Tracking Business

True story: One of Position Logic's customers was kidnapped in Mexico near the U.S. border, stripped naked and shoved into a box.

After his family paid a ransom, the kidnappers kicked the still-naked man into a ravine, firing guns into the air to make him run for his life. “He was one of the few who can tell this story,” says Felix Lluberes, Position Logic's CEO and co-founder.

After that ordeal, the lucky survivor started a security firm tracking global-positioning devices in that risky region of the world. If he'd had such a system, he reasons, his family and law enforcement could have tracked him and his captors.

Naples-based Position Logic helped the man start the business, providing the software that tracks any GPS device from any computer. “This type of motivated people make things happen,” says Lluberes. “That's one of many, many stories.”

Although they may have little business experience, this is the kind of customer that Position Logic is eager to sign up. “A lot of people who work with us have a greater cause,” says Lluberes. “You can see that energy; they can do anything.”

Instead of providing GPS tracking to individuals directly, Position Logic helps entrepreneurs establish their own GPS-tracking business and the company collects a fee for every device that's tracked. The set up costs between $5,000 and $7,000, well within the means of many entrepreneurs overseas, where most of Position Logic's business originates.

Position Logic doesn't grant exclusive rights to any territory, preferring to let entrepreneurs compete with markups they choose.

However, Position Logic encourages entrepreneurs by foregoing the upfront costs of setting up the system by giving them the opportunity to make money first. “From our end, we structure it in such a way so they don't have a big upfront outlay,” Lluberes says.

Helping other entrepreneurs get into business is one reason why Lluberes and co-founder Hong Long, Position Logic's chief technology officer, have been so successful. They say the company is on track to hit $4 million in revenues this year, another year of double-digit percentage growth.

Lluberes and Long know what it's like to grow a company. They formed Position Logic in 2007, starting in Lluberes' house. Although angel investors disappeared after the financial-market collapse, the pair successfully expanded the company's operations to 50 countries. Today, 85% of the company's sales come from overseas.