History

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Benjamin Ortiz and Robert Kraai started their friendship in 1981 and became tied together in all the ways that matter.

Over the years, Ben and Bob worked together, spent time together as families, worked together, helped each other, celebrated together, and consoled each other. While life's challenges sometimes got in the way, they always remained the very best of friends. 

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Ben and Bob worked together in IT for a manufacturing company, and those years were the best times of their lives. It makes sense that after all those many years that they would start talking about combining their efforts again, in order to start a new company. They wanted to spend rest of their careers building their own company together.

It began with a conversation about contracting in IT, and Ben's dry sarcasm around picking the least profitable path to follow. After many conversations and research they made the decision to focus on Government Contracting utilizing Ben's Alaskan Native ancestery.

"We just need a name. What about a native word?"

"In eskimo: Inirniit (results), Utiqtilli (fix/restore), Nakalli-Nipitilli (cut-paste), Aulallit (manage)"

"Any of those available as domains? I’ll check.

...Inirniit.com is available.

...so is Utiqtilli.com

...all of them are available. I like Aulallit.com, just because it starts with A.

I don't know how to pronounce these."

"I like Nakalli-Nipitilli for the humor"

"lol! Way too long. We need as short and easy as possible.

...but aulallit works."

"you're right"

And so Ben admitted that Bob was right, which was rare for Ben to acknowledge. The domain was registered, the LLC was created, and Aulallit was born.

Ben and Bob began to meet weekly on Fridays at the Lawrence Public Library, Starbucks, McDonalds, and various other places they could find to plug in and churn through the planning and paperwork for Aulallit. Taking breaks to play pool or to indulge in Ben's tea obscession, they found their way to establish exactly how they wanted their company to work. Along the way they pulled in a few friends and family to help out.

Ben filled his brain with the particulars of government contracting, and Bob brought his years of commercial contracting experience to the table to hone their approach. As they got closer to making it work and starting their first contract, they both became excited and more committed.

For their last Friday meeting together, they chose to skip work. Instead they ate a nice lunch at a place Ben wanted to try and played pool together for the rest of the afternoon. They talked about life and friendship, getting back in shape together, and committing to their new company. 

An impending contract was in the works, and both men were confident that it was the launching point.

A week or so later, when the signatures were wet on the first contract, they had a moment to be focused on next steps with barely a celebration of the win.