Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Kiki Dikmen. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Kiki, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

It is not so much about our core business but more so the current back bone of our business, which is technology. I learned a long time ago that an entrepreneur should not fall in love with their own idea; with this in mind I wanted to create a customer centric mindset and have our growth as a company driven by the ideas of our clients. For this very reason, we took a simple idea a client gave us, about creating a “data depository” to our current technology which serves as not only a data repository, but also as a carbon footprint and enterprise reporting, all encompassing bill pay service for our clients. Technology investments are costly and they take a lot of time and effort before seeing any ROI, but perseverance pays off. Building the right team and believing in this team to execute your vision is always the key. Now, we are certainly solving a problem that others had attempted to solve, but doing it better, more accurate and more streamlined. If you recall when Apple first launched; Steve Jobs did not invent cell phones but he made them better – he created a platform that allowed others to constantly update his offerings and he eliminated the concept of keyboards that were taking up 50-60% of the entire device.

Kiki, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I got into the energy industry in 2007 in some ways by faith; an introduction to now my business partner at a soccer game paved the way for this adventure. My core business is running a nationwide leader in energy, telecom and utility management solutions. Through our proprietary technology we empower our customers to gain deeper insights into data, patterns and sustainability. Our solutions help automate, manage, account, predict and control cost-efficiency and sustainability. We believe we manage commodities including power, gas, propane, telecom, data and mobility better than our competition. I am proud of each of our employees and their determination to come to work everyday to become better at what they do, to educate their clients more, and to get the desired results for their clients. I am proud to say that we have created a culture where doing the right thing matters.

Let’s move on to buying businesses – can you talk to us about your experience with business acquisitions?

I purchased a technology platform. First challenge with buying a business is getting the owner comfortable with parting ways with what they created, for this very purpose I tried to be diligent and understanding about the feelings involved and ultimately left the owner with some percentage ownership and continued management involvement. Purchasing the business was simply to create another vertical for our offerings and expand the breadth of our offerings. Technology is certainly the next frontier and i am always looking for ways to get involved with different technologies in its infancy stages and see if it can live and operate within our environment and see if it will bring value to our bottom line. If the answer is yes to both questions then we happily take over further development and invest money into making it better and more user friendly.

Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?

I met my business partner at a soccer game at Reliant stadium between America, a Mexican team vs Barcelona. A friend that used to be my current business partner’s employee had invited me to the game. We had a long dialogue in his suite that day that actually led to a lifelong friendship and several businesses together. Today aside from our energy and technology businesses, we co-own a logistics firm and have also followed our mutual passion and started a Tequila Brand called Veneno Tequila

Contact Info:

• Website: www.getchoice.com
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kikidikmen/