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Leland Strange was
into high technology when high
technology was merely a cursor blip on
the Gwinnett screen. Today, the
president and CEO of Intelligent Systems
Corporation (ISC), headquartered in
Norcross, has led his company into
becoming a "technology
incubator" – a source of venture
capital for entrepreneurs hoping to
become the Microsofts and MindSpirngs on
the future. The firm is a public
company, and is traded on the NASDAQ
market.
The change happened
over many years, says Strange.
Intelligent Systems was formed in 1973
by Charles Muench, who had created a
color display terminal for deck
computers. He eventually sold one of the
first mass-market (or what passed for
mass market in the ‘70s) color
printers. In 1983, his company was
merged with Strange’s firm, Quadram,
which Strange had co-founded in 1981.
Quadram had developed a multifunction
card for the first IBM personal
computer.
Upon merging the two
companies, Strange and his business
partners set about purchasing other
computer –related companies, including
Peachtree Software, and setting up a
diversified multidivision corporation.
The firm was innovative – it was the
first American company to sell a laptop
computer with an internal hard drive –
but Strange could see the computer
business, as it stood then, was
consolidating.
"By the late
‘80s and early ‘90s, I felt there
was no future in hardware," he
says. Intelligent
Systems sold off its hardware divisions,
as well as Peachtree Software, and
"evolved into more of a venture
capital type company," says
Strange. "And that’s where we are
now." It is, in fact, the
longest-running privately funded
incubator program in the country.
What
ISC does is find entrepreneurs with good
ideas and invest money in them. The
figure is usually between $500,000 and
$1 million, but it’s been as small as
$25,000 and as large as $4 million. The
investment is part of a partnership in
which Intelligent Systems lends the
entrepreneurs its expertise in a variety
of areas, from business planning to
educational programs.
Because of high
tech’s status as the country’s
leading growth industry, much of ISC’s
investment has gone in that direction,
but Strange says it will invest in any
business it sees as promising.
"We’re
unapologetically opportunistic," he
says. ISC has a wealth of expertise to
lend: Strange, besides his experience in
business, is a former professor at
Mercer University; executive Bill
Goodhew was Peachtree Software
president; and Bonnie Herron, director
of the Incubator program, in a member of
the board of directors of the National
Business Incubator Association.
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Ironically, even after
divesting itself of a number of
divisions, ISC finds itself hosting its
divisions under its roof
– both figuratively and literally,
since incubator companies are given
access to office space. Its partner
companies include Risk Laboratories, a
firm which markets risk management
software to corporate risk management
departments; PaySys International, a
leader in providing software systems for
processing credit transactions; and
MediZeus, a start-up which provides
web-based diagnostic and reporting tools
for mammography-related services.
Despite Gwinnetts’s
reputation as a high-tech haven,
however, Strange say his searches have
mostly led outside the county. He
observes that, in recent years, the
county has focused more on retail and
distribution businesses. Metro
Atlanta’s Internet entrepreneurs tend
to be concentrated in Midtown Atlanta,
Buckhead, and Cobb County, and that’s
where ISC has followed.
And that’s what it
will keep doing: looking for where the
action is, says Strange. ISC sees about
10 business plans a week, and currently
invest in some 20 firms.
Venture capitalism is
an interesting game, half crystal-ball
gazing, half nuts-and-bolts assistance
and Strange enjoys both sides.
"We like to think
of ourselves as having the speedway ,
the pit crew, the fuel… and (the
entrepreneurs) bring us the car and
driver," he says. "We know if
there’s a bump in the road, but it’s
their car and they drive it. We’re the
supporting cast."
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