May 1, 2023 • 19 mins
Stephanie Alexander is the Co-Founder/Partner of govmates, a teaming platform for innovative federal contractors that connects people to solve government challenges. Along with providing teaming introductions, the platform also helps commercial companies navigate the federal space, offers technology scouting and collaborates with some of the most innovative companies in the Federal market. Stephanie believes in the power of collaboration and enjoys her work.
Furthermore, Stephanie is the Founder/CEO of BOOST LLC, which offers GovCons support in areas such as Accounting, Contracts, HR, Recruiting & Strategic Pricing. The company only supports federal contractors and provides solutions that work, helping companies navigate the ins and outs of running a business with FAR in mind. Stephanie is an expert in the field and has spent over a decade supporting government contractors in making connections to grow their bottom line.
Previously, Stephanie was the CFO and VP of Corporate Administration at a professional services SDVOSB DoD contractor that grew significantly within 5 years. Her role included ensuring the integrity of financial information and all internal company operations. Before that, she was a PMP certified Program Manager for a small business DoD contractor, leading multiple key software development programs simultaneously, including the company’s lead account with the US Army, worth more than $10 million annually.
Today, Stephanie is a certified leadership coach, frequent writer, and speaker on a variety of GovCon subjects, including successful teaming, growth & sustainability, navigating the seasons of business, and insight into the world of subcontracting. She has specialties in Business Strategy, Influence, Diversity & Inclusion, Team Development, Mentorship, Board Leadership, Innovative Partnerships, Business Development, Teaming, and Technology Scouting. Stephanie's clients include a broad variety of GovCons who routinely seek her advice on traditional business tripwires and sustainable get-ahead strategies.
Furthermore, Stephanie is the Founder/CEO of BOOST LLC, which offers GovCons support in areas such as Accounting, Contracts, HR, Recruiting & Strategic Pricing. The company only supports federal contractors and provides solutions that work, helping companies navigate the ins and outs of running a business with FAR in mind. Stephanie is an expert in the field and has spent over a decade supporting government contractors in making connections to grow their bottom line.
Previously, Stephanie was the CFO and VP of Corporate Administration at a professional services SDVOSB DoD contractor that grew significantly within 5 years. Her role included ensuring the integrity of financial information and all internal company operations. Before that, she was a PMP certified Program Manager for a small business DoD contractor, leading multiple key software development programs simultaneously, including the company’s lead account with the US Army, worth more than $10 million annually.
Today, Stephanie is a certified leadership coach, frequent writer, and speaker on a variety of GovCon subjects, including successful teaming, growth & sustainability, navigating the seasons of business, and insight into the world of subcontracting. She has specialties in Business Strategy, Influence, Diversity & Inclusion, Team Development, Mentorship, Board Leadership, Innovative Partnerships, Business Development, Teaming, and Technology Scouting. Stephanie's clients include a broad variety of GovCons who routinely seek her advice on traditional business tripwires and sustainable get-ahead strategies.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
M ANDT Bank presents CEOs you ShouldKnow, powered by Iheartasia. Let's meet
Stephanie Alexander and Katie Billick, whoare the co founders of god Mates,
a free teaming partner platform for governmentcontractors, combining technology and the human element
to create meaningful partnerships. Before wetalk about their company, I first asked
(00:21):
our co founder to talk a littlebit about themselves, where they're from,
where they grew up in their ordinstory. We first start with Katie.
I'm from Austin, Texas, bornand raised in the state of Texas.
Attended the University of Texas in Austin, so I believe burn Orange and I
am a Longhorn. I graduated withdegrees in finance and Spanish. Started my
(00:42):
career on Wall Street working at GoldmanSachs in Silicon Valley covering tech funds,
hedge funds on the West Coast,and ultimately made my way over to the
DC area when my husband got movedto Quantico and have been in DC ever
since. And Stephanie, we're goingto ask you about your argin story in
just a second. But it's clearI met when you met Katie that you
(01:03):
found out that she went to UFTand partied on Sixth Street for several years.
That she's a lot of fun.Katie is a lot of fun in
uunexpected ways. But I'm a VirginiaTech hokey, so I completely can appreciate
a good, big old state schoolwith the party background. Sure sure,
Well, how about your origin story, Stephanie. Sure? So, I
grew up in the Hampton, Rancearea. I'm actually from Norfolk, and
(01:25):
you know I'm from Norfolk if Ipronounce it that way, affectionately known as
the seven five to seven. Iwent to Virginia Tech for my undergrad and
actually got my NBA from there aswell. I was a finance spreadsheet jockey,
if you will. I moved uphere to what my mother will affectionately
call Gotham City. I e.Close enough to home, but not drive
(01:46):
by close. It wasn't big businesslike New York, but I love the
DC metro area, and after acouple of years, I fell into federal
contracting. Much like many people aroundhere. You're never a little girl growing
up saying oh, I want tobe a federal contractor. But when you
moved to the DC metro area,you kind of recognize this is what a
(02:06):
lot of people do. And sofell into federal contracting, started working for
an STVSP for that's a veteran owncompany, if you will. Eventually rose
to be a CFO and then startedmy own company. And then Katie and
I further met and started gouv Mates. Well, let's talk about that because
we have time for one more originstory, because I'm always very interested when
(02:29):
I meet our leaders about there abouthaving that epiphany as partners and saying,
you know what, there's a holein the industry. I don't necessarily want
to work for anybody. I'd liketo be my own boss. But there's
ten million reasons why you'd want tostart your own business. But Katie and
then Stephanie can expound on this,tell us about the origin story about working
with each other and starting this businesscalled gov Mats. Sure. So Stephanie
(02:50):
and I actually met while we wereserving on the board of a veterans organization.
We are actually helping to stand upsomething called the STVUSB Council at the
time. Eventually evolved into the NVSBC, but we were both serving on the
board at this time. I actuallyremember it was during my husband's first Afghanistan
deployment and wearing those you know,board member hats. We were constantly approached
(03:14):
by a lot of the larger organizations, the defense primes, like Raytheon and
Boeing, and they would come tous and they'd say, well, hey,
Katie and Stephanie, you're running thisveterans organization. You interact with a
lot of stosbs that service disabled veteranand small businesses. We need teaming partners
like that, so can you helpintroduce us to a good veteran known firm
(03:35):
that does X or Y. Andwe got so many of those calls from
the Boeings and the Raytheons of theworld, we just kind of asked ourselves,
well, hey, doesn't Boeing havetheir own, you know, supplier
database. Can't you know, Raytheongo to sam dot gov or some external
database and find good teaming partners.And the short answer is yes, there
are plenty of databases out there,but they don't necessarily capture the data that
(03:59):
is relevant to teaming in the federalspace. So after doing enough research and
due diligence on our own, wesaid, you know what, something doesn't
exist, so we're just going tobuild it. And figure it out from
there. Well, that's really fascinating, and Stephanie, that's amazing intel.
But having that intel is one thing. But then going with Katie and saying,
listen, we can start our businessand we can execute this. Tell
(04:20):
us about that. So Katie andI had the luxury, if you will,
of having other incomes and other jobsas we started this. So we
solve a problem, we identified theneed, figured out how to solve it,
and both said to ourselves, we'llfigure out how to make money later.
Right, So we both were payingour mortgages, we had full time
jobs doing other things, and thiswas kind of this was a passion project
(04:43):
for both of us. And thenyou know, there's plenty of people who
had many suggestions on how we shouldmonetize and how we could do it,
and we pretty much followed our ownpath. We turned down all offers that
you know, are suggestions and decidedwanted to stay true to our mission,
which was helping small businesses get infront of other people for federal contracting opportunities.
(05:08):
We started the company and we knewthat it would be free for the
small businesses to join, and tothis day it has remained free and we'll
always as far as we're concern,remain free. So it was a passion
project. We did it on nightsand weekends. We started. We finally
we spent our own money to develop, to pay software engineers to come up
(05:29):
with our with our algorithms, withour database, with all the things,
and it was just based on ourpersonal experience and what people were asking us
for. We then went out tothe market and we're kind of like,
hey, guys, we've got thisthing. We again weren't charging any money
because we kind of felt like thiswas just something we really wanted to help
people with. Eventually, monetization didhappen. Eventually we solved different areas.
(05:55):
Our data is very specific for federalcontracting, but it's also very valuable.
It does not exist anywhere else.We do not scrape data. We believe
there's a place for that somewhere,but that's not who we are and who
our platform serves. So everybody whohas entered their information into our website,
(06:15):
they've done so because they are interestedin federal contracting opportunities. And therefore we
feel like it's this very niche groupof people who are looking to continuing to
grow, and we want to helpthem build their companies. Well, thank
you for sharing all that. It'sjust fascinating And what is even more fascinating
to me, and I can bethe first person that said that to you,
ladies, is the name of thecompany. It spoke to me very
(06:36):
quickly and knowing what you do,even though we're going to really drill down
and get into the weed exactly whatyou do for your clients. But who
wants to talk about the origin storyof gov mates Because it's a cute name.
I love it, It's wonderful andit says who you are. But
how did you come up with thename? I think there was a million
bad names that came before gov Mateand there's a lot of polling of our
(07:00):
colleagues and just kind of like,hey, what do you think about this?
What do you think about that?And I think we try I literally
think that we tried like a hundrednames beforehand. But how did we finally
settle on this? I think wejust it was the one that resonated with
us. It was okay, we'redoing teaming right, we're mates in a
teeming perspective, it's about the government, and we just decided we wanted something
(07:21):
that was interesting and fresh and whatwe were doing, like I said,
we have not seen anywhere else inthe market. So for us, it
was kind of a little bit cheeky. Always professional, but also a little
bit cheeky. We don't take ourselvesbut so seriously, the world of federal
contracting can be quite sometimes scale,we'll say nicely, and we thought it
(07:42):
would be good to have a goodfresh of breath air. Well, it
makes perfect sense, and it isa very wonderful name, and it's certainly
caught my eye when I first wasintroduced to it, Katie, Before we
get into the weeds about what youactually do for your clients, I'd like
to talk about maybe just a thirtythousand foot view and maybe the mission statement
of govnmates. What is that sure? So I would say that govnmates our
(08:03):
goal is to help increase the visibilityof small businesses for teaming and procurement opportunities
in the federal space. We wantto see small businesses grow and we truly
believe that innovation comes from those smalland emerging companies. So anyways that we
can help minimize or reduce the barriersto entry for those companies to help then
(08:24):
support the federal government in the endmission, then we are all for that.
So everything that we do at theheart of it has to have the
interests of small business at front andcenter. Okay, Stephanie, let's get
into it now. When it comesto capabilities and what you do for your
clients, let's get into this aboutexactly what Govnmates does. So we are
at heart an online teaming platform.We are also a technology scouting tool.
(08:50):
We also provide education to our ecosystem, and we also provide resources to our
constituency, if you will. Butat the at the very we are the
fine line between technology and the humantouch. So we have the technology that
does a lot of you know thatyou put your capabilities in that we know
(09:11):
what your company does. We takeall the information that's relevant and teaming,
but we add our human element aswell, so we add kind of like
the rationale like oh, they meanthis, but this is really what it
means, right, and kind oflike trying to help people get to the
solution that they desire. And thepeople that we help are not just our
(09:31):
small businesses, because we're of coursewanting to advocate for them and get them
in front of folks but we helpthe government find new businesses that they wouldn't
have gotten in front of. Wehelp system integrators and the really large brand
name households get in front of oruse technology that the small guys offer.
We help small guys find equal,you know, other small businesses that they
(09:54):
can team with to put forward awinning solution to the federal government. At
the end, we're helping connect people. We're using our technology, but we're
also connecting folks across the spectrum.Well, thank you for sharing all that.
That makes a lot of sense too. And I'm kind of curious because
I know, ladies that we're verygovernment dance in the DMV. Do you
(10:15):
stay here in the DMV or isthere any exploring domestically for the United States?
What's the plan right now? SoI would say our membership, we
currently have over fifty four hundred membersin our ecosystem, a significant portion of
whom are small businesses. To Seventy'spoint, we also have the large systems
integrators, defense primes, and academicinstitutions who serve the government as well.
(10:37):
But our membership spans all fifty statesplus go On plus Puerto Rico, and
it's a pretty diverse membership. Froma capabilities perspective, I would say it
spans the waterfront from really high end, cutting edge technologies to professional services,
to medical technologies to your traditional weaponsand armament systems at dd uses. But
(11:01):
whatever the need is, be itAI and mL all the way to vaccine
prototyping. We've got that in ourmembership, ladies. I also would like
to ask our leaders about challenges andsuccess stories, and well, let's put
a pin in success stories just fora second and talk about challenges, Stephanie,
right now, what kind of challengesare happening right now in the landscape
for your business? Well, Ithink this is for all federal contractors.
(11:24):
We would love to see the deficitand budgets and all things around that issue
resolved. We cannot do long termplanning. The government can't do long term
planning. We can't support the missionif we don't know if we're having a
government shutdown or if we're all worriedabout the same things. Right like,
(11:46):
and we've seen this card play outover and over again. But this is
something that very much impacts federal contractingand so having stability, having long lead
times, having a long term planningwould actually greatly improve our industry if we
weren't kind of worried about a governmentshutdown every single year, or worried about
(12:07):
the budget being passed or not passedor continuing resolution. So I think that's
a very like ten thousand foot levelthat every single contractor out there, especially
as we could hear more and morein the news, has in the back
of their head because we all have, you know, a little bit of
PTSD from the last one. Sowe're all trying to figure out, Okay,
we're kind of pregaming a little bit, and that means that we're being
(12:30):
reactive and we're focused on a shortterm problem that honestly is not long term
planning and it's not helping anyone.Right. Yeah, that makes a lot
of sense. And Katie, howabout a success story? I imagine with
the eight years of ladies have cofounded this company that there is a bushel
of great success stories out there withclients and you don't have to name anybody
specific, but was there something thatreally stuck out that, you know what,
(12:52):
we really knocked that one out ofthe park for the client that was
a real special story. Sure,So I would say we track metrics first,
and foremost all of the matches andintroductions that we're making. So today
we have over thirty four thirty fourthousand matches made for our members and over
eight thousand introductions either directly to largesystems integrators and defense primes or directly to
(13:13):
government agencies. Anecdotally, we haveplenty of success stories where a large prime
or integrator will come to us andsay, hey, thank you so much
for that introduction. Because of that, we now have a teaming partner on
this so calm opportunity where they're oneof our names subs. On the flip
side, thinking back to our VeteransOrganization days, I recall one of our
(13:35):
other fellow board members who was runningan STVUSB at the time telling us,
guys, I've won three subcontracts tothis large systems integrator because you guys introduced
us. So it's always great tohear from our members. Ultimately, we
want to help people and the ultimate, the ultimate stamp of approval is when
they win new work. And Ihave to tell you, for such a
(13:58):
small business you have four plus people, it's amazing the numbers that you put
together with your clients, So obviouslyit's a tireless work, and obviously relationships
is obviously a really big thing whenit comes to your clients. I have
a rare opportunity here to have twovery smart, powerful women that own a
company together as co founders. Ihave a wife and daughter that are very
(14:18):
smart and educated and talented, andI love it that there are mentors and
leaders out there like you two.So we have a lot of women that
listen to this series CEOs you shouldknow, and they want to be a
CEO or they want to maybe starttheir own business, maybe a small business
like you have. So Stephane,let's start with you first. Maybe just
some advice in general for the womenthat are listening out there that maybe you
(14:39):
want to start their own business,whatever it may be, some advice for
them. Sure, I'm not surethat this is actually advice geared towards women.
But the advice that I would startwith, because I don't think the
fact that you're a woman impacts this, is solve a problem, right,
solve the problem, and have yoursolution be something that you can scale and
that can also so that there arebuyers out there right with budget to pay
(15:03):
the price that you need. Thoseare the fundamentals of business one oh one.
If you can answer all of thosequestions, then you need to go
do your competitive research. See whatelse is out there in the market.
Look for mentors, look for placesthat for people who will give you advice,
because there's plenty of folks who willtake Always listen to your core self,
(15:26):
but definitely listen to the other folkswho have been there before. They
everybody is flavored by their experience,but it's good to hear from others and
take away all the key pieces thatmake sense to you and package that up
and use that as you go forward. Don't be scared to start your own
company. I think that you caneasily do it. Okay, nothing is
(15:50):
easy about small business, just sowe're clear, but I think that you
should. I mean, what's holdingyou back. There's never a perfect time,
there's never a perfect economy, there'snever or a perfect interest rate,
there's never a perfect customer, andthere's never a perfect product. Right,
So don't be don't wait for perfection, get to good enough and get it
(16:11):
out there, because the sooner youdo it, the sooner you'll learn,
the sooner you will have feedback,and the sooner you can make any sort
of tweets that you need to continuemoving forward. Great advice, Katie.
How about you? I mean,Stephanie said it really well. One thing
I guess to echo is don't beafraid of failure. I mean, what's
the worst that can happen? Itdidn't work, so be it. The
other thing that I would add,owning a business and running a business is
(16:34):
not for everyone, right, so, and that's important to really discover as
well. Maybe you're not cut outto be a business owner, and that's
okay. There's a lot of peoplewho are doing incredible things that are not
necessarily people with a C in theirtitle in the C suite, but that
can still affect change. So youcan always you can do great things not
(16:56):
necessarily being a CEO of a company. Said well, yeah, you know.
And there's also a common theme thatyou both talked about that I hear
from a lot of our leaders menand women. Leap of faith. If
you can do that knowing that you'regonna take some chances. Some doors are
going to stay closed on you,but there's another one that could open down
the road. That's what you haveto do if you want to be entrepreneur,
own start your own business. Sothank you for sharing that, both
(17:18):
of you. So, Stephanie,I want to kind of wrap up our
conversation and put a bow on everythingabout maybe one takeaway if our listener is
tuning in and they really want toknow what govn mates is and what you
do, what would that be thattakeaway from the listener today? We are
absolute freaking champions of small business andAmerican good old fashioned entrepreneurship and innovation.
(17:41):
We know our small businesses and ourgovern mates can absolutely help solve the challenges
that this great country has. Wejust need them to get in front of
the right people to make a difference. I love that, Katie. If
anybody wants to find out more aboutgov mates or anything else, website,
social media channels, anything you'd liketo give out to our listeners today,
(18:03):
sure you can register for free atour website goovnmates dot com. You can
also follow us on LinkedIn. That'sthe social media platform that we leverage.
Follow both myself and Stephanie as wellas the govnmates page and you'll see all
of the great events and things thatwe are putting on. Well, ladies,
at eight years and going and you'veturned something very small into something very
(18:26):
special, and it's very cool totalk to the co founders at govnmates.
I really appreciate Stephanie and Katie.Thank you so much for joining us and
CEOs you should Know and continue success. Thank you so much. Thank you.
Our community partner, M ANDT Banksupports CEOs you Should Know as part
of their ongoing commitment to building strongcommunities, and that starts by backing the
businesses within them. As a Bankfor Communities, M and T believes in
(18:49):
dedicating time, talent, and resourcesto help local businesses thrive, because when
businesses succeed, our communities succeed
M ANDT Bank presents CEOs you ShouldKnow, powered by Iheartasia. Let's meet
Stephanie Alexander and Katie Billick, whoare the co founders of god Mates,
a free teaming partner platform for governmentcontractors, combining technology and the human element
to create meaningful partnerships. Before wetalk about their company, I first asked
(00:21):
our co founder to talk a littlebit about themselves, where they're from,
where they grew up in their ordinstory. We first start with Katie.
I'm from Austin, Texas, bornand raised in the state of Texas.
Attended the University of Texas in Austin, so I believe burn Orange and I
am a Longhorn. I graduated withdegrees in finance and Spanish. Started my
(00:42):
career on Wall Street working at GoldmanSachs in Silicon Valley covering tech funds,
hedge funds on the West Coast,and ultimately made my way over to the
DC area when my husband got movedto Quantico and have been in DC ever
since. And Stephanie, we're goingto ask you about your argin story in
just a second. But it's clearI met when you met Katie that you
(01:03):
found out that she went to UFTand partied on Sixth Street for several years.
That she's a lot of fun.Katie is a lot of fun in
uunexpected ways. But I'm a VirginiaTech hokey, so I completely can appreciate
a good, big old state schoolwith the party background. Sure sure,
Well, how about your origin story, Stephanie. Sure? So, I
grew up in the Hampton, Rancearea. I'm actually from Norfolk, and
(01:25):
you know I'm from Norfolk if Ipronounce it that way, affectionately known as
the seven five to seven. Iwent to Virginia Tech for my undergrad and
actually got my NBA from there aswell. I was a finance spreadsheet jockey,
if you will. I moved uphere to what my mother will affectionately
call Gotham City. I e.Close enough to home, but not drive
(01:46):
by close. It wasn't big businesslike New York, but I love the
DC metro area, and after acouple of years, I fell into federal
contracting. Much like many people aroundhere. You're never a little girl growing
up saying oh, I want tobe a federal contractor. But when you
moved to the DC metro area,you kind of recognize this is what a
(02:06):
lot of people do. And sofell into federal contracting, started working for
an STVSP for that's a veteran owncompany, if you will. Eventually rose
to be a CFO and then startedmy own company. And then Katie and
I further met and started gouv Mates. Well, let's talk about that because
we have time for one more originstory, because I'm always very interested when
(02:29):
I meet our leaders about there abouthaving that epiphany as partners and saying,
you know what, there's a holein the industry. I don't necessarily want
to work for anybody. I'd liketo be my own boss. But there's
ten million reasons why you'd want tostart your own business. But Katie and
then Stephanie can expound on this,tell us about the origin story about working
with each other and starting this businesscalled gov Mats. Sure. So Stephanie
(02:50):
and I actually met while we wereserving on the board of a veterans organization.
We are actually helping to stand upsomething called the STVUSB Council at the
time. Eventually evolved into the NVSBC, but we were both serving on the
board at this time. I actuallyremember it was during my husband's first Afghanistan
deployment and wearing those you know,board member hats. We were constantly approached
(03:14):
by a lot of the larger organizations, the defense primes, like Raytheon and
Boeing, and they would come tous and they'd say, well, hey,
Katie and Stephanie, you're running thisveterans organization. You interact with a
lot of stosbs that service disabled veteranand small businesses. We need teaming partners
like that, so can you helpintroduce us to a good veteran known firm
(03:35):
that does X or Y. Andwe got so many of those calls from
the Boeings and the Raytheons of theworld, we just kind of asked ourselves,
well, hey, doesn't Boeing havetheir own, you know, supplier
database. Can't you know, Raytheongo to sam dot gov or some external
database and find good teaming partners.And the short answer is yes, there
are plenty of databases out there,but they don't necessarily capture the data that
(03:59):
is relevant to teaming in the federalspace. So after doing enough research and
due diligence on our own, wesaid, you know what, something doesn't
exist, so we're just going tobuild it. And figure it out from
there. Well, that's really fascinating, and Stephanie, that's amazing intel.
But having that intel is one thing. But then going with Katie and saying,
listen, we can start our businessand we can execute this. Tell
(04:20):
us about that. So Katie andI had the luxury, if you will,
of having other incomes and other jobsas we started this. So we
solve a problem, we identified theneed, figured out how to solve it,
and both said to ourselves, we'llfigure out how to make money later.
Right, So we both were payingour mortgages, we had full time
jobs doing other things, and thiswas kind of this was a passion project
(04:43):
for both of us. And thenyou know, there's plenty of people who
had many suggestions on how we shouldmonetize and how we could do it,
and we pretty much followed our ownpath. We turned down all offers that
you know, are suggestions and decidedwanted to stay true to our mission,
which was helping small businesses get infront of other people for federal contracting opportunities.
(05:08):
We started the company and we knewthat it would be free for the
small businesses to join, and tothis day it has remained free and we'll
always as far as we're concern,remain free. So it was a passion
project. We did it on nightsand weekends. We started. We finally
we spent our own money to develop, to pay software engineers to come up
(05:29):
with our with our algorithms, withour database, with all the things,
and it was just based on ourpersonal experience and what people were asking us
for. We then went out tothe market and we're kind of like,
hey, guys, we've got thisthing. We again weren't charging any money
because we kind of felt like thiswas just something we really wanted to help
people with. Eventually, monetization didhappen. Eventually we solved different areas.
(05:55):
Our data is very specific for federalcontracting, but it's also very valuable.
It does not exist anywhere else.We do not scrape data. We believe
there's a place for that somewhere,but that's not who we are and who
our platform serves. So everybody whohas entered their information into our website,
(06:15):
they've done so because they are interestedin federal contracting opportunities. And therefore we
feel like it's this very niche groupof people who are looking to continuing to
grow, and we want to helpthem build their companies. Well, thank
you for sharing all that. It'sjust fascinating And what is even more fascinating
to me, and I can bethe first person that said that to you,
ladies, is the name of thecompany. It spoke to me very
(06:36):
quickly and knowing what you do,even though we're going to really drill down
and get into the weed exactly whatyou do for your clients. But who
wants to talk about the origin storyof gov mates Because it's a cute name.
I love it, It's wonderful andit says who you are. But
how did you come up with thename? I think there was a million
bad names that came before gov Mateand there's a lot of polling of our
(07:00):
colleagues and just kind of like,hey, what do you think about this?
What do you think about that?And I think we try I literally
think that we tried like a hundrednames beforehand. But how did we finally
settle on this? I think wejust it was the one that resonated with
us. It was okay, we'redoing teaming right, we're mates in a
teeming perspective, it's about the government, and we just decided we wanted something
(07:21):
that was interesting and fresh and whatwe were doing, like I said,
we have not seen anywhere else inthe market. So for us, it
was kind of a little bit cheeky. Always professional, but also a little
bit cheeky. We don't take ourselvesbut so seriously, the world of federal
contracting can be quite sometimes scale,we'll say nicely, and we thought it
(07:42):
would be good to have a goodfresh of breath air. Well, it
makes perfect sense, and it isa very wonderful name, and it's certainly
caught my eye when I first wasintroduced to it, Katie, Before we
get into the weeds about what youactually do for your clients, I'd like
to talk about maybe just a thirtythousand foot view and maybe the mission statement
of govnmates. What is that sure? So I would say that govnmates our
(08:03):
goal is to help increase the visibilityof small businesses for teaming and procurement opportunities
in the federal space. We wantto see small businesses grow and we truly
believe that innovation comes from those smalland emerging companies. So anyways that we
can help minimize or reduce the barriersto entry for those companies to help then
(08:24):
support the federal government in the endmission, then we are all for that.
So everything that we do at theheart of it has to have the
interests of small business at front andcenter. Okay, Stephanie, let's get
into it now. When it comesto capabilities and what you do for your
clients, let's get into this aboutexactly what Govnmates does. So we are
at heart an online teaming platform.We are also a technology scouting tool.
(08:50):
We also provide education to our ecosystem, and we also provide resources to our
constituency, if you will. Butat the at the very we are the
fine line between technology and the humantouch. So we have the technology that
does a lot of you know thatyou put your capabilities in that we know
(09:11):
what your company does. We takeall the information that's relevant and teaming,
but we add our human element aswell, so we add kind of like
the rationale like oh, they meanthis, but this is really what it
means, right, and kind oflike trying to help people get to the
solution that they desire. And thepeople that we help are not just our
(09:31):
small businesses, because we're of coursewanting to advocate for them and get them
in front of folks but we helpthe government find new businesses that they wouldn't
have gotten in front of. Wehelp system integrators and the really large brand
name households get in front of oruse technology that the small guys offer.
We help small guys find equal,you know, other small businesses that they
(09:54):
can team with to put forward awinning solution to the federal government. At
the end, we're helping connect people. We're using our technology, but we're
also connecting folks across the spectrum.Well, thank you for sharing all that.
That makes a lot of sense too. And I'm kind of curious because
I know, ladies that we're verygovernment dance in the DMV. Do you
(10:15):
stay here in the DMV or isthere any exploring domestically for the United States?
What's the plan right now? SoI would say our membership, we
currently have over fifty four hundred membersin our ecosystem, a significant portion of
whom are small businesses. To Seventy'spoint, we also have the large systems
integrators, defense primes, and academicinstitutions who serve the government as well.
(10:37):
But our membership spans all fifty statesplus go On plus Puerto Rico, and
it's a pretty diverse membership. Froma capabilities perspective, I would say it
spans the waterfront from really high end, cutting edge technologies to professional services,
to medical technologies to your traditional weaponsand armament systems at dd uses. But
(11:01):
whatever the need is, be itAI and mL all the way to vaccine
prototyping. We've got that in ourmembership, ladies. I also would like
to ask our leaders about challenges andsuccess stories, and well, let's put
a pin in success stories just fora second and talk about challenges, Stephanie,
right now, what kind of challengesare happening right now in the landscape
for your business? Well, Ithink this is for all federal contractors.
(11:24):
We would love to see the deficitand budgets and all things around that issue
resolved. We cannot do long termplanning. The government can't do long term
planning. We can't support the missionif we don't know if we're having a
government shutdown or if we're all worriedabout the same things. Right like,
(11:46):
and we've seen this card play outover and over again. But this is
something that very much impacts federal contractingand so having stability, having long lead
times, having a long term planningwould actually greatly improve our industry if we
weren't kind of worried about a governmentshutdown every single year, or worried about
(12:07):
the budget being passed or not passedor continuing resolution. So I think that's
a very like ten thousand foot levelthat every single contractor out there, especially
as we could hear more and morein the news, has in the back
of their head because we all have, you know, a little bit of
PTSD from the last one. Sowe're all trying to figure out, Okay,
we're kind of pregaming a little bit, and that means that we're being
(12:30):
reactive and we're focused on a shortterm problem that honestly is not long term
planning and it's not helping anyone.Right. Yeah, that makes a lot
of sense. And Katie, howabout a success story? I imagine with
the eight years of ladies have cofounded this company that there is a bushel
of great success stories out there withclients and you don't have to name anybody
specific, but was there something thatreally stuck out that, you know what,
(12:52):
we really knocked that one out ofthe park for the client that was
a real special story. Sure,So I would say we track metrics first,
and foremost all of the matches andintroductions that we're making. So today
we have over thirty four thirty fourthousand matches made for our members and over
eight thousand introductions either directly to largesystems integrators and defense primes or directly to
(13:13):
government agencies. Anecdotally, we haveplenty of success stories where a large prime
or integrator will come to us andsay, hey, thank you so much
for that introduction. Because of that, we now have a teaming partner on
this so calm opportunity where they're oneof our names subs. On the flip
side, thinking back to our VeteransOrganization days, I recall one of our
(13:35):
other fellow board members who was runningan STVUSB at the time telling us,
guys, I've won three subcontracts tothis large systems integrator because you guys introduced
us. So it's always great tohear from our members. Ultimately, we
want to help people and the ultimate, the ultimate stamp of approval is when
they win new work. And Ihave to tell you, for such a
(13:58):
small business you have four plus people, it's amazing the numbers that you put
together with your clients, So obviouslyit's a tireless work, and obviously relationships
is obviously a really big thing whenit comes to your clients. I have
a rare opportunity here to have twovery smart, powerful women that own a
company together as co founders. Ihave a wife and daughter that are very
(14:18):
smart and educated and talented, andI love it that there are mentors and
leaders out there like you two.So we have a lot of women that
listen to this series CEOs you shouldknow, and they want to be a
CEO or they want to maybe starttheir own business, maybe a small business
like you have. So Stephane,let's start with you first. Maybe just
some advice in general for the womenthat are listening out there that maybe you
(14:39):
want to start their own business,whatever it may be, some advice for
them. Sure, I'm not surethat this is actually advice geared towards women.
But the advice that I would startwith, because I don't think the
fact that you're a woman impacts this, is solve a problem, right,
solve the problem, and have yoursolution be something that you can scale and
that can also so that there arebuyers out there right with budget to pay
(15:03):
the price that you need. Thoseare the fundamentals of business one oh one.
If you can answer all of thosequestions, then you need to go
do your competitive research. See whatelse is out there in the market.
Look for mentors, look for placesthat for people who will give you advice,
because there's plenty of folks who willtake Always listen to your core self,
(15:26):
but definitely listen to the other folkswho have been there before. They
everybody is flavored by their experience,but it's good to hear from others and
take away all the key pieces thatmake sense to you and package that up
and use that as you go forward. Don't be scared to start your own
company. I think that you caneasily do it. Okay, nothing is
(15:50):
easy about small business, just sowe're clear, but I think that you
should. I mean, what's holdingyou back. There's never a perfect time,
there's never a perfect economy, there'snever or a perfect interest rate,
there's never a perfect customer, andthere's never a perfect product. Right,
So don't be don't wait for perfection, get to good enough and get it
(16:11):
out there, because the sooner youdo it, the sooner you'll learn,
the sooner you will have feedback,and the sooner you can make any sort
of tweets that you need to continuemoving forward. Great advice, Katie.
How about you? I mean,Stephanie said it really well. One thing
I guess to echo is don't beafraid of failure. I mean, what's
the worst that can happen? Itdidn't work, so be it. The
other thing that I would add,owning a business and running a business is
(16:34):
not for everyone, right, so, and that's important to really discover as
well. Maybe you're not cut outto be a business owner, and that's
okay. There's a lot of peoplewho are doing incredible things that are not
necessarily people with a C in theirtitle in the C suite, but that
can still affect change. So youcan always you can do great things not
(16:56):
necessarily being a CEO of a company. Said well, yeah, you know.
And there's also a common theme thatyou both talked about that I hear
from a lot of our leaders menand women. Leap of faith. If
you can do that knowing that you'regonna take some chances. Some doors are
going to stay closed on you,but there's another one that could open down
the road. That's what you haveto do if you want to be entrepreneur,
own start your own business. Sothank you for sharing that, both
(17:18):
of you. So, Stephanie,I want to kind of wrap up our
conversation and put a bow on everythingabout maybe one takeaway if our listener is
tuning in and they really want toknow what govn mates is and what you
do, what would that be thattakeaway from the listener today? We are
absolute freaking champions of small business andAmerican good old fashioned entrepreneurship and innovation.
(17:41):
We know our small businesses and ourgovern mates can absolutely help solve the challenges
that this great country has. Wejust need them to get in front of
the right people to make a difference. I love that, Katie. If
anybody wants to find out more aboutgov mates or anything else, website,
social media channels, anything you'd liketo give out to our listeners today,
(18:03):
sure you can register for free atour website goovnmates dot com. You can
also follow us on LinkedIn. That'sthe social media platform that we leverage.
Follow both myself and Stephanie as wellas the govnmates page and you'll see all
of the great events and things thatwe are putting on. Well, ladies,
at eight years and going and you'veturned something very small into something very
(18:26):
special, and it's very cool totalk to the co founders at govnmates.
I really appreciate Stephanie and Katie.Thank you so much for joining us and
CEOs you should Know and continue success. Thank you so much. Thank you.
Our community partner, M ANDT Banksupports CEOs you Should Know as part
of their ongoing commitment to building strongcommunities, and that starts by backing the
businesses within them. As a Bankfor Communities, M and T believes in
(18:49):
dedicating time, talent, and resourcesto help local businesses thrive, because when
businesses succeed, our communities succeed
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