Building a Mission-Driven Government Contracting Business

Intro  0:06

Welcome to the Growth + Exit podcast where owners of privately held middle market companies talk about founding, scaling and exiting their businesses successfully. Learn how to maximize and monetize your business on your own terms. Let’s get started.

Susan Kearney  0:31

Hi everyone. I’m Susan Kearney, and this is the Growth + Exit podcast where we talk to founders and owners of private companies about their businesses, how they started them, how they grew them, and sometimes how they exit them. Growth + Exit is brought to you by Newport LLC. We’re a cadre of Senior Operating executives who work with private business owners to help them realize their visions and their dreams for their business. Today, I’m going to be talking with Mohammad Elias. He is a first time entrepreneur, so he has overcome fear to start a business. He founded this RELI Group as a mission focused government contractor dedicated to health, safety and security of the American public. It’s a very mission based organization. Company has earned national recognition five times as an inc 5000 honoree, and received numerous other industry accolades for innovation, growth and the commitment to public service that they have at RELI Group. So Mohammad, welcome. We’re pleased to have you today.

Mohammad Elias  1:35

Thank you, Susan, it’s a pleasure being here. Yeah. So

Susan Kearney  1:39

let’s start a little bit with you. You’re professionally tell us a little bit about your professional background. What’s the common thread that runs through your career?

Mohammad Elias  1:50

Professional background. I started my life in the IT sector. So first professional job out of college was a database administrator at a large insurance company called Principal Financial Group. So that’s how I started my professional career. Previous to that, I was working for control data systems as a IT system administrator, doing some internship. And, you know, I would say more job shadow, role, and then career progress as a project manager, program manager, and stay within the similar industry, insurance, healthcare, that’s the domain. Then took a job at Center for Medicare and Medicaid as a contractor to manage some of the large system integration program they had, yeah. And through that process, I learned the government contracting business, how that operates, what people do in the beltway. So that’s, I think, get the motivation to start my company. And we started July group in 2000 22,013,

Susan Kearney  3:03

so what is it that appeals to you about the government contracting business? You know, some folks look at it and think like, oh, that must be really challenging and difficult. And some people are really energized. You seem to have a real mission focus on that government area.

Mohammad Elias  3:18

Yes, absolutely. And that was the motivation to get into the contracting business, as I learned the ropes at Center for Medicare and Medicaid, understood how government works and what benefit that it has provided for the citizens which living in the Midwest, I didn’t really have much of a purview of right and coming into DC beltway, learning about different programs, different agencies and the mission of every agency, that was very fascinating. And I worked at Center for Medicare and Medicaid, I think, about nine years before I started my company, so I really took the time to learn, and I saw the opportunity to serve the American public through these programs, supporting these agencies, and that was the motivation factor. I’m an immigrant here, came with nothing and built something and wanted, wanted to give back, and that was one way of me giving back to this country to build an enterprise, create employment, create opportunities for others.

Susan Kearney  4:27

Yeah, so giving back to people by being a government worker is one thing, but it really takes a different kind of person to take the leap to starting your own enterprise. It’s a very different risk profile. What? What made you do that, rather than simply continuing to, you know, provide public service by working in the government?

Mohammad Elias  4:53

Yeah. I mean the other part of that is having the American dream, right, being financially independent. And build an enterprise. And, like I said, maybe it runs within the within the immigrant life that you come in and you want to build something, and this is the country to do it. So that’s always been in inside of me as a motivation factor. I would say that you can do whatever you want to do in this country, right? And the opportunity is there. And, yeah, it is definitely a risk. When you have a single earner in the family. You don’t want to lose the safety of the irregular paycheck. But I can convince my wife that will survive, and I’ll bring some food to the table, and we’ll have a roof over our head. And she said, All right, go, go, give it a shot. You know, get it out of your system. So, so that’s the No, that’s the support that I needed from the family to take that leap.

Susan Kearney  5:59

Yeah. And so have you gotten it out of your system? I

Mohammad Elias  6:03

have, and in as an entrepreneur, it’s an addiction, right? You never stop. You always think of something else. But I’m happy with the RELI Group how we have become today, and there is other mentoring that I’ve been doing with other smaller businesses to, you know, I would say, keep myself excited and and continue that path for other people, share my experiences and give them that rope that I needed when I started the company. So, yes, it is out of out of my system, and I’m enjoying it. Yeah,

Susan Kearney  6:42

that’s great. I know one thing that’s impressed me, and obviously others, because you’ve been recognized by Inc as a 5000 honoree a number of times, is the rapid growth. What? What is the secret sauce to your success, growing your company so quickly in the government

Mohammad Elias  7:02

market, I would say number one is a relationship. And trusted relationship, not just relationship. You have to build a trust among your among with your partners and your customers. And I think the work that I have done as a contractor at CMS before my company, I built that trust through my work, through my delivery, through my commitment with our customers and people that I was dealing with, and apparently that become a big capital for my business, which I didn’t ever thought of that, how important that would be. So when I started the company, people that I reached out, company that I have reached out, took me very openly to partner and to team with them, and really gave me the opportunity. And, you know, I was very honored to be accepted by a lot of these, you know, top five companies in the country, right? And small companies and the mid size companies. So that is number one, I would say, that continue to build that trusted relationship and having good partners. If I didn’t have those companies to give me the subcontract or took me on their team to be it as a partner on their team, I would not have owned this contract right on my own from the get go. So those are the early days. Needed the support and mentor prodigy program was another critical factor for us, participating into those and getting some cash flow. So a lot of those factors came in to start this business. And performance was the next item that we performed very well. We delivered very well. So the other opportunities came. So when you do good work, you know reward is more good work. And that’s how we grew. Yeah, that’s

Susan Kearney  9:03

an inspiring story. But growth is great. It’s certainly better than the opposite, but it does bring certain challenges with it. What are the some of the challenges you experienced growing the company up to now? And how did you handle them? What did you learn?

Mohammad Elias  9:22

Yes, we are in a people business, right? And finding the right users, finding the right people, that’s the key to success. And I would say that was also a challenge, right? I mean, we definitely brought in good people to push the company forward, but still, you know, we needed more, and we just couldn’t find the right people at the right time. So that was, I would say, the people challenge is the very, very first or the biggest challenge. That that we faced, and once people came on board, it was it was good. They loved our culture. They continued with us. But being a very small business is hard to attract, you know, high caliber talent who can carry the the load of the company, so, so that was, I would say, one of the biggest challenge that we had from the beginning, but we came through with, I would say, support from, you know, independent contractors or consulting firms, and we if we had a gap in the company, we reached out to our mentors to see if we can get some mentoring, or if we can get reference from somebody who is available part time, because we don’t have the money to hire somebody full time with a C suite level, right? So you just do patch ahead and there and take the take what you can utilize and continue to just move forward. So it’s a journey of a small business, yeah,

Susan Kearney  11:12

I think it’s we call that scrappy, right? Yeah, that scrappy just pulling together whatever resources you can back, borrow or steal to get it done. And you know, there, there are so many government contracting organizations in it. I’m wondering, from a talent perspective, how you differentiate your organization RELI Group from other government contractors so that you can draw the best to you,

Mohammad Elias  11:43

I would say that the main differentiator that we had is the domain knowledge. So you can find, say, a Java developer everywhere, maybe right, but somebody who is very specific to the healthcare or CMS knowledge base, understanding the policy, understanding the business of CMS, who was our primary customer. That’s where we focused on and I think that was one of the key reason for our success, that we brought in people that had the industry knowledge, the domain knowledge of the business of our customer, and we kept that as a focus for our company, that every time we looked at hiring, we first and foremost look for All right, do you have that domain knowledge? Do you understand the business of our customer before you come in and solve their problem? So that was, I would say from the very beginning, that I focused on bringing knowledgeable people. Knowledgeable means business of the customer. Know what our customers do, right?

Susan Kearney  12:47

Do you think that also assisted you on the business side, focusing, you know, narrowly within the government marketplace, right? You know you aren’t trying to be all things to all agencies. You’ve got deep expertise. Am I reading that correctly? That

Mohammad Elias  13:06

is correct. So, you know, I advise people. When they say I have all these capabilities, I can go support any customer. I said, okay, and you will have like, five people or 10 people in your company, so we really recognize who we are first and foremost and what our capabilities. And said, All right, with this capability, with this knowledge base, I can only support one customer, and I just forgot to one customer. And when we grow a little bigger, we gain more experience, and we had relative past performance in that other pro, you know, agencies, problem that we could solve. Then we expanded our footprint to like, Okay, now we can go support FDA, or we can go support CDC, and we go, we can go and support TSA, which became almost half of our business. So, yeah, the growth came, expansion happened, but for the first five years, we were very laser focused on just one customer, and that helped us to gain that in depth domain knowledge and that customer intimacy,

Susan Kearney  14:19

yeah, I think that’s something that some entrepreneurs did to your point, aren’t able to do, and they do try to spread too thin, and particularly in professional services, the more expert you are, the more narrowly your focus, the more you’re like a magnet to clients. It seems to be,

Mohammad Elias  14:36

yes, and I think we definitely bring a lot of value to our customers. And I think I should have taken that code as a written code. One of our customer once said that, among all the cost contractors, from top five companies to small businesses, rely was the cheapest and brought the most value for them. So. I was, I was very happy to hear that, because adding value is part of the DNA, and that is the mission for the company. And we always try to do more with less, and we pass the savings on to our customers. So that’s, that’s how we’ve been operating since we were born. Love it. Love it. So tell us

Susan Kearney  15:18

about some of your proudest moments. You talked about some challenges. Let’s talk about some of the good stuff. Yeah, I mean,

Mohammad Elias  15:26

proudest moments, of course, being recognized by the industry, right? We became ADA contractor of the year, which was amazing to have. And then after one year of that, we graduated. We grow so much, so fast we graduated, you know, early from from the program, which was, which is good, you know, we are in a business to grow, and when growth comes, we cannot say, No, we still got few more years to be a small business. We don’t want to grow right now. You cannot do that. So, yeah. So graduation came out early for us, which was also, I would say, a proud moment, and from a delivery perspective with the customers, I think one particular time, I mean, I would say two, one At CMS, when the second year of the healthcare.gov or Obamacare. You know, first time there were some, there are a lot of issues. The website crashed. We will go to register or log in, and then the second year, or the following year, when a new contractor came in, we becoming a subcontractor, and our responsibility was to test to the website. So So our team worked day and night making sure that it’s going to be up and running on the day it opens up and it’s not going to crash. And it did not crash. And our, I think our team got a call from the White House, our prime contractor and others, and everybody celebrated. So we were part of that celebration. So that was a very proud moment. I think we’re just three year old at the time as a company at the time. So that was certainly a proud moment that we did our job right, and we could have people register for healthcare, you know, and healthcare gov and the site worked. And the other proud moment, I would say, from a professional delivery, yeah, at about TSA, when we evacuated from the Afghanistan, and 1000s of people were stuck at that airport, and they needed to move around the country. And you know us, we were closing our base. People saw things that are happening live on television. You know that that chaotic moment, our team helped support the TSA, you know, to create passenger manifesto for all these hundreds of 1000s of people that needed to exit Afghanistan. And, you know, without hesitation, our folks came, volunteered their time for like, 18 hours a day, working and getting the work done, moving the people to different places they needed to go. And we received, you know, very nice letter from the administration’s office at the TSA for the support that we provided. Of course, none of these were published, but it was for us, and as a contractor, as a company, I would say that was one of the proudest moment for us, that, yes, we did help the country to help mitigate some of the challenges at the critical time.

Susan Kearney  18:46

Yeah, you know, it’s interesting. I think you mentioned you grew up in the Midwest and didn’t really know that much about DC, and I lived in DC a lot of my life. And sometimes you think of government contracting in a very transactional way. You don’t think about the result that the dedicated people in your company and others are trying to get for Americans and for our country, and those two examples, I think, are very moving examples of the difference that you and your team make.

Mohammad Elias  19:16

Yeah, absolutely. And that’s what I call the touching lives, right? And we take a lot of things for granted. And of course, go, you know, the government doesn’t do marketing to show how good they’re doing and what work that they’re doing for the citizens, right? So everything that we do, it is a citizen service, right? And we take pride in that, whether people realize or recognize or is it a is it a vital video of Tiktok or something? Or nobody cares, but we are there, both government and the contracting employees, dedicating their time just to make sure that the betterment of our fellow citizens right so we. All the government employees that I have worked with all these agencies, these are dedicated, selfless government employees. They didn’t care this evening or in the weekend. They were mission driven. They wanted to get the work done, and it impacted life, literally, right? So a lot of those things doesn’t get, you know, fleshed out on the TV or the news or anything, but people are there, doing their job and making sure that America runs and the citizen services are there and people are being taken care of. Yeah. Well,

Susan Kearney  20:36

I congratulate you and your team on that dedication to service and speaking of impacting lives, I know that you have a foundation that’s important to you and to your family. Tell us a little bit about that work.

Mohammad Elias  20:48

Yeah, absolutely. So I grew up in a very modest family. We didn’t come from here or anything, but one thing that I saw my family does, was very active in charity, right? Even though we didn’t have money, well, we found a way to help others, right? So maybe, you know, we didn’t buy an extra set of clothes and and you use that for somebody’s, somebody’s need. So that was part of the upbringing. And my wife also come from the similar background and culture with her family. And we, we do charitable work here and there. Happens early on, and then we just decided, why don’t we organize something, right, create something for a longer term, so that once we pass this world, our work can continue, right? So from that thought, I think it’s more of a desire to leave our name and our legacy for betterment of people’s life. Rebecca and I, you know, set up the foundation so that it can, you know, continue much longer than our own time on this earth. And we have couple of areas that we are focused on, education, foods, food and shelter and health care. So those are the area that we contribute. And lot of the work that we are currently doing in the US and also outside of us is in Bangladesh. So currently we are training 13 hospitals, over 600 physicians and midwives to, you know, train them in quality of care for maternal care, so that we can reduce the child birth mortality and we can reduce the death of of the new mothers. So that was the program that we’ve been supporting in Bangladesh, and that is going very well a lot of schools that are for like girls and, you know, homeless children and for the children who cannot afford regular schools, we are providing those financial support to continue those education and, you know, providing money for homeless shelters where better women or children can get shelter. So those are the program that we are very engaged in. I know our team, Stephanie and others, very engaged with the Food Bank and food security. We support what you call a non profit farm in Maryland, that all of their produce goes to the food bank, and our people will go and maybe harvest, I don’t know, 20,000 pound potatoes in one weekend. So, so you know, those are the things that we are engaged, both from personally and also as a company. I try to encourage our people to volunteer and participate in in their local communities. So yes, from from that upbringing, I would say, and it’s part of, you know, part of the culture, part of the religion, whatever you call it, charity is a big thing for me and my family. Yeah.

Susan Kearney  24:18

I mean, it seems like you have that public service thread throughout your life? Yes, right? I think that’s terrific. You mentioned that you’re an immigrant. Tell me where you were born, where you grew up, and what that was like.

Mohammad Elias  24:32

Yeah, I was born in Bangladesh. It’s a I think it’s the most dense populated country, like our per square mile, I think the highest density in the world, one of the one of the poorest country. So growing up in Bangladesh, I saw hardship of people, my family, we. So I would say we were my girl. My father was a government service person, so with with his limited income, we had a modest life. But my parents were very focused on education to make sure, you know, even if you don’t have the food, go to school and go to better school, right? So my parents gave me, you know, put me on of the top school in the country, so that helped me in, you know, for the path that I took later on. So I finished my high school in Bangladesh, and then moved to Minnesota to do my undergrad. So I graduated from St Cloud State in Minnesota, and then I stayed in Midwest, went to Iowa, graduated from Drake University with my masters. So more than half of my time I was in the in the Midwest. So it was, I would say culturally, it was a good fit. Midwest was very kind and very nice and very warm to me as an immigrant, so I didn’t feel that I’m totally out of place. So there are a lot of good people around me that helped me get adjusted to the culture and to this country, and then I got married. A few years later, I moved to the East Coast, to my wife’s family. They settled in the East Coast. They are also from Bangladesh, so now life is in the East Coast.

Susan Kearney  26:35

Yeah, what are some of the things you learned growing up in Bangladesh or the US as an immigrant that you have pulled into your leadership style and into your professional career,

Mohammad Elias  26:51

I would say first thing is empathy, right? You need to have, need to have empathy. And not everything is just, just a transaction, right? So I try not to look at life just transaction. I want to make things meaningful and try to put myself in other people’s shoes, to understand where they come from, and, you know, be empathetic to others. So I think that helped me to be who I am today, and also that is the same culture that I try to bring to my work. And, you know, in business, sometimes things work, sometimes it doesn’t work, but, you know, have have a respectful way of concluding things. You know, that’s, that’s what I try to look for.

Susan Kearney  27:43

Yeah, yeah, that’s great. I expect people are quite loyal to you.

Mohammad Elias  27:49

I hope so. Yeah. I try, try to be true to myself, and I, you know, what I say, what you see, that’s it, that is nothing, nothing else that I’m hiding behind. So I’m pretty open book. Yeah, yeah. So

Susan Kearney  28:05

I know you’re busy, you have a lot on your plate, and I’m wondering if there are any kind of life hacks or daily rituals you’ve developed for yourself that contribute to your success, to keeping you on track, managing your time keeping you you know, in the right priorities, anything like that, that you’ve put in place for your life.

Mohammad Elias  28:26

I don’t know if I’m the right person to say that. I consider myself a procrastinator, to be honest, but I try to, I try to enjoy life and not not let things, you know, impact me too much of my day to day life and my happiness, so the way I manage it is like, okay, things that you have no control. What is the result of worrying about it? Wow, there you go, yeah. But if I have things that in my control, or I can put an agenda, or I can, you know, do something, yeah, then I’m responsible, and I can really do things and, you know, you know, worry about it or plan for it. So, so that’s how I try to bucket things. Okay, is this anything that I have, any type of a control in any, any way that can be influenced, or does it fall in a bucket that, you know, I have, I have no control over it? Yeah, the example would be the decision from dodge, right? What decisions happening, and all the contracts that we are losing? Yeah, I was worried about it. Then I said, Okay, you know, what? Can I do anything by worrying? No, it’ll just happen. It needs to happen. But on the other hand, okay, what are the opportunities? What are the silver linings? How can I position the company for for a better opportunity? That’s something that I have in control, and I should. I focus on that. So that’s how I manage my life daily. To be honest, it here that’s

Susan Kearney  30:07

great. You probably get a better night’s sleep than a lot of other people do I sleep well, all right, so here’s my last question, and that is, what advice would you have for other entrepreneurs, maybe particularly first time entrepreneurs kind of starting their own business, I

Mohammad Elias  30:28

would say, you know, work really hard on the relationship and truly value the relationship you have and make sure that it’s a trusted relationship and it’s not superficial, right? So that’s, that’s the first and second, you know, narrow down the focus, sell one service, serve one customer, win one contract. That’s it. And then think about the next one. So

Susan Kearney  30:59

as simple as that, yeah, don’t get over your skis. Yeah, get over your skis. Thanks for that. I appreciate it so much. This is a growth plus exit podcast, and we’ve been talking to Mohammad Elias, founder and CEO of RELI Group, and a full time public servant, professionally and through his foundation. Mohammad, any last thoughts you want to share, things that maybe you want to say that I haven’t given you a chance to quite yet?

Mohammad Elias  31:30

No, I thank you for the opportunity. And one thing that I always tell people don’t take things for granted, whether it’s a relationship or things that you have today, that you enjoy, opportunity that you may have. So that is that is one thing that I want to communicate and share with people that appreciate what you have and don’t take things for granted.

Susan Kearney  31:58

I think those are perfect last words, and I thank you for them, and I thank you for being here today. It’s just really been great to talk to you. And for folks who want to learn more about Mohammad and the work that he and his team are doing, you can visit his website at religroupinc.com, and I hope you will to learn more. So thanks, Mohammad.

Mohammad Elias  32:19

Thank you very much. Susan. Have a wonderful day. You too.

Outro 32:28

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