If you stepped away from your business for three weeks, would it still be standing when you got back?
In this episode of Spilling the Tea on GovCon, Teresa Moon sits down with Andrew DiSilvestro Jr., CEO of AmeriTech Contracting LLC, to discuss what it takes to build and scale in federal construction. From the deployment that reshaped how he leads to the hiring philosophy behind AmeriTech’s rapid growth, the conversation focuses on the leadership decisions that drive sustainable scaling.
Here’s a quick rundown:
Federal construction is one of the most active corners of GovCon right now, with infrastructure dollars still moving through the system. But growing a contracting business in this space is rarely linear, and the unknowns of construction stack on top of the unknowns of running a company.
Drew brings the perspective of someone who has lived both sides of that equation, including a hard early lesson when a deployment exposed how dependent his first company was on him. The conversation explores how he rebuilt that approach at AmeriTech and what it has taken to scale in a competitive federal market.
A few takeaways from the conversation:
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Build the systems first, then scale on top of them: A three-week deployment training was enough to expose how dependent Drew’s first company was on him personally. He rebuilt his approach at AmeriTech around documented workflows from day one, and that foundation is what made the company’s growth possible.
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Hire for intangibles when you can’t outbid for resumes: Top-tier project managers were out of budget early on, so Drew interviewed for the underlying qualities the role required and developed people into it from there. The approach traces back to a mindset he learned in the military.
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Say yes to the work the bigger guys won’t take: Smaller, less attractive jobs may not generate a CPARS rating, but they can still produce PPQs and letters of recommendation. Those references are what open the door to the next, larger opportunity.
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Promotion only works when paired with field presence: Early at AmeriTech, EVP Dan Riley drove to all 11 New England VAs every week to drop off company information. That groundwork eventually turned a single small contract into a $7.5M BPA across the region.
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Customer service is what converts a single job into the next one: Saying yes to a small contract only matters if the execution gives the buyer a reason to call again. That’s the lever that turns a one-off award into a long-term relationship.
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Sustainability comes from honest feedback and outward thinking: Drew credits his wife and the book The Outward Mindset for keeping him grounded as he scales. The core practice he leans on: before drawing conclusions about a team member’s performance, ask what you could have done differently to set them up for success.
Bottom line: Scaling in federal construction has less to do with chasing the biggest opportunity than with building a business that consistently delivers on the smaller ones. The systems, the team, and the customer-service mindset are what turn early traction into long-term growth.
Listen to the full conversation here: https://youtu.be/GI2WwPaACxE