It's lonely at the top, especially if your
company is named Pillar Technology.
The Metro Detroit-based tech firm has expanded to 70 employees and has another
10 positions it is trying to fill. It's come a long way since the days when it
started in a basement in Brighton 11 years
ago."I feel like the only person in Michigan hiring these
days," says Gary Gentry, founder and CEO of
Pillar Technology.
That might be a bit of an overstatement,
but his firm is growing in a region fighting to reinvent itself. Pillar is just
what local leaders would like to see more of. The IT provider designs custom-made
software with a unique four-step system.
Instead of just writing the programs and
handing them to the company as a finished product, Pillar works with its
clients to fine tune the software to fit the company's needs before it's
done.
In the first step Pilar writes just enough
code so it can be tested. The second step is to test the code throughout the
process to solve problems early on. This leads to the third step of testing
each interface layer constantly to make sure everything works properly. The
final step to make sure the programmers travel light by not inventing new
requirements as they develop the software. This way the system is kept simple
and easy to use.
Pillar does all of this within three months
and has found a lot of customers for its systems. It has grown 85 percent in
the last three years and had revenues if $12.5 million. It also employs about
40 contractors on top of its 70 employees and is planning to expand throughout
the Midwest in the coming years.
Source: Gary Gentry, founder and CEO of Pillar
Technology
Writer: Jon Zemke
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