Your Next Move - Realizing That Liftoff Moment

Episode Date: March 25, 2025

In this episode, Inc. recognition program manager Sarah Lynch talks to Lizeth Velez, the founder and CEO of the construction management company LJV Development. Last year was the company's first time on the Inc. 5000, and it landed at No. 115. It’s based in Boston  and specializes in both exterior and interior renovation. Lizeth chatted about needing a good foundation as a business, investing in specific tools that will help your company perform, and that liftoff moment when you realize you're unlocking growth.

I'm Sarah Lynch and you are listening to Your Next Move, Audio Edition, produced by Inc. and Capital One Business. For this season, we gathered an array of conversations with entrepreneurs who made last year's Inc. 5000 list. They joined us in our Your Next Move booth at the Inc. 5000 to share lessons learned and anecdotes from building their businesses. In this episode, I talk to Liseth Velez. She is the founder and CEO of the construction management company LJV Development. This is their first time on the Inc. 5000 list, and they landed at number 115. They're based in Boston, Massachusetts, and they specialize

in transforming existing conditions and both exterior and interior renovation. I started the conversation by asking Lyseth, was there a moment you felt that liftoff and all the pieces fell into place and you really unlocked that growth? It's been a roller coaster. I think there's been times, I would say in May of 2020, when we got our first federal contract, I cried, it was the first contract we ever get. I really thought that was the launch. It wasn't. It definitely was a lot more work and a lot more grind.

And even to this day, we're just continuously grinding. I would say right now we feel like we're almost graduated out of that survival stage and really into growth mode. And so now we're just facing new types of challenges. But obviously, at least in the last three years, you've seen incredible growth. You ended up really high on the list. What do you attribute that to? And what do you think you got right with the business that really led to that growth? It's interesting because I've, I've made decisions not based on revenue. I have not made decisions based on even the bottom line.

Honestly, I've made decisions based on what we needed at that moment. So as I was bringing in team members, it was like, okay, well now we need a business development person. We need more project managers, more superintendents. And so it's really like, what are the needs? And I'm a visionary. So I've also looked at, okay, what do we need three, six months from now? Which is been kind of like those things where it's an art and a science trying to

balance it because I do feel that I've over invested in many ways. Like we could have a better bottom line, but you know, at the end of the day, I would have made those investments regardless because each, whether it was a software investment or actual like personal human capital investment, it's always taught us something. And so, you know, I, I'm, I'm a visionary, so I'm continuously trying to innovate, and I'm continuously trying to find a way to do it. I mean, I'm in construction.

We've been building since the pyramids. So how do we do it in a leaner, more innovative way where I can survive and have the cash that I need to continue to stay in business? I want to talk more about those investments. How do you, as the leader, decide, where do I need to continue to stay in business. I want to talk more about those investments. How do you as the leader decide, where do I need to invest right now? Are there questions that you're continually asking yourself?

It's really important for you to have a good foundation as a business. So for us, our value is our mission. Our mission is we build spaces and places that working and living is just better. And so as we're getting opportunities, like really being a lot more intentional, especially now that we're not in that survival stage on qualifying those opportunities. Yeah.

Sometimes you don't know, like, you know, I've invested in a CRM software. Not going to say which one, but I'm like literally close to just getting rid of it because it's too much for our team. Like we don't need that kind of capacity or CRM tool. Like it's almost too powerful for our type of business. So I would say now I'm becoming to be a little bit more analytical into making sure that, okay, whatever software we're using or even our team members, like are they in the right people, right seats? You know, at the end of the day, we want people to wake up with a sense of purpose.

We want people to want to work at LJV. And so, yeah, it's kind of a troubleshooting mechanism, you know, plug and play. Yeah. Talk to me more about hiring and like you said, identifying that true purpose connected to the company's mission. That's something that every employer would want, but could be hard to find. And, you know, we have to ask the right questions or I guess have the right sense about someone to know that they're right for the role and have that passion too.

How do you go about finding those folks? Ooh, I would say that prior to this year, and it's for a very specific reason, which I'll tell you why, but prior to this year, and it's for a very specific reason, which I'll tell you why, but prior to this year, we did it, I would say we did it how usually a lot of people do it, which means, so I have five family members that work for me. So either you're hiring family or you're hiring friends or you're just hiring people you know. And I think that that's a slippery slope because a lot of times, especially if you're hiring a friend, now you're kind of letting things go because they're your friend, right?

And so trying to separate mission and execution versus, hey, you're a human and I see you and believing you and all this stuff, that's been hard to navigate. But this year, my life has been transformed because we implemented psychometrics at LJV. And so with the implementation of psychometrics at LJV. And so with the implementation of psychometrics and actually, not just implementing it, but actually operationalizing it, we've been able to see immediate impact. We've been able to really, again, put the right person in the right seat through how

they see the world, which is very different, right? It's more analytical based. The assessment we use is a 90th percentile. So, you know, you are who you are. And then once we know more, and once we can see like into you as a human, and that's how you think, then it's easier for us to, in certain cases, we actually have to be like, hey, you know, we really, this is not a good fit, right? We're at well employment like this is we need to separate ways but in many other cases is more of like, okay, we just need to move this person here or maybe a system with this area where maybe they're ultra creative, but they lack in the details, right? And so how do we meet people where they are and

lacking the details, right? And so how do we meet people where they are and still make sure that, you know, the business is staying afloat and that we're, you know, keeping our clients at the forefront, because at the end of the day, it's all about them. When we come back, Diana asks Stephanie about their strong focus on female brands.

You'll hear her answer after this quick break. answer after this quick break. So how have you seen that focus on psychometrics impact the business? Have you seen results from that and what have those results been? Oh yeah, it's funny. Yesterday, yeah, yesterday I was in a call with my team and literally I said, you know, culture index is our new love language. And the reason for that is because we're always joking around. So I'm actually here with my brother, who's also our construction finance manager.

And the reason why I really only brought him other than the cost of Inc. Is because, you know, he's been with me from the very, very beginning. He's been, I'm a hundred percent owner, but he's always just believed in the vision, believed in me as a person and just supported me. Like even when he was not nowhere near sure whether, you know, he's coming from a manufacturer and industry. So coming into construction is very different. So with this psychometrics, I was able to see exactly how he is with autonomy, how he

is with social, how he is with his patients, how he is with laws and conformity. And so it's funny because we know he's just not a social being. And so coming here, you know, we just kept laughing and just say, Hey, you got to push your B up. You got to push your B up. And so it's just this intentional, not calling somebody out in a, in a negative way, but just saying, Hey, we, we see you, we know you're like this and that's all good, but just know that we need to cope ahead and we're about to be in the situation where we're going to need you to adjust in a certain way. And we know that that's not

normal to you, which is okay, but we still got to do it. And so it's just preparing and being a lot more in tune with how people think, it's great. Have you dove into your own? Absolutely, absolutely. And well, thank you for asking me that actually, because so I'm what they consider architect. And when one of the things about Culture Index

that I really love is it's only four pages and there's two graphs. The first graph tells you who you are. So it's basically, you know, tattoo stamped. This is who you are. I'm sure there's ways of you changing that, but this is who you naturally are for the most part. And the second graph shows you your job behaviors. And so starting LJV, I'm a firsttime founder. I started transition out of the military just with a lot of unknowns. And it's funny, I come to the realization

that a lot of the reasons why I started LJV was me also seeking my own freedom and me seeking a place where I could be my best self. And literally, I've always said, I never want to build a company that I don't want to work for. And so seeing my graph and seeing how who I am and my job behavior is almost identical was super validating for me because I was like, okay, I am in my super strength. And you know, when we show people their graphs, it's like, we want you to be you.

And it's so crazy, wow, especially applicants. We could see that they're literally twisting into a whole different person. And it's like, it's not that you can't be something else, it's that it's gonna take a lot more energy and it's just not sustainable in the long run. So, you know, my mission or my goal is for everybody to be able to be themselves. And so, yeah, I dove into it.

I dove into it with even just my family and seeing how a lot of my brothers are like low A's. A is your dominance and your submissiveness. Now, look, I'm talking to you about psychometrics. I'm not a professional psychometrics person. But interestingly enough, we found out that all of my brothers are all low A's to include my father and potentially my mother. And growing up, it was really difficult for me because I'm a high A.

And I always found myself like almost being the leader of the pack, even though I'm the youngest, I'm also a woman. So, you know, I was in this cultural mix of like, well, I'm supposed to be waiting for my brothers to tell me what to do. And now years later, and now that we can actually see the data, it's almost like wow I'm I'm all my brother's boss but they actually want me to be

their boss they want direction they want vision and I'm giving that to them so it's almost like a perfect match. Interesting. When you're looking towards the future of the company as a leader how do you hope to shape and see the company grow from here? Yeah, so I'm a continuous learner. So I'm actually back at school. I just enrolled while I was accepted into the executive MBA program at MIT. And so I'm back in school.

I only applied to MIT because it's known for science and technology. And so I would say my next step is how do we lean in into this wave of AI and technology, and how do we make sure we're at the forefront of it, and we're not behind, right? And so it's not going away. So I'm basically just trying to discover, explore.

We did just hire a COO who's gonna be more into the weeds with the team members. And so my goal is to, for the first time, I feel like I could really be a visionary. Like I could truly, truly be a CEO. And then I have like this new network and this new knowledge I'm about to gain at being in this program. And so I'm just excited to see how it shapes, it transforms LJV because I know it will be. It's like, for sure, something big is going to happen.

What it is, we don't know for sure yet, but it's always going to be again about the clients. It's always going to be about how do we give our employees more time to do the things that they actually want to do. How do we make more time or more space for the things that we're actually excited to do the things that they actually want to do. You know, how do we make more time or more space for the things that we're actually excited to do instead of like sitting in front of a laptop and just typing away or doing data entry all day? Nobody wants to do that.

Obviously, you know, you're in the midst of learning about this right now, but do you have any ideas of where you could see this technology really making your business better? Yeah, yeah, I do. I do. So we have three main verticals right now. We have the federal contracting arm, which is all the federal agencies.

And then we have institutional, and for that we have a lot of higher ed and that kind of space. And then we have your commercial. So think of that as your retail fit ups, that kind of stuff. Well, this technology arm is definitely imminent. We did hire CTO about four months ago and it's starting with LJV in terms of how do we automate our processes? How do we automate our workflows? The platform is called GorillaOps because that was like our call sign.

That was our group sign on my last deployment. And so I always think of like GorillaOps, you know, you're kind of in operations and you're going hard. So I would say that if I was a queen for a day and I had a wish, I hope that hopefully in the next few months or years, we can have a fully developed software internal solution that will help us be more

lenient and just be more flexible and agile. And then also if we could bring that out to the market and help other small, especially contractors run projects and know how to run projects, I think it would be phenomenal because we have so much construction to do. Like there's just so much to do in the built environment that is almost scary. So if I had it my way, I'm going to make sure that we empower more people to know how to do these things so that we can have more people that are capable of doing construction out there. Lissa, thank you so much for joining us here in the booth and for sharing your story.

Yes, of course. Thank you. That's all for this episode of Your Next Move. Our producers are Blake Odom and Avery Miles. Editing and sound design by Nick Torres. Executive producer is Josh Christensen. If you haven't already, subscribe to Your Next Move on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen. Your Next Move is a production of Inc. and Capital One Business.