Company Succeeds in Rough Times

Source: St. Louis Business Journal
By: Patrick L. Thimangu
Date: March 7, 2008

St. Charles Economic Development Center incubator graduates 16 more firms

Sixteen companies have graduated from the Economic Development Center (EDC) of St. Charles County's business incubator in St. Peters over the past 14 months.

Craig Frahm, chief financial officer of the EDC, said the incubator has graduated about 150 companies since it was established 15 years ago.

The latest companies to relocate from the 60,000-square-foot incubator are Trailhead GIS Inc., a geographic information systems solutions company that specializes in providing mapping services to utilities, local government and the private sector; and American Home Lending LLC, a home mortgage loan company.

The newest tenants to move into the facility are Parameter Security Inc., an information technology security company; and Shawn Schwab Lawn and Landscaping Inc., a company that provides residential and commercial landscaping services.

Parameter, which helps clients unearth security vulnerabilities in their computer systems, has been growing steadily since Dave Chronister and his wife, Renee, founded the company in January 2007.

Parameter employs five people -- including the Chronisters -- and generated revenue of $1 million in its first year of business, Dave Chronister said.

"The bad economy can be good for us because security becomes a focus," Chronister said. "Identity theft is very high; it's one of the things that rises as the economy goes down."

Kenneth Allred, owner and branch manager at American Home Lending, said he launched his company in November 2006, and the startup generated revenue of nearly $130,000 last year. It currently employs five people.

In all, there are 37 companies based at the EDC incubator in St. Peters. The facility offers startup companies office, industrial and warehouse space on a month-to-month lease basis, as well as meeting space and small business consulting services, among other amenities. The center opened in 1993 and was initially targeted at helping employees laid off by the old McDonnell-Douglas Corp.