Like people, businesses evolve as time passes. Successful evolution typically involves growth—and no one knows this better than Jeff Wagner. While sitting at home in early 2019, the idea came to him for a cybersecurity firm dedicated to serving organizations of all sizes. He wasted no time in bringing this idea to life. The result? For the third time in four years, Aspis Consulting has upgraded its office space to accommodate the company’s rapid growth. Read on to learn more about the journey to Aspis Consulting’s new downtown Kansas City office.
Aspis Consulting received its first client in the summer of 2019. At this point, the company was fully virtual. All business was done online. But as Aspis began government contracting, the next course of action became finding an office with a commercial address where work could be done in person; a homebase for official company mail, hosting meetings with prospective and current clients, and where future employees would feel like part of a team. Through the office space distributor Novel Coworking, Wagner discovered suite #612 at 1301 Oak St.
“It was probably an eight-by-eight [64 square foot] room, which is quite small,” Wagner describes. “It was just uncomfortable.” The building advertised it as fitting four people, but two seemed the limit to him. Fortunately, two was all it needed to fit.
Aspis Consulting hired its first official employee in early 2020, the beginning of a now 18-person firm spanning four cities. Everything was on track, more contracts were lined up. Then, COVID-19 put all aspirations on hold.
Wagner was in the process of onboarding the new employee when a client informed him of the pandemic’s severity. A week later, the national quarantine was announced, and business was forced back online. “We kind of went from the couch, to a virtual desk address, to a private office, and then right back to the kitchen table,” says Wagner.
Through the worst of the pandemic, the expanding team at Aspis Consulting kept the company’s aim high and movement forward. It was all worth it when they relocated to a new office in Penntower in 2021. Boasting 275 square feet, it was four times the size of their previous space. Wagner knew that their office needed to fit four people at a time but still offer some privacy when non-collaborative work was being done. Penntower was a great place to start.
Still, Aspis never stopped growing.
“In 2022, I kind of knew that we would want to be moving out of that office in 2023. We had outgrown it again. We had gone from being a five- or six-person company to an eighteen-person company.”
Wagner decided that rather than rent Aspis Consulting’s next home, he wanted to buy. That way, the company would have more control over their space and the longevity of their stay in one location. However, due to a bleak commercial office and housing market, buying soon seemed out of the realm of possibility. On top of that, Wagner was informed that Penntower would not be renewing Aspis’s lease due to undisclosed plans regarding multiple office spaces.
Desperate to find the perfect space for his company and employees, Wagner returned to searching for rentable properties. He never could have guessed he would find himself back at 1301 Oak St.
Novel Coworking had been bought by Expansive Coworking, but the building manager was the same woman Wagner knew in 2019. It was with her help that Aspis Consulting was able to land a 1,200-square-foot office on the first floor. In just three years, Aspis upgraded from 64 square feet to an area 18 times that, returning to the same building it first called home.
It is in this new office that Wagner anticipates more great work will be done. “We can definitely have more collaboration. There’s plenty of room to grow.”
Aspis Consulting will hold a grand opening ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new office on December 5th at 3 p.m. All are welcome, and attendees are eligible for door prizes. Representatives from the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce and the Mid-America LGBT Chamber of Commerce will perform the ribbon-cutting. Stay updated on the event by following us on Facebook.
Who is Aspis Consulting?
Aspis Consulting is an IT professional services firm headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri, specializing in cybersecurity and management consulting. Our values are integrity, community, and diversity, and our vision is to democratize cybersecurity. We make enterprise cybersecurity solutions and professional services accessible to all sizes of organizations. This includes everything from medium-sized businesses to large Fortune 500 enterprises; non-profits; and municipal, state, and federal government agencies. Aspis Consulting is an Independent Small Business, Certified HUBZone Small Business Concern, Certified LGBT Business Enterprise, Self-Certified Small Disadvantaged Business, Certified Virginia Values Veterans, and Better Business Bureau accredit ted company. To learn more about how we can help you with your IT needs, check out our website https://aspis.consulting and follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram to stay up to date on cybersecurity news, company updates, and need-to-know tips.