Building IT From Scratch In A Pe-Backed Startup W/Dana Kline - #396 (38:41)
You've Been Heard, Friday, February 20th, 2026
Dana Kline joined Cordia as the sole IT person at a 3.5-year-old district energy company. The PE firm handed her a budget that priced system admins at $65K. He laughed and got real numbers.
Three years later, he runs an 11-person team spread across the country, all managing energy centers with steam systems from the 1800s. His secret? Hire level 3 techs, outsource everything else, and hold vendors to standards they've never seen.
We get into her weekly vendor scorecard system (1-5-10 scoring that made Oracle beg for their A-team back), the two metrics he used to earn PE board trust, and why he fires smart jerks who don't fit the culture.
The biggest takeaway? Stop asking for tools. Start solving problems. Dana's framework works whether you're building from scratch or fixing what's broken.