We Won Veteran-Owned Business of the Year. Here's What It Really Means.

By Rick Pina, COO/CRO, Inspired Solutions | June 2026

Earlier this month, our team stood up in a ballroom in New York City and accepted the 2026 Bronze Stevie Award for Veteran-Owned Business of the Year at the 24th Annual American Business Awards.

I want to tell you what that night meant. And I want to be honest about what it did not mean.

It did not mean we arrived. It meant the work showed up in the record.

The Award

The American Business Awards are the premier business awards program in the United States. Thousands of nominations come in every year from companies of every size and sector. The judges are working executives and professionals, not a marketing panel. When they named Inspired Solutions, Inc. the Bronze Stevie winner for Veteran-Owned Business of the Year, they were not grading a pitch. They were grading 11 years of results.

That matters to me. I have been around enough award programs to know the difference between recognition you earn and recognition you buy. This one we earned.

What Isabella Built

Inspired Solutions exists because of one woman's decision to bet on herself.

Isabella Pina was born in Dominica in a village with no running water and no electricity. She came to the United States at 20, enlisted in the U.S. Army, earned her citizenship in uniform, and served 21 years. She finished her military career as a Robotic Surgery Coordinator for the Department of Defense. In 2015, she started Inspired Solutions at her kitchen table with $183,000 in revenue.

Last year we closed at $32.4 million. Lifetime, we have delivered more than $189.5 million in revenue with zero delivery failures. That is the arc this award recognizes. Isabella is the reason it exists. She is our CEO, our founder, and the standard the rest of us measure against.

A "Veteran-Owned Business of the Year" trophy on the shelf is really a story about a 21-year soldier who decided her service did not end when she took off the uniform.

Why Veteran-Owned Companies Deliver Differently

This award is not a participation trophy for having served. It recognizes what service teaches and how that translates into the work.

Accountability is the baseline, not the differentiator. In the Army, you do not miss the timeline and explain it afterward. You build the plan to hit it, you flag the threats early, and you own the outcome. That is why our record reads 100 percent on-time delivery across $189.5 million in lifetime contracts. Federal agencies and Fortune 500 customers do not pay us for effort. They pay us for results that land on schedule.

People come before the transaction. Our team is Great Place to Work Certified for the third consecutive year, with a 94 percent Trust Index against a 57 percent U.S. national average. That number is anonymous, third-party, and audited. It tells you what kind of team shows up for your mission. The team that takes care of each other takes care of you.

The company exists to serve something larger than itself. Isabella and I also co-founded a church and a school in the Dominican Republic that serves more than 200 children with a daily hot meal and a real education. We hold to a Vision 2030 that commits 10 percent of the company to charity. The award honors the business. The business runs on purpose.

What This Means for the Agencies and Partners We Serve

If you are a contracting officer or a prime evaluating a teaming partner, a national award is notable, but it is not why you should call us. Here is why you should call us.

Inspired Solutions is a certified Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business and an 8(a) firm, ISO 9001:2015 quality certified, holding GSA Multiple Award Schedule contract 47QTCA22D00DQ. That stack gives you a streamlined acquisition path, a socio-economic set-aside credit, and a delivery partner with a documented 11-year track record. One contract. One accountability point.

The Bronze Stevie is the outside world confirming what our customers already knew. We do what we say. We hit the date. We own the result.

Thank You

To the judges of the American Business Awards, thank you for the recognition. To our team, thank you for earning it every single day. To Isabella, thank you for building something worth recognizing.

We are not done. We are 11 years in on a mission that runs to 2030 and beyond. This award is a marker on the road, not the destination.

To God be the glory. Greater is coming.

Work With Inspired Solutions

Inspired Solutions, Inc. is an 8(a)-certified, SDVOSB, ISO 9001:2015 quality-certified federal IT contractor headquartered in Manassas, Virginia, with a second office in Clayton, Missouri. Founded in 2015 by Isabella Pina, the company delivers IT products, professional services, training, logistics, and vendor managed inventory to federal agencies and Fortune 500 commercial customers. GSA MAS Contract 47QTCA22D00DQ. CAGE Code 7E4D8. SAM UEI NQ9QKJM2Z1E8.

If your agency or prime is evaluating a veteran-owned IT company for an upcoming requirement, visit inspired-us.com/contactus or email rpina@inspired-us.com. We will give you a straight answer on what we can deliver in your specific acquisition vehicle.