After years serving in the US Air Force as an intelligence officer, Bryon Kroger noticed a major infrastructure problem across the entire Department of Defense: bad software. Instead of having the most advanced, cutting-edge technology as displayed in military movies and tv shows, the defense community was relying upon software that lags far behind what is available in the civilian sector — despite the cost of failure being exponentially higher.
The Problem
Bryon did not plan on going head-to-head with one of the biggest arms of the US government but he knew better technology needed to be in place so fewer bad things happened due to bad software. In response to this, Bryon co-founded the Department of Defense’s first software factory, Kessel Run. Bryon’s team taught the government how to produce, in just weeks, what they previously spent five years to produce.
It paid for itself inside of a week, saving the Pentagon over $214,000 per day. As Bryon continued attempting to advance the military’s technology from the inside, he hit ceilings in technology, bureaucracy, and leadership. Bryon then decided it was time to leave the military and take on the world’s largest bureaucracy from the outside as a civilian.
The Solution
Then Rise8 was born. Bryon started Rise8 the day he separated from the Air Force to enable the same kind of digital transformation for the Department of Defense but now with a lot more flexibility.
Rise8 is a full-stack digital transformation firm that combines the culture and practices of Silicon Valley with extensive expertise in working with the Department of Defense. By leveraging this unique synergy, Bryon and his team are able to continue the mission of digitally transforming the government and continuously delivering impactful software that humans love.
“We’re experts at coming in and helping your organization create environments where people with growth mindsets can learn, grow, thrive, and produce the products and platforms that are going to fuel your digital transformation,” said Bryon.
Bryon’s method is about teaching through doing by pairing the customer on real software instead of learning through tinkering projects that will never see the light of day. Bryon is passionate about fully completing a mission and making sure their work makes a continuous impact on the client.
Their three-part approach sets Bryon and Rise8 apart because they view their services as a journey they take together to make a positive change to not only client’s software and systems, but also to their business.
The Impact
While defense is just one sector that Rise8 digitally transforms, Bryon enables his company to offer that same transformation to any mission-obsessed organization. Rise 8 provides services to other public sector organizations or businesses such as local government and the public school system.
The team is working on projects that are not only making a lasting impact on businesses but are creating software to ensure lives are saved. If Rise8 is able to tackle an organization as large and complex as the Department of Defense, then they can offer that same transformation anywhere.
Bryon has been able to make a huge difference in public sector technology transformations and he is just getting started.
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