Making a Giant with Maria and Liseth Velez. Women, veteran, CEO talks about her first win and the future

03/03/21 • 53 min

In today’s episode of Making a Giant we present to you veteran business owner Liseth Velez, CEO of LJV Development. She has recently become a superstar at the Govcon EDU breakout sessions as her company continues to land contract after contract both at the federal and state government levels.

Started out in the military as an HVAC Technician, Liseth is no stranger to hardwork or the construction industry. When she formed her company LJV, she immediately started to win small projects and dove into the private sector flipping homes. Yet even with her past experience and revenue under her belt, the government sector was risk averse and wanted to see more.

I remember the very first time meeting her at a conference here in South Florida where I moderated a panel discussing government contracting. Miss Velez attended the conference while she was supposed to be recovering from a recent surgery and was walking on crutches. She literally Uber-ed 45 minutes from her hotel to Miami to attend an event in another city exposing herself to like minded individuals which I would say is pretty remarkable.

Many of us out there would rather make excuses than to do the hard work. Liseth did the opposite. She took advantage of her time off and used it to help catapult her business, I knew at that point she would be a star in the making. Learning that she was in the construction industry serving New England as do I, we exchanged information and has been friends since that day. I’m so happy for her success and can’t wait to see what the next few years has in store for LJV.

Over the next 60 minutes, Maria and Liseth discuss her early beginnings as a newly formed company with no federal past performance doing all that she can to get early wins. Enjoy this episode with the two of my favorite students Maria and Liseth.

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083: Anthony Closson - How A USAF veteran built a massive contracting company from the ground up

Anthony Closson is a USAF Veteran and the Founder and CEO of Colossal Contracting- an SDVOSB Value-Added Reseller and IT Solutions Provider that has broken away from the pack bringing them to the forefront of the Defense and Civilian Industries by embodying their foundation as a company built upon military core values.

Anthony brings to the table more than a decade of executive leadership experience and over 15 years of managing IT integrations. He is also a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) and holds a Master’s of Business Administration with a Specialization in Project Management.

While deployed in Iraq and when working stateside at Joint Base Andrews, Closson learned first hand about the value of the relationship between government employees and civilian contractors. Taking that knowledge, experience, work ethic and sense of responsibility for the success of any of their customer’s missions, Anthony established Colossal as a dynamic force within a crowded and challenging industry.

A decade later, Colossal now supports mission-critical systems and services across dozens of government agencies on a global scale, growing the company every year since its inception in 2009. Colossal now holds five GWAC’s and an array of agency specific BPAs and IDIQs.

Anthony’s intensity and motivation are equal in business and philanthropy as Colossal is an avid sponsor for nonprofit organizations. Last year Colossal was selected as the Disabled American Veterans (DAV) Small Employer of the Year for their efforts in hiring and supporting the members of our armed services. The company is proud to claim that more than 1 in 4 employees are veterans, reservists or members of the national guard. Anthony led Colossal’s first ever “22 For You Day” partnering with Mission22, a non-profit dedicated to veteran suicide prevention and raised over $30,000 for the cause.

As his company continues to expand, Closson has not lost sight of the importance of taking care of your customers personally and specifically embodying the role of a servant leader by guiding the entire company to operate with intentionality and integrity. He is humbled by this opportunity to share his journey, his successes, his mistakes and the lessons he has learned with other small business owners and industry professionals so they can too can succeed.

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undefined - 084: Aliahu "Alli" Bey - How A Multi-million dollar government contract opened opportunities into the Cybersecurity and Compliance space

084: Aliahu "Alli" Bey - How A Multi-million dollar government contract opened opportunities into the Cybersecurity and Compliance space

Aliahu “Alli” Bey started his government contracting journey in 2015 after he was awarded a multi-million-dollar U.S. Air Force tactical weapons support contract. One portion of the contract provided cybersecurity on ruggedized deployable laptops.

Mr. Alli Bey reached out to a former business colleague, Adam Austin, owner of a cyber company in Pennsylvania. Mr. Austin’s experience and involvement was a no-brainer and he was promptly brought on as a partner that led to developing Totem’s Cybersecurity Planning Tool, a revolutionary organizational software that meshes perfectly with cybersecurity and compliance requirements for our existing DoD contracts.

Mr. Alli Bey, CEO of Haight Bey & Associates took expertise in supporting meteorological stations into a business. The veteran owned company specializes in industrial, commercial, and government systems sustainment and cybersecurity engineering solutions.

Mr. Alli believes that proper cybersecurity and compliance are much more than pretty packaging and eye-catching graphics. As they have been awarded and currently execute government contracts, they help others customize a plan to get their company up to speed. Their company also provides cybersecurity consulting and training services to help others get compliant and secure through a very competitive cost.