides a wide range of products and services. “The vast majority of our clients are in e-commerce, our goal is to help our clients in any way possible, including helping run their ads and email marketing to help them scale,” Melnick noted, are just some of the areas of focus. They have found success through innovation and helping streamline those processes by building custom software solutions that are tailored to their clients’ goals and needs. However, Southlake Consulting was not the first company Melnick started, he’s always had an entrepreneurial spirit.

First Venture into Entrepreneurship

Originally from Chicago, it’s no surprise that sports were a big part of Melnick’s life. As an avid White Sox fan, Melnick had always enjoyed watching baseball and collecting memorabilia. His first business came about around the time he was 17 years old. Melnick would collect varying autographs and sports memorabilia and sell them on eBay through his own shop. For about nine years, he had the shop, even throughout college.

“I used to go to all of the sporting events and team hotels,” he said. Melnick would collect autographs and other game memorabilia from players and then sell them in his shop online. However, in 2020, he sold the business.

“I really just wanted to do more,” he said. “And I was working on something else but hadn’t had the time.” Back in 2018-19, Melnick said he first read a book that inspired him to get into the field of technology. ‘How to Be a Capitalist Without Any Capital’ by Nathan Latka detailed a step-by-step plan for budding entrepreneurs who wanted to start and grow their own business, thus inspiring Melnick to take that advice.

After selling his eBay memorabilia store, Melnick invested heavily into the new tech business he had created. Though he said he was not as tech savvy when it came to building apps and websites, he saved money by hiring freelancers through sites such as “Fiverr” and “Upwork.” Eventually, he met his now co-founder, Qasim Masud.

Sacrifices and Changing of Tide

The growth of the company was slow initially, according to Melnick. He worked a full-time job as a consultant while also ramping up his efforts to grow his tech company. Most of his free time went into his company, however despite starting an LLC during the mid-year point of 2022, things were still difficult. Melnick worked his daytime job while building Southlake Consulting, which made it difficult to put all of his effort into his own company.

But the tides seemed to change in March of 2023. The company he was working for was bought out by PWC, so he suddenly had more time on his hands. Around this time, Melnick joined an accelerator to help their company iterate and improve efficiency.

Along with the accelerator, Melnick found traction and success on the sales side as well through social media, “I started hustling on Twitter,” Melnick noted. He was booking five or six calls with prospects on a weekly basis, despite having little to no experience with lead generation. Now, he makes sure his business stands out from the rest.

Building Momentum

At the beginning stages of the company, Melnick and Masud posted a listing on the freelancing platform, Upwork. Upwork, though large, is a company created mainly for freelancers to offer their services on a hourly or project-based business. Though some companies may find it useful for finding clients, the design of Upwork is to pair freelancers with clients.

This method would not be sustainable, long-term for a technology company such as Southlake Consulting & Technologies. Through Upwork, Melnick said they were able to obtain a single client, a Texas-based Venture Capital company. He and Masud worked with them for about eight months. “They really liked our work,” Melnick said of the experience.

He was able to work with high-level officials who had strong voices in their spaces. They were major influencers, with opinions that meant a lot to the newly formed tech company. According to Melnick, he remembered going to his partner and saying that a major VC company such as this one liking their work was a huge deal. “I told (Masud) we really just needed to go full force into it.” That was the stepping-stone to moving their business forward.

“It’s truly to streamline the customer service process for E-Com brands.”
Dan Melnick

Co-Founders of Southlake Consulting & Technologies, (Left to right) Dan Melnick & Qasim Masud

On the Horizon

While Southlake Consulting is currently helping their clients achieve their goals in a multitude of ways, they continue to innovate for the future. Melnick discussed one of their initiatives, heading in 2024 is building an AI Chat Bot for their clients.

Currently, at a beta version, it’s all part of Southlake Consulting’s continued focus on providing the utmost value for their clients, Melnick noted, “The Chat Bot will help convert their customers, upsell, recommend products, and help them subscribe through live conversations, “Its truly to streamline the customer service process for E-Com brands.”

“For us, it’s about making sure the product, or whatever we’re delivering, is high quality,”
Dan Melnick

Client Satisfaction, Front and Center

From Dan Melnick’s perspective, the greatest thing he can do for his customer is make sure it is highly personalized. He allows for his clients to call or text him whenever needed, to make sure they aren’t stuck in line with an automated service like clients may have to deal with when it comes to other companies. “I try to make sure every relationship I have with my clients is highly personalized, I’m available for them anytime, whether they call or text me.”

Melnick believes that a customer’s happiness is of upmost importance in whatever field a business may be in. However, he takes it extra seriously with his own business. For example, he said when he works with his own clients, he will always hold off on the final payment installment until both he and his client have mutually agreed that the project is completed in a way the client has agreed upon. This way, he can nearly always guarantee satisfaction.

“For us, it’s about making sure the product, or whatever we’re delivering, is high quality,” he said. “Many of our competitors, for example, are billing hourly. We don’t bill hourly. Everything is fixed price, so we want to ensure that we’re transparent and there’s no surprises.”

Even when a client wants Melnick and his team to work on something outside of the originally quoted scope of work, Melnick says he is transparent with the client on what things will cost while replying in a timely manner.

Innovating, planning and continually adding value for their clients is Melnick’s mission. As the CEO and Co-Founder of Southlake Consulting, he does it through hard work, trust and personalization.