Building Octo: From Startup to Strategic Exit
Mehul Sanghani founded Octo with a vision to modernize government through technology—and over the next 17 years transformed it into one of the nation's leading federal technology companies before its acquisition by IBM. In this one-on-one conversation, Sanghani reflects on the journey of building a high-growth business, partnering with private equity, preparing for a strategic exit, navigating post-acquisition integration, and discovering what comes next when the company you've built becomes someone else's. Now in his next chapter as an investor, mentor, and philanthropist, he'll share why he believes true success is measured not only by the company you build, but by the lives you impact along the way.
Moderator:
Chief Content Officer
Smart Business
Dustin is an award-winning business journalist, bestselling author, and the chief content officer of Smart Business. Over the past 30 years, he has interviewed thousands of business and civic leaders, and helped more than 50 CEOs and entrepreneurs transform their ideas into books. A trained investigative politics reporter and former digital media entrepreneur, Dustin joined Smart Business in 1997 after serving as an editor at several daily newspapers.
Panelists:
Founder & Former CEO
Octo
Mehul Sanghani is the Chief Executive Officer and Founder of Octo. Since launching the firm alone at age 30, he has grown Octo around the foundational belief that advancing customer missions matters most. Leading IT strategy and business transformation initiatives for corporations and Federal Government agencies, Mehul has guided Octo through tremendous growth, all while expanding capabilities and solutions that enable customers to solve complex problems and meet critical missions that impact the nation and the world.
Under his leadership, Octo has won several awards for innovation and has regularly been named a top workplace. Octo was recognized as the #23 fastest growing private business in the country by Inc. Magazine, received an Inc. Hire Power Award for job growth and creation, won a Vanguard Award from the Virginia Chamber of Commerce as the #1 fastest growing business in the Commonwealth of Virginia, was ranked the #2 business on a Washington Technology Magazine Fast 50 list of fastest growing Federal Contractors, won a Fairfax Chamber of Commerce award for GovCon Contractor of the Year, and has taken home dozens of other prestigious industry awards. Mehul, who has received his own share of awards personally, has worked hard to cultivate a unique corporate culture that has achieved widespread recognition. Octo was featured in Washingtonian Magazine’s “50 Best Workplaces” and was ranked the #11 best workplace in the Commonwealth by Virginia Business Magazine. The firm has been recognized by the Washington Post and Washington Business Journal’s as a top workplace six times combined.