From staffing to project management: Employee-centric Fortuna BMC offers reliable solutions to move your enterprise forward

“One area that we particularly focus on is our veteran hiring solution.”

Fortuna Business Management Consulting, or Fortuna BMC, is a veteran-owned scaling optimization consultancy committed to helping companies reach their full potential by placing people at the heart of every business growth plan. Fortuna offers a variety of services including scalable, on-demand team building; contact center solutions, veteran hiring, enterprise resource planning, IT consulting, information security, and project management. It supports a wide variety of industries at the federal, state, and private sector levels.

Jack R. Smith founded Fortuna BMC in 2014 and currently serves as the Chief Executive Officer of the company.

As the founder and CEO, Jack has built a remarkable enterprise that is certified as a Service-Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) and has received its HUBZone certification. With a focus on business processes, implementation support, and software design, configuration, and information security services, Fortuna BMC helps its clients improve their operational capabilities. Jack's leadership has enabled the company to leverage its expertise across a diverse range of sectors, maximizing its clients' business potential through a blend of strategic and tactical understanding, business acumen, and a pragmatic, get-things-done attitude.

Fortuna BMC is headquartered in McClellan Park, California.

The Silicon Review contacted Smith, and here's his response.

Interview Highlights

Please tell us about the circumstances or events that led to the founding of Fortuna BMC.

I launched Fortuna (fortunabmc.com) in my kitchen, with LegalZoom and GoDaddy lending a hand. Initially, I had only my determination and an idea to rely on. One of my early challenges revolved around demonstrating my competence in the absence of past performance records. It's a tough situation because, without a track record, it's challenging to convince others of your capabilities. To overcome this hurdle, I devoted the first several years of Fortuna's journey to extensive networking. Learning how to provide value to those who needed my expertise became crucial to Fortuna's success. I engaged in conversations, attended lunches and dinners, and collaborated on projects with others to gain experience, even if they were small-scale or low-margin contracts that few were eager to take on. Despite lacking glamour, these opportunities allowed Fortuna to prove its worth, recognizing that they were investments in the future. In the end, Fortuna BMC has flourished and earned recognition as one of the top one hundred fastest-growing veteran-owned businesses in America. My guiding principle in these connections and partnerships was to focus not on what they could do for me, but on how I could be of service to them. This approach proved instrumental in fulfilling Fortuna's overarching mission.

Q. As an IT consulting and staffing company, what are Fortuna’s key focus areas?

At Fortuna, we try to focus on getting to know our customers. We want to know their personality and culture, as these are vital things to understand when trying to create the best fit for our customers, whether we are sourcing employees or creating a project management implementation plan. We thrive on deep feedback cyclic using technical and personality metrics that help us understand the needs of the organizations we are working with. We like to keep an open ear to our clients and develop the custom solutions they need, which we can then offer to future clients as well.

One area that we particularly focus on is our veteran hiring solution. Fortuna BMC has partnered with the Transition Assistance Program (TAP) to work with retiring and separating soldiers from the Fort Bragg military base in Fayetteville, North Carolina. We also work with veterans and military spouses, treating them in emerging technologies to assist in the transition from military life to the civilian workforce. Through our Fayetteville initiative, we have been able to achieve a P3 partnership with the US Army Reserves, the DoD's Military Spouse Employment Program, and the US Chamber’s Military Spouse Program. All of these partnerships serve to aid our goal of making sure our transitioning service members, veterans, and military spouses are gainfully employed while not actively deployed.

Q. Can you provide us with one or two success stories describing the challenges your clients faced and how Fortuna helped them overcome those challenges?

One of our clients encountered an unexpected challenge when its instructional specialist, a pivotal figure in an ongoing technology implementation for a state government healthcare administration platform, resigned unexpectedly. This specialist held crucial responsibilities, including overseeing the data management platform rollout and conducting essential training sessions. Unfortunately, the absence of a contingency plan or manpower compensation strategy left our client in a precarious position and the project’s timeline was in jeopardy.

We, at Fortuna BMC, demonstrated our strength in providing specialized personnel, surpassing the role of a typical staffing company. Our pre-positioned team of seasoned professionals ensured swift placement to meet our client's immediate and unanticipated needs. Also, our streamlined operations allowed for prompt assistance without bureaucratic delays. Through the collective efforts of our 20-member team, over 30,000 hours were dedicated to aiding our client in successfully taking over and transitioning the statewide healthcare administration platform, even amidst unforeseen challenges. This steadfast support enabled our client to maintain critical project momentum. Additionally, this short-term collaboration underscored Fortuna BMC's capabilities and established a fruitful partnership, paving the way for further long-term collaborations with this client.

Another instance where we helped our client overcome a challenge led to the development of one of our current service offerings, our veteran hiring solution. In 2018, we won one of the largest contracts we have ever been a part of and were trying to figure out how to be of the most utility to our client. The client indicated it wanted to hire more veterans and asked us why we weren’t hiring more veterans. So we asked ourselves the question, why aren’t we hiring more veterans? That question led to the development of our initiative in Fayetteville, which has been a major success. We are helping transitioning soldiers, veterans, and military spouses to find gainful employment in their post-military careers, and ensuring they have the right tools and skills to be successful, as already mentioned. This is what we mean when we talk about being an organization that empowers its people.

Q. Tell us about the Fortuna team. What value do they bring to the company?

The Fortuna team’s value is both measurable and immeasurable. One of the things that they do that makes me the proudest is how they take care of our people, and how they put their heart into everything they do. I have seen it many times where one employee will be having something going on, such as a family medical emergency, and the rest of the team springs into action, no questions asked, so that the employee can go deal with what they need to do. At Fortuna, we have a saying that family comes first, and we practice what we preach. It’s really easy to get caught up in the business of business and forget that people are more than just numbers.

Q. What new endeavors is Fortuna currently undertaking?

We just signed a 20-year lease to revitalize a 200-year-old building in downtown Fayetteville, NC. We are also entering into international partnerships that are ushering in job access for our veteran hiring pipeline. And we are also entering into the AI, nanotech, and new space industries. Anything in that is new, emerging tech, we want to be involved with at the forefront.

Q. Is there anything you would like to add before we wrap up? 

Fortuna BMC is a place that values its people and puts them first. We are a company that truly lives our mission statement, to improve the lives of our people and our customers, in that order. We believe that if we take care of our people, they will take care of our customers, and the rest will take care of itself.

Jack R. Smith | Founder & CEO

Jack R. Smith is an entrepreneur, investor, speaker, host of the Purposeful Prosperity Podcast, and USAF veteran.

Aside from his remarkable career as an entrepreneur, Jack is also a talented author and podcast host. He is currently working on a book called Purposeful Prosperity, which complements his upcoming podcast of the same name. Jack interviews inspiring leaders of purpose-driven businesses, sharing their insights and experiences with a broader audience. By highlighting the positive impact of such businesses on society, Jack aims to inspire and motivate others to pursue their entrepreneurial dreams with a social conscience. With his unique blend of skills, creativity, and passion, Jack Smith is undoubtedly a leader in the world of purpose-driven business.

“We are helping transitioning soldiers, veterans, and military spouses to find gainful employment in theirpost-military careers, and ensuring they have the right tools and skills to be successful.”