The Brevard Technical Journal

Seeing the Big Picture
Tim Reynolds is at the root of Soneticom's new purpose, appearance

By Anne Straub
Brevard Technical Journal

The walking stick that leans behind Tim Reynolds' desk underwent significant change at his hands. What started as an oak root at Reynolds' previous home was sanded and polished to new purpose and appearance.

In similar fashion, Reynolds continues to hone the company he co-founded, guiding its evolution from root to polished product.

Reynolds serves as chief executive of Soneticom, a West Melbourne hardware and software developer that he helped found in 1998.

The company looked very different at its start than it does today. Then, Soneticom was primarily a commercial services company. Clients would hire the company's engineers to perform particular projects, giving companies the benefit of added expertise without the long-term commitment of hiring more people.

Now, Soneticom includes such services in its offerings, but the company has grown into a prime contractor. The change always was part of the plan.

"With any company, you do what you're good at and work your company until you get where you want to be," Reynolds said. "It's really a reputation-building, confidence-building exercise."

Soneticom employs 29 people in West Melbourne and operates a one-person office in Washington, D.C. The company divides its business into three main areas:

" Health and medical systems. The company is developing software for use in obesity and disease management and behavioral modification. " Advanced communications systems. Clients include government and commercial customers needing system development and integration, location tracking, wireless voice and data, and other services. " Manufacturing operations. Soneticom can create a prototype, help a company get a product into manufacturing and manage the process.

Building an engineering company is a natural fit for Reynolds, who uses his time away from desk and computer to spend time with his children and pursue creative endeavors. He maintains a woodworking shop in his home, where he makes furniture and toys. A mallet on a shelf in his office represents time he describes as playing around with a lathe.

"I like to create things," said Reynolds, who served as general contractor on his current and previous homes.

The company now is working on a physical fitness system that will allow the user to log on to a web site and receive information and feedback specific to that individual. Soneticom is developing the software with the help of Rippe Lifestyle Institute in Orlando and a Department of Defense grant.

The web site aims to help service people stay fit, by means such as diets specific to the person's needs and training regimens that account for the location of the user. Potential commercial uses of the system include helping patients manage diseases such as diabetes and heart disease.

"We're going to be able to motivate you and give you behavioral feedback," said Ted Angelopoulos, a full professor at University of Central Florida and director of clinical research for RLI. For example, if a user fails to perform a prescribed exercise regimen, the computer will ask - possibly through an animated character - why. If the answer is lack of time, it will offer time management advice based on the user's schedule. If the user didn't like the type of exercise prescribed, the system will propose another regimen.

The site fills a need for a tool to use daily to supplement a physician's care, Reynolds said. "There is a big gap there between the doctor who does the low-tech interviewing and examining of a patient, and then getting into major high-tech equipment and testing," he said.

Reynolds, son of a military family, was born in Greece and moved often as a child. When he landed in Florida, he stuck. Reynolds graduated from Apopka High School, where he met his wife, Susan. They married after he completed his computer science degree at University of Central Florida. She attended Stetson University, became a teacher then left to stay home with the couple's three children, ages 2, 4 and 6.

He's proud to call himself a product of Florida, recounting a comment made at a conference he attended in Orlando. A speaker asserted that Florida doesn't have any real executives and that the state has been spoiled by a reliance on government work.

"I guess I'm a real anomaly," Reynolds joked.

He got his start at Melbourne-based Harris Corp., working on a voice switching system for the FAA. He left the electronics giant to join a Harris spinoff, then known as Flash Comm. Reynolds helped establish the computer network at the Melbourne-based company, a wireless communications provider that became Terion and recently sold its network to Global 2-Way.

"He was instrumental in designing the network infrastructure," Global 2-Way executive Bill Marriott said of Reynolds. The two worked together when the company was Flash Comm.

He counts an ability to see the big picture as one of Reynolds' strengths. "You always have to have a few people who understand the whole thing," said Marriott, now vice president of operations. "So many people are specialists; it's really nice to see someone who's more of a generalist."

Marriott continues to work with Reynolds, as Soneticom provides software for Global 2-Way. Their common experience at a startup gives Reynolds an extra measure of credibility with customers, he said.

"He's been through it, so he knows what it's like for the little guy who's struggling to make it," Marriott said.

It was a contact made long before Flash Comm that led to Reynold's current company. During high school and college, Reynolds worked at a Montgomery Ward department store in Orlando. While he was managing the sporting goods and lawn and garden departments, Jim Kingsley was assembling bicycles for the same store.

Kingsley later went to work at Harris as well, and eventually founded Soneticom with Reynolds and Carl Finney, also a veteran of Harris and Flash Comm. The three hold most of the ownership of the company.

The company doesn't release financial data, though Reynolds estimates revenue at $3.5 to $4 million this year.

That growth - 10-fold over the past four years - has led to expansion to a building under construction just south of the company's current location. Soneticom will increase its space from 7,500 to 17,000 square feet, primarily adding lab and manufacturing space. The company also plans to hire another 10 people. Most will be engineers.

"What we try to build our company on is innovative engineering. We have people who can create things that weren't there," said Reynolds. "These people need to be fed new problems to work."

Reynolds foresees another expansion five years down the road.

"We want to create a permanent, large corporate presence in Brevard County," Reynolds said.

On the web: www.soneticom.com.