Three operators who got tired of watching owners guess
The Virtual C-Suite was founded in [confirm founding year] in Maryland by Duane Epperly, David Moore and Daniel Ramos, three partners who each ran organizations before advising them. It provides fractional general counsel, CIO and chief security officer services to owner-led businesses on a monthly retainer, as a shared practice of EDG.tech, Dave Moore Law and Lateralus Group. It is not a venture capital firm, a staffing agency or an executive search firm.
How the three of us ended up at one table
Duane has run EDG.tech, a managed IT and cybersecurity provider in Maryland, since 2016, and before that spent two decades on large federal software projects. David, his brother-in-law of nearly forty years, founded and sold a technology company before going to law school, and now runs Dave Moore Law as a business attorney and registered patent attorney. Daniel spent 25 years in the FBI, retiring as the Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the El Paso division, and now runs Lateralus Group, a security consultancy.
For years the three of us kept getting the same phone call from the same kind of owner: a company of 20 or 50 or 100 people that had grown past what its accountant, its IT vendor and its lawyer-on-call could handle, with the owner making legal, technology and security decisions alone at 9 pm. Each of us would help with our piece. The owner would still be guessing at the other two. The Virtual C-Suite is the fix for that: the three of us in the same meeting, on one retainer, so the decision gets made once with all three sides in the room.
What we believe
The owner should be in the room. We work with the person who signs, not through a liaison, and we expect to be in your leadership meeting, not reporting to it.
Say the number. Our retainers are published. Every owner asks on the first call and we would rather you knew before you called.
The partner does the work. There are no associates, account managers or junior staff at The Virtual C-Suite. The person on the page is the person on the phone.
If we are not the right fit, we say so on the first call. Some companies need a full-time hire, a bookkeeper, a help desk or a litigator. We know good ones and we will point you there.
Who we are for
Owner-led companies with 10 to 150 employees in Maryland, Washington DC and Northern Virginia, and companies elsewhere in the US that are comfortable working remotely. Businesses about to do something they have not done before: franchise, launch a regulated product, take a government contract, sell. Leadership teams that want senior people in the room, not a dashboard.
Who we are not for
Startups that need an interim full-time executive for a funding round. Companies that need a help desk, bookkeeping or a marketing agency. Anyone who wants to choose from a list of five hundred résumés.
The partner firms
The Virtual C-Suite is how EDG.tech, Dave Moore Law and Lateralus Group work together for one client. Your engagement letter is with the partner firm whose seat you are engaging, and the three of us coordinate under one plan. When a VCS engagement uses one of those firms for delivery (EDG.tech for managed IT, for example), it is disclosed in the engagement letter and priced separately from the retainer. [confirm wording if an LLC is formed]
Questions people ask before they call
Is The Virtual C-Suite a venture capital firm?
No. "VC" in our name is "Virtual C-Suite." We provide fractional executives to operating businesses and have no investment activity.
Is this the same as the "virtual C-suite" services my IT company offers?
No. Several managed service providers use that phrase for a vCIO or vCISO add-on to their support contract. The Virtual C-Suite is an independent practice of three named partners covering legal, technology and security, and we do not sell IT support under this name.
Are you a marketplace?
No. There are three of us, and you meet us on the first call.
Do you have an office I can visit?
We meet at your office, or anywhere in Maryland, DC and Northern Virginia that suits you. We do not publish a street address.