A Colorado Springs tech and defense company plans to more than triple in size over the next eight years.

ITS — short for Infinity Technology Services — employs close to 200 people and plans to add more than 500. The company specializes in cybersecurity, information technology, space systems and associated ground systems.

It was founded in 2017 by Air Force Academy graduate and Air Force veteran Hassan Campbell.

The company has national and international reach, working closely with the federal government on cybersecurity analysis and risk assessment, as well as other fields. With offices in the United Kingdom, Australia and Washington, D.C., ITS aims to position itself as a go-to contractor available to the Department of Defense and American allies.

Locally, the company supports military assets and bases.

‘I think I could do this better’

The planned expansion, announced in July, would push ITS out of the small business category. It also said it would keep its headquarters in Colorado Springs rather than, as considered, moving to Henderson, Nev., which is outside Las Vegas and near Nellis Air Force Base, and Huntsville, Ala., the latter picked to be the new home of U.S. Space Command by President Donald Trump on Sept. 2.

“We’ll still be a big player in the small business market here in town,” Campbell said. “As far as how that feels, it feels like there’s a lot of work to be done.”

The average salary of the new jobs will be $130,482, 200% the average annual wage in El Paso County, according to past coverage by the Gazette. The company says it has a 92% employee retention rate, very high for a technology-focused startup, according to LinkedIn.

The genesis of what would evolve into ITS came to be while Campbell, also the company’s CEO, worked as an acquisition officer at Kirkland Air Force Base in New Mexico.

Campbell remembered seeing one contract come up that he thought “wasn’t very good.” It was approved by committee, he said, and once home, Campbell told his wife, “I think I could do this better.”

She told him he always thought that.

But the challenge had been laid out for Campbell.

“I grew up without any real financial means and didn’t know how to run a business or have any money to run or start a business,” he said. “I had some mentors and one of them said, ‘If you want to bootstrap this company and (avoid) private investment or equity, you should get into med devices.’”

After completing his military service, Campbell worked for Johnson & Johnson, where he said he learned a lot. But Johnson & Johnson is a “blue chip,” well-established machine of a company that Campbell likened to the military. Later, he moved from Johnson & Johnson to a Silicon Valley startup called Intuitive Surgical.

“It’s not a startup anymore,” he said.

In 2024, Intuitive Surgical had more than 15,000 employees and its revenues exceeded $8 billion.

This is where Campbell learned the most about starting and maintaining a business, he said. Those jobs allowed him to earn the financial capital needed to kickstart his new company.

Plus, the timing was right, he added.

ITS founders ‘hungrier’ than competition in early years

Founded in 2017, ITS has grown to more than 180 employees and has a healthy internship program. But growth has to be done carefully, Campbell said, admitting there were some hiccups along the way.

But none have been enough to derail the company’s progress. Part of this is, according to Campbell and Dillon Beard, the company vice president of programs, because of the type of company culture they try to promote.

Beard praised Campbell’s ability to find and foster talent. He also said Campbell has an innate ability to hire “right,” finding people who believe in the mission of ITS and the mission of keeping the nation safe.

Many ITS employees are veterans of the military and corporate environments, adding layers of experience and professionalism to the team, Beard said.

Beard recalled a “proud moment” early in ITS’ existence, where it was competing to be a member of a team with a large prime contractor. There were 26 others interested in winning the same contract, but ITS got it.

A member of a large prime contractor told a room with representatives from the 26 other companies that Campbell and Beard were “hungrier” than anyone who was there at the time.

“It’s difficult to continue for eight years,” Beard said. “The way we do this is we keep finding great people to join us … We focus on surrounding ourselves with like-minded people so it’s not as much a burden on the individual.

“We bring good people in, train them up, give them the tools to succeed and avoid micromanagement.”

This approach means the team is not overtaxed, he said.

But hiring people is only one part of the equation. Some companies come on to the scene with a firecracker of an idea or product, Campbell said, but then fail to capitalize on that idea.

“A lot of them fail because they succeed, and they fail to effectively scale the organization to support the growth,” Campbell said.

“While we take a few minutes to celebrate the successes of the last eight and a half, nine years … (We) remain focused on the task at hand, which is to make sure that we’re putting the right infrastructure, the right leadership, people (and) contracts (in place) so that the business can live on, be sustained and be viable for those people.”

In July, the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade announced the company selected Colorado Springs for its expansion, building on the existing presence. The planned expansion could bring more than $7 million in investments to the Springs economy.

Impact of expansion will go beyond 500 new employees

The impact of that investment will go beyond $7 million, said Seth Pruett at the Colorado Springs Chamber of Commerce and EDC. With the expansion will come an economic ripple effect, Pruett said, touching many parts of the city and regional economy.

“From the city side, it increases our tax base, which is good for everyone, because there are a few ways the city can increase its tax revenue,” he said.

“Either A, they can increase their base, or they increase the taxes. … If we want to grow the city and grow into these programs and be able to pay for all these services, then we need to grow the tax base.”

Colorado, and by and large Colorado Springs, are reluctant to raise taxes. Pruett attributes this to a “Western cultural” aspect within the state.

ITS can also serve as a catalyst, he said. As ITS grows and expands, its employees will talk to other businesses looking to grow and, hopefully, share positive experiences.

“It just confirms what we already know about our aerospace and defense sector: That it is one of the strongest places to compete in that area,” he said. “Outside of the Pentagon, you’re not going to find this many assets.”

Pruett’s comments were made before Trump announced this month that Space Command — one of 11 combatant commands in the military — will leave Colorado Springs for Huntsville.

It is not clear how this move will impact companies such as ITS, though many remain committed to planned expansions and operations. Space Command is made up of roughly 1,700 troops and many civilian government employees, and it is a major economic driver for the city and region.

As a veteran-owned business that has many veterans on staff, ITS works closely with programs such as Hiring Our Heroes and the Department of Defense’s SkillBridge.

Both programs are designed to get military members experience in the civilian world prior to and after being discharged.

Colorado Springs is home to many veterans, with the city estimating the number as high as 90,000 — one-fifth of the population.

“Our veteran workforce, when it comes to the cybersecurity, aerospace world, is definitely something that we use on our pitches a lot,” Pruett said.

“Colorado Springs is a great example of a midsized city that can provide all the resources that a major city would provide, as well as having some of the resources that make it feel more like a small neighborly town as well.”