Meet Reginald Andre

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Sed ut perspiciatis unde.

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Reginald Andre. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Reginald below.

Reginald, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. So, let’s imagine that you were advising someone who wanted to start something similar to you and they asked you what you would do differently in the startup-process knowing what you know now. How would you respond?

You win when you fall in love with patience. In the 12 years of my cybersecurity business I’ve learned the quickest way to not grow faster is to want to grow faster. Let your competitor do whatever, while you do whatever it takes.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers?

I started my business after a fall out with my old business partner in another IT company. After working 7 days a week, 18 hour days, after asking for equity I was fired. With only $100 dollars in my bank account, I founded ARK Solvers. With a non-compete in hand, I had to find new clients from scratch using my experience from the former business. During my first few years in business I realized that in order to grow, I had to expand my education and went back to school to get my degree in Business Administration and IT Support at Broward College.

What I am most proud about the business is providing to my incredible staff of 10. To know that I am able to give back to the community and help them put food on there table is still unreal. I am also proud that I have a diverse team as far as ethnicity, gender, and story. This matches what South Florida is all about, and just like how South Florida is a melting pot, so is our company. In fact, 66% of our staff is female, while the rest of the tech industry is barely at 25%.

The type of service we provide our clients is Cybersecurity & Risk Management. Things have changed and cyber threats are way up. Our clients are usually regulated and/or hold very sensitive information and it is imperative that there information stays safe and not get hacked. Our team helps our clients reduce their risk by putting in layers of security so that hackers don’t get into their systems, computers, and network.

Can you talk to us about how you funded your business?

I am proud to say that our business is completely 100% debt free. In today’s venture capital market this is not the norm, but I follow the principles of Dave Ramsey which teaches the opposite of the norm. I think this has actually help grow my business. Things can easily get out of control if you don’t have the discipline and I personally know I would fall into the trap of using a credit card to pay for online purchases, travel, etc. In our business we grow when we can afford the payroll, and we save systematically until we can pay for a office expense by cash.

What’s been the best source of new clients for you?

The biggest source for new clients has been my existing clients! I spend over 30K and hands down, my existing clients are my biggest referral source. These new clients advance through my sales process faster, healthier margins and have great loyalty. This is why referral business is a central part of my go-to-market strategy.