MicroTech: The Latest Inc. 500 Hall of Famer

Tony Jimenez, CEO and founder of IT-services company MicroTech, talks about the road from military service to running a tech company--where he sometimes hangs with heads of state.

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Tony Jimenez, CEO of MicroTech, which has made the Inc. 500 list five times.

As founder and CEO of Microtech, an IT services company that works primarily with the U.S. government, Tony Jimenez has hobnobbed with Presidents and generals. This year, he joins another elite group as MicroTech enters the Inc. 500 Hall of Fame, an honor reserved for businesses that make the list five times. Founded in 2004, the Vienna, Virginia-based company had revenue of $342 million in 2011 and is No. 490 on the 2012 Inc. 500. Jimenez spoke with Darren Dahl.

I spent many years in the Army managing large IT projects. When I retired from the Army, I landed a job with Unisys. After about nine months, I left to start MicroTech. I told myself that if I was ever going to start a business, now was the time. It was a good decision.

We like to say that we are an IT company, but that narrows what we do. We focus primarily on managing large networks, data integration, and functions such as e-mail and cloud-computing applications.

We currently have contracts with 100 state, local, and federal agencies, such as the Department of Defense and the Social Security Administration.

Everyone in our industry is always concerned about the government stopping spending, but that's not realistic. It might slow down or go through cycles, but there will always be opportunities for small, agile companies like MicroTech.

I've had the opportunity to meet with Presidents Clinton, Bush, and Obama. The one thing I discussed with all three is what we can do as a country to create more jobs. I love that we are building more roads and bridges, but I think we need to keep investing in the information highway as well.

Darren Dahl is a contributing editor at Inc. Magazine, which he has written for since 2004. He also works as a collaborative writer and editor and has partnered with several high-profile authors. Dahl lives in Asheville, NC.