Angela Hurt spent years working for large IT consulting firms that focused on the bottom line first.

When she founded her own IT consulting firm, Veracity Consulting Inc., Hurt knew exactly where to concentrate her attention: her clients and employees. She knew that by hiring passionate and hard-working people and forming honest business relationships, her business would succeed. The bottom line would come naturally in a hot industry.

Even the name of her IT consulting firm—Veracity, which is defined by Merriam-Webster as devotion to the truth—lets clients know Hurt’s operating style from the get-go.

“The most important thing to me is the propensity to tell the truth,” she said. “The pillars of the company are all around honesty, transparency, sincerity.”

If it all sounds too idealistic, then consider Veracity’s results. Veracity experienced a massive 230 percent revenue increase in 2015. It went from a few dozen employees to 120 in a few years. The leadership team is stacked with a who’s who of local and national IT executives who have seen and handled virtually every IT challenge.

“We use technology to solve business problems,” Hurt said.

Veracity targets Fortune 500 companies, large federal and state contracts. It expanded to small and mid-size businesses recently in response to market demands.

Veracity offers a comprehensive range of consulting services, including strategic planning, data management and analytics and program management. They consult on virtually any IT need available, including helping clients form long-term IT strategies and create the proper infrastructure.

“We don’t often see an opportunity that we think we can’t handle. I don’t think that’s an ego thing. I think it’s an experience thing. We have several ex-CIOs on our staff and ex-VPs,” she said. “There’s not a scenario within an IT project base that they have not seen before.”

Certified Success

Hurt launched Veracity in 2006 after a successful career working in sales for a large IT firm. She knew years earlier that she wanted to be an entrepreneur, but it wasn’t until around 2005 that she discovered her opportunity. Her employer started losing out on business as Fortune 500 companies pushed for greater diversity among suppliers. Those corporations were abandoning relationships with larger IT businesses to work with smaller minority-owned firms in far-flung locales. Often those partnerships were more about staffing than solving problems and taking care of customer needs.

Hurt, who is Native American, knew she could do better.

“What do I have to lose?” she asked herself.

The dominoes fell into place from there. Hurt began the business and then set out to become certified as a minority and woman- owned business.

The timing was surreal. She expected to spend months jumping through government hoops. But Hurt was in for a surprise when she inquired about the Minority Business Enterprise (MBE) certification with the MidAmerica Minority Business Development Council (now known as the Mountain Plains Minority Supplier Development Council).

There was a board meeting within days to review certifications. They were willing to give her a big break. If she could complete the paperwork overnight, they would inspect her office within 24 hours and add her business to the board meeting.

“Within one week, I got certified as an MBE and then I turned in my resignation,” she said.

Having her MBE and Women Business Enterprise (WBE) certifications got Veracity in the door at several places, including coveted government agencies and Fortune 500 firms. But she soon learned those designations wouldn’t forge a lasting relationship unless she delivered results. Certification is no substitute for old-fashioned relationship building and hard work, Hurt said.

Building a Foundation

When a client recently asked Hurt what makes Veracity better than its competitors, she knew it was her employees’ skill set, leadership and commitment. Her leadership team has worked in major corporations and sat in the C-suite. They understand corporate deadlines, financial pressures and manpower issues.

When a client needs help, Hurt can send someone who has been in their shoes before.

“I’ll have somebody at your office tomorrow. If you want them for four hours—no charge,” she said. “We just want to be your trusted adviser. We have somebody on staff from almost any area.” It sets Veracity apart from its competitors.

“There’s not a company our size that I know of that has resources like we have that are available for whatever it is you need to know,” she said.

Hurt has overcome several obstacles along the journey. For years, she handled everything at Veracity. Hurt quickly realized her weakness for internal operations was limiting her growth. She brought in a trusted former co-worker who would eventually take over as CFO. “It allowed me to get back out and do what I was good at,” she said.

The growth was almost immediate. But Veracity hit yet another plateau in 2012-13 when Hurt realized once again that she was overwhelmed. She remembers having the sinking feeling that many successful entrepreneurs often feel: “If I didn’t own this company, I would quit my job,” Hurt said.

‘I Need a Big Dog’

She turned to a longtime mentor, Shawn McCarrick, former CIO at Freightquote. Hurt had spent years running ideas and plans past McCarrick, who had moved to private consulting.

Hurt wondered if McCarrick might help Veracity land another big client.

“Will you go to this meeting? I need a big dog in the room,” she asked.

He agreed and eventually proposed another idea: Why not bring him on to help build the business? Hurt couldn’t believe her ears. Her mentor wanted to join her team. He was one of many former corporate executives who have joined Hurt to build Veracity.

It’s impressive, said business adviser Sherry Turner, to see how many executives wanted to work for Hurt because of her people first attitude.

“They want to work for her. That’s what’s amazing,” said Turner, Women’s Business Center executive director and founder of OneKC for Women. “They see the trust and the honesty and at the same time the vulnerability that she’s willing to say, ‘We’re going to do this as a team. I need your help.’ And she’s always got everybody’s back. There’s a trust level that creates the most positive culture.”

Throughout the ups and downs of business growth, Turner said that Hurt’s trajectory has always been one of “we’re all going to be successful together.”

Hiring McCarrick as COO in 2014 was one of many pivot points that helped Veracity grow. Veracity experienced record growth last year thanks to his changes.

McCarrick spent a year helping Hurt construct a solid foundation for Veracity. He sat down and talked with every employee in order to take stock of employee strengths and weaknesses. Employees soon learned that the process was essential to build a plan for long-term growth.

“So when a business unit within this corporation asks me to deliver something, I understand our capabilities around doing that. So we essentially run our consulting company as though we’re a corporation, and we look at our clients like they’re a business unit,” Hurt said. “So we’re able to know what our skill sets are that we have on staff of those 100-plus people. We understand where we can help our clients and then that helps us know who is available just like if you’re in
a corporation.”

It’s a commonsense approach that Hurt said allows Veracity to work as an IT team, not a staffing agency like many other consulting firms. It all goes back to Hurt’s approach that honesty wins above all.

McCarrick said he’s been allowed to hire strong employees as they become available “whether we have billable work or not and make an investment in our workforce.

“If we have a good workforce, then the work will come. And then having the approach of ‘I’m going to do the right thing for the client.’ That’s really easy to say, but it comes because you don’t have Angie walking around with a gun to your head about getting certain numbers,” he said.

Most executives want to make decisions based on tactical numbers even when they know it goes against the company’s best interests in the long term, he said.

“I have the latitude to make more strategic decisions than I think a lot of other companies that are in this space,” he said.

True to Her Word

As Veracity grows, Hurt takes great pride in staying connected to employees. She can’t interview every person these days, but she makes it a point to get to know each and every one.

All Veracity employees work remotely, though some are situated inside client offices. But even though geography separates many employees, Hurt regularly meets up with staffers at company outings and team builders. Those gatherings generally revolve around philanthropic endeavors. They bond while swinging hammers at Habitat for Humanity houses, participating in 5K runs or sorting food at Harvesters.

Hurt serves on nonprofit boards and encourages her employees to do the same. It’s her way of giving back to groups like the Women’s Business Center, where they helped her find resources and mentors in the early days.

These days Hurt is a key mentor for Kansas City women. She serves as vice chair of the Women’s Employment Network board. None of it surprises Turner, who remembers Hurt promising to give back years ago when the time was right.

Hurt, she said, was true to her word.

Dawn Bormann is a freelance writer in the Kansas City area.