Fledgling tech start-up becomes world player

A downtown company expects rapid growth as it expands worldwide.
By DON SHILLING
VINDICATOR BUSINESS EDITOR
YOUNGSTOWN -- Turning Technologies is turning heads all over the country.
So many colleges, schools and businesses are using its audience response units that sales have increased 300 percent a year in each of the past three years.
This year is no exception. Sales to colleges have doubled so far this year, while demand from K-12 schools is up 400 percent.
Now, Turning Technologies is being noticed all over the world.
The downtown technology company recently opened an office in London and signed deals with distributors who are offering its TurningPoint product in 33 countries instead of just a handful of English speaking countries.
Company officials don't release sales figures, but they expect exports to soar from 10 percent of company sales to 50 percent over time.
Mahoning Valley natives are among those who have noticed the growth.
Former area residents who are looking for work call the company every time it makes a growth announcement because they want to move back home, said Mike Broderick, company president and co-founder.
In the past five years, Turning Technologies has gone from its three founders to 70 employees.
The growth in employment will continue, Broderick said, although he declined to provide an estimate of future hirings.
"It's going to grow really fast. I am sure of that," he said.
How it works
The success of Turning Technologies is because of its program's ease of use, said Jim Cossler, director of the Youngstown Business Incubator, which is the company's home.
TurningPoint is integrated into Microsoft's PowerPoint program and can be accessed from the toolbar on the popular program so its features can be easily used, Cossler said.
TurningPoint also has taken off because the local company has shrunk the size of the hand-held units and brought down the cost of the system, he said.
Since the company began offering its credit-card sized responder two years ago, it has sold 1 million units.
The units are assembled in South Korea and Youngstown, with shipping handled out of the local office. Downtown workers also produce the software for the system.
TurningPoint allows those listening to a presenter to answer questions by hitting keys on the responder. The answers are transmitted by a wireless system, and the results are tabulated quickly by the software.
A teacher or business trainer can use the answers to determine if audience members understand the information or the leader can display the answers to demonstrate a point in the lesson.
Broderick and the other company founders -- Mike Crosby and Don Arthurs -- were working in Youngstown for a Florida-based audience response company in 2001 when they noticed an opportunity. Such systems were starting to be used at colleges, but their employer was focused on the corporate market.
For the technology to really take off on campuses, Broderick and his partners realized the software needed to be redesigned so it could work seamlessly with teacher's lessons and the cost had to come down. They were confident they could do both, so they launched Turning Technologies.
Fitting the program into PowerPoint accomplished the first objective, and continuing innovations cut the cost of a responder from $300 to $34.
While Broderick has overseen the strategic planning behind these developments, the other founders continue to play key roles. Crosby is vice president of operations, while Arthurs is vice president of software engineering.
The founders started their new company in the area because they are all Mahoning Valley natives. Broderick and Arthurs hail from Columbiana, and Crosby grew up in Gustavus in Trumbull County.
Broderick said the desire to stay in the area hasn't changed as they prepare to expand into a new downtown building to be built by the incubator.
"My travels have taken me in and out of the area a few times during my career. I'm here for good this time," said Broderick, 47, who now lives in Canfield.
Broderick got interested in writing software first as a hobby while he was in store management for Hills Department Stores and Goodyear Tire. In 1990, he started a software development company with a partner, and that eventually led to his work in audience response systems.
Outlook
The challenge facing Turning Technologies now is to remain a leader in its field, Broderick said.
"Everybody is innovating and trying to come up with new products," he said.
Turning Technologies has answered with a unit that stores more information about student users and a Braille keypad that was tested in a partnership with Ohio State University.
It also is counting on the foreign expansion. Countries abroad are mostly untapped for an advanced product such as TurningPoint, Broderick said.
Turning Technologies recently brought on some added muscle to help it continue to grow. It has created a holding company, Turning Tech Holdings, which includes Talisman Capital Partners of Dublin as a partner.
Talisman is an investment company formed by Robert Walter, who founded Cardinal Health, the largest public company based in Ohio.
The holding company will provide a vehicle for growth through acquisitions and perhaps even an initial public offering of stock, Broderick said.
Add up all the growth opportunities -- new products, overseas markets, acquisitions -- and it makes it easy for Broderick to come to work each day.
"It's a lot of fun at the moment," he said.
shilling@vindy.com