Lifelong struggle with dyslexia powers one of Ohio's most successful entrepreneurs

Janis Mitchell is one of the most honored entrepreneurs in Ohio. The CEO and founder of Precise Resource, Inc. has gleaned nods of recognition from the U.S. Small Business Association, the National Association of Women Business Owners and a myriad of publications. She’s a highly recognized pioneer among the nation’s top banking institutions and technology firms, and a mentor to numerous entrepreneurs following in her footsteps.
 
She’s also the first to admit she’s had her demons.
 
She’s had a lifelong struggle with dyslexia. She dropped out of college once, had a child when she was in her teens, went through a divorce when she was young. When she did return to school at Ohio State, she had no idea what she wanted to do with her life. It took her nine years to graduate.
 
She always had something driving her, though.
 
“Ever since I was a little girl, I always wanted to own my own company,” said Mitchell. “I had my demons. Everyone has their own demons; but I was determined since I was very little that I was never going to sit in the back seat of anything.”
 
Today, she’s in the driver’s seat of one of the country’s top search companies, Precise Resource, that finds top-level executive and technical talent for Fortune 500 firms like Citibank, Pricewaterhouse Coopers and Merrill Lynch. The Westervillle-based company began as a segment of another Mitchell success story, Fortress Solutions, which made the Delaware native a prominent figure in the information technology industry in the early 2000's.
 
A few years after graduating from college, Mitchell was still looking for a career. She had worked at a law firm to help pay off legal fees from her divorce, and considered becoming an attorney. She left the firm even though it offered to pay for law school, and eventually began working part-time in sales for a Columbus enterprise consultancy. It was there, she says, that she finally hit her stride.
 
“I really enjoyed it,” she said. “I brought in six-figures for the consultancy, even though I was only working from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., Monday through Thursday, so I guess I had a talent for it, too. But I wanted to be in the driver’s seat. I wanted to start my own company, but I didn’t want to compete with the company I had worked for. So, I looked around and figured out the only area that was open to me was information security.” 
 
She left the consultancy in 2000 to form Fortress. At the time, the company consisted only of a desk and a phone — no computer, no staff, no venture capital money. All she had was a $43.75  monthly child support check.
 
After studying the field, Mitchell recognized that European banking companies were dabbling in the idea of public key infrastructure, protocols that allowed top-notch security while offered ease-of-use “one password, one user-name” access for consumers.
 
Mitchell ran with the idea, recruiting IT specialists from across the U.S. with the promise of involvement in a ground-breaking project. As the programmers worked on code, Mitchell supplemented Fortress' income by acting as an IT head-hunter for other companies.
 
“Because of the work we were doing, we knew the talent that was out there,” she says. “So, when we needed money, I would call up a company and see if they were looking for someone. Then, we'd put them in touch with someone. If they were hired, we got a finder’s fee.”
 
While Fortress produced the world’s first cross-company, single sign-on capability through SAML, an internet protocol that delivered unprecedented security, Mitchell’s name started making the rounds among top-level execs.
 
At conferences, when she began introducing herself, conversations took a strange turn, she says.
 
“I was at one conference, and I went up to one executive, just to say hello. I said ‘Hi, I’m Janis Mitchell’ and he went ‘Oh! You’re the one! Can you hang on for a second? I have so many questions for you!’ That’s when my world started getting a little weird,” Mitchell laughed. “It was overwhelming, and I was thinking ‘Oh, my gosh. What have I done?’”
 
As the success of Fortress’ SAML work took off, Mitchell found herself getting in a little over her head, and eventually agreed to sell to New York-based Betrusted (now Cybertrust). She stayed on with the company, though, running the largely unchanged Columbus office with a free hand.
 
In a few years, she left, taking the company’s recruiting database with her, to start her second entrepreneurial effort, Precise Resources.
 
“When Betrusted bought Fortress, they were only interested in the technology side of the business,” Mitchell explains. “So, the recruiting side was put off on its own and was dormant for a few years. When I left, I brought it back.”
 
Since then, Precise’s success has skyrocketed. It specializes in finding executive-level placements in the banking, insurance and high-tech fields, feeding some of the top corner offices in New York, San Francisco and Chicago.
 
“We find the right fit for our clients. We don’t believe in throwing paper against a wall and seeing what sticks,” says Mitchell. “If our client asks us to find someone with one blue eye and one green eye, we’ll do it.”
 
Precise also depends on a long-established and trademarked Forensic Recruiting system to make sure their finds have the right experience, leadership qualities and personality for the job.
 
“We do it the same way we have since I was looking for technical people for Fortress. Being the right ‘cultural fit’ is important. People don’t leave jobs because they’re not qualified. They leave it, 80 percent of the time, because it’s not the right cultural fit,” Mitchell explained. “From the beginning at Fortress, I didn’t know how to screen one tech guy from another, so we developed this huge process that really puts candidates through the ringer.”
 
“You couldn't bluff your way through it, just by saying the right things, even if you wanted to,” she added.
 
Clients only see the candidates after Precise has given its stamp of approval. Precise also handles the hiring process, including personality profiling, reference checks and salary negotiations. The firm also does a follow-up check with clients to make sure they’re selection is working out.
 
“Companies depend on us,” said Mitchell. “We’re a big part of their lives because we make them a big part of ours.”
 
Another big part of her life, though, is helping fellow dyslexics realize their dreams, as she has.
 
Mitchell is a member of the boards of directors of both the International Dyslexia Association and Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic, and has been a major force behind a bill currently in the Ohio Senate for early diagnosis for the learning disability.
 
“Dyslexics have a certain advantage in life, naturally. They’re smart. From an early age, they develop this second thing, where they learn to keep other people from figuring out that they have trouble reading or they can’t do math. They become very savvy,” she said, explaining that in its own way, it’s a gift. “We become very good verbally, and relate to people really well.”
 
It can also make them more determined to succeed. Dyslexia made her stubborn, Mitchell said.
 
“People say, ‘Look at all this success you’ve had,’ but what they forget is how many times I’ve been to the state office to incorporate a company. People forget to ask about that one,” she explained. “They say ‘Janis, you make it look easy.’ It isn’t. You’ve got to be stubborn.”