 Welcome to JSA TV and JSA podcast the leading newsroom for telecom and data center professionals I'm John Max Lima and joining me today. I've got Lee Curry co-founder and chairman of salute mission critical Lee Thank you so much for talking to us. How are you doing doing great? Thanks for having me on Great to have you always on but let's talk about you and sort of mission critical Talk us through like your life story like how did you get to launch the organization and what does the company do? You bet so I'm the chairman and co-founder. I had the good fortune of partnering up with Jason Ocroy Who's the CEO and we started this in? 2013 at the time veterans unemployment rate was crazy It was almost 25 percent for first-term veterans that had gotten off and they were considered unskilled So we wanted to build a company that would show that there's no such thing as an unskilled veteran and we've done that Four or eight years later We've got 400 full-time staff in 10 countries and continuing to grow rapidly because we built a service model That leverages the strengths of what veterans learn in the military and brings that to market and it's a valuable offering that people are latching on to and Kind of embracing as the new way of doing business at the data center sites. I Mean I was quite impressed with the growth of salute to be honest Special after nearly five years. It's still growing very fast, which is I mean usually start up starts Slowing down their growth at this point, but you guys seem to be still going quite strong We are and the exciting thing about it is I think we've got even more growth ahead of us We've found a capital partner that believes in our mission that came in and you saw the announcement just a couple days ago With LL our partners and that's just going to give us the ability to really scale this thing We'll invest into our infrastructure and our systems and our people and really put the pedal to the metal as they say I mean, this is big stuff is there are big equity capsule for investors And they've raised more than five billion dollars across six funds over the years I mean talk us a little bit more in detail through the through the news. They just released this week We knew a few years ago that as we got to a certain point We would outscale Jason and my personal assets because like typical entrepreneurs who bootstrap a company We were doing this basically by collateralizing our assets to get the line of credits and be able to make payroll and do that Now we've got a partner that understands how to finance how to get the capital line so that we can Push for even further growth, but if we wanted to keep it just to ourselves We could have just stayed at the level we are keep the 400 people going But we would like to look back in a few years and be talking about thousands of employees all across the world that Are getting a chance to get into the data center industry and delivering quality services Okay, when we talk about expanding across the world and you've already said that you're present in 10 countries What's the plan outside of the US anyway, even for the other nine countries with the outside of the US you bet We've got your great operations already established in Europe Are three footholds that I consider Ireland Netherlands and the Nordic region But we'll take those operations and we'll expand them further into other accounts I and then we'll also be breaking into new markets based on activity in Poland and Spain and we'll see more growth in Germany and France So it's pretty exciting all across the board in the Europe and the growth that's going there as the data centers move out We move out to help run them on a daily basis In South America. We're already in Chile in Argentina. I think by the end of the year will probably Be in Mexico and expand further in Chile and we'll continue to expand in the US too We've got a lot of growth forecasted for the hottest market northern Virginia But we're also seeing a lot of growth in Canada and Montreal and I All across the board our new region will be Asia, but we don't have that yet in the forecast But we do have that long term that we know we'll have to be there Yeah, well you can't escape Asia and eventually at some point is there kid Africa as well But I mean a lot of the destinations that you touched upon like they are really Booming in terms of demand and they will be over the next two three is Poland Spain Italy So they's very interesting, but there was also a few things that he said in the release They was quite interested or quite curious about So one of them you said that you represent And I quote like an often misunderstood and overlooked resource pool Which would be the veterans I mean let's talk about this resource pool like how big is this resource pool? How qualified are they? What do they have to bring to the markets? Especially in Europe for example whether then the notion of veterans is probably not as big as in the US and We do have a large military in the US But there's also significant Militaries in the other countries and we're working with a group called euro mill that represents 23 countries and tapping into the veterans there The one thing that you find consistent in all the programs is veterans go through similar training learning the teamwork learning critical thinking learning how to Operate under pressure. So those skills are what we really look for in our employees to be able to bring a man and teach him the technology But the thing that I think is most misunderstood about veterans Is no one seems to look beyond the initial specialty when you talk about an infantry man You think about what Hollywood portrays a map Rambo and Willem Dafoe But for that person to be able to do their job There's all kinds of supporting skills that they need to do to maintain their equipment their vehicle their weapons systems their communications That sounds like a data center technician to me. We just need to teach them new equipment We've proven that you can take cooks and truck drivers and teach them how to be data center technicians And that skill set is very misunderstood because you'll go to an employer typically and you tell them what you did in the military First thing they'll do with an infantryman is put them in as a security guard and the cook will go into food service They're missing an opportunity to have technicians and project managers with great skills So you do you think there's some sort of misunderstanding on how transferable those skills are Industry and even even if you do you even think there's some stigma around just employing veterans I think there is for people that haven't been around the military community And they've only learned about the military through the movies and tv shows They see an entirely different impression of veterans than what is really there One thing that I learned when I went through basic training was how to learn how to grow and do it quickly and I think that skill set is enormously important in a Industry like ours that's changing at such a pace and growing at such a pace If you come in and want to just sit back and not learn anymore, you're dead weight so The people when the military come and our lifelong learners you get them Engaged and they'll continue. They'll stay up with technology. They'll stay up with the latest processes and be able to deliver the services I'm sure they're very good at sticking to deadlines as well. She's very important. Yes in hiring street But I mean going back to going back to salutes and talking about how how much you've grown over the years I mean your five and a half years From the beginning you've grown 300 still. So I mean what's the secret to still grow so much After nearly half a decade It's a combination of things I think that the service model that we defined in the beginning has been embraced by the industry because One we had a personnel shortage. So we took advantage of that opportunity to bring a new resource pool to bear We put in a comprehensive workforce development program that goes from training entry level all the way to intermediate and can take you No matter what your skill set is Integrate you and make you productive and then give you a career path that you can continuously develop With the service model that we've got the reason that it's so important is that the The military discipline that we apply to the sites and the data centers we do across the board So our service techs do both CE work their critical environments mechanical and electrical They do the it work and they do the security and that cuts down on the number of people needed on site it was Happenstance based on covid that cutting down on the number of people on site was actually a good thing And now we've got a new operating model that people are Embracing because it cuts down on their costs, but it cuts down on human risk during pandemics and things like that So it's a better way of doing business and I believe that's what's really contributed to our rapid growth Definitely sounds like but what's been one thing they've learned over the years since you launched There's no account for planning planning in advance everybody. There's an old saying Any plan does not survive first contact, but without that plan you're never going to get to first contact We continuously reassess and regage and make fine tunes to what we're doing But we planned this out from the beginning to have that workforce development strategy in place that could tap into the supply chain produce productive members Of this industry and then to continually grow and having a good service model and starting with the end in mind Of what we wanted to build has been the cornerstone to our success and that planning I think that people often try to shortcut you can't shortcut planning Okay, sounds good and uh one last question if people want to learn more about salutes if they want to get involved So if they are veterans like they're operators, um, if they want to get involved where can they go? How can you get in touch? What's the process? Variety of ways you can hit our website. You can follow our linkedin groups salute mission critical.com is out there We've got an info at salute mission critical.com and they can always reach out to me I'm happy to talk to veterans non veterans anybody that has a passion for this business because it's continuously growing and they'll find out more about our Programs like our military spouse program and the value of that demographic as well to be bringing into the industry The more you dig the more you find out and you may be able to apply what we've done to your business And I'd be happy to share our workforce development model how that works and how it could apply to your business Whether you're in this industry or the other it's tapping into that valuable resource pool of veterans and turning them into great employees Okay, um, I know I say it was the last question But one final one if you have to describe what you're doing for the industry Because I think you're going to be beyond just having an issue actually doing something quite unique For the industry you've had to describe what you're doing in one words What words would you choose? change We're we're changing things because everybody has complained about the personnel shortage for at least the last decade We're showing a way that you can fix this you can fix the personnel shortage And up the game with the quality of resources you're bringing to the table Okay, Lee. Thank you so much Um, thank you And thank you our viewers as well at home for tuning in into jsa tv and jsa broadcasts Don't forget you can also follow our channels social media channels to find out more information about us and the industry Until next time happy networking