David H. Segura quit his systems engineering job at the Ford Motor Company in 1997 to launch a start up. He had a business mentor and $100 in the bank.
More than a decade later, Segura’s firm, Vision IT, which employs more than 850 people in thirteen offices across the United States, posted $103 million in revenues. Vision IT supplies top-notch IT specialists on contract—short and long, to organizations such as EDS, an HP company, and the city of Detroit’s school system. Vision IT’s clients say doing business with the global firm helps them maintain quality and save money with the flexibility of hiring contract workers.
Consequently, the staffing and solutions firm and its CEO have garnered accolades. These include topping the 2009 Inner City 100 list as the nation’s fastest-growing urban company. Also this year, Segura was featured as part of Business Week Small Biz’s cover story for its June-July issue. He was named “Entrepreneur of the Year” by Hispanic Business magazine in December 2008. Nice complements all, Segura says, but one major reason he became an entrepreneur was to “make an impact on the community where I live.
You are able to touch so many more people.”
Vision IT helps young men and women in diverse communities build their careers in IT through internships, scholarships, and job opportunities. The native Detroiter’s love of technology began after his parents gave him a computer at 13. That’s when “I started wondering how computer games work and began to program,” he says.
After graduating from the University of Michigan with a bachelor’s degree in computer science, Segura joined Ford and began volunteering at a local chapter of SHPE (Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers). There, he met Lydia Gutierrez, the owner of Casa Hacienda Foods, a tortilla chip company. She hired him to update her business’ IT infrastructure. But, she warned him, “‘I am not going to pay
you until you start your own company, then I will give
you a check,’” he recalls.
After Segura founded Vision IT, he met the chief information officer of Ball Park Franks, a Sara Lee company. The CIO told Segura he would hire him as a consultant if he could learn about the company’s software system and recommend a 10-point improvement plan. Segura took on the challenge. During the day, he worked for a consulting firm and in the evenings and on weekends worked on the Ball Park Franks system.
Few months later, Segura presented his plan. In response, the CIO offered him $65,000 to build a custom application for the sales team. Segura put in his notice at his day job and completed the project in less than 24 months.
Over the next few years, Vision IT grew from a Tier 2 supplier to larger staffing firms to a prime contractor. From 2003 through 2007, Segura posted a five-year compound annual growth rate of 103 percent. And in 2008, leading analysts at the Staffing Industry Report recognized the firm as the 2nd fastest growing, privately held staffing firm in the nation.
Segura says the key to his success is strong technical skills and an understanding of how IT applies to business needs. He foresees niches in healthcare and education, and projects this will generate jobs, new careers, and companies to meet each sector’s specific needs.
Local communities can also benefit using Segura’s model of creating “urban onshore” businesses. How? By building their own low-cost IT centers instead of shipping work overseas. “After all, what more challenged market is there than Detroit?” Segura asks. “Vision IT can develop low-cost savings. But how is kind of a secret sauce,” he says.
Segura believes in growing IT’s own. He teaches tech classes to high school students, funds a summer IT internship program (plus a full
scholarship), and trains and hires from communities where Vision IT has offices.
