VBE Spotlight on: Fortuna Business Management Consulting

Fortuna Business Management Consulting Inc.

Fortuna Business Management Consulting was founded by Jack Smith and partners in 2014.

Fortuna Business Management Consulting (Fortuna BMC) was founded in 2014 and is one of the fastest growing veteran-owned businesses in the United States. Their headquarters are located in McClellan Park, California and Fayetteville, North Carolina with offices in Los Angeles, New York, Israel, and the Philippines. 

Fortuna BMC is a global IT consulting and staffing company, comprised of experienced professionals and industry experts. Their team is committed to provide the most efficient and innovative information technology solutions customized to their clients’ needs. 

Learn more by visiting their website: https://www.fortunabmc.com

About the Business - Value & Honesty

What services do you provide?

"Fortuna BMC offers a variety of services including contact center support, scalable, on-demand team building and staff augmentation, information security, enterprise resource planning, custom software development, project management and implementation, advanced business analysis, and remote support services."

Who are your primary customers?

"Department of Veteran Affairs, California Department of Technology, RedRiver, Conduent, SDI Presence, and Gainwell Technologies."

When and how did you start your business?

"'Fortuna BMC was founded in 2014, with a strong focus in IT consulting and staffing. Government contracting was in dire need of on-demand teams that could implement, execute and get out – as needed. As a result, Fortuna grew. We developed on-demand teams for the technical and non-technical spaces. In 2019, COVID brought a new challenge to larger contractors as they couldn’t scale. Fortuna stepped in, and was asked to build and manage Rapid Covid-19 response call centers which led to 700 agents in less than 12 months. Hiring 300 of them in 72 hours.

What started as a California-centric, COVID response company, grew and expanded nationally with growth into New York and, more broadly, the federal marketplace. This fostered a partnership that blossomed and allowed Fortuna to become one of New York’s leading SDVOB’s. Growth also allowed for expansion in Ohio, Montana and Pennsylvania. This resulted in offices today in Sacramento & Glendale CA, Fayetteville, NC, and Albany, NY where we are HUB Zone and SDVOB certified."

Business Growth Challenges - Growing Through Challenge and Change

What were some of the challenges in starting your business?

"Past performance was the biggest challenge. As a young company, Fortuna struggled to get work without pre-existing past performance. It took a lot of clever deal-making and salesmanship to get contracts to build a reference-able portfolio."

What is the key to the success of your business?

"Be flexible and allow yourself and your team to ride the waves of the business’s ebbs and flows. Understand that you can do better, and continue the momentum when you do not take successes or failures too heavily. Nothing is ever as good or bad as it seems."

What lessons learned can you share with people to make their business succeed?

"Nothing is ever as good or as bad as it seems. The key to a successful business is being able to handle the Ups and Downs that come with running a company while ensuring that every time you get knocked down, you get back up."

What pitfalls should they avoid?

"Over-planning and under-executing. Fear, uncertainty, and doubt are great excuses for going back to the drawing board. My favorite quote is "The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing." - Walt Disney. If you focus on beginning and overcoming challenges in a relentless pursuit of success, you will never fail."

What other information about you and your business would you like to share with the NaVOBA community?

"Fortuna BMC sets itself apart from other DVBEs with our ability to competitively scale and deploy teams on demand. We have a growing pipeline of transitioning veterans that we are training in emerging technologies to assist in the transition from military life to the civilian workforce. Our efforts to help veterans, led us to develop a relationship with Fort Bragg and the US Army Reserve that helps us make sure we keep our military and military spouses gainfully EMPLOYED while they’re not actively DEPLOYED. We want to make sure we take care of our veterans and our communities."

Service information

Branch:

USAF

Service Years:

2000-2004

Highest Rank Attained:

E4

Why did you join the military?

"Our family has served the United States military for generations dating back to the Revolutionary War"

Military Occupation:

"Lead Software Developer"

Biography/Fun Facts

Favorite Sports Team
"Lakers"

Playlist
"Kolohe Kai"

Favorite Car

"Ferrari Modena Spyder"