Chris Pickett on the Rapid Growth of cb20

Emerges as a Leading IT & AV Provider in the Northeast with 733% Workforce Growth Over Five Years

Chris Pickett, the president and CEO of tech firm cb20, has a different take on his day-to-day job.

“I’m more in the people business than in the build-apps or build-some-new-product business,” Pickett said.

That approach has been the key to scaling the business from 15 people to 125 in nearly six years. The IT services company, which has won the Albany Business Review’s Best Places to Work award in every size category, operates on the idea that culture is the key to growth.

How did you first get interested in entrepreneurship/tech?

I went to RPI, surrounded by a lot of very, very smart people in the Lally business school, with a concentration in entrepreneurship, so I saw firsthand some of the great businesses that came out of RPI, and that led to intrigue around helping build something.

One of the great things that RPI does is they bring in a lot of business leaders to speak to the students. Getting that real world experience at a young age from people that have been there and done it and built great careers or great businesses really gives you an appetite for that type of stuff. I had the luxury of watching my brothers start businesses, so it came natural to me to be part of growing companies and that entrepreneurial spirit.

What were the beginnings of cb20 like?

The company I worked for [nfrastructure] was sold in 2016 to a company out of Seattle, and I went from a local job to being on an airplane every week for years with three little kids. It was a decision of if I was going to be a national person for the rest of my career, or come back and do something entrepreneurial again. That’s when I got introduced to the people that owned the previously named company before cb20 and came on board right before Covid in early 2020.

I saw a great market opportunity in and around the Capital Region to build a great IT services company and was looking for a platform to do that. I found a small IT services shop of 15 people, owned by a couple people, and worked a deal with them to acquire part of, and then a majority of, the business over time, and start this growth path.

The company has scaled significantly since then. What philosophy has guided you through that?

I started cb20 with the idea that businesses can scale fast without losing their soul.

We built the company around people, hiring great talent, empowering them, and removing friction so they can deliver an experience above for our customers. Being transparent with the people about the plans and where we’re going have allowed them to buy in when we were 20 people, and when we were 40 people, and when we were 60, and now when we’re 125-plus.

Our growth has been all organic, so no acquisitions, no mergers. It’s all been built by delivering great work for our customers, and that being rewarded with more work from them and new customers, and our employees referring the next employee that wants to come be a part of this culture.

You pride yourself on maintaining a strong company culture. How did you create that?

It starts with the company vision and your core values. And if you start with that framework, and you live every day by those core values, it’ll follow. But it takes time.

I say all the time, “You don’t have to believe me or believe these words are real on this slide. But I hope in three months or six months, you’ll be like, ‘You know what? That’s exactly what we’re doing here.’” That’s in our orientation.

I do an orientation every quarter with our new employees. We go through an onboarding deck so they understand how we talk and what we do. They should have heard it during the recruiting process. Then they hear it during orientation, and then every quarter we do a town hall with the whole company. Culture is having routine.

We try and use our culture as competitive advantage in the recruiting process. That said, some roles are harder to fill than others. The highly, highly technical roles have been still a challenge, to the point where we’ve opened up our recruiting throughout New England, not just in the Capital Region, for roles that otherwise we would have hired here. We’re opening an office in Boston in January out that way.

What are your goals for 2026?

We’ve made a lot of investments in 2025, both internally around systems and tools and things to help support our scale. And 2026 is going to be a year of leveraging a lot of those investments to fuel our growth. We expect a big growth year in both employees and business in 2026.

What advice would you give young entrepreneurs?

Be incredibly clear on where you’re going and why. Focus on people, give them clarity, measure the right things and make decisions quickly. Momentum is a competitive advantage.

Chris Pickett Fast Facts

• Name: Chris Pickett
• Title: President and CEO, cb20
• Age: 44
• Grew up: Mechanicville
• Lives now: Saratoga Springs
• Education: Bachelor’s degree in management and finance from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
• Family: Wife, Melissa; sons Ryan, Connor and Brennan
• Ask him about: The hole-in-one he shot
• cb20 local revenue in 2024: $43.86 million
• Three-year local revenue growth: 135.27%
• Local full-time employees: 88, not including remote employees

Media Contact:
Eli King Conklin
(914) 960-4160
econklin@cb20.com

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About cb20

cb20 is an award-winning provider of managed IT and audio visual services, proudly serving organizations across New York, Massachusetts, and the greater New England region. With over 30 years of experience, a team of world-class engineers, and trusted partnerships with the world’s leading hardware and software providers, we deliver confidence, security, and above all, “An Experience Above.”