G
ilroy-born Mike Loza, Corporate Director of
Business Development for Sanveo, a corporation
that, he said, “builds buildings in a virtual space
before they’re built in the physical space,” had
what he calls a “defining moment” about his career in the
middle of digging a trench during his first job out of college.
The Santa Clara University graduate said he came out of
school with a “naïve” vision of getting his career started.
“I thought, I’ve got this degree, now people are just going
to come bang down my door and I’m going to find my
dream job that way.”
As it turned out, that did not happen right away. He took
a job with a mechanical contractor while he figured out his
future.
“Though I had a degree from a prestigious university, I
was out there, literally with a pick and shovel in my hand,
knee-deep in muddy water, digging trenches.”
One day, in the midst of that physical labor on the golf
course of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, he watched with great
curiosity as businessmen walked the course. Eventually he
got into a conversation with one of them to ask what he did.
“He told me, ‘I’m dealing with my clients, just having
a good time on the golf course, trying to make business
happen.’” This was the moment when Loza chose to pull him-
self out of the trenches and launch into the business world.
He is quick to point out that he finds no shame in hard,
physical work.
“I just f elt destined for more,” he said.
Jumping the Tracks
The youngest of eight siblings who were raised in Gilroy by
immigrant parents from Mexico, Loza said he “grew up on
the wrong side of the tracks and could easily have fallen into
a different lifestyle.”
However, he learned many good lessons from his older
siblings, who lived positively and inspired him to dream
bigger for himself. He also credits his father’s strong work
ethic as “an excellent role model when it came to work.”
However, education was not something his parents were able
to model because they were too busy working to survive and
provide for their children.
Education was in the cards for Loza, however, and he
did very well in school. He briefly entertained the notion of
going to law school and “becoming some hot shot lawyer,”
but a few pre-law courses helped him see that this was not
the path for him.
“I didn’t want to sit behind a desk all day,” he said.
He credits mentors along the way for positive inspiration
and always seeing the best in him. One man, Eric Westfall,
“identified certain aspects or talents in me and said, ‘Mike,
you’re going to do great things in life.’”
Mentorship was so important to him, he paid it forward
by working as a youth mentor for the Department of Family
and Children’s Services for the County of Santa Clara while
still in college. After college, he started an alumni group for
graduates of Santa Clara University, a “networking-slash-
philanthropic group called the Bronco Builders.”
GILROY • MORGAN HILL • SAN MARTIN
An Executive Leap
Eventually he made his way into the industry of construction
technology. When a friend sought to bring him over to
Sanveo, his little startup company, it took 18 months of
wooing before Loza finally came on board. His former
employer’s ethics ultimately did not align with his own, but
his friend’s did.
“I saw his vision, I saw his passion, and I wanted to be a
part of it,” he said.
He was brought on to Sanveo as part of the executive
team, to run the sales department. At the time it was a leap
of faith, because he was leaving a sure-thing corporate job
for a smaller startup. With his wife newly pregnant, he said
the move “was kind of scary but I felt it in my soul it was
the right move to make.”
Indeed. He has helped grow the company from
approximately $3 million in annual sales to almost
$11 million in a little over two years. They’ve also expanded
staff and geographical areas including such places as Los
Angeles, Las Vegas and North Carolina.
He and his wife plan to grow their family, too. Their
daughter is 18 months old and they hope for a second child,
soon. They just bought a home in Morgan Hill, as well,
which will make it easier for him to commute to the airport
for work-related travel.
Loza has learned several key lessons over the course of
his career.
First, “There is no such thing as failure. It’s an
opportunity to grow and to learn and it’s all about having
the right attitude.”
Second, he urges others setting out on the career path
to make their own “luck” which he describes as preparation
plus opportunity. He said he can look at his own missteps
and stumbles and see that each time, “I just had to believe
in myself.”
OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2018
gmhtoday.com
31