In the course of doing marketing here at ColoAdvisor, I end up reaching out to lots of old friends that started off in IT with me way back. For years we moved from company to company doing IT jobs and then in our mid 30′s (and 40′s) something happens that causes us to leave the security of the steady paycheck and the health benefits.

It could have been surviving the 9th round of layoffs, the frustration with corporate politics, desire for freedom or the need to see what it’s like to manage the business oneself. The quantity of folks leaving the corporate ranks seems to be growing; here are a few of the success stories that I’ve run across recently:

Government Integrator: 2 friends, not happy with the politics and the perpetual layoffs that were happening at their current employer called it quits and walked out. They leveraged their houses and personal credit cards to build an IT services firm that catered to the Federal Government. Within 5 years they were close to 30M in annual revenue, established a fantastic reputation and were growing year to year, bad economy be damned. Just spoke to them and found out they are spinning up another firm inspired by a government contract they recently won which is in the energy sector.

Cool Online Application Service Provider: 2 friends, one of them a fantastic sales and relationship kinda guy, the other a hardcore server and network guru put together a product that offered network security as a service. After leveraging themselves to the hilt, the product caught on and they’ve turned the corner. They’ve been profitable for quite some time and seem to be well on their way to being a leader in their niche.

Government IT Integrator: 2 brothers, worked for some fairly large firms put together whatever cash they could find and starting pursuing government IT contracts in the DC area. I’ve kept in touch with these guys but they were so humble they never really talked about revenue or success but they seemed to be doing ok. Last year I was reading through the Inc. 500 list and noticed they were ranked fairly high. I’ve since learned that they more than quadrupled the number reporting by the Inc 500 the following year.

Most of these guys are fairly young, did a stint in corporate life, learned a ton and then jumped into their own gig. I think their secret formula consists of being responsive to clients, delivering a superior service, not spreading themselves thin and awesome execution.

If you are thinking about making the move on your own, I read a great book last year on the subject called Escape from Corporate America. Please read with care, this book will cause you to consider leaving your job and pursuing your own thing.