Baby Blue Chips: Special Order Systems

From the garage to $9.5M in sales, this VAR knows it when it hears it over the internet

By Mark Larson

"Gia McNutt is sitting in her office at Special Order Systems in Rocklin’s Atherton Tech Center, thinking about the old days. She met her husband Lawrence in Los Angeles in the late ’80s while pursuing an acting career. For a day job, she found work selling computer equipment and eventually built a $2 million account with a Fortune 500 company.

"After another sales stint at another computer hardware reseller, she and Lawrence, who she describes as “a visionary” and “a maverick,” started their own business. Not in the garage of their Tujunga home, but in the basement and the garage, where their office shared space with racing motorcycles, says Gia.

"But the cost of living was high in Tujunga. Then there was the big earthquake in Northridge in 1994. They decided to move to Sacramento to set up shop, where their two employees could afford to buy a home. The Sacramento Area Commerce and Trade Organization made it clear their business was welcome. So, the McNutts packed and moved.

"Such was the birth in 1994 of Special Order Systems, a company known in the information technology industry as a VAR — value-added reseller — of technology made by industry giants Cisco Systems, Microsoft Corp. and NEC. It has local and regional clients in the Bay Area, Central Valley and Reno. National clients include Trader Joe’s, Cycle Gear and Vegas.com. It specializes in VoIP (voice over internet protocol) or less formally, digital phone systems. While SOS competes with the big phone companies, its customers tend to be mid-sized, from 75 to 1,000 phone and computer users...."

See the full article at Prosper Online