Keeping a government presence

SERVICE:
Veterans Enterprise Technology Solutions Inc., Clarksville
www.vets-inc.com

Veterans Enterprise Technology Solutions Inc. (VETS) was started by “two broke guys” in Jim Moody’s basement in 2005. Today it is the second-fastest growing private company in Virginia.

The company offers its federal government clients a variety of services ranging from computer-based 3-D simulations to mail operations. “All of our work is with the government,” says Moody, VETS’ president and CEO. “Most of our work is prime contracts. About 15 to 20 percent is subcontractor work, but it’s still government work.”

Moody, a retired Navy officer, began the company in his Reston home with business partner Jim Case. “It was two broke guys,” Moody says, adding that he became sole owner of the company in December 2011. “We moved the company to Clarksville about six years ago.”

The company now has 480 full-time employees. Last year, it was ranked No. 160 on the Inc. 5000, the magazine’s list of America’s fastest-growing, private companies. From 2008 to 2011, revenues grew 2,084.21 percent. “It came from having a good team in place coupled with a lot of hard work and writing good proposals,” Moody says of the company’s growth. 

The company’s IT services include software and database design, training, and testing and evaluation. “We have done a lot of interesting things,” Moody says.

One project for the U.S. Air Force’s Headquarters Air Combat Command involved a training system that used 3-D simulations in the coursework. VETS also created software programs for Veterans Affairs, including the HealtheVet project, which allows veterans to access their medical records.

VETS won its first prime contract with the federal government in February 2007. “It was a vehicle to grow,” Moody says. The company now has 50 government contracts and provides IT services to federal government agencies in 12 states. The company’s largest customers are the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Veterans Affairs, the U.S. Air Force and the U.S. Army. VETS also works with the Small Business Administration, the USDA, Federal Aviation Administration and Department of Defense.

One-third of the company’s revenues come from Operation Support, a contract with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) at the Department of Homeland Security. VETS won the contract in November 2010 and began operations in February 2011. It provides mailroom, file-room and operation support at USCIS service centers in Lincoln, Neb., and Mesquite, Texas. “There are hundreds of thousands of files. They come in by the truckloads,” Moody says. “We process the mail and get it ready for the adjudicators” so they can process applications for citizenship.

In addition to its headquarters in Clarksville, the company also has offices in Reston and customer contract offices in Alexandria, Washington, D.C., and O’Fallon, Ill., at Scott Air Force Base. “In Illinois, we support Defense agencies within the U.S. Transportation Command,” Moody says.

Even though it relies on government contracts, Moody believes the government sequester will have only a minimal effect on the company. “Most of the agencies we support are industrially funded,” he says, explaining that those types of funds help pay for work produced by contractors.

Moody would like to expand the company’s footprint in the government. “We have a lot of proposals in,” he says. “We are hoping to grow 25 percent in 2013.” He would be thrilled if he could keep his promise to employees to double revenues every year. “We have pretty much done that every year we have been in business,” he says.

Moody finds it personally satisfying to create programs for agencies like Veterans Affairs that deal with the public, he says. “We feel like we are helping people.”