The finalists for WashingtonExec’s 2024 Pinnacle Awards were announced Sept. 20, and we’ll be highlighting some of them until the event takes place live, in-person Nov. 21.
Next is Bryon Kroger, founder and CEO of Rise8, and finalist in the DoD Executive of the Year, Private Company, category. Here, he talks about recent achievements, shares career advice and more.
What key achievements did you have in 2024?
Over the past year, my teams and I have experienced many remarkable business successes. One success that we are particularly proud of is our ability to achieve 50%+ YoY revenue growth, every single year. We have maintained this goal without sacrificing margins, employee experience, or mission impact.
As a company primarily selling our services to government customers, different business processes enable procurement. To ensure our teams can continuously access these sales channels, we must compete and be selected for government contracts. This year, we closed 24 contracts with the U.S. government.
Some of our contract award highlights include Rise8 named as one of 10 awardees for a Department of Veterans Affairs Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract vehicle with a $2.4B ceiling; a $10M contract for a separate VA program; and selection as the sole recipient of an IDIQ contract with the U.S. Air Force with a $100M ceiling. We were also awarded a Unified Platform contract and developed several Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR)-endorsed tools that will help our teams sell to government and develop new solutions with government customer input.
Additional achievements include: recertification as a Great Place to Work for the third year, earning #75 on the Fortune Best Small Workplaces list for 2024; selection for the 2024 Inc. 5000 list, earning the #268 spot on the list; selection for the Tampa Bay Business Journal 2024 Innovation Award; and as the Founder and CEO, I was selected for the Tampa Bay Business Journal’s 2024 40 Under 40 list and as a finalist for the FedScoop 50 Awards in the Industry Leadership Category.
What are your primary focus areas going forward, and why are those so important to the mission?
Since 2000, over half the companies on the Fortune 500 have been displaced. Marc Andreessen famously penned that software is eating the world. If software is eating the world, that includes the most critical aspects of our lives too: government, war, public health, our environment, and so much more. These are areas where we cannot afford disruption.
My primary focus going forward is fundamentally the same as when I co-founded Kessel Run, the DOD’s first software factory, and then founded Rise8 — to enable large enterprises with critical missions to continuously deliver valuable software that users love.
This is more than a job because what our customers do is measured in lives saved. Disasters averted. Soldiers returning home. Patients cared for. It’s about ensuring fewer bad things happen because of bad software. And we’re here to help them deliver good software better and quicker – because when the outcomes are critical, building, learning, and deploying at the pace of the world around them is too.
Fun Fact: What is something about you that most people do not know?
I have an unapologetic approach to nutrition. While many strive for a balanced diet with multiple food groups, I have one food group: beef. Just burgers (as in, just ground beef) or steak. Unconventional? Yes. But I’m OK with going against the grain (pun intended).
On a more serious note, I grew up in the Midwest and I’m passionate about sustainable agriculture and plan to have a permaculture homestead in the next 5-10 years.