September 27, 2023 • 27 mins
Ali Reza Manouchehri
MetroStar is a leading digital information technology (IT) services and solutions provider for the public sector. Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Ali Reza Manouchehri co-founded MetroStar as a student at George Mason University in 1999. Studying philosophy, he developed a passion for people, design, and technology.
The unique culture at MetroStar is rooted in Ali’s unwavering quest to put his people first, and he has built a team of curious go-getters. Through his vision for MetroStar, the company has earned respect in the industry and grown from a small team to over 400 people.
Ali has successfully led MetroStar to graduate from a small business and is charting the course for a trajectory to navigate the full and open market successfully. Through his strategic focus, MetroStar supports a unique customer portfolio for a mid-sized company. MetroStar supports customers in over 30 programs across various agencies, including Department of State (DOS), Department of Defense (DOD), the Presidential Information Technology Community (PITC), United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), and Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
Under Ali’s leadership, MetroStar recently won three multi-million-dollar contracts supporting the Marines, USCIS, and the Air Force. In addition to these wins, the team’s created impact through countless tech challenges, hosting in-person PyData events, and launching the newest DevSecOps solution—Quartz; all of which push them forward and build dynamic tech communities.
MetroStar has been a 12x awardee for the nationally recognized Computerworld's Best Places to Work in IT award, and Ali’s commitment throughout the years has won him a 2022 WashingtonExec Chief Executive Officer award.
As MetroStar develops, technology advances, and AI shapes the world, our biggest strength continues to be our people. Ali and his team are adamant about creating a diverse working environment. MetroStar’s workforce is 49% people of color, exceeding the EEOC benchmark for high-tech companies, and MetroStar's management leadership is 49% female. Our DE&I program also hosted three annual International Women's Day panels, supporting thought-leaders and women in tech along the Capital Beltway.
Furthermore, Ali’s passion for education has resulted in MetroStar maintaining six formal partnerships with universities across the Nation, including three Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU)’s. Additionally for the community, after years of partnership, Ali served as the Executive Challenger for the DC-Metro region for Light The Night with The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS), and MetroStar raised over fourty-thousand dollars.
MetroStar is a leading digital information technology (IT) services and solutions provider for the public sector. Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Ali Reza Manouchehri co-founded MetroStar as a student at George Mason University in 1999. Studying philosophy, he developed a passion for people, design, and technology.
The unique culture at MetroStar is rooted in Ali’s unwavering quest to put his people first, and he has built a team of curious go-getters. Through his vision for MetroStar, the company has earned respect in the industry and grown from a small team to over 400 people.
Ali has successfully led MetroStar to graduate from a small business and is charting the course for a trajectory to navigate the full and open market successfully. Through his strategic focus, MetroStar supports a unique customer portfolio for a mid-sized company. MetroStar supports customers in over 30 programs across various agencies, including Department of State (DOS), Department of Defense (DOD), the Presidential Information Technology Community (PITC), United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), and Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
Under Ali’s leadership, MetroStar recently won three multi-million-dollar contracts supporting the Marines, USCIS, and the Air Force. In addition to these wins, the team’s created impact through countless tech challenges, hosting in-person PyData events, and launching the newest DevSecOps solution—Quartz; all of which push them forward and build dynamic tech communities.
MetroStar has been a 12x awardee for the nationally recognized Computerworld's Best Places to Work in IT award, and Ali’s commitment throughout the years has won him a 2022 WashingtonExec Chief Executive Officer award.
As MetroStar develops, technology advances, and AI shapes the world, our biggest strength continues to be our people. Ali and his team are adamant about creating a diverse working environment. MetroStar’s workforce is 49% people of color, exceeding the EEOC benchmark for high-tech companies, and MetroStar's management leadership is 49% female. Our DE&I program also hosted three annual International Women's Day panels, supporting thought-leaders and women in tech along the Capital Beltway.
Furthermore, Ali’s passion for education has resulted in MetroStar maintaining six formal partnerships with universities across the Nation, including three Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU)’s. Additionally for the community, after years of partnership, Ali served as the Executive Challenger for the DC-Metro region for Light The Night with The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS), and MetroStar raised over fourty-thousand dollars.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
M and T Bank presents CEOs youshould know poward by iHeartMedia. Let's meet
Ali Raza Manicheri. He is theCEO at metro Star Systems and IT Services
and I Consulting based out of WesternVirginia that works with domestic government agencies.
Before we talk more about Ali's company, I first asked him to talk a
little bit about himself, where he'sfrom and his origin story. I'm Irani
(00:23):
an American and grew up in twoparts of the world. I was born
in Tehran, Iran before the revolutionand the war between Iran and Iraq.
And once that happened, my momand dad decided to move back to the
States where originally they were at wherethey went back for me to be born
(00:45):
in Tehran, So we moved backinto Northern Virginia and I grew up elementary
school, middle school, and highschool in Northern Virginia between False Church and
Fairfax. Yeah, and then asfar as school afterwards. I know you're
a George Mason grad and we've talkedto a lot of CEOs that have gone
(01:07):
to that school when it comes toeconomics and business, and we've got lawyers
from there too that there really isn'toutstanding school. Can you tell us a
little bit about Mason and what itmeans to you? Yeah, I don't
know. Mason. Mason is anamazing school, you know, the little
pit stop I had in high school. Eleventh grade of high school, my
mom decided to go back and teachat Tehran University, and I was given
(01:30):
a choice to stay here with mymom's family or go back to Tehran in
my junior year of high school atFairfax, and I decided to go back
with my mom and my dad andfinished off high school at an international school
there and took about a year anda half out of high school to just
experience, you know, the MiddleEast and how business happens, and just
(01:57):
just learning a different type of culture. Right. I grew up in the
States, and it was a greatopportunity that, you know, what are
you going to be seventeen eighteen yearsof age being able to experience that type
of environment. So I did that, and after that, it was you
know, my mom gave me kindof an ultimatum. Either she was going
to kill me or the government's goingto kill me. So I made my
(02:20):
way back to Northern Virginia where thewhole family was, and you know,
George Mason was just that school forme. Rights It's where my friends,
my family, and I loved theschool and you know, attended George Mason
by my second year, you know, from being an econ major, I
really wanted to switch into philosophy andreligion and it just allowed me a different
(02:46):
perspective into the opportunity of the openingof humanities and science and what type of
curriculum brought different types of people together. And I was really amazed by that,
and you know, studied philosophy andnext thing, you know, four
years has gone by and I'm aphilosophy major. I'm on top of that
(03:07):
prestocratic philosophy. I love it.Well, we're going to talk a lot
about Metro Start in your company thatyou started up in the late nineties,
but before we do that, everybodyhas a path about what leads them to
starting their own company. So whatdid you do before metro Star. Metrostar
I was, you know, Ihad different jobs as any college student,
(03:29):
from restaurant to working in the mallto also being a part time George Mason's
student debt collector. So that's that'ssomething that haven't pretty highlighted all my resume,
but I was actually pretty good atit. You know, I think
by part time student, you know, full time student, part time working
(03:50):
and account loan management at George MasonUniversity, ended up collecting like half a
million dollars a student debt. Likeeven the Chinese don't buy that type of
debt. That's pretty extraordinary reality.That's that's quite impressive. So yeah,
it's uh, it's it's it wasfun. You know. I wasn't one
(04:11):
of those aggressive collectors. It justyou know, it just didn't have hard
time, just good, good atit. I get it. I get
actually collect that money. Yeah,well, I want to talk about Metrostar
and everything about it. But beforewe do anything else, why don't you
tell us about the mission statement andthen we're also going to talk about the
different capabilities and then the idea behindit. But what's your mission statement with
(04:33):
metro Star. That's you know,our our mission statement. We we had
a couple around our journeys as anorganization, and for us, you know,
at the end of the day,everything was about technology, technology and
technology, and you know, overthe years we kind of looked at it
and we're like, you know,what is it, who do we serve,
(04:54):
and how do we really drive theorganization to who we are day And
we realize that there's an obsession thatnothing we do in services really comes from
technology, it comes from people.So it's really about how we value people
and the value and the services thatwe bring for our customers. So really
(05:19):
it's about people first, kind ofmission oriented as an organization in terms of
just obsessive about people, and thenvalue back to our customers in terms of
how we really drive that mission statement, and that mission statement is really driven
by big ideas in terms of howwe want to support what Metrostar does for
(05:42):
national defense of our country, interms of really promoting the innovations from engineering
to artificial intelligence to human centered design, so all of that kind of encompasses
Now. Obviously we didn't think aboutall those pieces in nineteen ninety nine when
we were forming a coy, butover the years that's really how metro stars
(06:03):
mission statement and our big hairy,auditionous goals came together. All right,
well, thanks for that, andwe're going to get into what you do
a little bit more and who youserve. But before that, I'm always
curious about the idea with entrepreneurs andCEOs and founders, and you know,
you're co founder and CEO about thatepiphany that idea, there's a hole in
the industry. I think I havea good idea here, let's start a
(06:25):
company. So it's a lot ofbig talk, but then you have to
follow through and really take a leapof faith, a chance. You have
to be passionate, and you haveto work with all the adversity. Tell
us about starting the company, theidea behind it. Yeah, I mean,
you know, I was very fortunateto have really good friends in college
with diversity of backgrounds, and itwas an interesting period in time where we're
(06:49):
in college and you know, theInternet. My freshman year in college,
the Internet was three years old.So really you think about the Internet was
chartered at nineteen I need to herewe are in nineteen ninety five, and
it's where we're looking at it asnot just an information hub, but a
(07:11):
new economy of how businesses are goingto be built on this. And for
us it was like, Hey,we kept on iterating on different ideas that
we wanted to do, and oneof our first ideas was really this concept
of metro search, where we couldgo and kill zaget where here's how you
know, ratings of restaurants are gettingpublished every day in this round kind of
(07:33):
book, and how can we usethe wisdom of the crowd to be able
to do this instantaneously in terms ofcollecting those reviews. Now, it was
a great idea. Now the challengewas like this smartphone wasn't around right.
Internet speeds were dial up speeds,so you know, and then there was
this mixed storm coming right from anexternal force called the dot com bubble.
(07:58):
But you know, we eventually putour ideas together, formed this company,
raised a little bit of friends andfamily money, and we decided to launch
it. But you know, theexternal forces of the dot com bubble had
different plans for us that we hadto quickly iterate from that one idea to
say, yes, this automation we'rebringing, can we bring this automation to
(08:22):
another industry as well? And thegovernment that you know, here's a crisis.
But the opportunity was y two K. Because y two K everybody thought
the Internet was going to stop,our bank accounts were going to be non
accessible, and there was this hugeopportunity where we're getting asked to consult and
(08:43):
support all these other companies around theBeltway with Y two K consulting. Well
cool, Well, it sounds likethe timing was very fortuitous, but still
you had a great idea. Solet's do this. If listeners that are
tuning into our interview for the firsttime ever and we give them a thirty
thousand a view of metro Star,what would you tell the company is and
what it does. MetroStars a missionintegrator servicing the federal government across national security
(09:13):
clients, Department of Defense, andcitizens services. Helping our customers gain and
provide better services and information back toour constituents and to our warfighters and to
our farmers. We're all about enablingand building systems that services you know,
(09:33):
millions of citizens, hundreds of thousandsof warfighters, and hundreds of thousands of
farmers across our great Union. Wellthat's pretty cool. And I imagine since
the early nineties when you started thecompany to where it's developed now and being
fluid and also just the growth,but also sustainability. You know, we
(09:56):
all run into entrepreneurs and CEOs thatlive in the DMV and it's always fortuitous,
once again to be around government organizationsand it sounds like you've spread your
idea throughout the United States domestically,has or any being the thought or are
you already working internationally as well toowith your services? Yeah? I mean,
you know, the warfighters we support. Obviously, our extension of our
(10:20):
systems that we build sustain for themgoes anywhere the warfighter goes and as to
work. But predominantly majority of MetroStarscurrent services and solutions are across the United
States. Now, there are someoverseas work that we do in the Western
(10:41):
Hemisphere, some work into Europe andAsia, but majority of our work is
here domestically across thirty States is whereour footprint is now. All right,
well, very good. Well Ialways like to talk to leaders of companies
about competition, and I don't wantto assume all that there is anybody that
does exactly what you and your teamdo. But with that said, if
(11:05):
there is some competition and you're vyingfor somebody's business, how do you differentiate
yourself from everybody else out there?And look, you know there's a lot
of competition from the six hundred poundsgiants that build weapons systems, but they
also do information technology to a reallycool niche startup that just focuses on one
customer and say only data analytics.But what we realize is nobody has a
(11:33):
competition or a monopoly on smart people. And really how you have to differentiate
yourself in this game is my competitiondoesn't have a monopoly on really talented individuals.
And that is the gift that wehave that has allowed us to differentiate
ourselves of surrounding ourselves with more talentedindividuals. And that's how we really work
(11:56):
to differentiate ourselves in the realms ofartificial intelligence and machine learning, or software
engineering and development, or human centereddesign, is by being able to really
assemble smart, passionate individuals that couldreally help us differentiate these services that we're
bringing. Now, what we've doneover time is we've taken these repeatable solutions
(12:20):
that we've experienced that we have beenfortunate enough to receive millions of dollars to
build and innovate various agencies. Wehave brought these into various accelerators that now
provides us a level of intellectual propertythat we could hit the ground running and
be able to accelerate a client's missionwhere typically would have taken six months to
(12:46):
deploy a source code into an environmentwe could do this in sixty ninety days.
Now. The way that we alsogive back to really empower our citizens
and really that's axpayers, is wemake that all open source technology, so
we actually don't charge for the sourcecode and the solution accelerators. We've open
(13:09):
source stat into the market that thecustomers that do bring Metrostar on they also
get to have one data rights anda source code for those solution accelerators.
And that is really resonating in amarket because we are now presenting more open
source solutions back to our government.I want to circle back to your staff
(13:31):
and people. How many on staffright now for you? We have as
of this morning, four hundred andforty three employees, all right, So
that's a lot of people, andI think that it's really a good idea
to talk to our future entrepreneurs andCEOs and even curt ones. When you
have such a large staff or ina competitive field obviously competitive salaries, everybody's
(13:52):
wanting to work from home for themost part, even though if you have
security clearance sometimes you have to beat certain places, so we know that
as well. So as a leaderwith that many staff, how does your
vision get executed. But do youalso balance of people have access to you,
they have a voice, they havea good work life balance to make
sure they're happy employees, but theyalso get the job done for you.
How do you pull it off?Yeah? I mean, you know,
(14:13):
there's it's a lot of hard work. There's there's no silver bullet to it.
But you have to build an operatingmodel. What it allows you to
scale, but it allows your secondtier of leaders to scale. And how
now I could drive the vision andthe strategy and being able to work through
(14:35):
people is a different art form thanfiguring out how to micromanage and stay on
top of them. How do Iwork through people to really be able to
get the best and greatest efforts outof that workforce? And what you have
to do is you have to workreally hard to make sure every tier of
the organization has the right type ofleaders that could really help you push the
(14:58):
type of of you know, initiativesthat you have from a strategic, tactical
and operational to be able to executethat plan. But it takes a lot
of hard work and be figuring outa way to hold yourself accountable personally,
but then holding others accountable to reallybe able to execute the plans outstanding.
(15:18):
Thanks for sharing all of that.I did want to ask you about maybe
a story that resonates with you.That's something where you knocked it out of
the park with your staff and itwas just a good day and that's why
you get up to help your clientsout there. But let's put a pin
in that just for a second,and I asked, I want to ask
you about challenges. As we know, running any kind of company, it's
not always rainbows and unicorns all thetime. There are challenges out there.
(15:39):
What are they currently for you andyour staff right now in the industry?
Yeah, I mean, you knowour challenge challenges probably resonates with the audience
today, is you know, staffingand bringing in highly clear talented individuals into
various missions where they have choices whereWhy do I to work in a skiff?
(16:00):
Why do I have to have asecurity clearance where I could go out
into the commercial market and work fromhome and not be on site at a
military base or a government you knowfacility five days a week. I think
that's that's a big challenge for us, is how do we try to find
more mission oriented individuals that actually loveto be in those types of environments,
(16:25):
and you could imagine the pool getssmaller and smaller as you know, you
have to be on site, youhave to have an active you know,
security clearance, and you got tocommute right versus being at the luxury of
your home. But if it waseasy, everybody would do it, that's
right. So we have to workdiligently to identify those mission oriented individuals that
(16:52):
we could bring in. I thinkthat's a big, big challenge for us
that's not going to go away anytimesoon. I think the next challenge for
us is just the size of thecompany we're at. We're not a small,
you know, startup anymore, andwe're not a Lockheed Martin size of
an organization. But in the government'seyes, they see us no different than
you're multi billion dollar organization, althoughwe're only one hundred million dollar organization.
(17:19):
So from that standpoint, how doyou scale the business to be able to
survive competitively and consistently into market asa mid sized business is a challenge,
and there's solutions to it. There'sa solution you can package up and go
to the market and sell. Youcould bring in a major investor that you
(17:44):
give away the majority of your companyand now you're working for someone and you're
going to do it through acquisitions,and that's the way you're going to do
it. You have to live thatworld of acquisitions, or you can figure
out a way where great American organizationsfigured out a way to scale to become
a billion dollar company. And I'mhappy to say that you know the leadership
(18:06):
at metro Star that we have allbelieved that we could build a great American
company. All right, thanks forsharing all that, And I did want
to ask you about maybe a reallycool story if some of them stands out.
Maybe it's over the last couple years. You don't have to mention any
clients because I know you do alot of super secret stuff. But what
that said, was there something thatresonates with you where you really helped out
a client or you really knocked itout of the park with your team,
(18:29):
and something that kind of stands outthat you can share with our listeners.
I think you know probably a programthat resonates is you're always batting, right,
it's you think about baseball. Baseballis almost it's a great sport,
but it's a sport that also teachesyou how to lose, right. I
mean, you could be you couldaverage three hundred and be an All Star
(18:52):
three fifty or a Hall of Famer, right, but you're still striking out
the majority at the time and inour game, and government is no different.
Right, If you're batting three hundred, four hundred, I mean you're
you're you're you're an All Star,you know, a Hall of Famer.
And and you know, the waywe went after an opportunity as a team.
(19:15):
We wanted to unsee the multi billiondollar organization that was an incumbent for
two decades, and it was acustomer we knew really well. We were
intimate within this customer base, Weknew the mission, We had the DNA,
and we kept taking shots at thisopportunity, this opportunity. Probably the
(19:36):
first time we looked at it wassomewhere in twenty fourteen, and you know,
look back at it almost eight yearslater. Here we are in a
position that we could really be ableto tell it compelling, you know,
compliant kind of solution that could giveus an opportunity to be able to take
(19:56):
over these systems, and the governmenttrusted us, and we were able to
unsee a major, you know,billion dollar organization and being able to be
the trusted partner for mission of criticalenterprise applications for this particular Department of Defense
(20:17):
client. And it was probably areally proud moment because it showed everybody into
company you could win when you pickthe right battles. Yeah, yeah,
right, you can't. Well,I want to stay with this story a
little bit more because i'd like toonce again, I know you can only
go so far with the story aboutsharing what you did. But why do
you think that they chose you overthis large company? Is it because you're
(20:40):
more boutique and you had better customerservice and there was a better networking relationship
there? Where do you think putyou over the edge that in this relationship
to get their business? I thinka lot of things have to align.
You know, sometimes even luck playsa little bit of the role, and
they're right, timing could play abit of the role there. But I
think what we did is we hadenough oxygen to really focus on the opportunity.
(21:06):
I think a lot of times whencompanies are getting out of the small
business realm and the social economic statusesare going away, you get into this
chaotic mode of you're going to submit, submit, submit, submit, and
you're going to hope that you know, you're going to submit a billion dollars
(21:26):
if you could afford, which isvery challenging for a small business to submit
that much. Hey, and ifI win ten percent, I'm winning one
hundred million dollars worth of those opportunities. That is not a good strategy.
That that actually doesn't even have astrategy, right. I think what we
had done is we had enough oxygenand breathing room where we focused on where
(21:49):
we had franchises and deep relationships withinour customer base. You know, we
have a long history of all twodecades in the Marine Corps, two decades
in the Department of State, sonaturally for us, we wanted to focus
into the franchises that we have,but then also look at the adjacent markets
(22:11):
where these franchises have also tight relationshipsand connections that could influence other customers based
on what we've done for them,and that in itself, now you have
to put a strategy together on howdo you actually have a go to market
strategy to be able to get deeperinto these client bases. And it just
(22:34):
means that maybe you have to bidless and focus on higher quality opportunities and
not freak out when you don't winthe first three and then you go back
to the chaotic mode of submitting,submitting, submitting, So that takes a
little bit of new muscle to kindof train of a company going from small
(22:56):
to mid size to really midsize isbeing large business Now, that took a
lot of training for us and disciplinefor us not to go back to the
bad habits. Well, and Ihope our listeners really listened to that last
answer because when I take away fromthat, and this is a common theme,
Malley, that won't surprise you.But it doesn't matter what kind of
(23:18):
sales you're in. It's about relationships, it's about networking, and it's about
playing the long game. And youdid all of those things with your great,
smart staff. So I'm glad youshared that story because I think that's
an important lesson for all people thatyou can't knock it out of the park
the first time and you have tobe relentless if you really want the business.
So thank you for sharing that.I did want to take a time
(23:38):
out from Metrostar and talk to youabout philanthropic and charity work, because I
know you're working your tails off overthere. But when you have the opportunity
to do something charitable, what doyou like to be a part of you
know, I mean, really whenyou think about it from a charitable side,
there's a couple different areas that welike to focus. There's there's three
(24:00):
pillars within the Metrostar, you know, kind of corporate philanthropy of what we
do is really health and humanitarian,education and empowerment, and then our hometown
heroes. And within health and humanitarianthink about you know, great organizations like
the American Red Cross, Lukenia LymphomaSociety, and then some more smaller niche
(24:26):
type of nonprofits that really help amplifyAmerica's brand of what we do across the
entire globe. Right in terms ofhumanitarian support, on the education and empowerment,
it's really about our universities, right, universities, but also a little
bit more into niche areas of nonprofitslike Girls who Can Code, or whether
(24:53):
it's through Fairfax County Public Schools doingjob shadowing and really motivating and inspired hiring
young you know, middle school,elementary school kids. In terms of what
the real world looks like and howwhat they're learning really translates into the world
of real world as well. Andthen hometown heroes is really you know,
(25:17):
from our first responders to our veterans, is who we really focus and we
try to balance it out between thosethree things at Metro Star great stuff.
Thank you for sharing all of that. I did want to put a boner
conversation and just give you the floorone more time if our listener would have
one takeaway from you, and Iknow that might be difficult to do when
(25:37):
it comes to describing what Metro Storeis, but what one takeaway would you
want to listen to have about yourcompany? You know, we're a great
company to team up with. Wewere very small business friendly because we came
from small business. We have notforgotten our roots. So if there is
there's an area of opportunity and growththat you have intimacy, but you want
(26:04):
to have a good partner to takea shot at some opportunities, reach out
to us. Don't be don't youknow, don't hesitate outstanding. All right,
let's give the website any other kindof contact information. Obviously people can
learn more, they can partner withyou, and there also might be some
careers available and all these of courselooking for the best of the best.
What's that website. Yeah, it'sit's simple. It's Metrostar dot com and
(26:29):
it's it's really easy navigation. Informationis there so you could look at careers,
you can look at teaming opportunities andreach out and connect. It's a
gorgeous website too, and it iseasy to navigate. So whoever put it
together did a great job, Allie, so I kuldos to them too.
Hey, listen, I want tothank you for your time. I know
how busy you are, but continuesuccess. And for people that don't know.
(26:51):
When we were met in the greenroom, Allie and I are both
Falls Church guys. We both havelived in different countries beside the United States,
and we have a lot in common. I gotta tell you, Elliot,
it's really an incredible story that youput together here with MetroStars. So
continue success. It has been atree talking to you, and thank you
so much for joining us on CEOs. You should know we really appreciate it,
appreciate you. Thank you so muchfor having me. Our community partner,
(27:14):
M ANDT Bank supports CEOs, youshould know as part of their ongoing
commitment to building strong communities, andthat starts by backing the businesses within them.
As a Bank for communities, mANDT believes in dedicating time, talent,
and resources to help local businesses thrivebecause when businesses succeed, our communities succeed
M and T Bank presents CEOs youshould know poward by iHeartMedia. Let's meet
Ali Raza Manicheri. He is theCEO at metro Star Systems and IT Services
and I Consulting based out of WesternVirginia that works with domestic government agencies.
Before we talk more about Ali's company, I first asked him to talk a
little bit about himself, where he'sfrom and his origin story. I'm Irani
(00:23):
an American and grew up in twoparts of the world. I was born
in Tehran, Iran before the revolutionand the war between Iran and Iraq.
And once that happened, my momand dad decided to move back to the
States where originally they were at wherethey went back for me to be born
(00:45):
in Tehran, So we moved backinto Northern Virginia and I grew up elementary
school, middle school, and highschool in Northern Virginia between False Church and
Fairfax. Yeah, and then asfar as school afterwards. I know you're
a George Mason grad and we've talkedto a lot of CEOs that have gone
(01:07):
to that school when it comes toeconomics and business, and we've got lawyers
from there too that there really isn'toutstanding school. Can you tell us a
little bit about Mason and what itmeans to you? Yeah, I don't
know. Mason. Mason is anamazing school, you know, the little
pit stop I had in high school. Eleventh grade of high school, my
mom decided to go back and teachat Tehran University, and I was given
(01:30):
a choice to stay here with mymom's family or go back to Tehran in
my junior year of high school atFairfax, and I decided to go back
with my mom and my dad andfinished off high school at an international school
there and took about a year anda half out of high school to just
experience, you know, the MiddleEast and how business happens, and just
(01:57):
just learning a different type of culture. Right. I grew up in the
States, and it was a greatopportunity that, you know, what are
you going to be seventeen eighteen yearsof age being able to experience that type
of environment. So I did that, and after that, it was you
know, my mom gave me kindof an ultimatum. Either she was going
to kill me or the government's goingto kill me. So I made my
(02:20):
way back to Northern Virginia where thewhole family was, and you know,
George Mason was just that school forme. Rights It's where my friends,
my family, and I loved theschool and you know, attended George Mason
by my second year, you know, from being an econ major, I
really wanted to switch into philosophy andreligion and it just allowed me a different
(02:46):
perspective into the opportunity of the openingof humanities and science and what type of
curriculum brought different types of people together. And I was really amazed by that,
and you know, studied philosophy andnext thing, you know, four
years has gone by and I'm aphilosophy major. I'm on top of that
(03:07):
prestocratic philosophy. I love it.Well, we're going to talk a lot
about Metro Start in your company thatyou started up in the late nineties,
but before we do that, everybodyhas a path about what leads them to
starting their own company. So whatdid you do before metro Star. Metrostar
I was, you know, Ihad different jobs as any college student,
(03:29):
from restaurant to working in the mallto also being a part time George Mason's
student debt collector. So that's that'ssomething that haven't pretty highlighted all my resume,
but I was actually pretty good atit. You know, I think
by part time student, you know, full time student, part time working
(03:50):
and account loan management at George MasonUniversity, ended up collecting like half a
million dollars a student debt. Likeeven the Chinese don't buy that type of
debt. That's pretty extraordinary reality.That's that's quite impressive. So yeah,
it's uh, it's it's it wasfun. You know. I wasn't one
(04:11):
of those aggressive collectors. It justyou know, it just didn't have hard
time, just good, good atit. I get it. I get
actually collect that money. Yeah,well, I want to talk about Metrostar
and everything about it. But beforewe do anything else, why don't you
tell us about the mission statement andthen we're also going to talk about the
different capabilities and then the idea behindit. But what's your mission statement with
(04:33):
metro Star. That's you know,our our mission statement. We we had
a couple around our journeys as anorganization, and for us, you know,
at the end of the day,everything was about technology, technology and
technology, and you know, overthe years we kind of looked at it
and we're like, you know,what is it, who do we serve,
(04:54):
and how do we really drive theorganization to who we are day And
we realize that there's an obsession thatnothing we do in services really comes from
technology, it comes from people.So it's really about how we value people
and the value and the services thatwe bring for our customers. So really
(05:19):
it's about people first, kind ofmission oriented as an organization in terms of
just obsessive about people, and thenvalue back to our customers in terms of
how we really drive that mission statement, and that mission statement is really driven
by big ideas in terms of howwe want to support what Metrostar does for
(05:42):
national defense of our country, interms of really promoting the innovations from engineering
to artificial intelligence to human centered design, so all of that kind of encompasses
Now. Obviously we didn't think aboutall those pieces in nineteen ninety nine when
we were forming a coy, butover the years that's really how metro stars
(06:03):
mission statement and our big hairy,auditionous goals came together. All right,
well, thanks for that, andwe're going to get into what you do
a little bit more and who youserve. But before that, I'm always
curious about the idea with entrepreneurs andCEOs and founders, and you know,
you're co founder and CEO about thatepiphany that idea, there's a hole in
the industry. I think I havea good idea here, let's start a
(06:25):
company. So it's a lot ofbig talk, but then you have to
follow through and really take a leapof faith, a chance. You have
to be passionate, and you haveto work with all the adversity. Tell
us about starting the company, theidea behind it. Yeah, I mean,
you know, I was very fortunateto have really good friends in college
with diversity of backgrounds, and itwas an interesting period in time where we're
(06:49):
in college and you know, theInternet. My freshman year in college,
the Internet was three years old.So really you think about the Internet was
chartered at nineteen I need to herewe are in nineteen ninety five, and
it's where we're looking at it asnot just an information hub, but a
(07:11):
new economy of how businesses are goingto be built on this. And for
us it was like, Hey,we kept on iterating on different ideas that
we wanted to do, and oneof our first ideas was really this concept
of metro search, where we couldgo and kill zaget where here's how you
know, ratings of restaurants are gettingpublished every day in this round kind of
(07:33):
book, and how can we usethe wisdom of the crowd to be able
to do this instantaneously in terms ofcollecting those reviews. Now, it was
a great idea. Now the challengewas like this smartphone wasn't around right.
Internet speeds were dial up speeds,so you know, and then there was
this mixed storm coming right from anexternal force called the dot com bubble.
(07:58):
But you know, we eventually putour ideas together, formed this company,
raised a little bit of friends andfamily money, and we decided to launch
it. But you know, theexternal forces of the dot com bubble had
different plans for us that we hadto quickly iterate from that one idea to
say, yes, this automation we'rebringing, can we bring this automation to
(08:22):
another industry as well? And thegovernment that you know, here's a crisis.
But the opportunity was y two K. Because y two K everybody thought
the Internet was going to stop,our bank accounts were going to be non
accessible, and there was this hugeopportunity where we're getting asked to consult and
(08:43):
support all these other companies around theBeltway with Y two K consulting. Well
cool, Well, it sounds likethe timing was very fortuitous, but still
you had a great idea. Solet's do this. If listeners that are
tuning into our interview for the firsttime ever and we give them a thirty
thousand a view of metro Star,what would you tell the company is and
what it does. MetroStars a missionintegrator servicing the federal government across national security
(09:13):
clients, Department of Defense, andcitizens services. Helping our customers gain and
provide better services and information back toour constituents and to our warfighters and to
our farmers. We're all about enablingand building systems that services you know,
(09:33):
millions of citizens, hundreds of thousandsof warfighters, and hundreds of thousands of
farmers across our great Union. Wellthat's pretty cool. And I imagine since
the early nineties when you started thecompany to where it's developed now and being
fluid and also just the growth,but also sustainability. You know, we
(09:56):
all run into entrepreneurs and CEOs thatlive in the DMV and it's always fortuitous,
once again to be around government organizationsand it sounds like you've spread your
idea throughout the United States domestically,has or any being the thought or are
you already working internationally as well toowith your services? Yeah? I mean,
you know, the warfighters we support. Obviously, our extension of our
(10:20):
systems that we build sustain for themgoes anywhere the warfighter goes and as to
work. But predominantly majority of MetroStarscurrent services and solutions are across the United
States. Now, there are someoverseas work that we do in the Western
(10:41):
Hemisphere, some work into Europe andAsia, but majority of our work is
here domestically across thirty States is whereour footprint is now. All right,
well, very good. Well Ialways like to talk to leaders of companies
about competition, and I don't wantto assume all that there is anybody that
does exactly what you and your teamdo. But with that said, if
(11:05):
there is some competition and you're vyingfor somebody's business, how do you differentiate
yourself from everybody else out there?And look, you know there's a lot
of competition from the six hundred poundsgiants that build weapons systems, but they
also do information technology to a reallycool niche startup that just focuses on one
customer and say only data analytics.But what we realize is nobody has a
(11:33):
competition or a monopoly on smart people. And really how you have to differentiate
yourself in this game is my competitiondoesn't have a monopoly on really talented individuals.
And that is the gift that wehave that has allowed us to differentiate
ourselves of surrounding ourselves with more talentedindividuals. And that's how we really work
(11:56):
to differentiate ourselves in the realms ofartificial intelligence and machine learning, or software
engineering and development, or human centereddesign, is by being able to really
assemble smart, passionate individuals that couldreally help us differentiate these services that we're
bringing. Now, what we've doneover time is we've taken these repeatable solutions
(12:20):
that we've experienced that we have beenfortunate enough to receive millions of dollars to
build and innovate various agencies. Wehave brought these into various accelerators that now
provides us a level of intellectual propertythat we could hit the ground running and
be able to accelerate a client's missionwhere typically would have taken six months to
(12:46):
deploy a source code into an environmentwe could do this in sixty ninety days.
Now. The way that we alsogive back to really empower our citizens
and really that's axpayers, is wemake that all open source technology, so
we actually don't charge for the sourcecode and the solution accelerators. We've open
(13:09):
source stat into the market that thecustomers that do bring Metrostar on they also
get to have one data rights anda source code for those solution accelerators.
And that is really resonating in amarket because we are now presenting more open
source solutions back to our government.I want to circle back to your staff
(13:31):
and people. How many on staffright now for you? We have as
of this morning, four hundred andforty three employees, all right, So
that's a lot of people, andI think that it's really a good idea
to talk to our future entrepreneurs andCEOs and even curt ones. When you
have such a large staff or ina competitive field obviously competitive salaries, everybody's
(13:52):
wanting to work from home for themost part, even though if you have
security clearance sometimes you have to beat certain places, so we know that
as well. So as a leaderwith that many staff, how does your
vision get executed. But do youalso balance of people have access to you,
they have a voice, they havea good work life balance to make
sure they're happy employees, but theyalso get the job done for you.
How do you pull it off?Yeah? I mean, you know,
(14:13):
there's it's a lot of hard work. There's there's no silver bullet to it.
But you have to build an operatingmodel. What it allows you to
scale, but it allows your secondtier of leaders to scale. And how
now I could drive the vision andthe strategy and being able to work through
(14:35):
people is a different art form thanfiguring out how to micromanage and stay on
top of them. How do Iwork through people to really be able to
get the best and greatest efforts outof that workforce? And what you have
to do is you have to workreally hard to make sure every tier of
the organization has the right type ofleaders that could really help you push the
(14:58):
type of of you know, initiativesthat you have from a strategic, tactical
and operational to be able to executethat plan. But it takes a lot
of hard work and be figuring outa way to hold yourself accountable personally,
but then holding others accountable to reallybe able to execute the plans outstanding.
(15:18):
Thanks for sharing all of that.I did want to ask you about maybe
a story that resonates with you.That's something where you knocked it out of
the park with your staff and itwas just a good day and that's why
you get up to help your clientsout there. But let's put a pin
in that just for a second,and I asked, I want to ask
you about challenges. As we know, running any kind of company, it's
not always rainbows and unicorns all thetime. There are challenges out there.
(15:39):
What are they currently for you andyour staff right now in the industry?
Yeah, I mean, you knowour challenge challenges probably resonates with the audience
today, is you know, staffingand bringing in highly clear talented individuals into
various missions where they have choices whereWhy do I to work in a skiff?
(16:00):
Why do I have to have asecurity clearance where I could go out
into the commercial market and work fromhome and not be on site at a
military base or a government you knowfacility five days a week. I think
that's that's a big challenge for us, is how do we try to find
more mission oriented individuals that actually loveto be in those types of environments,
(16:25):
and you could imagine the pool getssmaller and smaller as you know, you
have to be on site, youhave to have an active you know,
security clearance, and you got tocommute right versus being at the luxury of
your home. But if it waseasy, everybody would do it, that's
right. So we have to workdiligently to identify those mission oriented individuals that
(16:52):
we could bring in. I thinkthat's a big, big challenge for us
that's not going to go away anytimesoon. I think the next challenge for
us is just the size of thecompany we're at. We're not a small,
you know, startup anymore, andwe're not a Lockheed Martin size of
an organization. But in the government'seyes, they see us no different than
you're multi billion dollar organization, althoughwe're only one hundred million dollar organization.
(17:19):
So from that standpoint, how doyou scale the business to be able to
survive competitively and consistently into market asa mid sized business is a challenge,
and there's solutions to it. There'sa solution you can package up and go
to the market and sell. Youcould bring in a major investor that you
(17:44):
give away the majority of your companyand now you're working for someone and you're
going to do it through acquisitions,and that's the way you're going to do
it. You have to live thatworld of acquisitions, or you can figure
out a way where great American organizationsfigured out a way to scale to become
a billion dollar company. And I'mhappy to say that you know the leadership
(18:06):
at metro Star that we have allbelieved that we could build a great American
company. All right, thanks forsharing all that, And I did want
to ask you about maybe a reallycool story if some of them stands out.
Maybe it's over the last couple years. You don't have to mention any
clients because I know you do alot of super secret stuff. But what
that said, was there something thatresonates with you where you really helped out
a client or you really knocked itout of the park with your team,
(18:29):
and something that kind of stands outthat you can share with our listeners.
I think you know probably a programthat resonates is you're always batting, right,
it's you think about baseball. Baseballis almost it's a great sport,
but it's a sport that also teachesyou how to lose, right. I
mean, you could be you couldaverage three hundred and be an All Star
(18:52):
three fifty or a Hall of Famer, right, but you're still striking out
the majority at the time and inour game, and government is no different.
Right, If you're batting three hundred, four hundred, I mean you're
you're you're you're an All Star,you know, a Hall of Famer.
And and you know, the waywe went after an opportunity as a team.
(19:15):
We wanted to unsee the multi billiondollar organization that was an incumbent for
two decades, and it was acustomer we knew really well. We were
intimate within this customer base, Weknew the mission, We had the DNA,
and we kept taking shots at thisopportunity, this opportunity. Probably the
(19:36):
first time we looked at it wassomewhere in twenty fourteen, and you know,
look back at it almost eight yearslater. Here we are in a
position that we could really be ableto tell it compelling, you know,
compliant kind of solution that could giveus an opportunity to be able to take
(19:56):
over these systems, and the governmenttrusted us, and we were able to
unsee a major, you know,billion dollar organization and being able to be
the trusted partner for mission of criticalenterprise applications for this particular Department of Defense
(20:17):
client. And it was probably areally proud moment because it showed everybody into
company you could win when you pickthe right battles. Yeah, yeah,
right, you can't. Well,I want to stay with this story a
little bit more because i'd like toonce again, I know you can only
go so far with the story aboutsharing what you did. But why do
you think that they chose you overthis large company? Is it because you're
(20:40):
more boutique and you had better customerservice and there was a better networking relationship
there? Where do you think putyou over the edge that in this relationship
to get their business? I thinka lot of things have to align.
You know, sometimes even luck playsa little bit of the role, and
they're right, timing could play abit of the role there. But I
think what we did is we hadenough oxygen to really focus on the opportunity.
(21:06):
I think a lot of times whencompanies are getting out of the small
business realm and the social economic statusesare going away, you get into this
chaotic mode of you're going to submit, submit, submit, submit, and
you're going to hope that you know, you're going to submit a billion dollars
(21:26):
if you could afford, which isvery challenging for a small business to submit
that much. Hey, and ifI win ten percent, I'm winning one
hundred million dollars worth of those opportunities. That is not a good strategy.
That that actually doesn't even have astrategy, right. I think what we
had done is we had enough oxygenand breathing room where we focused on where
(21:49):
we had franchises and deep relationships withinour customer base. You know, we
have a long history of all twodecades in the Marine Corps, two decades
in the Department of State, sonaturally for us, we wanted to focus
into the franchises that we have,but then also look at the adjacent markets
(22:11):
where these franchises have also tight relationshipsand connections that could influence other customers based
on what we've done for them,and that in itself, now you have
to put a strategy together on howdo you actually have a go to market
strategy to be able to get deeperinto these client bases. And it just
(22:34):
means that maybe you have to bidless and focus on higher quality opportunities and
not freak out when you don't winthe first three and then you go back
to the chaotic mode of submitting,submitting, submitting, So that takes a
little bit of new muscle to kindof train of a company going from small
(22:56):
to mid size to really midsize isbeing large business Now, that took a
lot of training for us and disciplinefor us not to go back to the
bad habits. Well, and Ihope our listeners really listened to that last
answer because when I take away fromthat, and this is a common theme,
Malley, that won't surprise you.But it doesn't matter what kind of
(23:18):
sales you're in. It's about relationships, it's about networking, and it's about
playing the long game. And youdid all of those things with your great,
smart staff. So I'm glad youshared that story because I think that's
an important lesson for all people thatyou can't knock it out of the park
the first time and you have tobe relentless if you really want the business.
So thank you for sharing that.I did want to take a time
(23:38):
out from Metrostar and talk to youabout philanthropic and charity work, because I
know you're working your tails off overthere. But when you have the opportunity
to do something charitable, what doyou like to be a part of you
know, I mean, really whenyou think about it from a charitable side,
there's a couple different areas that welike to focus. There's there's three
(24:00):
pillars within the Metrostar, you know, kind of corporate philanthropy of what we
do is really health and humanitarian,education and empowerment, and then our hometown
heroes. And within health and humanitarianthink about you know, great organizations like
the American Red Cross, Lukenia LymphomaSociety, and then some more smaller niche
(24:26):
type of nonprofits that really help amplifyAmerica's brand of what we do across the
entire globe. Right in terms ofhumanitarian support, on the education and empowerment,
it's really about our universities, right, universities, but also a little
bit more into niche areas of nonprofitslike Girls who Can Code, or whether
(24:53):
it's through Fairfax County Public Schools doingjob shadowing and really motivating and inspired hiring
young you know, middle school,elementary school kids. In terms of what
the real world looks like and howwhat they're learning really translates into the world
of real world as well. Andthen hometown heroes is really you know,
(25:17):
from our first responders to our veterans, is who we really focus and we
try to balance it out between thosethree things at Metro Star great stuff.
Thank you for sharing all of that. I did want to put a boner
conversation and just give you the floorone more time if our listener would have
one takeaway from you, and Iknow that might be difficult to do when
(25:37):
it comes to describing what Metro Storeis, but what one takeaway would you
want to listen to have about yourcompany? You know, we're a great
company to team up with. Wewere very small business friendly because we came
from small business. We have notforgotten our roots. So if there is
there's an area of opportunity and growththat you have intimacy, but you want
(26:04):
to have a good partner to takea shot at some opportunities, reach out
to us. Don't be don't youknow, don't hesitate outstanding. All right,
let's give the website any other kindof contact information. Obviously people can
learn more, they can partner withyou, and there also might be some
careers available and all these of courselooking for the best of the best.
What's that website. Yeah, it'sit's simple. It's Metrostar dot com and
(26:29):
it's it's really easy navigation. Informationis there so you could look at careers,
you can look at teaming opportunities andreach out and connect. It's a
gorgeous website too, and it iseasy to navigate. So whoever put it
together did a great job, Allie, so I kuldos to them too.
Hey, listen, I want tothank you for your time. I know
how busy you are, but continuesuccess. And for people that don't know.
(26:51):
When we were met in the greenroom, Allie and I are both
Falls Church guys. We both havelived in different countries beside the United States,
and we have a lot in common. I gotta tell you, Elliot,
it's really an incredible story that youput together here with MetroStars. So
continue success. It has been atree talking to you, and thank you
so much for joining us on CEOs. You should know we really appreciate it,
appreciate you. Thank you so muchfor having me. Our community partner,
(27:14):
M ANDT Bank supports CEOs, youshould know as part of their ongoing
commitment to building strong communities, andthat starts by backing the businesses within them.
As a Bank for communities, mANDT believes in dedicating time, talent,
and resources to help local businesses thrivebecause when businesses succeed, our communities succeed
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