We were lucky to catch up with Marc Hurwitz recently and have shared our conversation below.
Marc, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.
It was 2008 and I had just left government so I could stay in Miami. Previously I had worked for the White House National Security Council staff, the Central Intelligence Agency and the U.S. Department of State. I started working for my old bosses, retired CIA Chiefs of Stations who had opened consulting companies. They taught me the commercial tools of the trade for preparing due diligence risk assessments, similar to analysis reports that we did in the CIA.
At the same time, I started networking in South Florida and soon discovered that lawyers were craving hard-to-find information to help them win their cases. So I got my Private Investigator license and pivoted to be a full-fledged investigation agency. Crossroads Investigations blossomed and we became a one-stop-shop for law firms, whether they needed deep research and due diligence, jury consulting, surveillance or background reports. That makes us fairly unique in our field!
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers?
I love being able to tell our clients that they have a former CIA officer to call upon to help them solve their problems! Information is power, and we enable our clients to succeed with their personal, business or legal problems by providing hard-to-find information. I always say Florida is a sunny place for shady people, so if we can help our clients by providing them facts, we’re helping the good guys beat the bad guys, which is a great feeling!
One of the things we want our clients to remember is that we are much more than a gumshoe in a car following cheating spouses (although we do that too!). Our research projects may cover how a judge may be biased, how two companies are related, the reputation of key officers of a business, finding a professional sports player that moves around a lot, surveilling someone to prove they are committing insurance fraud, finding bank accounts to prove that someone does indeed have the funds to pay a judgement, background checking a potential employee or tenant, conducting an asset search in another country, and many more things!
Another thing that makes us different is how we are organized. 95% of private investigators in Florida are retired police officers who don’t have any employees. They are amazing at what they do. But to handle the capacity of dozens of cases simultaneously, a team is needed. In addition, when a surveillant is out “in the field”, we have a team to support them – running license plates, conducting live map planning, coordinating with the client, etc. It makes for a much smoother operation and a better customer experience.
What I’m most proud of is the dream team I’ve assembled – our front office is comprised of three amazing ladies who offer white glove, reliable, and fast service to our many clients, and a wonderful community relations manager who is the face of Crossroads throughout the region. Our analyst is former CIA, like me, who puts together massive amounts of information into an easily-understood report. And our field team he been culled for over a decade, and they all very experienced in their craft.
Any advice for managing a team?
Developing a corporate culture in a small business has been a challenge, but I’m really proud to share that I feel I have “The Dream Team” in place! Having a team who feels happy to be working together and and empowered to make decisions has been critical. We have twice weekly Zoom “huddles” where we go over our caseload, review the calendar, discuss any challenges, share new things we’ve learned, and many more things! In addition, our team, which is virtual, has a constant discussion throughout the day on WhatsApp. We help each other on cases, and find time to joke around as well! I encourage my team to make tough decisions, and they know I always stand by them.
We also stay true to our Core Purpose: “To help the good guys stay one step ahead and win, by equipping them with hard-to find information so they can make informed decisions in court, in business, or in their personal lives. We do this by relentlessly, reliably and ethically pursuing the truth.”
And we are always sure to adhere to our Core Values:
WORK AS A TEAM BY STEPPING UP
UNBELIEVABLY RAPID RESPONSIVENESS
PREMIUM, WHITE GLOVE SERVICE
ALWAYS BE GROWING – BUSINESS AND PROFESSIONALLY
ENJOYABLE WORK ENVIRONMENT
ETHICAL, RELIABLE AND PROFESSIONAL
Finally, I believe it’s important for our corporate culture to include camaraderie; everyone should WANT to work together in a fun environment. We recently all met in Las Vegas for an industry conference, and used the opportunity to get to know each other better.
I think high morale includes everyone feeling they’re working together to build something, and for everyone to feel they’re growing and learning and hopefully that they have found their dream career!
What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?
When people thing of private investigators, they often think of someone taking pictures from behind tinted windows. While we do that, we consider ourselves to be a professional organization supporting law firms, businesses and individuals. When anyone contacts us, we take great pride in being very responsive. When we say we’re going to do something, we do it. We go above and beyond to ensure every client is happy with our work product. And we love being a part of the local business and legal communities, whether it’s being members of networking groups, sponsoring events, or making presentations.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://xinvestigations.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/xinvestigations/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Xinvestigations
- Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/marchurwitz
- Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/xinvestigations
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/Xinvestigations
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/crossroads-investigations-miami
Image Credits
David Blake