Running a technology company was not a bucket list dream for Sonya Morales-Marchisillo, who worked in the automotive business for 20 years.
She sold cars, became a manager, then general manager and finally, a finance manager and dealer director.
When she made the career leap in 2020 to become the owner and founder of Pinnacle Communications Group, which provides security system installation service and maintenance to the public and private sectors, she had her family in mind.
As the pandemic hit that year, she continued to leave the house for her job at a Maserati dealership in Jacksonville.
But the closings and restrictions in place forced her two teenage daughters, one of them in college, to be at home with “no outlet,” said Morales-Marchisillo, 47.
With the encouragement of her husband, David Marchisillo, who works in financial services as an options analyst, she decided to create one: a business she would own and operate and that daughters Amara and Marissa could be a part of as well.
The result was Pinnacle Communications Group.
Its specialties include communications, weapons detection, access control, intrusion, two-way radio, body cameras, interactive displays and video surveillance and analytics, according to its LinkedIn profile.
The company now has nine full-time employees and more than 760 commercial enterprise clients in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina, with some in Alabama, Louisiana, Texas and California as well.
In January 2024 they contracted with their first global client, a London-based company with corporate headquarters in Deerwood Park in Jacksonville.
Clients include schools, government, municipalities, prisons, grocery stores, warehouses, logistics centers, data centers, sheriff’s offices, ports and airports, she said.
Morales-Marchisillo combined her business savvy with a determination to have a family-owned business to start the company.
She framed it this way: “I actually just told myself I’m a pandemic-preneur. It’s an entrepreneur who decided to jump out and become an entrepreneur in a pandemic.”
Her research convinced her that communication was a big concern as the pandemic disrupted traditional business practices.
The initial focus for Pinnacle Communications was two-way radio communication, specifically for companies hit by supply chain issues.
She became her own mentor. She and her daughters “were completely self-taught,” turning to every book and YouTube instructional video available.
After launching the business, she quickly pivoted on its reach, “because we can’t have one lane of revenue,” she said.
Cole Agner, who had worked with big technology companies, joined the company as senior account manager.
It was “a huge game-changer,” Morales-Marchisillo said.
Agner said that now that they had figured out the communication piece, they needed to expand to include security.
She said he told her, “People need eyes on their property, because everybody’s working from home. Buildings are abandoned. Docks are empty, trucking depots are not being manned.
“We need to get eyes. We need those eyes for those managers, for those in leadership, for those police departments, for those security personnel, so they can see what’s going on, because people vacated the buildings.”
Jim Swenson, CEO of Pinnacle Communications, came out of retirement with more than 40 years of experience in the security business to help shape the company’s path as well, she said.
Revenue has continued to grow – from $2.2 million in 2022 to $4.7 million in 2024.
In a few months, Morales-Marchisillo expects to move from the 1,800-square-foot office at 7949 Atlantic Blvd., between Arlington Road and Southside Boulevard, to a location almost four times larger in West Jacksonville.
A Latina, she is proud to run a woman- and minority-owned business. But she would also like to change those labels and make them more a part of the landscape “so that you can just be a business.”
Her research showed her 5% of women worked in the technology field, 2.5% were minority women, and 0.5% were a C-suite chair, a founder or an owner or managing partner of a technology company.
Morales-Marchisillo regularly reaches out into the business community to encourage other women.
“I want to make a wave so big that women are never questioned about being in leadership, women are never questioned about being in technology, and set the standard that women can too,” she said.
“I want to lift up a hand to the next entrepreneur ... because I know what the struggles are.”
Daughter Amara continues to work for the company. Marissa has married and returned to college.
The Marchisillos have three more grown children, all pursuing their own career paths.
The company is very much a team, she said, and she is willing to take on multiple roles.
“Generally I am dressed up, because I am the face of the company.
“But at the end of the day, the drill down is if I need to put jeans on, put on a hard hat, go walk a warehouse, look at site walk, I can do all those things.”
She chose to name the company Pinnacle because “I want to be the best of the best,” Morales-Marchisillo said.
“I needed a reminder. It was my daily reminder that I’m building the best of the best,” she said.
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