As the story goes,
Vocollect started out three guys and a machine shop in North Versailles. Then General Mills asked Roger Byford if he could create a wearable voice system for the company.
“Our company was 18-months-old and we had yet to make any significant inroads into the industry,” the CEO and chairman of the board recently recalled. Driving back and forth from Pittsburgh, “General Mills felt so sorry for me that they’d load up my trunk with their institutional food products.”
That was 20 years ago. This year the Pittsburgh-based company celebrates its 20th anniversary and a $100 million in revenue milestone, the most successful voice supplier in the world. The little startup that could isn’t stopping now, with new customers in Korea, Russia and Latin America joining its already established global network throughout the U.S., Europe and Asia.
Vocollect employs 300 people in Pittsburgh, 50 outside the region and will hire 50 more in the coming year, an impressive list of high-paying jobs posted on its website. Vocollect has moved from warehouse applications into manufacturing and the latest division, Vocollect Healthcare Systems, assists nurses in long-term care, just one of many examples of how the hands-free, voice technology improves accuracy, reduces costs and helps workers to perform more efficiently.
Company co-founder and Chief Customer Advocate Larry Sweeney credits the Ben Franklin Technology Partners with the support they offered in the early days. “Without Ben Franklin we wouldn’t be in existence today,” he admits. “It is one of the really attractive things about Pittsburgh. They really helped to put us on the map.”
To receive Pop City every week, click here.
Writer: Deb Smit
Source: Larry Sweeney, Susan Muttart, Vocollect
Image © 2008 Vocollect, Inc. Used with permission