CEO Interview with John Akkara of Uptime Crew

John Akkara is the Founder and CEO of Uptime Crew, where he channels his entrepreneurial spirit to create impactful opportunities in the IT industry. An immigrant from India, John’s journey began with a full-ride tennis scholarship to a Division I university, where he studied finance. Today, as the leader of Uptime Crew, John is dedicated to expanding access to tech careers and fostering an environment where talent from all backgrounds can thrive and create lasting positive impact.

Tell us about your company?

Uptime Crew is a workforce development company dedicated to solving the skilled labor shortage in mission-critical industries like data centers, semiconductor manufacturing, and advanced manufacturing. We specialize in a hire-train-deploy model that rapidly equips high-potential individuals with hands-on, industry-specific training, and the skills they will need to succeed. Our goal is to create a reliable pipeline of skilled technicians who not only meet urgent industry demands but also gain access to stable, high-value careers.

What problems are you solving?

Uptime Crew closes critical tech talent gaps in high-growth fields like semiconductor manufacturing and data centers by training and deploying overlooked individuals—especially from veteran or lower-income backgrounds—into well-paying, recession-resistant careers. This “hire-train-deploy” model solves companies’ hiring challenges while lifting up communities and through merit based evaluation.

An associates program can take 2 years. In general, traditional education pipelines often lack fast, industry specific training, that match the pace of rapidly evolving manufacturing technology. Additionally, educational programs consist of hand-raisers, rather than hand selected individuals who possess the characteristics of a successful technician. Uptime Crew’s immersive, custom training prepares technicians in weeks rather than years, aligning precisely with real-world industry needs, with talent that has been vigorously vetted.

Uptime Crew offers paid training and placement in mission-critical fields like semiconductor fabs and data centers—industries that require on-site specialists and thus remain secure, local, and recession-resistant. To put this into perspective there are currently 3,000 data centers in the US, with another planned 9,000 to be built in the next 5 years.  This doesn’t account for all of the chip manufacturing facilities that are planned to be built during this time frame.  Where will the operations and maintenance technicians come from to run these facilities?

What application areas are your strongest?

Semiconductor and data center technicians are becoming as indispensable as utility workers because they keep the digital infrastructure—particularly for AI—up and running. Just as the internet evolved from an obscure novelty to an essential tool (remember life before Google?), AI is poised to transform everyday life in ways we can only begin to imagine. These technicians maintain the hardware and systems that power AI’s expansion, making them the backbone of our increasingly digital-dependent world.

Our model creates a direct, accelerated path into these critical roles by identifying high-aptitude talent, providing hands-on, job-specific training, and deploying them in jobs where where uptime, safety, and reliability are non-negotiable.

What keeps your customers up at night?

People, Power and Places.

People – Not having enough experienced talent to fill the roles needed to work at the facilities.

Power – Not having enough power to run day to day as these types of operations, especially now more than ever with AI, requires tremendous amounts of electricity.

Places – In this case not having facilities to meet the the data housing or manufacturing demands

What does the competitive landscape look like and how do you differentiate?

We don’t view ourselves as having direct competition because our model is fundamentally different from anything else in the market. We’re not a traditional staffing agency, and we’re not offering open-enrollment education like community colleges.

Our approach is highly selective and purpose-built. Using a proprietary screening process and our Mirrored Environment Immersion (MEI™) platform, we identify the right candidates and prepare them through real-world, job-specific training. From how we source talent to how we train and deploy them, every part of our model is designed to deliver a workforce that’s ready to perform on day one. At this level of specialization and scale, we don’t see anyone else doing what we do.

We do not recognize anyone else doing what we are doing at the level we are doing it.

What new features/technology are you working on?

One of the most impactful initiatives we’re working on is expanding career pathways for transitioning veterans. Veterans are exceptionally well-suited for roles in data centers, advanced manufacturing, and infrastructure, due to their discipline, technical experience, and training.

We’re growing our outreach and apprenticeship programs to connect veterans to these high-value careers. As an approved DoD SkillBridge partner and GI Bill-eligible provider, we ensure veterans can use their benefits to support their training and supplement their income—without incurring tuition costs. Today, over 13% of our new hires are protected veterans, more than double the national workforce average of around 5.6%.

We’re especially focused on aligning specific military occupational specialties (MOS) with technician roles. For example, veterans from the Navy’s nuclear submarine program bring deep expertise in mechanical and environmental systems—skills that directly apply to data center infrastructure. Our goal is to continue developing clear, supportive pathways for veterans into long-term, well-paying careers that fully leverage their skills and honor their service.

How do customers normally engage with your company?

We’ve received consistently strong feedback from the companies we serve, which has been a meaningful validation of our model and mission.

Managers consistently note that Uptime Crew technicians demonstrate a higher level of professionalism, readiness, and initiative than they expect from new hires.

One manager shared that our training program enabled technicians to get “in and off the ground” quickly, with a fast progression than most other employees. In fact, he ranked our technicians among the top three performers on his entire team—including full-time, tenured staff.

Another leader described our technicians as “real go-getters” who volunteer for tasks, require minimal supervision, and help onboard newer engineers.

We even had one technician promoted to day shift, a competitive spot that must was earned because of his proactive attitude and exceptional performance.

Across the board, clients tell us our technicians stand out for their strong communication skills, positive attitudes, eagerness to learn, and reliability. These qualities make them valuable contributors from day one, and watching them grow into leadership roles is one of the most rewarding aspects of what we do.

For more, we invite you to explore our case study: https://uptimecrew.com/case-study/the-data-center-hiring-challenge

Also Read:

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CEO Interview with Faraj Aalaei of Cognichip

CEO Interview with Dr. Noah Strucken of Ferric

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