The growth of Airdrie-based business The I.T. Company has earned it a spot on Alberta Venture’s Fast Growth 50 list for 2017.
Kelly Paisley, chief executive officer of The I.T. Company, said he was hesitant to apply for the list because he did not feel his business was on par with some of the massive companies featured in previous years.
When he and his business partner Andrew Bennett heard the news they had actually made the list, Paisley said they didn’t really believe it.
“I thought they must have made a mistake of some kind,” he said. “When you’re running a business, especially your first business, you never really know if you’re doing the right things.
“To get some outside validation, especially from a prestigious magazine, really does validate that maybe we do know what we’re doing.”
Alberta Venture Editor Michael Ganley said the magazine makes the Fast Growth 50 list a numbers-driven exercise with companies submitting three years worth of financials for professional accountants to put through a scoring system.
Considering the state of the economy this past year, the 2017 list was particularly tough, he said.
“Some of the companies on the list, in some of these respects, are treading water more than growing rapidly,” Ganley said. “Any growth is impressive.”
The I.T. Company’s story begins when Bennett hired Paisley to work as the IT Administrator at a company called Three Sisters Mountain Village, Paisley said.
Bennett eventually left the company to open an Internet café in Airdrie called Liquid Matrix. Six months later, he said Bennett reached out to him about partnering in that endeavour.
Agreeing, Paisley said the two also began some IT consulting work for Three Sisters that sprouted into a word of mouth service for many of his former colleagues.
“I was doing that for free,” he said. “It was more of a social thing for me to go catch up with them in the evening for a few hours and fix their computers.”
Eventually, Paisley said their friends wanted them to start a business so they could recommend their IT services to others as well.
They opened with their services at about half the cost of other IT companies, he said, and they eventually realized the Internet café side of the business was not one he or Bennett wanted to pursue anymore.
“It just got busier and busier via referrals,” Paisley said. “We started ramping (the Internet café) down while we ramped up the IT Support.”
In 2009, Liquid Matrix closed, he said, and The I.T. Company opened with a vision of providing technical support for companies ranging up to 300 computers.
Much of The I.T. Company’s success, Paisley said, is due to the great support from clients, the community of Airdrie and the Airdrie Economic team.
“We love it here,” he said. “There’s so much knowledge and so much success here and everyone is truly willing to help you succeed.”
Though he did not believe The I.T. Company’s growth has been that rapid, Paisley said he was surprised how it continued to grow despite the economic downturn.
A conscious restructuring of The I.T. Company’s business model at the beginning of 2016 allowed the four-employee, two-contractor business to prosper despite a tough economy, he said.
“It was little changes...that saved us this year going forward,” Paisley said. “Any business, to be successful, has to be aware of what’s happening in the world and adjust one way or another to make sure you’re still going to be in business year-to-year.”
To learn more about The I.T. Company, visit theitco.ca.
