Entrepreneurial Development Center

With an extensive career in Information Technology, including IT consulting, product management for security products at Novell, and serving as AEGON's Information Security Officer, Bob O'Dell knew a few things about PC security. In serving the remote employees at AEGON, he witnessed the many virus and spyware vulnerabilities that millions of Internet users in the U.S. experience every day and decided he would break out on his own to help solve the problem.

While many people agreed to help O'Dell with getting started, the Entrepreneurial Development Center played an important role in those early days. "The EDC was a key initial resource for SecurityCoverage. They helped shape our business plan, which helped us attract the funding to get off the ground," says O'Dell. "The first plan I put together was fairly scattered, the strategy wasn't nailed downthe focus wasn't quite there. EDC was part of an early group of advisors that helped us define and refine a viable business model," adds O'Dell.

Having a refined plan, the EDC exposed O'Dell to the investor circuit as a guest presenter at an early EDC networking meeting, which allowed him to meet Gregg Barcus with the Emerging Growth Group in Des Moines. "Once I met Gregg, I became connected to others in the investment community and later was featured as a Venture Network of Iowa (VNI) presenter. After the VNI event, we became re-engaged with Art Christoffersen and Denny Wangeman at Corridor Management Company, and became their first Iowa investment," says O'Dell.

"In looking back, everything came together once the business model was in place. It was like building blocks, with each piece depending on the prior step," according to O'Dell. "EDC gave us key assistance at the right time. We continue to ask them for help when we need it, from marketing and trade show assistance in the first year, to help with key hires and state funding, they're a great resource," adds O'Dell.

Now that SecurityCoverage is well into year three, they have nearly 25 employees and expect to double by the end of the calendar year, with revenue well into the millions. "It's a great story about an entrepreneur that wasn't afraid to get the help he needed to build a successful business," says Nelson. O'Dell agrees, "Because we did just that, we're surrounded by great employees and advisors, and at the end of the day, the people you surround yourself with make the world of difference for a company's success."