 Hey, Gulfconn Giant Nation. Welcome to another episode of the Gulfconn Giant's podcast. Today's guest, Venus Quates, is a woman veteran from the Air Force. She specializes in IT. She's got HUBZone 8A. But more importantly, she knows her business and what she does well and what she doesn't do well. So she's focused down on three distinct industries and we're gonna discuss all that in today's upcoming episode. But let me tell you a reason why you want to hear this particular episode before you click off of this. She was on the Ink 2021, Ink 5000 list ranked number 66 for a whopping 5,600% growth rate over three years. If that's not enough reason for you to tune in today and listen and pay attention and take a whole bunch of notes, I don't know what else is. So thank you for tuning in. Thank you for sticking around. Pull out your paper, your pad, your pen, take a bunch of notes and remember, the problem with the majority of us is we don't have enough connections in our network at the highest levels. Well, I'm bringing you someone today who's achieved tremendous amount of success in her particular industry and she's gonna tell you all about it today. So thank you so much for tuning in. Enjoy this upcoming episode 108 of Gulfconn Giant's podcast. My name is Venus Quates. I'm president and CEO of LaunchTech where we're solving the present and launching the future. We are a systems integrator with a core focus on modernizing technology, architecture and infrastructure. And that's through product support, process transformation and another sweet spot is mission support as well. We do that for customers in the space sector and the financial services, healthcare sectors and public sector as well. You know, it's interesting. Even though I'm an engineer, I'm not a techie. I don't consider myself a techie. So you set up mouthful for me. And I was looking up on your profile, you were a senior enterprise storage engineer. What does that mean? Is it storage like cloud based storage? Is that similar? It wasn't then. So it was when you walk into the data center and you see silos of these big refrigerator skies. Yeah. So towers and towers full of small drives put in, you know. Oh, okay, okay. So back then. So not so much cloud back then in the early 2000s or et cetera. Okay, okay. So it was the actual physical storage. That's where I started. Okay. But today now the stuff that you do. Hybrid. So cloud, physical, et cetera. And not just in from a disaster recovery. So I would say September 11th was that bright or that kickoff time where people knew they couldn't have a single point of failure. So when there was companies that had all their data stored on servers or would have you storage devices in one location and, you know, that one location was no longer. So if you can imagine that taking something so tragic, but imagine that just having one single point of failure when your data should be somewhere else. So in two seconds, you can rent right back up and be, you know, be right back to work. So I would say that the career feel got hot after that time. That makes sense. Actually, no, like right now we're having a natural disaster take place as we speak. So I could imagine if you have your data stored somewhere. Right. Right? Yeah, as soon as they get the power back up you still won't have your data or access to your information. Right. So it could be in another state or somewhere else. It should be somewhere off the grid, somewhere else. All right. So now IT modernization. Explain that for us normal people. IT modernization. Can you imagine an environment? There's a lot in the public sector and kind of why I left the government. I was a government contractor for a while, started in the Air Force and I was a government contractor for a number of years after that. And I was getting all these certifications and these fancy technologies and things like that. But unfortunately the government was super risk averse and they didn't want to adopt anything. So my 20-something year old brain at the time made a conscious decision, I might have been in my 30s then, but made a conscious decision to go to commercial where I knew they were implementing everything. So modernization is taking you from obsolete environment or an environment where things are just outdated and old and bringing you into the new. And it's not just the abrupt. It's holding your hand through that process helping you with the now, but taking a clear and concise view of your people, your processes and technologies and preparing you to get you to the new and the next. Yeah, I can see the government not wanting to do that. I mean, it's different. I don't think most people understand how it can affect your workforce. No, I don't think so. Can you share with us? And a lot of other things. Share with us, can you share with us some of that? Sure, so one of the things if you're attracting a younger talent pool, they know all the new, they know all the shiny things. They are up to speed on the new technology, but if you have a legacy environment where there's things that you've had in there for years that nobody knows except your current talent who are about to retire, if I can recall in the military, you get past a certain rate, you just coast it until you retire and get out. All the young people doing this stuff and you just wanna relax, you know? But it's the same too. You implement that new technology and happy your current workforce is like, I'm out, I'm retiring, you know? But you don't attract new ones, you know what I mean? So it's kind of a happy medium. So you wanna continue to keep that lifecycle going in your environment. So piggybacking on what you just said, actually what I've read, because I do a lot of reading, the government's trying to attract new talent people into the IT space. So that actually, that makes a lot of sense. Now, are you now, okay, you left the government because of that reason, you went to the commercial sector and then now you're back to the government. You know, so who knew that that part of my life was preparing me for such a time as this? The great thing about it is a lot of government contractors, they come out of the government seat and build these companies. So, you know, they already have the network, either, you know, a lot of them who are smart, they may have their first couple of contracts where they came, they know the customer, they know the environment, they have their relationships. After that grace period, they're in. I was on commercial for a while. So as I didn't wanna kind of go through my Rolodex, I think that is government contractor 101 on most people's book. Oh, reach out to your network. Yeah, act to the people that you're in. Right, so I'm looking on LinkedIn, like, what was their name? Like, you know, like, who was, but I mean, I had been around and I didn't know I was gonna start this company. So an advantage for me is that I knew financial services sector, I knew healthcare and I knew all these things because I had been on, in state, because I had been on the commercial side. So while I was building those organic relationships to, I know where the money is though, government contracting. So while I was building the relationships there, I already had the opportunities coming from commercials. So is that multiple streams of income walking in the door and then here we are. Okay, nice, nice. No, I love it. I actually, and you're right, when I see that you work at GDIT, do they, looking back here, I'm looking at, you know, senior enterprise storage in there, instructor consultant, eye brand, consultant, GDIT, which one of those positions do you think prepared you the most for what you're doing today? All of them. It's something that I can, I was always that inquisitive person that wanted to know how much I cost it. You know, I mean, how much did you build your, I don't know, call me nosy, I don't know. I wanted to know. Just always wanted to know that extra step, not just the technology behind it, but the business too. And I think just kind of having that extra layer. I wanted to know who we serve, why we did it. Like all these other things that most people didn't, they wanted to come in, do their job, get that check and go home. So I can draw something from every single situation I've been in, prior businesses I've owned, learning lessons that I won't repeat again, or that helped me, you know, and I could leverage that information and that experience in this company. So every single thing I would say, I can't pinpoint one time in my life that didn't prepare me for right now. Well, I'm thinking if I'm that guy or girl sitting here at my government job, and I'm listening to this, and I'm saying myself, okay, so she's saying I shouldn't reach back in my handbook. Should I go out to the commercial sector first? You get me, people always like, they can try to think one, or like what should they be their next step for them? You know, I would say prepare. So I was in a situation where how I started this company was pretty insane. I've had other businesses before. I just got to the point in my career where, you know, I'll be honest, I realized I was the only minority and the only woman, and I'm pretty sure I had been throughout my whole career except for the military, but, you know, I never paid attention to it because it wasn't an issue for me, you know, but the last place I work, it seemed to be an issue for others. And I had to make a decision, you know, was I going to take a leap of faith and I wasn't scared because I owned businesses before, but never, and it wasn't that they weren't successful, I just wouldn't leave them for what I did for a living. You know what I mean, I love to be in tech. They weren't tech associated at all. So this was the first time I was starting a company doing what I did for a living and that it was a little tend to fear in that. And it was no, I would say the first, I incorporated in 2016 February and that first year was just learning and really figuring out, okay, are you gonna do this? This is what it's gonna take, you know, finding a mentor somewhere cause I didn't have anybody within reach. And I would say prepare well, you know what I mean? Reach out to those people, ask them what they did right, ask them what they did wrong, you know what I mean? And get as much information as you can before you take that leap of faith. No, that's good. That's good. Now you said that your way you start was crazy. What do you mean by that? I don't think if I had thought about it too long then do you have to be slightly, slightly crazy to start a business and government contracts it, just a little thing. It was slightly crazy to start a business. Of insane, you know? It's not for the faint of heart. This is the most difficult thing that we do, you know? Out of everything in all the sectors we play in government contracting is just quite just insane. And I didn't, I just woke up one day and I was like, oh, let me start a government. It literally was probably that crazy. Like, was it? You know, I planned as I went, but the initial thought is it was what it was. Again, I, you know, I've had people that started their businesses during recessions. A lot of people started their business during COVID, right? While other people were closing, people were opening their doors. You're still fairly new in this particular company, 2016. Very new. I would say I started, I started during my own pandemic. Who knew that I would, the first couple of years, divorce caretaker, father, and a coma several times during, you know, those things that, you know, I think people see you for face value when you walk in the door and just assume you have, you put together, you have this going on, they see whatever air that they see, but they don't know that's determination to hustle. You know, that comes from when I leave here, I have to go home and nurse my sick dad, or, you know, I have to go home and put my personal life back together and things like that. They don't know that part. So I think it's probably the people that are the most determined and the most, I don't know, unlike that are, you never know the story behind the scenes. No, I would agree with you. Yeah, no, I, you know, we have to put on our face regardless, you know. So, yeah, I know, I agree 2000. I actually have a situation I'm dealing with today as we are recording this, you know, but you have to come on and you got to go to work and you got to do your job and you have to show up and you have to be present, 100% present. And then when you're finished and you can go back and deal with whatever is affecting you. Let's go back to, you mentioned about taking a bunch of classes and certifications and training and things like that. How would you compare formal education versus self-education? Oh, well, I don't have a degree. Oh, I didn't, none. Okay. So there you go. Oh, yes. Don't have a degree. I know a lot of my, I went to a college prep high school and we got to senior year and I was like, well, I haven't applied for anything. Let's go to the military. And I remember going to the recruiting office. Now, mind you, my dad is prior Navy. I have cousin, one cousin went in a year before I did. And he was much older than I was. And then my grandfather, he was a retired major in the army, uncles were army. So I, I didn't, but that wasn't around the time I was like during my youth, I wasn't a like army or military brat or anything else. But I knew that was, I had an aunt, her husband was in the army and they were overseas. And then she was in technology. And I know I was a nerd. I was breaking things around the house, putting it back together. Okay. My mother hated it, but that's who I was, you know? And I went, literally went to the recruiting office and I signed up and I told my mother after the fact. So of course she was pretty upset, but it was too late. I like, you know, I like those. Those to me are already leadership traits. Those are entrepreneurship traits. Listen, I knew something had to be done. I wasn't going to sit there and do nothing, you know? I know it wasn't time for me to go to college. I'm a, I don't have the Sesame Street attention span, but kind of the, you know, I want to get the information I need to get right now. You know, I don't want to wait four years or whatever. But I do, let me stop there. Everybody's not built like that. You know, sometimes we need some formal education and formal training. I think it's super important. I will say that as I grew older, adult learning with a lot of universities, super beneficial. I've been to more than I can put on my resume. Any type of college, university, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, like all these places have adult learning education where you can just grasp all the information that you need. You know, if you don't want to make the investment into a four year program, two year masters or what have you. So I think it's super beneficial. As I've grown and in the last few years, I've probably consumed so much information that I'm not really sure how my brain can handle anymore. But you talked about Tuck. That was by chance, I literally was sitting at the VA. My phone was going off like crazy. I was in DC at a program that they have for women, veterans and business. And sitting amongst my peers and my phone was just going crazy. It was my operations assistant. And she was like, Hey, there's a call from someone at Tuck. They're trying to give you a scholarship to come to Dartmouth. And I'm like, okay, I recall that signed up for something, but I, you know, I forgot. And that was it. And that started the chain of events that had me in a scholarship for UCLA's Education School at Anderson. You know, there was another one, VIP Veteran Institute of Procurement, which was excellent by the way. And I think those are super valuable. Is that cut and dry information you need it when you need it? Right. No, I agree with you. I actually, it's fun as I, I do have a four degree, but I will say that it's been the continuing education afterwards that has benefited me the most. It served me the most. So yes, and all of my licenses, certificates, everything comes from, like you said, the adult education programs at like community colleges and colleges, that's an extension of them. So, you know, I would agree. What's one thing that was hard when you started business that's still hard today? That's interesting. I would say it's always enough talk to a few other entrepreneurs that will have the same sentiments and it's building that right team. I mean, early on it was you had to hire who you could afford. And then, you know, it's your baby, you build the foundation, the core values were birth from your lips, you know, and unfortunately, everybody doesn't echo the same when they come in the door. Some people just want to dive and they're just waiting for their check. You know, so as you grow, that has evolved for me. And I, I'm honest. I sell our story. I sell, you know, a lot of other things. I think there's a preconceived notion. Obviously, when you walk in the door, where we sit now, where our headquarters sit, it's not too many people that look like me. I'm one of two actually women, brown women that own technology companies here. So the questions I've been asked during an interview are some that you would probably not think that you'd ever be asked. So that was a bit difficult early on, just like being frustrated, like, you know, your determination, but just trying to sell that same thing to somebody else. Like, what do you mean if I wake up one day and decide I want to go out of business? Like, no, like it's not a thing, you know? But it's completely better now because I know what angle. I just sell our honesty. The same thing we do for our customers. We're committed. I am a big component of growing people. And just taking, I have people walking the door and give us 30, 90, 30, 60, 90, you know, where do you want to be as a person or as a, you know, and also how can we help you grow personally and professionally and things like that too? So investing in your people and encouraging them to invest themselves as well. No, that's true. I like that. No, right now I actually tweeted something and I said, I'm thankful for anyone who shows up at the work these days. I just went, I went real basic. I was like, look, listen, I now give all my Uber drivers tips. I don't care if I go around the corner because I'm happy they picked me up. It's, you know, everything closes early. Everything closes because, you know, there's not food service workers. So I'm just, I'm grateful for everyone that come to work. I am too. Grocery store. Grocery store. Right. I waited in line. I was in Huntsville. Been in Huntsville for the last few weeks. And I was trying to kill time before meeting the only thing that was in front was a McDonald's. It's like, okay, I'll get french fries. I waited 40 minutes for a small fry. No, no, I know. I was, this is my parents of the day. It was 9 a.m. Every place I went to, there's lines around the corner. I said, okay, let me go to Burger King. There's nobody. Well, there's a guy standing there and said, we're closed. I said, it's 9 a.m. They were closed. They were closing. I guess they didn't have enough people showed up to work. You know what? I think it's a wake up call though, for some people to do better, increase your wages, treat people better. You know, I think that's what it is. Even no matter what level you're in, not everybody is just out for the money. I had somebody that we literally just hired and I read her the recap she had with the recruiter and we do real in-depth conversation. By the time it gets to me, I want to know you. I want to know who you are. But the note she left was, she wants to be a part of a family environment where people actually care that she comes to work and care about her contributions to the company. And I'm looking at that and looking at other people that we're interviewing too and they all said kind of the same thing. So it wasn't about the money. It was about how they were treated. So I think this is really a wake up call for a lot of other business owners, et cetera, to just check how you're treating the people that mean the most to you and are the most valuable and that is your people. Yeah, I think that's very well said. I find that a lot of the people that work for big companies, it's very easy to pull them away because that's what they want. They're looking for that. They're tired of being treated as a number or as the slogan of the company. Or that means nothing to anyone or a color that the uniforms that they wear. So at least in my industry, they can come and work at shorts or flip flops and they still get their job done, they're happy. That appeals to a lot of folks. We'll see about that. I think it comes to your construction site. Your construction jobs and shorts and flip flops. They don't go to the jobs of office people. Okay. No, not their jobs. No, not here to go to jobs. Office people, office staff. No, the guys who go to jobs, they actually love. I had a guy that told me, he liked using porta-johns. I guess it was a, you know when he did something when you were younger or something, you know, one of those like affinity type things? He's like, he's a porta-johns. I'm like... And that's why he showed off. He wanted to be outside. They hate the office. So no, I was simply talking about into where people, but the people on the outside, they love being outside with the guys and things like that. And they love being in the trenches. So they like their boots. I don't like boots. I don't like jeans. So they like boots and jeans. But no, I had another check coming to that interview that they all wear hoodies at work. So you could do it. You can, I'm not a, you know, listen, around the way girl probably still have my bamboo earrings with my name in them. I do. From the 80s, I absolutely still have them with my name. So I don't know. We have bun in the hair, bun up weekends, where is those we have work to do? We might show up in the office on a Saturday. All of us are looking like, who done it and why, but we have work to do. You know, we have... That's good, there you go. So I'm not so rigid in that at all, you know, but I just want us to obviously be focused on a mission and whatever we have on. No, I agree. I love it. I love it. So now you said, again, you want to find out more about the people. Tell us about yourself. What was, so I know high school, like you said, you didn't graduate, but you went to the army. When you were younger, what other, I know you said you were really smart, but like, did you have any other signs or indications of being an entrepreneur when you were younger? Always been. I used to, I'm the kid that asked my mother for supplies so I could make something to sell. I remember asking her for the rolls of tickets, you know, like when you go to a amusement park or something, they break off one of the tickets and give you one. I asked her for a roll of raffle tickets and I will sell them to the old people at church to just thought my cheeks were cute, you know, and we'll sell them to them and go make something at home. And that's what they were winning. So I would do the whole raffle and they will win like some art or something I made at home. So I was always like this. My mom said she knew that I was going to be an entrepreneur. I used to, my grandmother was like one of my first formal customers. I should charge her, ask for a word processor one year and that's to charge her to create documents. She was a president of a women's club. And I used to type them up, but I absolutely sent her an invoice too. So, always, it's not for, anybody that knows me at any point in my life, they know this part, military, same thing. I realized that you couldn't get certain products overseas. So I used to get the products from the States and have a whole sell them out my room. I'm sorry to military. I'm not sure if I should have been doing that, but I did. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. You know, same way back in return, you know, it was a lot of other things, just shipping things back and forth. So I was international trading and things. I was into that, you know? So I don't know. I've always been like, I've always been like this. I love it. So then 2016, I know you said it was a crazy started. You just said, let me start and do it. So actually incorporated two businesses on the same day. One was called Happy Chicks Rock and somewhere in, see, it's crazy person that starts. All entrepreneurs are crazy. So same to nine, 2016, I incorporated what is now launch tech was called something else at the time. And thankfully I changed the name because it was my married name. It was not a laughter. But and then I started this Happy Chicks Rock. So that was a women's empowerment or deal, just showing people that it doesn't matter what you've been through, you use your past to propel you forward. So and then you could be happy, you know what I mean? Not that quintessential happy with everybody else that Instagram happy, all that kind of stuff. But really your own kind of happy, you know? So I had a few events, mind you, I had just come back up North maybe a couple of years before that I didn't have any friends here. I didn't have anything, no female relationships. But I wanted to start a women's empowerment group and event, like who does that? No female friends, but I'm a master at in the beast at branding and marketing. So that's all that took, my first event was sold out. The second one was also people came, Canada, Georgia, Cali, they came from New York City here. They came up and down the East coast to- What do you say here, referring to Huntsville? So I'm in Buffalo, no, I'm actually in Buffalo. In Buffalo. So in Buffalo, New York, right? So- I know you have three offices, Huntsville. I do, I do. In Buffalo? Okay, all right. So that was what I started first. And it wasn't that I didn't think that would be successful because it was, it was just, I knew it was a time to step out of where I was. I already had the goods. I think that particular run was to pull me out from being an introvert into the limelight because I have to do this now. You know what I mean? I'm literally an introvert. If I'm extrovert because I own a company, but otherwise I'm in my house, do not call my phone. I'm cool, you know, I'm that person. But, you know, I think that was partly for me. And like you mentioned earlier, what part in your life prepared you for this? It's all these little things along the way that I think you can draw from that you're not sure why you have to do it, but you're feeling that tug in your spirit that you have to. And you're not sure that it can prepare you for this. I probably wouldn't be ready for this if I hadn't done that, you know, if I hadn't spoke in front of hundreds and done this and done that, I'm not sure I'll be ready here. You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, yeah, that makes sense. No, and that's great that you can actually, you know, say, hey, my time spent here was well spent and these are the things that I took from it. So, you know, that's great. And it seems to me and looking at your backstory is that you didn't choose these positions based on money. It looks like you choose them based on learning, experiences and other things like that. As I grew in my career, probably became about experiences, but early on, absolutely all about the money. Just to be honest, I was in my 20s, I got off the military, I had a security clearance. I know early on, you know, I had a great run. I was in the military in Korea and Italy. And I got off the military and went to work for General Dynamics in England. And I probably, I loved England. I loved, actually it was overseas for six years. So I just loved the whole experience. I think I had a reverse culture shock when I came back to the States. You know, I actually preferred, yes, being overseas, but every job along the way, I mean, people with top secret clearances doing what I did and technology and the space I did, it was the same recruiters calling you for the same job. So I was like, wait a minute, am I hot commodity? You know, it was before I knew better, but I literally can admit that I was just jumping ship, you know, for that next 10,000, the next 20,000, I think people that knew how the industry was in the early 2000s, they would probably have, they probably wouldn't admit to it and they'd be lying, but it would be the same thing. But yeah, early on, but I think later I knew better, you know, I knew about not burning bridges and, you know, I was focused on being a professional in my career and just gathering all the skill sets and not wanting to be in an environment where I didn't have any room to grow. So I chose the position so I could have, I'll always talk about diversifying your portfolio in every area. I believe in your career and your personal finances and your business, things like that. And that's just making sure you're not a one-trick pony, making sure you know the ins and outs of your job who's connected to who you may have to pass your customers. I wanted to know everything. And I think you'll find that in my background. Well, no, that's pretty, that's intense. When you left the commercials, not left, but when you decide you're gonna go into the government sector, who was your first agency you worked with? Who did I work with first? As a business, wanna start at the business? As your business, yeah, your business. Lunchtime. Actually, it wasn't federal. So we got a state contract in 2018, pretty nice size state contract. And they had a big push to subcontract the work to minority owned companies. So I know I'm a big proponent of making sure you use those certifications because they're valuable, not using them as the first thing. Obviously know how to communicate your value proposition and things like that first, but they're definitely cool to get your foot in the door. And that's how we won, to be honest. We didn't have too much competition when it came to diverse companies and we won. It started off really small. The statement of work was really small, but it was the state of New York, Empire State Development. Okay, and then on the federal side? From the federal side, we did an installation as a subcontract, like a third tier with NASA. We actually did a few DOD Army. We did another opportunity with Air National Guard. And it just kind of continued from there. Okay, all right. All right. Do you find there are any differences for you working at the state versus the federal? Yes, I think state, federal and commercial completely different beast. Early on, I was hiring for people who knew in general the job. However, as we progressed, they needed to know the hardest thing that we did. And that was federal contracting. They needed to know the jargon and things like that because the learning curve for somebody that has never been in that environment is too great. They might be proficient even down to the HR person. She knows federal contracting first. You know what I mean? It's just listening, being in the room upon acronyms and you're like, are they talking to foreign language? You know, it is like that if you don't know. So, you know, it's easier to me to grasp commercial, easier to me to grasp state. Again, government is probably the most difficult thing that we do with the legalities behind it, policies and things like that too. Oh, that's good. Now, you said commercial. Commercial is like, I don't know, give me an example of commercial client, like Walgreen. Sure, no. So they only plan those two spaces or three spaces, the space sector, financial services and healthcare. So we don't have commercial. Actually, we have one wild card. They called me during the pandemic as an SOS. And I said, okay. And they're actually now our largest commercial customer and that's Robert Haff international. M&T Bank is also a customer of ours. We've actually been in talks with US Bank and P&T Bank as well. We have healthcare conglomerates that are customers of ours and we've done, we actually, we just won two awards for IT modernization effort that's gonna be starting here shortly. And that's for a trauma center and healthcare conglomerate as well. So, you know, we stay in our lane. It's not, it might sound like we're doing a lot as a small, but we literally do the same thing in each of those sectors. We just speak their language, you know. That's brilliant. Is that something to recommend to a fellow small business entrepreneur coming up? Absolutely. In the beginning, you know how it is. My capability statement when we started we had about, we had 2,763 things that we did. You know what I mean? Okay. We can't do that. Can you? Yeah. How many, how many 2,000, how many 2,000 you said? You can't even say can you? Yes. You know, we did everything. It is so silly. Half the time you spend it trying to figure out what it is. But it's okay. I understand. You're trying to get the work, you know. But as you go, don't, unless you're doing this major thing that only you can do and it's going to be plentiful work and plentiful opportunities. I want to say hone in so small that, you know, you only have two customers to work from and you're competing it with 10,000 other businesses on those two customers. Don't do that. But, you know, make sure you narrow it down enough that you can speak to every last thing that's on your capability statement. If you ask me one thing on, I can speak to anything. I think it helps that I've learned and I didn't realize this that a lot of tech company owners have not been in tech before. You know, they make no business but they don't know technology. So I realized for my customers that it's a breath of fresh air that I can actually speak to the stakeholders as well being at that to my background, you know. And so that's refreshing. It's definitely that you know your stuff. And if you have a bunch of things on your capability statement, it's impossible that you know them intimately. So narrow down your focus to digestible bits, you know what I mean? So you can actually communicate that with your customers. How long did it take you to get that? Not that long. Okay. It's taking me off. I was just like, how many people were questioning, like, who do all of this? Like, you know, like three people in your company. Like, so. I, as you can imagine, people send me those kind of capability statements. And I just have a hard time. I mean, obviously I can say it very easily but I have a hard time convincing. I'm not convincing enough. So I need people like you to help convince folks of this because they're like, yeah, but yeah, but yeah, but. No, you don't do that. You don't do, you can't do that. Not saying you can. You could, but you don't. But just narrow that down. So start with, you know, I don't know five things but not 35, if that's too much, you know? So you can narrow it down quite a bit. How did you choose the ones that you narrowed it down? Maybe that's a good question to ask. So I think it's important to pay attention to the details. So the first thing I did was narrow down my customer segments, not trying to pitch to any and everybody. And even when I mentioned financial services and public sector, it's not everybody in financial services specific, you know? It may be banks over 10,000, like early or on in the game. I think when you are small, you think you need to work with small entities too. But I didn't, that wasn't my career. I've only dealt with enterprise customers. So why in the world would I go and work with small businesses? Because I, you know, it's that you want to get your feet wet, you're not as confident, you're not sure they'll hire you or what have you. But the smalls working with another small business they want the most for $2.50. They want to pay you $2.50 an hour or for the entire project to do the most. And I was like, okay. So I narrowed down our customer base, only enterprise customers. We are not, people call all the time, oh, can you do this for my business? No, we only work with financial services, public sector space, you know, healthcare. And not even that. Like again, we have that. We have that wildcard in Robert Hath and others but it's not taking us away from, or into a different capability. Like we still do the same thing we do for Robert Hath. We do that for all our customers. And it made sense for us, you know, it made complete sense for us. But I think narrow your customer segments and then figure out what they need for the government, for the federal government. It's in the congressional submissions. It's in the news. Figure out what that particular army needs. Even drawn a little deeper. Navy, NAV, or a space war. Like where do you want to work? And, you know, what need, what are their pain points? Draw a little bit deeper. I think it's not those 10 things. It's probably two of those things. Focus on that for that customer. And then find other customers that need that exact thing. And I think that's how you build that out. Okay. How did you find that in the commercial sector? So for commercial, I took what I knew. You know, I work for a few large banks. I work for Citi. I work for M&T Bank. So I had the experience there. I knew what their infrastructure was like because I worked there. You know what I mean? I communicated with all their teams. I was on projects from state side and international. So, you know, and then those were the inquisitive points where I was, had an inkling somewhere in my mind that it was gonna get to a point where I would own my own. So I needed to know, okay, you charge your internal team 200 something dollars an hour for me, but you pay me X. Right. Wow, that margin is nice. You know what I mean? It's picking up on those like little things, but infrastructure wise, I know it. You know, not too many banking customers or financial services customers do things completely different. They kind of use the same software and hardware. You know what I mean? It's a repeatable knowledge that you can take from customer to customer. But you know them intimately. You followed, you know who their CEOs were. You follow the news. You know, I have alerts that come for every single customer and target that we have, you know, the customers that we want. So if I ever have a conversation, I can mention some really intimate things about your company, your infrastructure that you may not, small businesses don't come to the table with, you know, so. That's nice. I like that one. I like that. Interesting. That's good. No, and you know, how do you, I'm looking at, like you said, space, sector, financial services, health care. You touched on some really good points which were small businesses think we have to work with other small businesses and I'll say with the start small, like those are those common myths that people talk about. How do you combat that? Help me out. So I didn't really have a model. Like I didn't, I wasn't around anybody who had done this before. I knew of government contractors because I worked for them. I worked for them before. And you know, I know some things that they did completely wrong. Like I never knew who my CEOs were, who appointed contacts that the company was. I knew the person that paid me and that's about it. You know, who I serve was a customer. So it's certain things like that that I've done differently within my own company. But in terms of modeling a business, I am that person who will be at an event. I always traveled to DC to wherever there was a government function, you know, so much so that people thought I lived in other states cause I would always be there. And I would see a CEO given his, this is how we grew or were fantastic on stage and not saying I was stalking anybody cause that is not cool and that is illegal. I wouldn't do that. But I may have sent you nice message on LinkedIn like, can I buy five minutes of your time? I walk with you to the airport, you know what I mean? And just ask people what they did wrong. You know, what are some of the things they would change? And that's how I grew. You know, I made up mentors. I didn't have people again to model or to map this company out. But as we went along, I think you'll know, give yourself enough time for those things to work. You know, whether it's a quarter, two quarters, if it's not working and switch and do something else, you know what I'm saying? So I think you'll know, be intuitive as a business owner and know what's working and what's not working. Is there anything that you can remember that one of those people that you've met, kind of haphazardly gave you that sticks with you today? A couple of things, pay your people handsomely. And those are the ones that will kind of stick with you. But I've added to that, you know, knowing that not everybody comes for a check. They come with how they're valued and, you know, just seeing inspiration and you always pour into people. That's my personality, you know? Not unsolicited advice type of thing, but even the listening, you know, to people and, you know, sometimes as a leader, you're a counselor too. So, you know, it's like all those, I don't think it's just about the money, but that's one thing, pay the people handsomely to get them in the door. But also I think that's paying people in your kindness, in your, you know, leadership and all those things too, that it's not just monetary. But that's probably one of the things and definitely being yourself. Okay. I think we get into this mode sometimes with dimming your light. And I've definitely, you know, I can definitely see that I've done that sometimes just dimming my light to make other people feel comfortable. And, you know, I don't do that anymore. I'm unapologetically myself, you know? Always professional, you know, that's just in my DNA, but I want to show up as myself so we can let other people behind us know that it's okay. You can look like me or you can, I'm in heels during the week, but definitely have my Jordans and my sweatpants on on the way in here in the ponytail on the weekend. That's just how I roll. Tim's and some cargo pants. That's me on a Saturday, you know? No, no, I like that, I like that. I mean, that one, even for me being my authentic self, that one's hard. And I think it's hard for a lot of us that, like you said, you're coming to a world where you're the only one or the only person. So, yeah, that's good. Did you start doing that when you start the business or was that something you started doing in your job? Or, cause I know you said you had some issues at one of your jobs before with you being the only person that looked like you? Yeah, and not that they didn't know, I was actually fluent for interviews so they knew, definitely knew what I looked like, but I may have been the first to hold that position. And I don't think that is a badge of honor being the first person of color and the first woman. I think that's ridiculous, especially we're in 2021. And it's like, most of the time I'm like, serious, you know, why am I the first? But now I take that badge, cause I know I can't be the last. So I have to do my due diligence to make sure that's it. So I think I've, I probably started that early in my career cause you can be too much for people when you're being yourself, you know, and you think you're quieting yourself down but you're still too much. And I'm like, oh, like it's so cool. It's a lot to just, you know what I mean? It's so freeing to just be you. I think just as long as I know I'm 100% prepared, I know my stuff, you might judge me from the door but as soon as I open my mouth and I know the subject matter like the back of my hand and, you know, I'm personable, I'm giving you the confidence that if you hire launch tech, you will be good to go. You know, all these other things, I think that's dispelling any preconceived notions. That's, you know what I mean? So I come with myself and then after I open my mouth, I give you a nod like, okay, let me dial it back cause I was wrong, you know what I mean? I think that's important. So hopefully, you know, other men, women, you know, people of color as well, they learn to do that too. Well, I love that you said you come prepared, right? So it's like, hey, I know this thing in and out, right? Better than, and it's funny cause I remember telling people things like that. So I love that statement that you come prepared. And that, I find that most of the time when people are not confident because they're not prepared. It's not always because we're black or always because we're women. It's not, sometimes you came and you didn't have yourself to get there, period. That's why. You know, you showed up with a piss poor product. That's what it is, you know? And let's be honest with ourselves and just that's not always the ordeal. You know, everybody is not always racist in this situation. It's, you know, but know that if you come and show up as your best self. And sometimes I just had a conversation with one of my team members this morning. Sometimes the project or the opportunity requires us to show up as better and more than our best selves, you know what I mean? So you have to be ready to pivot too, but, you know, it's not always what we think it is. Oh, I agree. I slap a thousand percent sign on the window, I would. Any, again, I know you have a lot of coursework that you took, but outside of the actual coursework, any books that you recommend to people that you give to folks out there? None. I am a Googler. I Google everything. I love Google is like my best friend. I have stock in Google. You know, that is what I did. If I didn't know the answer or if I couldn't, I didn't have a friend to phone, you know, so couldn't do the phone friend thing. But that's how I did it. It was that piece of information that I read. I do, I guess everybody consumes information differently. And I'm the one that likes to listen and or just put images around me because you don't even realize you're manifesting these things. I have, you know what I mean? I have that. Yeah, tell me what you got. What do you have around you? What's funny? I have a NASA logo. That's my target. My name is Venus. Why not? You know, we need to be. That's why we have space as a target. It's not that simple and not that crazy, but a little different. No, it's true. But I do have a sign that says she confidently trusts the Lord to take care of her. And that is something that's reassuring to me. I am probably more spiritual person, my mother's a minister. And I always make sure that there's never a doubt. I've never had a fear that we weren't going to be successful. I always have that confidence in the morning that it's not just me. It's the little girl behind me that needs to see me in this position so she can, you know, carry out her destiny. It's always other things. So I have little reminders around me that this is what I need to be doing every day and always show up as your best. I have the Inc. 5000 logo that I took 2020 off from last year. And I put 2021 because I knew we were going to be on the list this year. And lo and behold, we were on the list this year. I have Dave Stewart, who is the president of WWT on my list because that sites on. I mean, I have a real mentor, but I do have some around me. People who I kind of follow and they've done it. You know, I follow their information and their teachers, what they did wrong, what they did right. You know what I mean? Like I think some people think that because they don't have a live and direct mentor or they don't have like all these things that people think you need in business, go find one on the internet. They don't, you know what I mean? Just listen to their interviews or whatever else and draw inspiration from it. It may not be one on one, but, you know, that's close enough. So just little bits and pieces around me. No, you can learn a lot from that. And you started talking about manifesting. I love that. I totally believe in that. And I believe in a spiritual world. And, you know, I say it to people and I share with people. And one example is like, you know, I've written a couple of books and when I'm working on my third book, I've surrounded myself with books, right? Books that I have read and books that I was from the experiences of the authors, how they wrote it, the way that, you know, so that you hit a hot button of mine, which is great. I like that. Listen, I don't, I mentioned this a lot that I didn't. Some people won't start because they don't have that support system around them. And that wasn't a barrier for me. I knew, when I tell you I knew in my gut and every day I know this is something I'm destined to do. There was never a question, never did, even as hard as it got, never did I want to quit doing this because I know it's something that I'm supposed to be doing. I will always, you know, hustle so hard for lunch tech and, you know, our customers and things like that just because I know I'm supposed to be here. So, but it's those little sprinklers of things around you. Half of my vision board manifested this year, the Army contract, the Air National Guard, the Air Force, like all of these things came to pass. And, you know, I think it's just, if you put it out there, you start to believe that it's yours, it's real, you know? And something that sounds silly to others, but I know it works for me, so I'm gonna continue to do it. Oh, it works for everyone that I've known that's done it. You know, like you said, those things started to become your dominating thoughts in your mind. And just like if you want to buy a car and you, you know, you want to buy a Honda Accord, you start to see a Honda Accord everywhere. Everywhere, right. They were always there the whole time. You just didn't have that thought leading your mind. So I agree with that. That was good. Anything else, we kind of got into the vision board haphazardly. You know, what else other kind of tricks, things that you're doing? I don't want to say trick, but just things that you do that, you find works for you. Similar to the vision board. What other things have you done? That's a big thing for me. So much so that I've turned somebody that was completely against them and thought it was hilarious into a believer. He started talking to his child about them and I don't know, they're going to do one together or something. But, you know, because they've seen it come to pass, I've sent a picture to them. I don't normally share it with people because I think those are your personal intimate things. And you don't want anybody's negativity or their, you know, small beliefs on what you can do. I mean, you don't want that to infiltrate your hustle and your grind and all these things. But, you know, I think you can't deny that. Like I literally put these things into the atmosphere and they came and that's not just because they came out of the atmosphere, but I worked too. You know, I worked while I waited. And I think that's important. What other things do I do? I work my tail off, you know what I mean? I can't think of anything else other than this company. I do have a balance for sure. I'm a caretaker of my dad. You know, my mom is here as well. And I think you have these triumphs and these trials and tribulations all at the same time, you don't know whether to be happy or sad or all these other things. But it's just being committed to what you set out to do in the first place. That's a huge thing for me. That's one of our core values in our company and my own personal core value as well is that commitment part. And whatever helps you to be committed is stay committed to what you've destined to do in the mission and your customers and all that thing. I think it's different for everybody. I can tell you what worked for me. That's why I don't get into reading a ton of books anymore because that's what worked for them. You know what I mean? Everybody doesn't have the same environment, the same foundation, the same, a lot of other things. So, you know, I chew the meat and spit out the fat, you know, and kind of use what works for me in this place that I'm in right now. And that's what I do. So I love it. I've never heard of David Stewart before. Dave Stewart? I've never heard of David Stewart. Google, pretty smart guy. He owns Worldwide Technology. He is a billionaire. The company is a multi-billion dollar entity. But I think he's also a person of faith and does great work in his community and things like that too. And WWT is actually a partner of ours. We do work with them on the state side of the house and indirectly through another entity that they own. We've just formed a partnership through one of our partners, Verizon as well. So we've worked with them on several areas. I don't know the CEO, but he's literally been on my vision board forever. And then now, this year, we became a partner of theirs. So it's things like that. You know what I mean? You don't know what way it's coming in my mind. It was gonna be something else, but it came in form of a partnership and we were introduced by somebody I just met this year. And then again, introduced by a partner of ours that vetted us, which is Verizon. So we had Google him. A brilliant, brilliant man for sure. I'll Google. Sounds like things are coming together for you. They are. I'm a kid from a crazy little city and where not many people had high expectations of us for me. I was raised by a single mother who always, she didn't realize she was pouring into me and encouraging me to affirm certain things early on. And I don't think that's how she was even raised. But she would tell me, always tell me, you can be anything you wanna be. Don't ever let them see you sweat. Like things that I remember as a child, don't just give your worst, give your best. Like all these things she repetitively said to me as a young kid. And I still can't believe that I'm in a place that I am now, but she's never surprised, you know? So I don't know. Does she say you have ADHD? My family tells me that all the time, but to me. No, she's never surprised at what I've accomplished cause she saw it in me when I was young. So, you know. Yeah, no, I would imagine hearing the stories about you sending your grandma invoices. Absolutely. Grandma got the bill. Did grandma pay? Grandma paid the bill. Grandma got the bill and paid the bill. My grandfather, he knows. I used to watch him. He was, again, I told you was a major, retired major in the army from there. He retired like several times. He retired from the hospital. He was a drug and alcohol counselor at somewhere else. He retired from there, retired like a hundred times. And then after all of that service, he yet still created a nonprofit that taught inner city kids how to play golf. And I was actually one of the first, you know, kids in the class. So that's where I got my golf talent from. But I used to watch him. We hours of the night, he was writing grants for, you know what I mean? Just doing all these things. So, you're talking about, he's no longer here. He passed away in 2013. But my biggest supporter, my biggest champion, I still, to this day, never take his number out my phone. That's the first number I go to almost text or almost call, you know what I mean? But think of those things and remembering that foundation that you came upon, even if your life wasn't the best, you know? I didn't have much growing up. It never felt, I didn't know I didn't have much, but for some reason it always felt like enough. But it's drawn into those things and that made you into the person you are today, you know? I didn't know you played golf. I do. I didn't find that anywhere. You didn't find that anywhere? I did a poor job. Well, great thing. I guess this is a shame and spot for them. We just sponsored women in defense golf tournament that's coming up Tennessee Valley. And I was happy to do that. We're the golf, golf ball sponsor of that. But I love to tie those two worlds together just because of the foundation for my grandfather. But I'm probably a little rusty now because I haven't been out there for quite a while. Definitely, you know, learn well or we don't. That's good. What's a recent purchase you made off of Amazon that made you happy? A recent purchase. I just bought some gift cards for my team. That's what I've done this week. Other than that, I bought some house freshener, limoncello that they discontinued. They didn't discontinue, but it was out of stock on Bath & Body Works. So that made me happy because I like my surroundings to smell good. That's interesting. We have a lot of convenient connection. Do you have plants? Any surroundings? Any plants? I have Bob. Bob was in my office. And I'm surprised Bob is still alive. Bob is like about three and a half years old now. And Bob is still alive and kicking for some reason. There were, during the pandemic, I like most people went to Lowe's and Home Depot and bought all these plants because I didn't want to be here by myself. But they're all dead, but Bob's still here. So I... What's your for Bob? I tried to be a plant person. It didn't work out. I'm not sure what happened, but... We cheer for Bob. All right. Let people know how they can reach you. What's the best way to reach out? I'm most active on LinkedIn and my name, Venus Quates, V-E-N-U-S-Q-U-A-T-E-S. Also, company website, welaunchtech.com. The company name is LaunchTech, but we LaunchTech is our position statement. We do launch technology. And that's where you can find us. And some last parting thoughts? I will always tell everyone to be prepared. And though it's not a requirement when you start a business, take five minutes out of your time and bless somebody else. Pay it forward. Give two seconds, five minutes of your time, just to respond to someone else and encourage them along the way. Because be what you needed when you were going and starting your business. Just think about that. Thank you so much. No problem, thank you for having me. All right, see you.