Like many mavericks, Eric Simone left a very successful career in a large technology company (IBM) to launch his first start up – Chicago Compete Inc. He attracted stellar brands to his client-server solution, which moved away from the “main frame” and onto the main stage with a software called VisualAge. Initial customers included The Gap, State Farm, Allstate, Loyola University Medical, Sears and other consumer-based companies.
“I saw a need,” Simone said, pointing out the importance of staying close to customers to fully understand their business challenges and to stay with implementations of software solution through the entire implementation. “All of my customers needed training and support, so I stayed with each customer and their project for several weeks or even months to train and help them build software.”
Today, Simone is founder and CEO of ClearBlade, one of the most successful “out of the gate” IoT companies in the world, moving rapidly beyond proof of concept to large scale implementations including many in public transportation, smart cities, construction and more.