Includes AL, AR, FL, GA, KY, LA, MS, PR, SC, and TN
How I Built an IT Business That Proves I Belong
LaunchTech, No. 3
Huntsville, Alabama
Venus Quates, founder and CEO
Two-year revenue growth: 5,121%
Venus Quates, 43, grew up in a single-parent household in inner-city Buffalo, New York, where her smarts got her into a college prep school. While most of her classmates went off to Ivy League colleges, Quates decided to follow in her grandfather’s footsteps and join the Air Force. She spent four years working in information management in locations such as South Korea, Italy, and Saudi Arabia, and then landed a job at the aerospace firm General Dynamics.
