SBN Magazine has always reported on smart ideas to help grow your company, but our influence seems to be moving off the page and into the real world of business.
LogiSync Corp., based in Westlake, recently became the first company to join Lorain County Community College’s GLIDE program, a regional innovation center and resource hub designed to help new and existing businesses grow. And where did LogiSync President Edward Yenni find out about the GLIDE program? SBN Magazine‘s “dot-Comference” at LCCC last May.
“It was a tremendous conference,” Yenni says. “I heard (LCCC President) Dr. (Roy) Church talk about the existence of GLIDE. I went there for an entirely different purpose that day, but when I thought about what he said, I thought, ‘That’s what we need.'”
Westlake-based LogiSync manufactures and sells embedded computer systems for commercial and industrial devices. Its systems help operate advanced hospital beds, create more efficient diesel engines, monitor smoke stack emissions and regulate power for telecommunication devices.
Through GLIDE, LogiSync will use the Regional Growth Capital Fund, created by — but independent of — GLIDE, which is expected to build to $25 million through private, corporate and venture capital firm investments. LogiSync will also draw on LCCC graduates to help fill its anticipated high-tech job openings and use GLIDE’s advisory staff for business strategy consulting.
GLIDE Managing Director Don Knechtges is the former chief development officer of Geon Co., which later merged with M.A. Hanna Corp. to form PolyOne.
“Any organization is only as good as its people,” Yenni says. “As soon as I met Don and (GLIDE director) Peter (Ditchman), I knew that this was a group that had some energy and had some great ideas, and that’s exactly what we need.”
Yenni says his company, which he founded in 1993, could spin off into smaller companies to serve its nine vertical markets as its grows. It now has more than $1 million in annual sales and 10 employees. Ditchman says the growth goal for LogiSync is $100 million in annual sales, but did not offer a specific timetable.
LogiSync will also move its headquarters to Lorain County as part its agreement with GLIDE. How to reach: LogiSync, (440) 871-0004; GLIDE, (440) 366-4310
Morgan Lewis Jr. ([email protected]) is senior reporter at SBN Magazine.
