trendsetter

space-age entrepreneur Belinda Guadarrama’s IT company GC Micro lands another big contract with NASA

By Conrad Dahlson

One of the most incredible moments of Belinda Guadarrama life’s was watching the space shuttle take off from Cape Canaveral—with her IT equipment on board.
The liftoff was the culmination of a long and rocky journey for Guadarrama, founder and CEO of GC Micro, one of the nation’s leading suppliers of computing equipment and services.
Recognized nationally for her advocacy of small and minority business issues, Guadarrama founded GC Micro in 1986 after the company she was working for in Northern California folded. She had to decide quickly whether to return to her native Texas, look for another job or strike out on her own. Like the space shuttles that so awe her, Guadarrama decided to shoot for the stratosphere.
GC Micro now boasts some $30 million a year in sales, and the company has just landed a hefty share of a $5.6 billion NASA contract it will split with 37 other firms.
To those who know her, Guadarrama’s success is no big surprise. She showed an enterprising side from a young age. Her Texan parents of Mexican descent taught her from the beginning that people have to look out for themselves and that work is the only way to get ahead, so practically as soon as she was old enough not to need a babysitter, she became one. Many other odd jobs ensued.
Working her way through college made a lot more sense to Guadarrama than just working. But she did not start out aiming for a career in technology. When she began college, she actually intended to become a teacher. She got her degree in economics from Trinity University and went on to work for the Texas comptroller’s office, setting up data processing systems for human resources. Soon after, she automated the database at the state attorney general’s office, as well.
All that IT experience drew her to the high-tech mecca of Northern California, but two years later, DirectWare, the company she was working for, closed. Guadarrama took a leap of faith and started her own company.
GC Micro started out by selling software but then added hardware as a “value-added reseller”—which means her team takes top brand IT wares and customizes them to specific client needs. GC Micro today has access to over $2 billion in inventory, offers daily shipments from 14 warehouses coast to coast and is an authorized dealer of every major product line.
On the NASA contract she’ll be working with Cray, Inc., a global leader in supercomputers used for cybertasks such as designing experiments to carry on in space. That means she’ll one day watch her equipment help another mission zoom into space—a moment she loves. “When the shuttle blasts off there’s a rumble, it’s like an earthquake, with smoke coming out underneath,” she says. “Lift off is so slow, but it gains speed very quickly ... and then it’s gone.”
So much partnering with the federal government has made opening an office in Washington Guadarrama’s next big goal. The move would seem to make sense, since 60 percent of her contracts are with the government. D.C. might also be a launching pad to tackle an issue bothering Guadarrama.
GC Micro is a small, minority- and woman-owned business with 30 employees, what official jargon pegs as a “small disadvantaged business” because of the obstacles it would normally encounter accessing capital and contracts. The Small Business Administration is perhaps its only entrée to government contracts. In the early days, in fact, an SBA program helped GC Micro get its very first loan from a local bank.
But in recent years the SBA has come under attack for awarding many government “small business” contracts to immense Fortune 1000 corporations. “They say it was because of errors, nobody was doing it intentionally. But how can you see AT&T, IBM and Rolls Royce on a list and not realize they’re not small businesses?”
CNN recently aired her views on the Lou Dobbs show. While the government goal is to assign 23 percent of its contracts to small businesses, Guadarrama says small businesses are being “cheated” out of a lot of that. Some $12 billion worth of small business contracts ended up in the hands of Fortune 1000 companies in 2005.
Giant corporations may have the lobbying power but, she says, “The SBA should lobby for us. The abuse is not being addressed—nothing is happening.”
Her expertise on this subject and others has not gone unnoticed. Guadarrama has been chosen as small-business policy advisor to the White House by the last three presidential administrations. NASA awarded her its public service award. The likes of Northrop Grumman, Boeing Aerospace, Sandia National Laboratories and others have honored GC Micro for outstanding performance.
While active in advocacy on behalf of small businesses, Belinda Guadarrama still finds time for another of her great passions—helping young Hispanics. One of her favorite non-profits is the Hispanic Education and Media Group’s program in New Mexico. “It has an amazing dropout-prevention program that gets kids in high school and junior high school and convinces them to stay in school.”
As the daughter of Mexican-American parents who had only a seventh grade education, Guadarrama would like to convince kids that they can succeed if they get an education. They can even start their own businesses, like she did. But you have to fight for what you want—and be willing to reach for the stars.