Perikin Enterprises

Albuquerque-based project management firm Perikin Enterprises may be defined as a small business, but its growth trajectory is on a scale of such magnitude as to widen the eyes of Fortune 500 companies.

The following is not a typo: Perikin has increased its annual revenue by a staggering 24,900 percent, from $200,000 in 2013, to $50 million projected for 2023. Its employee count, which 10 years ago stood at three, now approaches a workforce of 150 spread across three divisions in eight states and the country of Columbia.

Perikin’s secret? A second-generation American just out of college who had no intention of going into business.

Perikin president and CEO Frank Garcia was 24 years old when he was working in banking and finance in San Francisco. It was 2013, and he was planning to attend law school, when Perikin’s founders contacted him to help lead the business, which had been established three years before.

“I negotiated an agreement to take over equity in the firm,” Garcia said. “From there, I kept my head down and focused on bringing structure and organization to the existing business and expanding the customer base to generate revenue.”

Today, Perikin maintains a well-diversified portfolio of service offerings. Federal agencies dominate the client roster. They include the Army Corps of Engineers, Fort Bliss Directorate of Public Works, Kirtland Air Force Base, the U.S. departments of Energy and Homeland Security, Customs and Border Protection Air and Marine, Defense Threat Reduction Agency, Air Force Research Laboratories and the Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center.

Just recently, Perikin was awarded two $20 million contracts to build a national security compound for the Office of Secure Transportation under the National Nuclear Security Administration.

Garcia has also successfully guided the company through several acquisitions and eight contract novation’s.

Despite all the success, Garcia will be the first to say that Perikin has faced all the normal challenges of any small business, such as cash flow, regulatory compliance, struggling to do a lot with little, finding qualified employees, and partnering with the right organizations. Even now, Garcia said, Perikin consistently needs more engineers with specific technical skills and that the firm has difficulty finding proficient trade partners.

“In construction, we are only as successful as the quality of our specialty trade contractors - electricians, fire suppression, plumbers, welders,” he said.

For support, Garcia is working with the Minority Business Development Agency Business Center (MBDA) in Albuquerque, which most recently introduced him to the woman- and minority-owned Paulson Plumbing and Mechanical. As a result, Perikin has signed a $1.6 million contract with the economically-disadvantaged business for a project at Kirtland AFB.

“The MBDA is instrumental in keeping the ecosystem of small business development support alive,” Garcia said. “These centers are put in areas where they know the people and they know the customers. More businesses need to tap in to them.”

Developing business connections and achieving a positive economic impact on the Albuquerque community is part of the mission of both the MBDA and Perikin, which is intentionally headquartered downtown.

“We have chosen to be an anchor here in the city center, and we’re trying to change the negative narrative that too often plagues our city,” Garcia said, adding that Perikin regularly donates a segment of profits to local charitable organizations, reinvests in New Mexico communities, and creates local jobs.

He said Perikin’s goal is to add 20 to 30 new jobs a year across all of its primary markets, including Albuquerque; El Paso, Texas; Nashville, Tenn., and Washington, D.C.

“The core of what we do is great people doing great work for our customers,” he said.