Unison has been acquired by Fearless

On the heels of securing a large contract to support the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) with its data, a human-centered digital solutions and organizational transformation company in Baltimore has made an acquisition.

This week, Fearless, which bills itself as Baltimore’s “largest” software development company, announced its acquisition of Unison Solutions. The Denver, Colorado-based firm specializes in people and organizational development. Its expertise lies in assisting mission-focused organizations in aligning their people, culture, strategy and operations for sustainable growth.

Fearless founder and CEO Delali Dzirasa told Technical.ly that in a prior strategic planning process, the company sought a “more disciplined” approach to Fearless’ direction. Unison came highly recommended to Fearless. The recommendation led to the development of an eight-page slide deck that marked the beginning of a partnership with Unison founder Will Seamans and his team. The collaboration involved longterm engagement through coaching for everyone, from Fearless’ executives to its middle managers.

“We are a tech company,” Dzirasa said. “But we are a tech company full of people. Right? And we have spent time and we hire folks that are experts in technology. And that’s from a design perspective, from a product perspective, from an engineering perspective and we’re really talented at that, right? How we build capabilities and build technology. But as mentioned, this organization, like every organization is full of people, right? …  When things go wrong, most times it’s because of the people [in] the organization and not the tech, right? The tech tends to be the easier of the two.”

Unison will become a new division of Fearless called Fearless Guides. Seamans, who will serve as the division’s president, said that its entire 21-person team will be rolling over into Fearless. Dzirasa hopes that Seamans and his team, which splits time between Denver and Baltimore, will serve as “relational experts” that might allow the infrastructure of Fearless to “thrive” — a goal shared by the new Fearless division leader, who was already wearing Fearless’ athleisure brand on a recent video call with Technical.ly.

“We had partnered together on work inside the government, so we worked as team members together,” Seamans said. “And so we knew already going into this, like, our culture is aligned, and that matters a lot in mergers and acquisitions. Right.? And that’s probably the biggest thing that matters most.”

“Secondarily, we get to continue to pursue our mission, which is to create the conditions for organizations and their people to thrive,” he added. “We get to keep doing that but within this larger vision of Fearless, which is to use good tact and great people to power the things that matter most.”

The people side of things is something Dzirasa said Fearless “hadn’t taken as seriously” before the relationship with Unison. The acquisition aims to take Fearless beyond a digital services company to a future as a “digital services integrator” that might better address the tech and organizational challenges for its clients.