DC entrepreneurs simultaneously tackle public and private sectors

A growing sector of entrepreneurs are able to balance government contracting and work in the private sector, specifically thanks to the opportunities the D.C. region provides.

“It’s definitely a day-by-day/work-in-progress kind of thing,” said Ola Sage.

When she founded e-Management, an IT and cybersecurity firm, 18 years ago, she had one specific goal in mind: “using technology to help our government operate more efficiently,” she said.

“Eighteen years later, it continues to be the day-to-day mission of what we do,” Sage told What’s Working in Washington.

Two years ago, Sage started another business, CyberRx, which focuses on ensuring business cybersecurity, and providing tools that mitigate and prevent online attacks.

While many assume that an entrepreneur can’t work with the government and the private sector at the same time, Sage said that while it can be tricky, it’s not impossible.

“One of the reasons I started a second company was to allow us to focus, and not be caught up in trying to serve both the government and the private sector within the same company,” she said.

“If you’re not clear about what objective or goal you’re trying for, or what problem you’re trying to solve, you can start spinning your wheels,” Sage said. Separating the two objectives into two different companies helped her retain this balance while still spurring growth.

With the current administration promising the privatization of many fields of the government, and bringing in entrepreneurs to streamline public organizations, Sage said straddling government and private business is both “a problem and an opportunity.”

“As technology changes and improves, and there are new innovations, that creates opportunities to do things differently,” she said.

Sage chose D.C. to start a business because it had everything she needed.

“The customers were here, the workforce was here, the lifestyle was here. So I’ve been really privileged to have a business where it’s possible to thrive locally,” she said.

Headquartered in Montgomery County, Sage said she hopes the region’s counties can work together to help businesses like hers build the D.C. area into a cybersecurity industrial powerhouse.

“We don’t just need to be an island as a county,” she said. “We can really leverage the assets of all of the other communities around us as we build this new cybersecurity ecosystem.”

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