The year was 2003, and Jorge and Mario were securing city government contracts faster than Dom Toretto racing a quarter-mile in 2 Fast 2 Furious (released that same year). 

Jorge and Mario had two employees and had moved out of their garage to a friend’s back-office who ran a phone store – sometimes even selling some phones when the store employees went out for lunch (talk about versatility) – and kept upgrading from there.

Read Part 1: The early years

As the clients built-up, so did city responsibilities and more council meetings – which they attended to address budget and technology questions. Mario and Jorge knew the next step was to expand from the confines of IT services and into the product business.

The brothers got involved with cellular technology, and created their first channel partner opportunity with rep Doug Freeman from Sierra Wireless. Jorge and Mario would build modems including Sierra Wireless technology that could be installed in police cars so that officers could take service calls directly from their cruiser. 

Read Part 2: The Beginnings

To this day, IntelliSite has a strong channel partner network that includes many world-class global partners and continues to grow and expand as IntelliSite innovates and collaborates its tech solutions.

Then, in 2005, Jorge and Mario created the first UIG (Universal IoT Gateway), which was equipped with a modem, NAS (network attached storage), and Mobotix cameras. This was a major turning point for the development of today’s SCaaS solutions. 

In order to install these, Jorge and Mario needed an electrical contractor to do this – but instead of hiring someone for this role, Jorge and Mario studied and passed the test to get their electrical contractors license.

Napa County in California was their first installation, and the first UIG was placed in a city park. Since then, many UIGs have been installed in not only parks, but around the city – wherever a use case calls for it. And that has since evolved into a variety of additional use cases based on the innovative products and solutions they offer, such as SCaaS (Smart Communities as-a-Service) and hBM (Heuristic Based Monitoring).

From spending all-nighters using a dictionary to read a computer manual as kids in Costa Rica to the products they’ve been able to build today and provide to governments and organizations all around the world, Mario and Jorge understand the importance computers and technology can play in people’s, especially children’s, lives.

For those who are entrepreneurial in spirit and/or anyone who has an affinity for technology, we asked Mario and Jorge for any wisdom they’d like to depart on these young, up-and-coming technologists:

“Take as many public speaking classes as you can. You can take classes and go out and learn on your own all the technical skills needed to be successful in the industry, but public speaking is critical. Especially if you have a business with your brother or someone else, both of you can be technical, but there needs to be one that drives communication; there needs to be that human-to-human connection. You can be the best technologist in the world, but you have to be able to get your message across so that prospects and clients clearly understand your services and value.” – Mario Campos

“Put simply, follow your dreams. I’ve been in love with computers since I saw that ad in Popular Mechanics, so to me working with Mario hasn’t felt like work at all. Earlier in life I tried to steer away from computing because it was my hobby, and I wanted to always enjoy my hobby; that’s why I decided to pursue agricultural engineering. However, with John Deere and the bank, I still ended up doing programming work. I think that was the universe telling me where I truly belong. So, when the opportunity to work with Mario came around again, I had to jump on it. If you follow your passions, you’ll never regret it.” – Jorge Campos