Mike and I (Frank) grew up together in Reading.  Mike’s brother was and continues to be a close friend of mine so we have always stayed in touch over the years prior to starting Intervale Technologies. When the internet company I was working for fell prey to the “tech bubble” and closed its doors, I reached out to Mike to see what he was up to and to see if the company he was working for was hiring. There were some synergies with my prior career and the company Mike was working at so I knew I could contribute to them. He was able to get me an interview and I was given a job as an outside sales rep.  which I started the weekend after 9/11.

The company we worked for was traditionally a wholesale provider of technology and they wanted to create a business model to sell and service directly to the end user. Mike was on the installation side and I was on the business development side so we worked together at the company for two years, representing a strong collaboration between front-end and office.  After two solid years Mike left and started Intervale Technologies.  Prior to Mike leaving, we grew that side of the business from zero customers to over 200 and went from just the two of us to 20-25 employees in just that division.

Fast forward to 2004 and I was at a point in my life where I had a successful run in technology sales but was spending too much time traveling all around New England. At the same time, my father was diagnosed with ALS and I knew I wanted to be closer to home and to be with my family as often as possible.  During the two years that Mike was running Intervale Technologies we had always been in touch and frequently talked about working together again, and so I joined.  Mike’s company Intervale Technologies was located in North Reading and he had a few solid years under his belt as a business owner.  The timing worked out for me as I could still utilize my network that I had grown over the many years and continue to build Intervale’s client base.  At the same time this move allowed me to be close to home at such a crucial moment in my history. For Mike and Intervale Technologies it allowed the company to grow from a handful of regional accounts to a significantly larger company base with new clients in the greater Boston area.  Plus this newly created dynamic allowed us to expand into new technology solutions. Our original agreement was to see how things worked after year one and evaluate if we should continue as a team or close our relationship.  We are now going on 12 years as business partners with an incredible base of over 1,000 customers throughout the greater Metropolitan Boston and Cambridge area.  

Running our business has been very rewarding.  We have solid relationships with our customers, and to this day we continue to be as excited about new technologies as we were many years ago.