IntelliBridge’s Matthew Candy on Building a Mid-Tier GovCon Business During a Pandemic

In the midst of the pandemic, newly formed IntelliBridge saw an opportunity to create a new government services business focused on providing digital transformation solutions to the nation’s most critical missions. With backing from private equity firm Enlightenment Capital, the company made and integrated four acquisitions and established itself in the national security, intelligence and federal law enforcement markets.

“Our goal has been to create a mid-tier business, anywhere from $300 million to $500 million in revenue, that can compete and prevail against the large and superlarge companies in this sector, the $1 billion- to $10-billion organizations,” said Executive Vice President and Chief Growth Officer Matthew Candy.

How does one make that happen? It starts with a vision.

“We saw a gap in the market, an opportunity to create a company that has the higher-end capabilities and skills, financial stability, and large-company processes ⏤ but still maintains a small-business mentality, emphasizing customer service and agility, doing right by our employees and cultivating a strong culture,” Candy said.

The right backing is critical to bring that vision to life.

“Enlightenment Capital is an excellent private equity firm focused on the areas of government services, technology, aerospace and defense,” he said. “They are experts in our industry and bring with them a deep network of executives, advisors and companies that add value to our business, which makes them the perfect strategic partner for our management team.”

From there, the acquisition strategy has sped time to market, with IntelliBridge pursuing a highly targeted approach.

“Discipline is the keyword in our M&A process,” Candy said. “You have to ensure that you find the right company that allows the larger entity to win full and open competitions for organic business.”

Through its four acquisitions, the company has taken on a range of capabilities that enabled it to expand its presence in areas like homeland security and federal law enforcement, with in-demand capabilities including agile software development, data science and analytics, and artificial intelligence and machine learning.

But finding the right companies to buy is only part of the work: The heavy lifting comes in melding those individual pieces into a unified whole greater than the sum of its parts.

In this case, the various acquired companies were all small businesses, transitioning to full and open competition from protected class set-aside categories.

“Successfully transitioning to unrestricted competition is a huge culture change for any business,” Candy said. “The way you compete on full and open large-business contracts is very different from small business set-asides. It doesn’t happen overnight. It takes time and careful planning. Every meeting is an integration meeting.”

While the IntelliBridge executive team has focused on that cultural integration, it also has been tending to the nuts and bolts of integration. That means things like getting everybody on the same IT system, “with the same email and the same calendar, so we all can communicate and see each other’s calendars,” he said.

“It sounds basic and easy, but it’s critical,” Candy added.

Other back-office systems, likewise, have had to be brought into alignment.

“You have to be able to manage programs, financials and timesheets; that means having one system where we can all see it and make sure it works,” Candy said. Streamlining those program management tools helps ensure compliance, “and it frees our operations folks to go out and serve customers better, which helps us grow the business.”

With all those pieces coming together, Candy said he’s now looking to expand the firm’s footprint, by pursuing large single-award contracts, where IntelliBridge has “the right capabilities and past performance, where we can positively affect the mission for that customer.”

Candy envisions that effort as a shared responsibility, one that extends beyond just the business development professionals.

“We see business development as a full-team effort, and we have internal processes and incentives to support that,” he said. “We provide an incentive plan that encourages and rewards team efforts around growth. For each opportunity won, we’re not just giving a salesperson a commission; we are providing a bonus pool for the team that captures that business.”

That can mean distributing a bonus in the mid-six figures among 15 or 20 employees.

“That includes not just the business development and capture team, but the people writing proposals, the technical people who develop the custom code for challenges,” he said. In one recent case, “we paid a pricing specialist and even a research assistant who went above the strict call of duty. And then we have win parties, bringing people together to celebrate and to thank everyone for their hard work.”

The aggressive incentive strategy around new business helps the firm to build momentum, while at the same time elevating people’s enthusiasm for the work.

“We want our employees to feel that the management team values their contributions,” Candy said. “At the end of the day, our goal is to create a shared experience around building an organization that everybody can be proud of.”

Candy served as a Navy pilot before moving into the GovCon space some two decades ago. That early military experience gave him a special appreciation for the role military contractors play.

“As a Navy officer, there were a lot of times we found ourselves on the pointy end of the spear, wishing we had more support from home base,” he said. “At IntelliBridge, every one of our 1,000 employees are proud to support their national security missions every day.”