When Sekhar Prabhakar started his business in St. Louis, he was new in town and did not have a network to lean on or to brainstorm ideas with. It took him three years to find success, he said, after investing in federal contracting. In August of 2004, CEdge was born out of a desire to make a difference within the business, as well as the community where services are provided. Today, CEdge is a minority-owned SBA certified CMMI Level 4 business that provides service and quality products for various commercial and government entities.
Prabhakar said he learned three important lessons along the way:
1. Never be afraid of failure.
2. Learn from successes and failures, and apply them to win bigger opportunities.
3. Be compassionate to others, and help them succeed.
Today, Prabhakar is CEO of CEdge, which provides IT solutions across the U.S. and India, including commercial enterprises and state and federal governments. “Collaborating with clients to determine their business needs, we combine years of knowledge and expertise to develop a strategy that drives results and promotes growth,” the company said. “Our team is dedicated to guiding your business to the forefront through an innovative suite of customized IT solutions.” Prabhakar believes that business owners and leaders should think of offering the best value to employees, clients, customers and the community as these are the four pillars for growing a business. This mantra has served him well as the CEO of CEdge, Inc.
Under Prabhakar’s leadership, the company in the last year won a $23 million contract with the federal government and is continuing to expand in the U.S. and overseas. The CEdge India office has grown from two employees in 2020 to over 40 employees and has over 100 openings for which it is actively recruiting.
That success is, in part, due to how Prabhakar approaches complex problems.
“Listening is the key to understanding the problem.Then you involve the entire team and get feedback,” he said. “Next, you assess the risk and then choose the solution that is scalable and offers less risk.”
CEdge is developing three new products in edtech, supply chain management, and data visualization and modeling. The edtech product focus is on digital education, a market expected to grow from $70.9 billion to $108 billion by 2026. The developing supply chain solution will target small, medium and large businesses to enhance and shorten supply chain operations across several markets, the company said. The third product in data modeling will address geographic data model issues in large enterprises, CEdge said.
CEdge was recognized as a top 50 business by SBMON and the 15th-largest minority-owned business by the St. Louis Business Journal.
CEdge works with the United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation, National Academy Foundation and local schools to help mentor students and provide training opportunities.
