Mark Masters, CEO of Chloeta, is interviewed on the Mission Matters Business Podcast with Adam Torres.
Subscribe: iTunes / Spotify / Stitcher / RSS
Apply to be a guest on our podcast here
As a federal employee for eight years, Mark Masters worked in wildland fire for the Forest Service and Department of Interior before leaving in 2009 and launching Chloeta.
Chloeta initially provided wildfire staffing services, staffing firefighters for the Forest Service. As it progressed, Chloeta developed a diverse range of professional services in scientific, technical and engineering support to the federal government and private sector clients.
From humble beginnings to a trusted international provider
“The journey was quite tough from 2009 to 2011,” explains Mark. “In federal contracting, past performance is important so that you can demonstrate your work and competency to the government and assure them that you’re going to be able to do the work well in budget and on schedule.”
Without a business degree and with no experience running a business, Mark went through 17 banks in four states to get a loan when starting his business. Fortunately, in 2011, Chloeta got its first few small federal contracts for firefighter staffing. Today, Chloeta has four verticals: Wildland Fire Management, Emergency Management, Environmental Consulting, and Infrastructure Management.
“Failure isn’t an option when you’re persistent about something, and that something is woven into the fabric of the company. We’re not hesitant to take on difficult tasks. In some of the work we’ve done for our clients and the government, we’ve taken on some complex and important problems,” says Mark.
Chloeta is now working with the Army, training National Guard members known as Civil Support Teams that respond to emergency incidents in the chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and explosive areas. These U.S.-based teams are managed by the state’s National Guard and can be called upon by state police or fire departments requiring assistance. The FBI or other federal agencies also use these teams.
With robust testing capabilities, mobile labs, and communications capabilities to gauge hazardous situations, Chloeta has been training Civil Support Teams across the U.S.
As Mark says, “It’s been interesting and gratifying to ensure that our capacity is honed and that those teams are ready to rock and roll when called upon.”
As part of Chloeta’s environmental services, their work with oil spills has been phenomenal. It includes the environmental protection component of oil spills, as well as a lot of emergency management expertise and background.
When asked about the advice he’d like to give to entrepreneurs, Mark said, “If you’re in those early stages of bootstrapping a company, stick with it. If you feel like you’ve got a product or service that your client just has to have, if you feel like you have made or can make yourself invaluable to your client, and if you feel you’re operating as long as possible, then you’ve wrung out all the fat as much as you can from every process, both financially and from a process standpoint.”
About
Originated with humble beginnings by Mark Masters, Chloeta has become a trusted international provider of a diverse range of services in the emergency management, environmental consulting, infrastructure management, and wildland fire management markets. With the nimbleness and flexibility of an adaptive small business, Chloeta possesses the reach and process sophistication of a large corporation to meet the client’s varied needs.
If you’d like to learn more about Chloeta and it’s verticals, reach out to them at https://www.chloeta.com. You can also follow them on their Facebook and Twitter accounts.
