Irvine-based IT consultancy and service provider Trace3 is on pace to crack $500 million in revenue this year as it attracts new Fortune 500 customers and builds up regional offices.
“Where I see the big growth for us is focusing around big data and the cloud,” said Chief Executive Tyler Beecher, who took over the top post from founder Hayes Drumwright, who serves as executive chairman.
Trace3 aims to hit $1 billion in revenue with a stable of big-name customers that includes San Jose-based Cisco Systems Inc., the world’s largest networking equipment maker, and network storage service provider NetApp Inc. in Sunnyvale.
Trace3 now has about 2,000 customers, including recent deals with Irvine-based smart TV and accessories maker Vizio Inc., Nordstrom and Verizon Wireless.
The value-added reseller relies on a network of technology consultants that sell goods and services to businesses.
Trace3 has shifted its strategy from assigning sets of employees to specific companies in favor of focusing on geographic markets.
“It’s been a return to form with Trace3, which has yielded big benefits for us,” Beecher said.
That has led to growth at its Irvine, Los Angeles, Pasadena, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Denver, New Jersey, Boise, Idaho operations.
It also recently expanded to central Florida with an office in Tampa, far from its business core in the West.
“It’s a bit of an experiment,” Beecher said. “We’re still absolutely anchored out of Orange County, and we’ll continue to grow that office.”
Trace3 employs about 310, about a third of them in Irvine.
It was the 38th largest private company in OC last year, with $420.6 million in revenue.
In the Mood for Money
Irvine-based startup Motormood has launched a Kickstarter campaign to bring to market its auto accessory display that incorporates emoticons and social media.
The company has raised more than $54,000 from about 650 backers for its LED Motormood product that allows drivers to communicate their moods to other drivers in real time through a remote-controlled rear display.
Drivers can opt to display anger, flirtation, distress and even thankfulness, an emotion rarely on display on Southern California’s jammed freeways and crowded streets.
The company was established last year by Jesse Kramer, Alex Sewell and Kina Di Santes after the trio won Startup Weekend OC in 2013, a 54-hour pitching competition that links Orange County designers, developers, entrepreneurs and industry experts.
Motormood’s Kickstarter campaign, which has a $130,500 fundraising goal, runs until July 30. Backers are reimbursed if a Kickstarter project isn’t funded.
