Tech firm Invizeon Corp. of Missoula lays off eight employees – Second layoff at business during the last six months

Invizeon Corp., http://www.invizeon.com a small Missoula technology firm with major ambitions, laid off eight employees last week. It was the second layoff in six months, as the company has dropped from more than 30 employees to 21.

For a small tech company, the road is often bumpy, but those bumps are necessary, said CEO Greg Alderson.

By Robert Struckman of the Missoulian http://www.missoulian.com

"This company will do what it has to do to be successful," Alderson said.

The layoffs come at a time when Invizeon seems close to a breakthrough, Alderson said.

And others familiar with the company agreed. Dick King, president of the Missoula Area Economic Development Corp., http://www.maedc.org praised the company’s leading communication product, called CHAIN EMN, as well as Invizeon’s marketing effort.

Alderson hopes to sell Invizeon’s products to federal agencies and departments, including the Department of Homeland Security. He is also working hard to drum up more seed capital to further grow the company.

To that end, Alderson was in the Denver area earlier this week to meet with venture capitalists and has recently pitched the business to venture groups in Las Vegas, New York, and Oregon.

Alderson is selling the company’s products, too. Next will be in Washington, D.C. to host a seminar with AT&T on CHAIN EMN. Sen. Conrad Burns is on the list of speakers. http://invizeon.com/pdf/IC%20Press%20Release.pdf

CHAIN EMN is a system that allows a broad array of organizations an agencies to communicate easily, Alderson said.

But that wasn’t the product that Invizeon was founded to create. Six years ago when David Todd started the company, his plan was to create computer programs to help the medical community manage data.

At that time, Invizeon had a partnership with a Korean company. When problems arose with that partnership, Todd realized his program under development was worthwhile on its own. Then the terror attacks on New York City and the Pentagon occurred.

Todd had a gut reaction to the communication gap experienced by federal, state and local agencies. People called each other and left phone messages. Sometimes those messages took days to go up and down the chain of command.

That’s when Alderson joined the company. He and a handful of other individuals invested about $3 million into the company. Many on the staff, including Alderson and Todd, are veterans of startup companies. Both try continually to refocus the company to keep it on the right track, they said.

"There are no guarantees," Alderson said.

The company has had some success. Its first product works, and the company has formed a partnership with AT&T. Its customers include the U.S. Navy, the United Nations and the Georgia Emergency Management Agency. Other partnerships with big names in government contracting are in the works, Alderson said.

But the big contracts with Homeland Security have been slow to come, and that has stretched thin the resources at Invizeon.

The good news is that the company has an excellent product, ant the demand is there, King said.

"Invizeon has brought to the marketplace a very innovative solution to some major problems," he said.

But the company doesn’t have deep pockets, and sometimes layoffs are necessary, he added.

"Good companies with excellent products sometimes fail," King said.

Despite Invizeon’s layoffs, the high-tech community in Missoula remains strong, and the number of employees is growing, King said.

Wolf Ametsbischler, the head of Job Service in Missoula http://jsd.dli.state.mt.us/local/missoula/ , knew of the layoffs at Invizeon last week but said no other high-tech staff reductions have come to his attention.

Alderson at Invizeon has hopes that the company will soon be growing again.

"Hiring people is a lot of fun. Asking people to step back is not," he said.

He believes that the government’s indecision has come to an end. The inability of various agencies and groups to cross-communicate was brought into high relief by Hurricane Katrina and the devastation in the deep South.

"They’re waking up," Alderson said.