b'6Accion Annual Report 2018 Accion Entrepreneurs 7 GENTECH SUPPORTPHOENIX, ARIZONADebbie Kovesdy is a self-professed geek and has been herThe team was soon confronted with challenges of realizing a profit. They entire life. At age six she was building television sets withneeded capital to make key changes, but the business didn\'t have a track her grandfather. Later, as a teacher, Debbie ran a Careerrecord and Debbie had a limited credit history. She says, I thought if I didnt and Technical Education (CTE) program for middle and high schoolget this money, GenTech Support was going to fold.Thankfully, Debbie students. She says, I took four CTE students to a national competitionlearned of Accion and was quickly approved for a loan to move the business with a concept of creating a company to provide tech support to theinto a new location. She says, We moved into a smaller space, decreased community and we won the gold medal." our overhead, added a hardware counter and increased our revenuestreamtwo years ago thats not something a teacher would have said.Debbie reflects, My students were very bright, doing coding for We have about 20 employees and every single person DEBBIE KOVESDYemerging technologies and then they would go work other jobs afterToday, as the owner of GenTech Support, Debbie is quick to tell you that works here is a co-owner of the business. GENTECH SUPPORT |PHOENIX, AZschool, and I thought this was crazy because they had marketable techthat its not her business, shes just the adult in the room. She says, We skills. Following a few years of running their tech support initiativehave about 20 employees and every single person that works here is a through the school district, the students and Debbie developed aco-owner of the business. GenTech Supports signature service is walk-business plan to launch GenTech Support. She says, We looked atin tech support. GenTech also provides kids with coding and robotics places to lease around town, learned about accounting, licenses, andclasses that build skills and passion for technology careers. When asked I took the kids with me. After deciding on a site, Debbie and 22 highabout her dreams for the future, Debbie says, I want the name GenTech school students opened the doors to their tech support dream. to have a meaning in the tech industry. I want recruiters to say about my employees, Youve worked at GenTech, youve got the whole package.'