VBE Spotlight: Cornerstone Technologies

Cornerstone Technologies has a history of innovation, a storied legacy of IT solutions, serving so many to date and being trusted by some of the largest organizations in the world (Visa, Nvidia, Microsoft, Advantest). In short, we help get you and your data to where it needs to be, intelligently. Whether it be AI engineering, cybersecurity, managed services, or any IT support.

State and Local government, municipal structures, retail chains, software companies, financial services institutions, manufacturing, churches, higher education

Cornerstone was started in April of 2007, because life’s priorities and decisions shouldn’t be dictated by any company. I am a true believer in “the integrated life.” That means, the belief that you should be able to be the best you (not who the company dictates you should be) for your faith, your family and your neighbors (this means people in general... vendors, partners, consultants and the community) without compromise, while upholding your obligations to the company. Historically, this has manifested itself in a very tangible way for our employees. Some examples include: Encouraging families to participate in marketing/customer events when feasible, the sponsoring of “faith based” activities (e.g. Buddhist Golf Tournament), work from home policies and even kids traveling with parents on road trips and in one instance even joining an executive dinner event with Dell’s VPs in Texas (it was critical for the CTO to attend).

As a startup in 2007, we mainly started off with a network from past companies, built on an appetite for risk and a culture of self-reliance. As a small company, a big challenge for us was also our greatest strength: earning trust through transparency in a crowded market. We don’t generate revenue solely by having a superior team, but building that team was done with both risk, extreme effort and a commitment to stick to our values. This was not always easy, but we have grown past our obstacles by the same ways we have embraced them: through grit and determination, and an uncompromising vision of top-level expertise combined with an honest and transparent approach to selling.

This business was brought into existence as a struggle and a blessing in both the idea that we are a small services company that seeks to serve customers the hard way, meaning we focus on customer obsession, and a unique way to approach business, where we mean what we say and operate through honesty and transparency. To this day, as a disabled, Veteran-owned business, many institutions claim to support and help those organizations that appeal to organizations like us without truly providing substantive support through real initiatives and incentives. We value and leverage our vast network of industry professionals and leaders to spur deal flow, make new in-roads and beat out larger companies for clients because of our hands-on, unique approach to true service, our honesty and transparency, as well as our constant willingness to humble ourselves by learning and growing our engineering expertise and offerings. We work together across all departments to ensure the best experience for clients of all kinds. That is what continues to bring customers back to us. Our reputation is predicated on hard work, humility and deep expertise which we hold in high regard, and our clients experience that as we work with them every day to meet them and their IT infrastructure exactly where they are, only proposing solutions that work for them.

Principles and culture are our key growth factors, and the major ways we‘ve succeeded despite starting out as a small venture. Companies often exchange their morals and foundational principles for profit and short-term gain. We recommend and implore other business to do the same and stick to why they founded the company in the first place. That ideal will carry a company farther along in the long-term than any compromise or concession in the short term.

A major pitfall to avoid is simple: if you are not obsessed with the customer and their unique needs, your company will eventually alienate valuable people that can provide long-term relationships and deals to bolster your bottom line. Service, honor, character and honesty are things that cannot be forsaken, yet are all too often discarded for short-term gain. We recommend to dis-Vet-owned businesses to hold on tightly to the virtues that prompted them to serve their country, and carry those innate traits to the corporate realm.

We are always looking and taking action to attend every NaVOBA conference we can, every Disability:IN event and otherwise, not just for the fruits of deal flow, but mainly for a chance to connect, learn from in humility and build relationships with other valuable members of NaVOBA. Put simply: we‘ve learned that what you give to this community, you will reciprocally receive.