[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 63 (Tuesday, May 10, 2011)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2836-S2837]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        RECOGNIZING LOGIC SUPPLY

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, today I wish to share a business success 
story from my home State of Vermont.
  For years Vermont has been branded as the State of milk, apples, and 
maple syrup. But along the ridgelines of the Green Mountains and in the 
valleys along the many rivers that find their way to Lake Champlain, a 
new high-tech and green-tech sector is quickly emerging as an economic 
driver for both Vermont and the entire country. The Burlington Free 
Press recently highlighted one such company--Logic Supply in South 
Burlington, VT.
  I have heard many great things about Logic Supply's work and their 
commitment to Vermont. Company owners Lisa and Roland Groeneveld have 
kept Logic Supply extremely active in our State's high-tech business 
networking community both as members of the Vermont Software Developers 
Alliance and as regular participants in the Vermont 3.0 Creative Tech 
Jam. In 2010, KeyBank and Vermont Business Magazine recognized Logic 
Supply as one of Vermont's fastest growing companies.
  As Logic Supply has grown, they have helped brand Vermont as a place 
where businesses can succeed, and where people looking to work in the 
economy of tomorrow can find a job today. I commend them for their hard 
work and success.
  I ask unanimous consent that the May 9, 2011, Burlington Free Press 
article entitled ``Logic Dictates, Couple Prove Tech Has Place On Vt. 
Buz Scene'' be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

             [From the Burlington Free Press, May 9, 2011]

      Logic Dictates, Couple Prove Tech Has Place on Vt. Biz Scene

                          (By Dan D'Ambrosio)

       In 2002, Lisa and Roland Groeneveld left behind their 
     corporate telecommunications jobs in the Netherlands, where 
     they had met, and moved to Vermont without work. Roland is 
     Dutch. Lisa is a native of Barre and wanted to live close to 
     family after her father died.
       The company she worked for, WorldCom, was imploding 
     spectacularly, filing the biggest bankruptcy in U.S. history 
     at the time. The company he worked for, an Anglo-Dutch 
     consultancy called CMG with about 14,000 employees, was about 
     to be swallowed up by an even bigger company, Logica, based 
     in Reading, England, now with almost 40,000 employees.
       So, they went their own way. In less than a decade, the 
     Groenevelds have built a high-tech business in South 
     Burlington, Logic Supply, Inc., that has made a profit from 
     day one.
       After launching with $40,000 the couple had saved, the 
     company is on track to reach $16 million in sales in 2011--up 
     nearly 40 percent from 2010 sales of $11.5 million. It is 
     debt free, recently moved into a $2.3 million building with 
     room for expansion and, in theory, will reach $350 million in 
     sales by 2020 if it meets the BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal) 
     set by its management and employees. That acronym, by the 
     way, is proudly displayed on a bulletin board in the break 
     room.


                  How's that for landing on your feet?

       After moving to Vermont, Lisa and Roland's first order of 
     business was to build a house on property Lisa's parents 
     owned where they had a small vacation cabin. Roland bought a 
     book on how to build your own house, hired a carpenter, and 
     got to work, with Lisa's help.
       ``It literally was nine months of pounding nails, which was 
     a lot of fun, very different than IT,'' Roland said. ``Once 
     you start doing it, it's pretty straightforward.''
       While their house was being built, Lisa landed a job in 
     Boston at a business some of her former colleagues from 
     WorldCom had started, called Fiberlink. After the house was 
     finished in 2003, the couple decided to move to Boston for 
     Lisa's job.
       ``We found an apartment there,'' Roland said. ``What am I 
     to do next? Together we sat down and wrote some business 
     plans.''
       Years earlier, Roland had started a company in the 
     Netherlands, and sold it a year and a half later to an 
     Internet company during the dot.com boom. So he knew the 
     feeling of being an entrepreneur.
       ``Running your own business is nice, it gives you a lot of 
     freedom and independence,'' Roland said. ``I wanted to get 
     back to that sort of feeling and idea.''
       The couple complemented each other when it came to 
     launching a high-tech business. Roland had a degree in 
     electrical engineering and computer science. Lisa had an 
     extensive business background, having worked for what was the 
     highest flyer in telecom before it crashed to earth.
       But before they got to the plan that would lead to Logic 
     Supply, the couple took a couple of detours.
       ``One was importing high-end coffee makers from Europe,'' 
     Roland said. ``You're drinking a cup of coffee and you think, 
     Boy wouldn't it be nice to get a good cup of coffee!'''
       Of course, there were already companies out there importing 
     nice coffee pots from Europe. But there weren't so many doing 
     what Logic Supply would end up doing, an idea that came from 
     the development of smaller and smaller, and more and more 
     rugged computers.
       ``We make very high-end computer systems for industrial 
     embedded applications,'' Roland said, summarizing the company 
     he and Lisa launched in their Boston apartment eight and a 
     half years ago. ``We never really sell to end users. 
     Typically we sell to a company that has their own product, 
     their own sales force and their own marketing. We're 
     basically the engineering department for the company.''
       Logic Supply makes the computers, for example, for Project 
     54, a system for police cruisers and ambulances developed at 
     the University of New Hampshire that integrates the functions 
     of the vehicle into a single interface that can be operated 
     by voice or a touch screen, simplifying life for a police 
     officer or EMT in an emergency situation.
       ``It's a computer that runs the police car,'' Roland said. 
     ``When they're driving, cops can

[[Page S2837]]

     interact with the computer by voice: `Sirens on, lights on.' 
     They can request initial information on a license plate, 
     operate video cameras. The computer is not taking over the 
     functions, but controlling the functions.''
       Logic Supply also makes custom computers for industrial 
     automation--in slaughterhouses, where they can be sprayed 
     with blood; or tire manufacturing, where they're subject to a 
     lot of moisture and particles flying around, along with shock 
     and vibration.
       ``Our computers are designed to withstand all that,'' 
     Roland said. ``A typical PC will fail. They can't handle that 
     sort of environment.''
       Logic Supply is in the medical market as well.
       ``One of our customers converts analog X-ray machines to 
     make them digital,'' Roland said. ``Our computers will 
     capture the images from those older machines and convert them 
     and make those images available online for doctors.''


                             Internet savvy

       Remarkably, the company has experienced its explosive 
     growth almost exclusively through its website, making search 
     engine optimization a top priority.
       ``Our primary customers are engineers, and engineers don't 
     like to talk to sales people, they like to do their own 
     research,'' Roland said. ``I can say this stuff because I'm 
     an engineer myself.''
       The website gives engineers all the information they need 
     to place their orders. The Logic Supply sales team does 
     follow up with human contact, just to make sure their 
     customers are satisfied and have everything they need, Roland 
     says, but if they want to be left alone to place their orders 
     in peace and not talk to anybody, Logic Supply obliges.
       The Groenevelds' plan for the next 10 years is to grow at a 
     sustained rate of 30 percent to 40 percent a year, which 
     presumably would get them to the BHAG posted on the lunch 
     room bulletin board. If anything slows them down, Roland 
     says, it's likely to be the difficulty of finding qualified 
     employees in Vermont.
       ``Vermont is not well known as a tech state, or even a 
     great state for employment,'' Roland said. ``People think 
     there's not a future for them here and they leave. We need to 
     stop that as a community. We need to make sure people are 
     aware there are opportunities here and that there are great 
     businesses here.''
       Mark Heyman is Logic Supply's director of human resources, 
     and recently joined the board of directors of Vermont 
     Software Developers' Alliance. He said the alliance is 
     planning to broaden into a representative group for the 
     entire tech industry in the state, highlighting companies in 
     the state like his own, and many others.
       ``There's a reason not only to stay in Vermont, but for 
     other people to come here,'' Heyman said. ``We see ourselves 
     along with other companies as leading a resurgence. Get the 
     word out, let's attract people. Like geeking out on a 
     computer? I've got a sandbox for you. As people come walking 
     through here applying for a job, they often say they never 
     even realized something like this existed in Vermont.''

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