When Will Nobles was 12 years old, he was working the tobacco fields in the small town of New Bern, North Carolina.
“I played baseball and worked on the farm all through high school,” Will said. “I graduated high school and got a job in the mine.”
There were five generations of farmers and blue-collar workers ahead of Will. Which is why it was a foregone conclusion that he too would follow in the footsteps of his family.
By 18 years of age, Will was operating a 100-ton bulldozer at the mine.
But after two years of working grueling 12-hour shifts, Will realized he wanted a different kind of life.
“I fell in love with computers and decided I wanted to go to college,” Will said.
But his dad didn’t think it was such a good idea. “I was making $17.42 per hour,” Will said. “That was considered good money, and my dad doubted I could do better.”
Rejecting the path laid out for him, Will had a MUCH bigger vision for his future. He quit his job and got to work on his plan. Becoming a first-generation college graduate, Will received both a two-year and four-year degree in network engineering.
While in college, Will laid out a strategy to open his own IT firm and grow it into a multi-million-dollar company. To be successful, he knew he needed to gain the right experience. “When I started out in technology, I worked in the healthcare industry,” Will said. “My first job was at a hospital. Working in the hospital systems gave me a lot of meaningful experience with HIPAA compliance.” Next, he worked with a Fortune 500 company where he honed his networking and cyber security skills.
By the time he was 25 years old, Will was the VP of technology at a large, 900-person mortgage company, managing a staff of 11 employees. “I was doing consulting before I took the job as VP,” Will said. “I left consulting to take the VP job to get management experience.”
Things were going as planned. But then, in 2007, the financial crisis hit, and the mortgage industry disintegrated. “I saw myself laying off a whole bunch of engineers and technicians, and eventually, we shut the doors. Besides the CFO and CEO, I was one of the last ones out the door.”
Although the timing was earlier than planned, Will took a leap of faith, opening the doors to Vector Choice Technology Solutions in 2007, incorporating in 2008.
“I had a written business plan and knew I wanted my own company,” Will said. “Even though the economy was bad, it turned out to be good timing for me because companies were eliminating IT positions and outsourcing instead.”
Starting as a one-man show, Will built his company from the ground up. While he’s experienced struggles along the way, especially in the first six years, Will’s business has grown at a blinding pace over the last few years and landed him on the map as a Cyber Security expert nationwide. In the last three years alone, his company has grown a million dollars year over year.
Based out of Atlanta, Georgia, he’s expanded to five offices which include Baton Rouge, Louisiana, New Bern, North Carolina, Washington, D.C. and Mobile, Alabama. Specializing in healthcare and manufacturing companies with 20-500 employees that want a single-source-solution for IT support, cyber-security, hosting, hardware, and network protection, Vector Choice has clients in 17 states and three countries.
Improving Efficiency, Reducing Risk & Making Compliance Easy For Clients
Healthcare clients such as Well Care Health, which provides home health and personal care services throughout North Carolina, trust Vector Choice as their IT provider, not only because of Will’s experience, but because he’s developed a team of employees who also have expertise in the healthcare industry.
Manufacturers, such as Fokker Technologies, a global aerospace company that builds parts for the Department of Defense (DoD) turn to Will and his team for their stepped approach in navigating compliance with regulations such as International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) compliance and National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) compliance. . “Our clients look to our expertise to coach them on technology, cybersecurity, and compliance,” Will said.
A Top-Ranked IT Provider Led By A Value-Driven, Go-To Cybersecurity Expert
Will’s strategy has won him many accolades, including making the Inc. 5000 list in 2019 and 2020. The company also ranks among the world’s most elite Managed Service Providers (MSPs), making the prestigious Channel Futures MSP 501 rankings two years running and climbing to #83 on the list in 2020.
He’s also built a stellar team by developing an exceptional, family-oriented workplace environment. Adding to the long list of awards, Vector Choice was voted Best and Brightest Companies To Work in the Nation and the Best and Brightest Companies To Work in Atlanta for the past three years.
Spending countless hours spreading awareness of the dangers of cybercrime, Will advises companies on how to keep personal and business information off the Dark Web. “We are focusing on the cybercrime and truly protecting clients against cyberattacks,” Will said. Vector Choice takes cybercrime so seriously; they are one of the only companies in the country that carries special insurance from Lloyd’s of London for cyberattacks. “We’ll pay a hundred percent up to a million dollars in a cyber-attack with our insurance.” While he offers a 100% money-back guarantee, he’s never had to give it.
His reputation as a Cybersecurity expert has landed him on big stages all over the United States. He appeared in the Amazon documentary, “Cyber Crime: It’s Not A Question Of If, But When” and frequently appears on TV including stations such as ABC, NBC, CBS and FOX. The author of three books, he’s also the go-to cyber-expert on Fox 44 Baton Rouge. “If anything happens that they want to report on, they call me,” Will said. As a speaker, he’s appeared at the Nasdaq podium in New York, been featured on the Jumbotron in Times Square, and spoken at the Harvard Club (New York and Boston), West Point, Mercedes Benz, and Coca-Cola, to name a few.
However, despite his success and accolades, Will remains humble and holds close the values he was brought up on. These values include doing the right thing even when it’s hard, taking ownership, being versatile and agile, being respectful, and doing what he says he’ll do. “Our core values are so important they appear on every ticket that we do,” Will said. “We use them as a survey tool and ask if the tech who handled their problem met the core values. When we’re in meetings or we’re challenged, we always look to see if we are basing our decisions on our core values. It’s a huge topic constantly within our company.”
Why Clients Describe Vector Choice As a “Godsend”
Will shaped his business around the best influences from his family. As one client put it, “Will prides himself on a job well done, which likely stems from his “blue-collar” upbringing… he’s true to his roots and to the most important aspects of this life… Faith, family, and friends.” Another client describes him as “a Godsend” and yet another says, “I hit the jackpot.” Clients trust Vector Choice because they are a customer-first, cyber-security focused IT provider with an experienced team who love what they do and respond FAST.
Will acknowledges that his past shapes his company and its future. “I’ve taken everything I’ve learned over the years from my experiences, along with what not to do and what I wanted, and combined them to build a perfect company,” Will said. “I’ve tried to do my best because I know it’s not all about me. It’s about my clients and the whole team.”
