Bongiovanni Racing

Anthony Bongiovanni has always been interested in cars. He was first introduced to drag racing by then-IBM business contact Ray Scardelli, who is now a Vice President of Sales at Micro Strategies. The experience was so unique and exciting that it got his daughter involved in racing, and eventually led to the company creating the Bongiovanni Racing team. Several Micro Strategies employees participate as drivers, including Bongiovanni and Scardelli.

I saw that it was a good way for people to get introduced to Micro Strategies, Bongiovanni says. There are certainly not many conversations I have with customers where drag racing doesn’t come up. It’s been a great way to do something we enjoy and have a really good business purpose.

There is an interesting connection between the passion that goes into racing and the everyday work that is done at the company. Scardelli points out that every variable needs to be taken into consideration before a run, and even the slightest misjudgments, such as not accounting for a cloud covering up the sun, can cost you the race.

When you start understanding all of the analytics that go into not just the cars, but also everything else surrounding it, like the weather, it’s similar to a lot of the things we do technology wise for our customers, he says.