Entrepreneurial Development Center

Thankfully for Iowa, there are guys like Bruce Lehrman, a person that just gets the itch to start things. Having founded LiveWare5, a streaming media event company, in 1996, he is now beginning his third start-up venture.

It was while Lehrman was working as CIO for Ruffalo Cody, that he became aware of an opportunity to renovate downtown space for a data center in Cedar Rapids. The opportunity was too good to pass up and the timing was right. Being an entrepreneur himself, Al Ruffalo allowed Lehrman to work part-time to get CoVault Technology up and running. It was in those initial stages that Lehrman approached the Entrepreneurial Development Center (EDC).

"I came to the EDC and met with Curt Nelson. He immediately had a good understanding of the datacenter business I was getting into due to his experience running his own technology company. That was comforting," said Lehrman.

"It was in those early planning days that Curt reviewed our business plan. He helped us sharpen our focus on who are customers would be, which made our planand our businessbetter," added Lehrman.

Nelson recognized the importance of having a high quality data center facility in the area. "It is businesses like Bruce's data center that provide the breeding ground for success of other area businesses to establish and grow here."

Lehrman said that one of the things that set CoVault apart from existing data centers was his investment in second-to-none equipment and talent. He was able to make that investment, in part, due to the EDC helping him navigate Iowa Department of Economic Development's EVA funding-which was 20% of the funding he needed to launch the data center.

This summer, two years after CoVault got its start, Technology Resources Company Inc. (TRC) and CoVault combined to form a full-service data center infrastructure and data management company called Involta.

Lehrman mentioned, "The EDC was a great resource to me again when we were contemplating the merger with TRC and subsequent launch of Involta. Curt had some good thoughts on how to structure my capital and the result has been the successful merger of two complimentary and talented management teams."

He added, "The EDC is a critical part of growing the local economy. They have real-world business experience to provide guidance and resources to help entrepreneurs succeed."

Experiencing 30 to 35% growth and boasting 41 employees, Involta is poised for success. In September 2008, Involta will open the doors of a 20,000 square foot state-of-the-art data facility which will allow it to serve more clients outside of Iowa. "We are pleased to be able to offer valuable services that allow other businesses peace of mind to scale their operations," Lehrman said.