Chamber Spotlight ~ SNC Squared
To say that SNC Squared CEO John Motazedi is a leader is an understatement. The moment Astra Ferris and I sat down for our interview with John it was apparent that leadership is the fiber of John’s character and it crosses every aspect of his life.
SNC Squared is a technology company that employees 20 people in the Joplin Area. Their clients are small to medium-sized companies. They offer cloud services, email/spam protection, creative services, data backup and network security. With their roots in the healthcare industry, SNC Squared staff holds HIPAA Certification and provide tools to help assist their clients with HIPAA Compliance. Over the years the customer base has grown to other service industries, banking, and manufacturing. John is also passionate about educating the public on security issues, speaks regularly on the subject and has written two books to equip readers to the real threats that are part of everyday life in the cyber age.
The founding of SNC Squared took place in 2006, but the road to that launch took some time to develop. John worked at St. John’s in Joplin in the IT Department. A few of the physicians had unique IT questions and issues that were not under his normal job duties with the hospital. However, St. John’s wanted the physicians taken care of and asked John if he could assist them. As word spread about John’s work, he thought there was a real need in the market he could fill with his skill set. This lead John to dig deep inside himself to find the faith and courage to walk out of the security of his IT position at St. John’s and step boldly into the risky, not so secure role of starting his technology business.
SNC Squared started with just John working from his basement at home. He grew at a steady pace during those early years and established his first office with a staff of five, located on the second floor of an office building on 26th Street in Joplin. With the vision and discipline of a leader, he stood on the qualities of integrity, excellence and very high customer service.
In October of 2010, John noticed some discrepancies in the systems data backup and hired a full-time person to go through each of their client’s data and tightened up data storage 100%. This was a very insightful decision because, on May 22, 2011, the need for that information hit an all-time high as the Joplin Tornado changed the landscape and lives of over 50% of his clients in 17 minutes. It was time to prove all of the qualities SNC Squared was built on within a few hours & days of this horrible natural disaster. With their own office destroyed, they had to return to John’s basement and get their systems back up first, before they could help their clients. Working 20 hour days for weeks, the team at SNC Squared made it happen and all of their clients were up by Thursday, May 26th at 5:00 pm. What an incredible accomplishment by this dedicated team.
When we asked John, what is the most important asset of SNC Squared, without hesitation he said his staff. Since 2006 he has been recruiting people who are great and things he is not skilled at, specifically pointing behind him to the data center saying, it is the entire team’s contribution that brings SNC Squared success. We primarily hire on culture then on the individuals' skill set. Each individual contributes and plays an integral role in delivering our services.
When we requested his vision for the future, it is to continue to give the highest customer service, become a technology company that not only covers the four states but the entire central Midwest and to grow their staff to 75 employees. John is passionate about his company, clients, aviation and crossing things off of his bucket list. It is going to be exciting to watch this company who has made the annual Inc. 500 list of fastest growing private companies three different times in twelve years, move into its future role not only serving as a technology provider but as a world changer!
