Positioned in the middle of Northern Virginia's hyper competitive government contractor corridor, Reston-based Sequoia Holdings Inc exists in a crowded space that CEO Richard Stroupe knows is rapidly changing and starved of new talent. But he has a plan to succeed that's already radically altered the image, structure and identity of his business. Sequoia isn't your average, stale, cubicle heavy, white collar and slacks IT contractor. Rather, it is built to mirror something else entirely; part startup, part accelerator, all tech.
Sequoia is, for lack of a better term, an IT services and software development shop for the nation's intelligence and defense sectors, headlined by the Department of Defense. The company does everything from cybersecurity, network monitoring, application development and data analytics services, to helping companies migrate their data into the cloud. They specifically specialize in legacy migration, new application development with Amazon Web Services (AWS) and the implementation of the Cloudera's software stack. Stroupe, himself, is a longtime investor, entrepreneur and defense industry veteran. He is also a part-time business professor at George Washington University (GWU).
Between the startup-esque, t-shirt jean combo that employees sport in the Sequoia office and the open layout plan complete with small, couch-laded nooks, you'll begin to find something departed from a Booz Allen environment. The company's new R&D lab is full of consumer tech gadgets, including a 3D Printer, Oculus Rift Virtual Reality headset, an Amazon Echo, iRobot Roomba, a Leap Motion, Sphero, Arduino kits and even a UDOO board.
Founded in 2012, the 30-person, employee-owned company is growing quickly after having completed a recent office move.
The plan, Stroupe tells me, is to double in headcount within 12 months even in the face of federal budget sequestration that stifles spending in the market. And though improved budget conditions have helped businesses like Sequoia, that specifically focus on intelligence agencies, it's still an uphill and very complex battle, Stroupe explained.
Sequoia isn't your average, stale, cubicle heavy, white collar and slacks, IT contractor
One of the issues tied to hiring, he said, is that the pace of innovative present in next generation software is exceeding the skill sets of entrenched, longtime IT professionals. In essence, the contractor-centric software space is being disrupted by its more commercial leaning brethren and the gap is becoming more ever more apparent.
Because most independent IT professionals that work in the public sector must receive clearance and therefore, complete a lengthy vetting process, the barriers to entry for younger technologist can be difficult. The average age of an employee at Sequoia is 30-years-old to 35-years-old, but Stroupe said that his office is slightly younger than the surrounding industry. In addition, similar businesses can only receive so many clearances and as a result, prospective applicants across the space with some level of clearance status are generally preferred—further limiting entrants into the talent pool.
The unique image and structure that Sequoia carries is employed, at least in part, to help overcome the difficult hiring situation present in the market today.
To begin: a quick scan of Sequoia's website will leave the average visitor with more questions than answers. The terms cloud engineering, data solutions and data science are prominent, while a run-of-the-mill explanation is absent. Meanwhile, the employee benefits page will leave most envious.
Among the many, many employee benefits that one would expect from a much larger tech employer like Apple or Facebook, Sequoia offers five weeks of paid time off, 10 government holidays, guaranteed performance bonuses, a free iPad and laptop allowance, company stock options, 100 percent coverage for medical/dental/vision and a life insurance policy. But that's just scratching the surface. Planned outings like company picnics, wine tastings, outdoor adventures and team hackathons underline the benefits.
Outside of the lavish employment package that saw Sequoia named as one of the Best Places to Work by the Washington Business Journal in 2015, earlier this year Stroupe also established Sequoia apps.
Apps, a side venture and in-house subsidiary of Sequoia, acts as an accelerator program for early stage technology companies and entrepreneurs. For reference, Stroupe remains an active investor in Blu Venture Investors, a Vienna, Va.-based firm that supports early stage entrepreneurs in the mid-Atlantic region.
The accelerator program works with people who are developing software for the national security and intelligence space. This can include cybersecurity, data analytics and data storage, among other technology applications. Participants in Sequoia Apps receive coaching, mentorship and initial seed funding to accelerate their ideas into a solid minimum viable product (MVP), Stroupe told DC Inno.
He added, "when [they're] ready, we will leverage our VC and private equity network to obtain follow-on funding."
To date, Apps has one portfolio company since launching in the Spring, called Immuta.
Apps, much like Sequoia's renewed image, was originally established as an auxiliary tool to both attract and keep talented within the organization. In time, it's possible that Apps grows in scale and subsequently seeks limited partners to contribute to a fund, but at the moment it will continue use resources allocated from the Sequoia's yearly budget, Stroupe said.
