It was like being slam dunked into a Miss America countdown, a place Lighthouse Computer Services, Inc. President and Chief Executive Officer Tom Mrva never thought he’d be. “And I’m sweating bullets,” Mrva said last week, recalling the rapture of suddenly finding himself in the spotlight at a black tie optional awards banquet earlier this month as fastest growing technology company in New England. “You couldn’t possibly be more nerve wracking.”
But a few days later, once the first shock wore off, Mrva thought, what the heck, call the local and statewide daily papers. Let them know his Lincoln-based enterprise not only ranked first in the 2000 New England Technology “Fast 50,” but was the only Rhode Island company to even make the list.
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Then came the second shock for Mrva – nobody cared. “It’s just not news to them,” he said, shaking his head, even though with a five-year revenue growth of 19,579 percent, Lighthouse beat out the second-ranked Fast 50 company more than three times over.
“It’s huge,” Mrva said of the honor, which so far has generated more enthusiasm in New York and Boston than in his own back yard. “I’m amazed at the lack of the press,” and even on the North Smithfield field where his kids play soccer, reaction to his success was pretty muted.
Ah, well, “it’s high tech,” Mrva explained, which is still a sort of anomaly in an area where even teachers view you as “a computer whiz if you know word processing.”
The annual New England Technology Fast 50 began in 1997 to recognize and rank the region’s fastest-growing technology companies on the basis of five-year revenue growth.
With sponsors that include the Journal of New England Technology, the awards cover all of New England except Connecticut, which competes with New Jersey and New York.
“I wasn’t even going to fill out the application,” Mrva remembered, thinking it’d just be more work and more anxiety – but now he’s glad he did, for despite the current lack of attention, recognition by such high caliber peers legitimizes Lighthouse Computers beyond the thinking that “we’re just another technology company. All the hard work and effort has come through.”
Mrva started Lighthouse Computer Services in 1995 after working as a developer and systems engineer for IBM. With a family of three and $7,000 in savings, “I wanted to have some control over my life,” said Mrva, 41, and although he was known as a man of vision within IBM, nothing could happen for him as long as he stayed. “A lot of people couldn’t believe I did what I did.”
Mrva gave himself two months to begin the quest of becoming New England’s most technically skilled computer services organization. Thanks to his determination, drive, reputation, and ability to stay regional, the company has grown by “leaps and bounds” ever since, recording annual sales in 1999 of $28 million, a figure this year projected to hit the $40 million mark.
“We didn’t have a brochure or sales force until after our third year,” Mrva said – mainly because the focus was on having the best and brightest technical people and to “grow cautiously,” and regionally with the people he had. Last year they actually turned down about $7 million worth of work, because accounts were outside the region or not within their skills at the moment. “The global model doesn’t work in this environment,” Mrva said, adding that they’ve retained a regional focus primarily because it’s what the customers want.
The company employs 45, about half of those tech people, who work closely with mainly “high middle and super large” customers to achieve the level of information systems availability and reliability they need – i.e. to avoid disruptions in service -to make it in a new digital and Internet-based economy. “More and more people are relying on their companies [for] being continually available on the Internet,” Mrva said, especially since the Internet in some cases generates between 20 to 30 percent of their business.
Locally their clients include Hasbro, Providence Gas, Fleet and Fidelity. “Smaller accounts don’t see the value of our expertise,” Mrva said. “When we put together a solution they’re always concerned about the price – a lot of companies don’t know how vulnerable they really are.”
Lighthouse Computers works with IBM and Cisco hardware and their technical staff is not only certified in all the crucial aspects of technology, but they have the maturity to think in terms of business solutions, which is why they have a lot of credibility, Mrva said. “I’ve always hired people with at least 15 to 20 years experience.”
And although he’s considered leaving the state, Mrva is high on the Rhode Island location, despite the “show stoppers” that exist like higher taxes and difficulties negotiating with local communities for the office space he needs to grow.
He rejected one site in an historical setting that required approval to run a wire through a wall, and another where local officials didn’t want to let him convert thousands of square feet of manufacturing space into offices because there’d be no way to turn it back. “Why would someone think of that?” Mrva said. “Those days are over,” he recalled telling them.
The company has been through four buildings in five years, and now resides comfortably at 6 Blackstone Place in Lincoln. Mrva is exploring expansion options within that complex, for although they could now assume another 15 or 20 employees where they are, he eventually sees them growing to 100 employees and beyond.
For despite the tremendous skill shortage of high tech employees, especially in Rhode Island, Mrva is banking on his company’s reputation and his affinity with his employees to be able to attract and keep the people he needs.
“It’s not a question of getting more people, it’s a question of when,” said Mrva, who just hired a key networking group from the now defunct Lighthouse Communications, a deal that transpired in a matter of days.
“Those guys were the cream of the crop,” Mrva said, adding that he’s keeping his “ears open” for more opportunities like that. “But it’s controlled growth.”
To qualify for the Fast 50, a company must be a technology company, have been in business at least five years, with 1995 operating revenue of at least $50,000 and 1999 operating revenue of at least $1 million.
This year’s second-ranked Fast 50 was Student Advantage, an Internet portal from Boston, Mass., which had a five-year revenue growth rate of 6,071 percent. Third was the Waltham, Mass.-based biotechnology firm Dynagen, Inc.; fourth went to e-Business software pioneer Open Systems, of Burlington, Mass, and fifth was Web content personalization and eCommerce tools developer Art Technology Group of Cambridge, Mass., which had a five-year revenue growth rate of 3,819 percent.
Of the Top 50 companies, 43 were from Massachusetts, five from New Hampshire, one from Maine and one from Rhode Island.
