17: LUZCO Technologies CEO Lus Haberberger on the power of diverse perspectives

Lus Haberberger, CEO of LUZCO Technologies and a 2024 Vistage Member Excellence Award winner, joins Vistage CEO Sam Reese to share why she took the leap to found an engineering firm that has transformed into one of the fastest-growing firms in St. Louis in over just 7 years. She also shares how staying rooted in her core values has helped her scale her rapidly growing business, how diverse perspectives have led to business growth, and the pivotal role peer advisory played in helping her learn the skills to succeed as a new CEO.

Key Takeaways and Reflection Questions

Delegate to Drive Growth: Luz attributes Luzco’s growth to shifting from a hands-on role to a strategic, visionary one. By trusting her team to handle operations, she could focus on the broader business trajectory, leading to rapid growth.

• REFLECT: Am I spending enough time in a visionary, strategic role, or am I too involved in daily operations? What tasks can I delegate to free up my time for high-level decision-making?

Build an Authentic Company Culture: Rooted in her Venezuelan heritage, Luz champions familia as Luzco’s core value. This authentic, people-centric approach fosters diversity and inclusion in the workforce, creating a culture where diverse perspectives drive creativity and problem-solving.

• REFLECT: How well are my core values reflected in my company culture?? Are our values and practices being consistently upheld across teams and locations?

Focus on Employee Development: Luzco’s commitment to employee growth led to the creation of “Luzco U,” an internal education initiative. This program underscores the company’s mission of cultivating leaders from within, demonstrating Luzco’s investment in each team member’s personal and professional growth.

• REFLECT: Do I provide growth opportunities for my team members through training or mentorship?

Leaving a lasting legacy: Luz believes in “paying it forward.” The success and support she received inspired her to give back to the community, embedding philanthropy as a foundational part of Luzco’s mission.

• REFLECT: What kind of legacy do I want to build with my company? How can our current strategies and culture contribute to creating a lasting, positive impact?

Transcript

Lus Haberberger: Oh my gosh, yes. I need to start delegating and elevating other people around me because I trust them that they can do what I do. So then I can start thinking more in a visionary role, more strategic way, and we doubled. You can see it on the charts, like when I actively made the decision to stop working in it, we doubled.

Sam Reese: Welcome, everyone, to another episode of A Life of Climb podcast. I’m your host, Sam Reese. Joining me today is Lus Haberberger, president and CEO of Luzco Technologies. Lus, thanks for joining us today.

Lus Haberberger: Sam, it is my pleasure to be here and it is an honor, so thank you.

Entrepreneurial Journey

Sam Reese: Well, you are certainly a success story, and looking at your background here, founding the company in 2017, you’ve had this incredible growth that we’ll talk about. My first question is, what led you down this path of starting your own business back then? Tell me how you got to that point. What led you there?

Lus Haberberger: Well, I feel like ignorance is bliss. You don’t know what you don’t know, but truly, it was during my time at UCLA when I was getting my MBA that entrepreneurial spirit sparked in me. So the thought was in the back of my mind, but truly got reinforced when my second boy was born. I felt a little bit conflicted of trying to become this perfect mother that I wanted to be without sacrificing my engineering career. And back then, pre-COVID I felt like the world didn’t understand working parents so much yet, or at least I felt that way. So I thought I had to make a choice, and instead of making a choice, I said, “You know what? What about if I create the environment where I feel that I could be happy at doing both?”

Sam Reese: That is definitely an entrepreneur. I can very much relate to that. You saw that, but then you still were moving. You were in a whole different company, working in a whole different organization. How’d you start to hatch the plan to say, “This is what it’s going to look like when I actually step out on my own,” because that takes a lot of courage. How did that all happen?

Lus Haberberger: Sam, I think also it’s knowing what it would take and the innocence and being naive of like, “Oh, I could do this. We’ll see what happens.” My entire career, I’ve worked for the electric utility, so I had friends that could help me navigate the procurement process and help me understand what it would take to actually form a business and how to do business with the utilities. So I had that already going for me. But my thought back then in 2017 was just to do freelancing. It’s like, “Well, maybe hire a part-time person to help me here and there,” but the idea was just for me to do project management on my own time and find the projects that I could manage while raising two boys, three and four at that point, but that didn’t last long.

Sam Reese: So you sort of went out thinking I’ll just maybe have a portfolio career if you would, and I’ll jump around and help people out. And then what changed that said, “Uh-oh, I got to start hiring people.” What happened?

Lus Haberberger: There was a need in the market, Sam. It was a perfect, I was lucky I was in the right place at the right time. There was a need in the market for more different perspective, more diverse firms, more qualified candidates that look like me, spoke like me, had my career path, met all these criteria for electric utilities. So I was like, “Oh my gosh, actually there are people valuing our uniqueness, our difference in perspectives.” And you combine that with quality of work and excellent customer service, you continue to get business to the point where I was like, “Oh my gosh, I’m working actually more than I was before having my own company. I need to start hiring people.”

Lesson as a first-time CEO

Sam Reese: You have this incredible background in terms of having an expertise in your craft, but you had never run a company. When you think about those first few years, what were some of those big challenges?

Lus Haberberger: I think it’s funny, Sam, and every entrepreneur will tell you this, or if they have a startup company, you always recruit your friends and family first and same with investors. Those are your angel investors, friends and family. So my father-in-law was the one that gave me my first line of credit, and I love him, thank him a lot for the humble beginnings of Luzco. So he retired [as] CFO. He’s like, “Well, I’ll help you review some of these things and make sure that you’re on track.” At this point, I have five employees. Three months into drawing from the line of credit he goes, “Lus, what’s going on? I see the projects. I know that you guys are busy. All of you guys are highly utilized. Your production ratio is off the chart. How come there’s no money coming in?” And I’m like, “What do you mean?” He’s like, “Well, none of your clients have paid you.” I’m like, “Oh, right. I need to invoice them.”

Sam Reese: That’s going to be important. Wasn’t it funny though, you see with small businesses, it’s almost always the number one reason they fail is they run out of money. Not customers, not orders, but they run out of cash because of exactly what you faced is maybe not invoicing them. So you figured out that’s only a lesson you only need once, right. So, got it. I’ll start invoicing them. And then you start to grow. So as you continue to grow your five employees, is this still year one with five employees?

Lus Haberberger: Yes. We ended up year one with seven. That was 2017 and then 2018 probably we doubled.

Sam Reese: Wow. So that quick and the whole time you’re learning how to run this company and all these new challenges that are popping up. So you had this passion for your family. There’s no question about that. Is that what kept you going through this time and managing this crazy world that you created for yourself?

Authentic Company Culture Rooted in Core Values

Lus Haberberger: Yes. My why at that point was exactly that. I was trying to find that equilibrium between being the mom I wanted to be for Jose and Luca, but then I realized, and that’s how I was able to attract talent. I realized I wasn’t alone in this environment. So without thinking about it or without being intentional at the beginning, I was creating a workforce that I would be happy working for. So with that, it was very apparent that familia became our number one core value, not only for the way that I was handling my home, but also the way that I was leading the company.

And with that, attracting other people that believed in the same values and same vision.

Sam Reese: That served you really well, hasn’t it?

Lus Haberberger: Yeah, that’s exactly right. And we purposely picked the word in Spanish, Sam, because I wanted to bring a little bit of that authenticity and my roots and add a deeper value to the word.

Sam Reese: Yes. So it was organic when you got there, but it is just really interesting how that journey connected with you here because now these light bulbs keep turning on. Now tell me about the roots here. You mentioned that. So the roots, so you’re growing up in Venezuela, so you come over as an exchange student. What happens and why do you stay here?

Lus Haberberger: So I graduated high school, young. I was 16, and my mother an incredible visionary, also petroleum engineer.

Sam Reese: Wow.

Lus Haberberger: Yes, and I think that also has shape of who I am and my vision and my values. She quit her career, her profession after the fourth child was born. And I saw her struggle with that decision. So the visionary that she is or she was after high school, she said, “You know what? I want you to learn English because I think you being bilingual will be easier for you to find a job when you come back to Venezuela.” So she found this exchange program that you talked about, Sam, and of course she found a way to send me to the farthest point north in Washington State with the hope that I wouldn’t find any other Spanish speakers. Little did she know that my roommates were Colombian.

Sam Reese: What a coincidence.

Lus Haberberger: I know, but I was determined to learn English. I was like, “I’m going to learn English, and I’m going to do this as fast as I can so I can come back home.” But that’s how I ended up in the States was just to learn English. And here I am.

Sam Reese: What was it when you came to the States, or even now, what about the States it changed your perception? What did you think about the States versus what you really experienced?

Lus Haberberger: My younger 16-year-old, when I first came, it was the supermarket, Sam. I was like, “Oh my God, everything in the supermarket is big. All the fruits look fresh.” They almost look like fake. So that was my first one, my young 16-year-old. Now, fast forward 24 years later, the difference is we’re a melting pot. The United States is one of those beautiful countries where truly it’s made out of immigrants from everywhere.

And the difference in perspective is what makes us the best.

Sam Reese: I love, obviously, I connect with you on the difference in perspectives and within Vistage, the most successful groups are the ones that have these real diverse perspectives, because that’s really what fuels our thinking when somebody has a different view of the world here. So I love that you brought that up. Well, now, believe it or not, you’re up to more than a hundred employees. It’s incredible. And the last three years, you’ve had revenue growth in the triple digits, one of the fastest growing private companies in St. Louis. As you look back, is there an inflection point that sticks out where you made a big decision that puts you on this incredible trajectory? Because it doesn’t sound like when you first started, your goal was to have a company of this size. Was there an inflection point?

Growth inflection point

Lus Haberberger: Vistage.

Sam Reese: I love to hear that.

Lus Haberberger: So Vistage was a key decision. So I started in 2017. So late 2018, I get a call from this gentleman who was a Vistage member saying, “I think you need to join Vistage. I think you would benefit tremendously from it.” And so I joined Vistage and oh my God, I was just as sponge. I’m like, “Yes, please teach me. I’ll be your best student ever. Show me because I have no idea on how to run a business.” The speakers were tremendous. Every time somebody would speak, I would just write notes and be like, “Oh my God, I can’t do this.” So I ran Luzco basically on the ideas of the speakers. I’ve always done engineering, that’s it. I don’t know anything else. So that was one. The second one was later on I went, my number one client here locally sent me to a program at Dartmouth, which is a whole program on how to successfully run a minority business.

And you get your professors to look into your business plan, your financials, your marketing strategy, your website, et cetera. And the concentration on, they emphasize on the concentration on start working on your business instead of in your business.

Sam Reese: In your business.

Delegate to Drive Growth

Lus Haberberger: And it was the first time that I had heard that and I was like, “Oh my gosh, yes. I need to start delegating and elevating other people around me because I trust them that they can do what I do. So then I can start thinking more in a visionary role, more strategic way.” And we doubled. I mean, you can see it on the chart. It’s like when I actively made the decision to stop working in it, we doubled.

Sam Reese: Wow. Yeah. And your role changed dramatically yourself then. So you said, “I’m going to be the one that leads the business and somebody else has got to do the engineering work,” basically, right?

Lus Haberberger: Yes, that’s right.

Sam Reese: Thanks Lus. Love to hear more about that. We’ll be back here in just a few minutes on A Life of Climb Podcast.

Power of Diverse Perspectives

Sam Reese: This niche has emerged where not only from a business perspective, from the customers you serve, but the employees you bring on this niche about this diversity that you bring to it, diversity being unique to the way you approach your customers, this diversity being unique to your employees. How did that all come about? Was that front of mind for you when you started? How did that come together?

Lus Haberberger: Thank you, Sam, and, you said something beautiful, you said unique on the way that you approach your clients. That’s exactly right. We often hear diversity as a buzzword, but the way that we look at it here at Luzco diversity, it’s just that is the difference of thoughts is the agreement to disagree. It is being safe to show a different side of whatever problem you’re facing regardless of your professional background, regardless of where you’re from, regardless of what language you speak. So we concentrate more on the actual meaning of perspective and difference of opinion.

Why? We’re very intentional on that because we know and we’ve seen it, the beautiful results that we can produce. The United States is an example of it. The beautiful results we can produce when you bring people that think differently but can work towards a common goal. Well, we didn’t plan, or what I didn’t think, and it was a beautiful accident, was the other meaning of diversity. When you walk here around Luzco, you’ll see as soon as you get in 28 different flags in our entrance, and those are Sam, 28 different countries represented either first-generation born U.S from parents from those countries or immigrants themselves. And to think that we can get that much diversity in the middle of the Midwest in St. Louis is incredible, in a small company like ours, it’s the most beautiful accident it has happened to us. 

Creating a safe space to disagree

Sam Reese: Yeah, that is incredible right there in the middle of the United States of America to be able to do that is incredible. How do you keep that safe environment? I just think that’s really powerful what you said there, Lus, is that to be able to have that safe environment where people can say what’s on their mind, disagree. How do you as the leader, make sure that safe environment continues to flourish?

Lus Haberberger: It’s repetition. And we have a saying here at Luzco that you say it seven ways, seven different ways until it clicks. So it’s that repetition and living by example. So our familia members will see the leadership team disagree and being okay with the disagreement, but then committing to the greater good for the company.

Sam Reese: Great point. I can see that. If you’re modeling that, then I see that as an employee, so then it feels safer, but that it’s just such a difficult thing to accomplish, especially as you scaled the business. I find a lot of leaders when they’ve got five, 10 people that can happen. And then as the business gets bigger, it’s really hard to keep those principles in place. You also have this other principle, and as I was reading the background on you as this, you actually have this love as part of your leadership tenets, but tell me about how love comes into the equation at Luzco?

Lus Haberberger: It ties very beautifully from our core value of familia. It’s a genuine care for each other. I write my emails and when I write my emails to all staff, I sign them with love Lus. I wouldn’t put that powerful, powerful of a word in an email if I didn’t mean it. If I’m not doing something for the greater good of the company, if I’m not making a decision that would benefit you as a familia member. People tend to, if they feel valued, if they feel loved, they tend to feel safer, more secure, more confident in expressing those discrepancies of thoughts or differences in opinion.

Sam Reese: That’s really interesting how you sign it with love, because that creates discipline for you too, doesn’t it? Where when you’re signing that it has to communicate what you just said. It has to be in line with your values. I love, I see so many great leaders that do that they sort of box themselves in to making sure that they’re leading by example. You sound like you do a really good job of that.

Lus Haberberger: Thank you. It is a commitment, otherwise it wouldn’t feel natural, right? So if I’m going to sign with love, I’m better mean what I wrote on love.

Leaving a lasting legacy

Sam Reese: Tell me about philanthropy. That’s become a big part of what you guys are contributing to your communities as well. How did that become into the ethos of Luzco, the philanthropy aspect?

Lus Haberberger: Yes, very powerful question as well. It was early on. I want to say maybe we started even in 2018. It came out of two things. The first one was I couldn’t believe the success we were having being so young, being so new in the corporate world with our clients and all that, and the positive receptiveness we were getting from everybody. I felt the need to pay it forward saying, “Okay, fine. If we’re in this path where we’re being blessed with so many good things, now how do we put it to work so we can help other people in the communities?”

Sam Reese: That’s so inspiring. I think that’s why one of the things that’s so great about this country is it’s a small and mid-sized business leaders that really are powering the communities. Tell me how, because as you were walking through that story I was thinking about, it’s called Lus University, right internally?

Lus Haberberger: Luzco U, yes.

Sam Reese: Okay. Luzco U. Luzco U, where was that idea hatched and tell us a little bit about that?

Developing leaders

Lus Haberberger: So through the seven-year process of developing Luzco, I mean, we have grown so fast as well that it’s like how do we maintain the culture? How do we maintain who we are? How do we maintain that authenticity? Somebody said, “Hey, well, what about if we start teaching about our core values?” And so there are three, right? Familia one, diversity number two, leadership number three. And then little by little they were like, “Well, what about we expand it?” So outside of the core values, then we started introducing technical concepts. Again, if somebody wants to learn more about project management, somebody wants to learn more about drafting, then how do we teach them internally?

And if they do want to continue their careers, then fine go outside do an associate’s degree, an engineering degree or whatever it is. But let’s give them the knowledge, the information. So with that, our vision for Luzco became develop leaders. We’re like, we are going to achieve everything we can. Engineering will be our means and methods on how we make money and profit to be able to do greater things. But truly what is it that we’re passionate about is developing leaders, and that’s how Luzco U was born.

Sam Reese: I mean, there’s nothing better than that as a leader. What can be tough with it, I’d say, and I wonder how you’d respond to this. What can be tough is when you say that you have to be committed that even if their next step isn’t with your company, and I don’t know how, if you’ve had to reconcile, I know as a leader, I’ve had to, when I believe in that, have you had to reconcile that yourself?

Lus Haberberger: Yes, several times, because either we’re a small company, even though we’re 120 people, we’re still a small company. So what if we have developed somebody to the point where they have outgrown us where the position that they’re next, we don’t even have it yet.

Sam Reese: Right. Yeah. That’s tough, isn’t it? If you know the right thing is for them to go, you sort of have to keep your culture alive.

Lus Haberberger: You have to let them go. Yeah. You have to let them go on fly and actually even say okay, recognize that and say what’s next.

Staying humble

Sam Reese: One of the things that I think we all struggle with as leaders is this balance between ambition and humility. You want to do great things just listening to you, and you want to build great lives for everybody, but you got to remain humble. Otherwise, when we start to believe our own press clippings is when at least I found, when we as leaders make really bad decisions. Just talking to you it’s just, I’m really impressed by your humility. How do you keep that in check?

Lus Haberberger: Thank you. I think it’s because I come from a country that I saw it was the most beautiful country, beautiful beaches, strong economy, third biggest exporter of oil in the world, very prosperous, and I saw it decay. I saw my family come from a very stable situation to being afraid, or not having enough to make means. Because of that, I know that anything can be taken away at any point, either because of a mistake, maybe because it’s of just a wrong decision you made or the wrong turns, but nothing is guaranteed. So knowing that we have to continue working hard for what we want. I think that’s that how.

Sam Reese: Lus, what a blast spending time with you and congrats on all your success. Really enjoyed the conversation, and I know our members and our listeners are going to learn a ton from your insights. Thank you.

Lus Haberberger: Thank you, Sam, for having me and giving me a voice.

Sam Reese: Our pleasure. Just a blast getting to know more about your business. Thanks for joining us for this edition of A Life of Climb Podcast. Friendly reminder to please subscribe or follow the podcast to get all the latest episodes. And please visit vistage.com/podcast for more resources to support you on your leadership journey.

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