Kitestring Technical Services

There may be no powerful story behind the first part of the name Kitestring Technical Services, but President and CEO Jared Smith puts a world of commitment behind the second.

“Kitestring” holds no deep meaning beyond a sense of connectedness, Smith said. But the services the Bentonville company provides — including tech help to buttress other companies’ workforces as hourly-rate contractors — are the cornerstone of the enterprise.

“We offer everything from software engineers, software architects, project managers and software-adjacent expertise to clients, and staff augmentation capacity,” Smith said. “But we also do consulting and custom software development as part of the services we provide.”

Kitestring’s outstanding feature is that it loves its roughly 165 employees, Smith said. “First and foremost we have a relentless focus on our employees. We pay people well, we give them good benefits, and in turn, they serve our clients very well.”

With software jobs in high demand, many businesses find it more efficient to contract with Kitestring than to hire and retain IT expertise on their own payrolls. Kitestring, founded in 1998 by Smith’s father as Larry J. Smith & Associates, has been led by the son for five years. Revenue has grown 27% during the past three years.

“We work with a number of large businesses and small businesses alike,” Smith said. “Many of the partners we work with are based in northwest Arkansas; many of those are large Fortune 500 companies.”

Even COVID-19 wasn’t hugely disrupting for Kitestring.

“We were really fortunate, given that I’d say 90% of the people working at Kitestring are software developers, and we can easily work from home,” Smith said. “Most of us had not done that in the past, but we were able to transition to remote work pretty easily. So now, all of us at the company are working remotely.”