Aaron Warner. (ProCircular photo)
The founder and CEO of Iowa’s largest cybersecurity firm is Iowa’s Small Business Person of the Year.
The Iowa District Office of the U.S. Small Business Administration presented the award to Aaron Warner, who launched ProCircular in 2016 in Coralville, and now has two additional offices in Des Moines and Minneapolis.
“We help organizations to get comfortable with their cybersecurity risk,” Warner says. “Essentially, we help companies to sort out risk that comes from people, from technical things — which is what most folks think about when they think about cybersecurity — and increasingly, compliance, things like cybersecurity insurance, and HIPAA and that sort of thing.”
The company started off very small and now has almost 70 employees and offers around 20 paid internships. Warner says in the first year, ProCircular’s revenue grew 200%, and progress since then has been steady.
“We’ve grown at least 20-30% year-over-year,” Warner says. “We’re actually really proud of this. We managed to maintain staff, we did zero layoffs, and we kept revenue stable through COVID.” He say the company serves a variety of industries, including finance, education, health care, manufacturing, government, defense contractors, and more.
While the focus of the business is on computers, “ones and zeros,” and serious technical issues, Warner attributes his company’s achievements to their sticking to the basics of how people matter. “That’s how we interview. That’s how we hire. That’s when you’re reviewed. The core values. Things like, ‘It’s about people’ are the things that you get graded on,” Warner says. “It’s a really integral part of our firm and making sure that a company as technical as ProCircular remains grounded in people and relationships. I think that’s the key to our success.”
Saying he’s humbled and a little embarrassed by the SBA honor, Warner offers all the credit to his staff, which he calls “crazy brilliant.” Winners from all 50 states will be recognized at Washington, D.C. ceremonies April 30th and May 1st, during which the National Small Business Person of the Year will be named.