Wize Solutions executive team (L-R) Mark Eschle, Dario Marquez, Wendy Marquez, Jeff Pittges.
Since the tech revolution turned Northern Virginia into the eastern version of Silicon Valley, the Commonwealth has often been referred to as NoVa (Northern Virginia) and RoVa (the rest of Virginia). Now a NoVa couple is aiming to bring work from NoVa to RoVa, specifically, Abingdon.
“We don’t need any more people in Northern Virginia,” says Dario Marquez, who along with his wife Wendy, own Wize Solutions. But, Marquez, there is still a good bit of tech work to be done. So why not open an office in Abingdon where workers can do the jobs remotely? The workers in Southwest Virginia can be paid less than what their colleagues in Northern Virginia make, while still earning better wages than they would in many other available positions in Southwest.
The Marquezes are working in conjunctions with East Tennessee State University, the University of Virginia – Wise and the Virginia Community College system in order to attract qualified talent. It will begin by acting as a sub contractor for Northern Virginia companies. The company plans to hire 50 employees by the end of the year, with a two- to three-year plan of hiring 300.
Should the company reach that point, it will have demonstrated scalability to be expanded to other operations in rural communities in Southwest and Southside Virginia. For Abingdon, Marquez says, “This is economic development through job creation.”
