Zach Richards Email and Phone Number

Zach J Richards is the Chief Executive Officer, Giggles Franchise, Inc., a privately owned franchisor of independent drop-in childcare centers. As the lead executive of Giggles Franchise, Richards is responsible for all functions related to the development and leadership of the company and growing the family of franchise locations.Richards oversees all sales and marketing functions within the company, including the COO, VP of Marketing, VP of Training and Director of Franchise Development. Richards directs all aspects of the company’s business planning, performance reporting and execution of the annual franchise agreement reviews and documents. Richards has consistently achieved growing annual profit margins. Finally, Richards administers the company’s annual marketing plan, including brand development, creative artwork, and digital marketing services.Giggles Drop-In Childcare is an industry leading child care center franchise that started back in 2008, offering a clean, modern and well-appointed childcare facility and a staff that is hyper focused on one thing; providing outstanding care of children. Giggles Franchise, Inc. is a company based in Wilmington, NC but has team members from all over the United States.We’re teachers, programmers, mothers, campers, entrepreneurs, graphic artists, fishermen, fathers, photographers, musicians, readers, hikers, travelers, volunteers, students, and most of all hard workers.With such a diverse group of people, we bring a unique perspective to the child care industry that effects everything we do!Our founders and team members believe in carving new paths in the child care, day care and day care franchise industries. We believe in second chances, in hard work and time outs. We don’t follow the leader.

Cloud Architect / SaaS software Architect whose specialty is the architecture, design and deployment of cloud applications. I consistently turn software ideas into scalable, distributed multi-tenant Cloud products that deploy as a SaaS solution.

Marketing, Advertising, Finance, Profit and Loss Reports, Accounting, Internet Marketing, Web Development

Organized and established a development department. Main product reached a national recognition in the insurance industry within 14 months.Led senior management business-level discussion and decisions involving business vision and strategy, enterprise-level decisions, standardization of best practices, and project governance oversight.Managed client projects to ensure minimum risk.Conducted regular risk assessments and quality assurance reviews to evaluate compliance with requirements and to identify potential gaps in policies, procedures and business processes. Developed strategies to improve software development standards. Identified potential problems within company products and client projects and provided guidance to staff so as to correct and minimize risk.Achievements: Substantially reduced company data center costs by 40%.Launched ten new web development products.Launched a national comparative insurance rating website.Developed software proposal and agreement process that improved revenue by 60%.Researched and recommended Microsoft.NET custom controls for added security and user interface improvement.Manage a team of software developers that consistently beat project milestone objectives and timelines.

Owned and operated a successful technology consulting and web development firm. Built alliances with web developers and designers. Managed client projects that included web development, hardware integration/purchasing, and internet branding, marketing and search engine positioning.Achievements: Organized the start-up of the company including: products/services, programs, and vendors.Identified opportunities through local and internet based networking that brought in more than $500,000 in revenue.Provided in depth technology reviews to help clients minimize technology cost and improve profitability.

Built relationships with local and federal government entities regarding rural internet initiatives and rural business technology. Developed an internal development department responsible for building distance learning applications to be delivered to UNCW, ECU and NC State universities over a company owned fiber ring. Spearheaded sales and marketing division to host blade servers for Application Service Providers on a national level.Achievements: Interviewed by MSNBC on the Microsoft.NET initiative in 2000.Drove rural internet access sales to $8,200,000.Launched a distance learning application used by NC State, ECU and UNCW universities.Launched a co-location blade server hosting division with AT&T and Verizon.Company aquired by Aura Communications in 2003.