EVOTEK just completed our 3rd fiscal year in 2017. The company has 65 employees and over 60 contractors. It is hard to believe that only three short years ago, EVOTEK was an idea, or more specifically, a concept.
“It all came down to employee engagement. It all came down to recognition. It all came down to leadership, which led to every employee feeling ownership and accountability for the results. You can ask a team to accomplish a mission, but you can’t order excellence.”
The concept was simple; build a company that protects the well-being of a small group of people. The vision is straight forward, ‘Work for EVOTEK, it will be the last job you will ever have.’ Like many great companies, new businesses are born out of bad experiences. Cesar, like many people, felt that big business often takes advantage of their employees. One particular experience he told me that he used as inspiration to create EVOTEK, has stuck out in my memory. He was arguing with management to pay an engineer a $5k bonus for helping to bring in a $10M transaction. Shortly after that argument, that particular manager bought an airplane. When I joined EVOTEK, I specifically remember Cesar describing system integrators as an ATM for their owners, generating money off the backs of their employees. It was not uncommon to hear about race cars or wineries being purchased, items normal people don’t buy casually. Cesar wanted to build a different type of company, one that allowed employees to partake in the success.
Partnership at EVOTEK
When the company launched, it was structured to have 35% of net profit set aside and paid out to customer facing employees, that earned partner status. The first year, the company started with five partners. In 2017, we finished the year with eight and just invited three new partners for 2018. As I have traveled around meeting customers, describing our unique go-to-market strategy, I share the partnership program at EVOTEK, as transparently as I am here. The message completely resonates, and we realized that EVOTEK is special, not only because of the customer facing employees, but because each of the departments, working together in unity. Therefore in 2018, we added an Associate Partner status that all employees are eligible for, and this past weekend, we awarded our very first Associate Partner.
Earning Partnership at EVOTEK is not only about the financial participation, it is also about being included in decisions that leadership makes. EVOTEK was privately funded so we do not have outside investors or accountants telling us how to run our company. That being said, we still want to leverage collective ideas from people both internally and externally. The Partners at EVOTEK function as our board, and guide the decisions we make.
New Partners
I am very happy to announce our three new partners for EVOTEK, Amir Fouladgar, Regional Vice President and Alfred Moscola, Technical Account Manager. I am also excited to share that Cayla Perry, Operations Manager is our first Associate Partner, as well as, the first female to join our partnership.
Amir has lead our team in Los Angeles for the past year and is a major contributor to EVOTEK’s overall performance. Alfred has been a huge driver for some of our largest and most strategic accounts, that require personalized, on-demand support from their partners. So, in short, both of these gentlemen, were and are, key to the success of EVOTEK and have a massive role in our future. Cayla Perry was invited to be our first Associate Partner at EVOTEK. She leads operations for EVOTEK, which is purpose-built to keep our field teams in front of our customers, while her team handle the behind the scenes processes.
On behalf of our existing partners, Cesar Enciso, Jamie Shikiya, Ned Engelke, Julian Quintana, Jonathan Seigle, Shaun Neal, Miro Krustev, and myself, CONGRATULATIONS and WELCOME!!
“Nobody can whistle a symphony, it takes a whole orchestra to play it.”
Together, we are all building a company that is very unique. Each of you are a major reason for our success and we are depending on you to guide us into the future, and our successes yet to come! EVOTEK will be successful because of our people, our partners, and the three of you, our newest leaders. With the utmost respect, admiration, and excitement, Cesar and I officially welcome you to the EVOTEK partnership. Thank you for your dedication to continuing our company’s astonishing success.
