Episode #29 - Scaling Global Services from Puerto Rico to the World - Jorge Rodriguez and Paciv

Jorge Rodriguez, founder of Paciv, built a world‑class industrial automation and computer systems validation company from a small warehouse in Puerto Rico to a global player serving Eli Lilly, Johnson & Johnson, and other pharma giants. The son of Spanish immigrants who arrived on the island with nothing but work ethic and discipline, Jorge translated family lessons about integrity, paying suppliers first, and “keeping the machine running” into a business that became a trusted partner inside some of the most demanding plants in the world.

Paciv started as Jorge leaving a safe job at Johnson & Johnson with a single client contract and a laptop. Within months he was billing 80–90 hours a week, combining deep technical know‑how in control systems with an insider’s understanding of pharma’s regulatory pain points. The insight was simple but powerful: if you can deliver the same validated process in Puerto Rico, you can clone it in Indiana, Ireland, Singapore, or the UK—exactly what global quality and regulators expect.

Favorite Quotes

• “Don’t let go of something until you have something else secure. I quit Friday and started selling services Monday.”  

• “Clients spoon‑fed me growth—‘we have a larger project, but you can’t do it alone… hire a few engineers and we’ll give it to you.’”  

• “To drive customer intimacy, first you model it. I was 100% billable for the first 13 years.”  

• “If you stop growing, you start dying.”  

• “I was riding a Ferrari in second gear. If I could speak to my younger self, I’d say: take more risk and grow faster.” 

Key Themes

• From Immigrant Household to Industrial Specialist  
• Becoming an Entrepreneur from the Inside  
• Customer Intimacy as Competitive Advantage  
• Scale Globally Through Clients, Not Campaigns  
• Radical Transparency and Trust  
• Professionalizing the Business: From Mom‑and‑Pop to Scale‑Up