Va. tech company takes software center to Chicago
BYLINE: Ben Hammer
A McLean company will open a development office in Chicago -- not Virginia-- because Illinois offered incentives to help fund the project.
The center will provide space for 80 university students to conduct development work with Vigilon's open-source network security software.
Vigilon, which changed its name from Moozatech in July with the launch of its new software platform, offers the free software called Themis as a marketing tool for its for-pay suite of programs that assess network vulnerabilities and compliance with information-security regulations.
Vigilon executives and Illinois officials will be on hand in Chicago Nov. 3 to announce the 6,000-square-foot Center for Continual Vigilance for the state of Illinois.
The state granted Vigilon $450,000 to bring the center to Chicago, beating out Virginia and locations the company wouldn't name, including other states and sites in Canada.
"We had a few options in different states that one way or the other wanted us to bring the [the center] to them," says Vigilon founder and Chairman Alon Moritz. "It's pretty much a no-brainer that it's going to create a lot of jobs and training for people in the security sector."
He contacted the Fairfax County Economic Development Authority to ask for help in soliciting an offer from the state for incentives. The county doesn't offer financial incentives to companies.
Moritz says Virginia officials were too slow in responding to be considered. State officials say they passed because Vigilon wouldn't put up any money to open a center.
Three Vigilon employees will work with representatives of Chicago-area schools to fill and oversee 80 nonpaying positions for graduate and undergraduate students from Northwestern University, the University of Chicago, the University of Illinois, Argonne National Laboratory, the Illinois Institute of Technology and other nearby institutions.
Vigilon hopes its partners will join in working with the students to develop industry-specific adaptions of its software. The company has already enlisted the Chicago Federal Home Loan Bank and is in talks with consulting firm Accenture about a partnership.
Moritz has persuaded Vigilon investors Athlone Global Security of New York and Point Capital Partners of Baltimore to be sponsors of the center. The venture capital funds and Moritz, an angel investor in early-stage companies, will work with students to "help them identify potential business opportunities."
Moritz sees the center as a farm system for his company and for Vigilon partners, too.
"As far as we're concerned, there will be a huge cream of the crop for us to choose from," he says. "Can we absorb all of them? Maybe not, but to us it's not a bad thing because we see them as ambassadors" to potential customers at other companies.
Several other area companies have set up or are exploring research and development partnerships with universities far from the home office.
Todd Atchison, founder of Leesburg-based StreamerNet, moved back to Kentucky in 2004 and established an internship program with his alma mater, Murray State University. A full-time and part-time employee now work with 12 student interns.