MCP In the News: MCP Featured as One of Pennsylvania Startup Winners

Mission Critical Partners' was recently featured as one of Pennsylvania's startup winners in Keystone Edge magazine. The following is a excerpt from the article by writer Elise Vider:

For every tech entrepreneur working out of a garage and dreaming of unicorns — not the mythical creatures, but the legendary startups that ultimately hit a $1 billion market valuation – the hard truth is that the odds of survival are daunting. As Forbes reported last year, as many as 75 percent of venture-backed startups fail; the failure rate of all U.S. companies after five years is over 50 percent.

Meanwhile in Pennsylvania, a healthy cohort of growing tech startups are beating the odds. We spoke to three founders about what it takes to get solidly on the path to success.

Mission Critical Partners

When Mission Critical Partners launched in 2009, its founders were as busy building the office furniture as they were building the company. Today the Centre County-based company provides advanced public-safety-system technology to governments, utilities, college campuses and others nationwide while employing 100 people.

Keystone Edge: What is MCP’s origin tale?

Kevin Murray: My co-founders (Brian Bark and Len Kowalski) and I started MCP 10 years ago from makeshift offices located in our garages and basements in State College and Pittsburgh. Prior to founding the firm, we worked together at a Pennsylvania-based architecture, engineering and consulting firm, where we built a telecommunications and technology division that quickly grew to be one of the largest revenue sources for the company. However, with fast-paced growth came challenges, politics and silos.

Read more from the article in Keystone Edge here.