Posted: June 18, 2010

Gary M. Lisota
President/CEO  |  Valkyrie Enterprises LLC  |  Virginia Beach
Valkyrie is an engineering and technical services company that provides support to the Department of Defense and international naval and maritime communities.  Its primary focus has been the U.S. Navy and Army, and NATO. When did you start the business and what gave you the idea for it?
Valkyrie was started in June 2007 and opened for business two months later.  The idea came from my 25-year career at another defense contractor, where I helped the company grow to nearly a half billion dollars in annual sales. 

What was the hardest part of launching your company?
The hardest part was putting together the capital. My goal was to take advantage of my industry experience and have Valkyrie set a record-breaking pace for growth, while maintaining product/service quality and not outrunning our management infrastructure and capacity. It takes capital to start a company, but it takes much more of it to grow rapidly.

What lesson did you learn that you wish you’d known back before you started?
I’m not sure that I’ve learned any new lessons since starting Valkyrie. I brought a lot of experience into the launch from my previous life where I had learned just about all the lessons through the various roles that I had there. Among the responsibilities I had were that of COO and CEO; many lessons were learned the hard way, of course.  What I do wish is that I would have remembered some of those lessons of the past, the main one being to know when to cut your losses. I learned this lesson repeatedly in the past, but employing it can be difficult when personnel decisions are involved.
 
What risks did you take?
The biggest risk that I took was risking a substantial amount of money, and on top of that, deferring my compensation for approximately 15 months. I was always confident in my ability to grow the company, but the more successful you become, the more capital you need to sustain and grow. If you hit the cash wall, you risk the viability of the enterprise as well as the previous investments.

What was the biggest obstacle you overcame?
The biggest obstacle that we have overcome is doing business without prime contracting vehicles. We did it by working with many great business partners, both large and small. Today, in less than three years of operation, we have more than 60 corporate partners who are a major part of our success and to whom I am certainly appreciative. 

What or who has helped you the most in establishing your business?
In addition to our corporate partners, there are many individuals and organizations who have contributed to Valkyrie’s success.  Certainly my lawyers, Ann Sullivan and Delphine Carnes, were a big help, as was my accountant, Nancy Hall. On the banking side, TowneBank, specifically Kevin Bonniwell, has been a pleasure to work with and instrumental in supporting our capital needs. Internally, Valkyrie’s HR director, Joanne Brooks, and VP of operations, Danny Redmon, were both critical to our early and continued success.  Though there are many more, I’ll stop here for now and simply say “thank you!”  to all who have helped over the years.

What do you consider your greatest innovation?
Since we are an engineering and technical services firm, innovation is not a major driver, except when it comes to providing innovative solutions to our customers. I think our major discriminator is our people. Our motto is, “We hire the best to be the best.” It’s a catchy phrase, but more importantly, it’s the essence of our business practice and a motto which we have adhered to since Day 1. We have a talented, respected technical staff. Additionally, our corporate staff has pretty much all worked for me before at the previous company, so they have big business experience. Big business experience and disciplined process structure has made Valkyrie a small business with the look and feel of a much larger corporation. This, coupled with our strong growth, has made Valkyrie look very different than the typical startup company in this industry. This was, of course, by design.
 
How has the company grown, both in terms of employees and revenues?
Valkyrie’s growth has been quite strong since our start in August 2007. We have 105 personnel onboard and are operating at a revenue run-rate of $17 million a year.  I expect that we will finish 2010 with revenue of between $17 million and $20 million and approximately 150 employees. 2010 will complete our third year in business.

Has the company earned a profit? If so, how long did it take to get there?
Valkyrie was profitable by the end of the second full year, which is quite good for a startup. The company has been profitable each period (five total) of this calendar year, and I anticipate that trend to continue.
 
Discuss future plans for the company.
One of my goals for Valkyrie is to reach over $100 million in annual revenue within the next five years. Our plan for that goal includes some acquisition activity beginning in 2012. 

What is your biggest challenge for the future?
To diversify our customer base. Given the current national budget deficit, it is likely that defense spending will be reduced starting in 2012. This will make our industry more competitive and make it difficult to grow; even holding market share will be a challenge. Having said that, diversification internationally and translating DoD skills into other sectors is a good hedge strategy, one which we are already employing.