Former Google engineer to lead Voalte Labs

SARASOTA — Voalte, a fast-growing mobile health care communications firm, has launched Voalte Labs, a new division for future product development.

Voalte Chief Scientist Don Fletcher, former senior engineering manager at Google Voice, will lead Voalte Labs, according to a release. Fletcher joined Voalte, which stands for voice, alarm and text and is pronounced like “volt,” in early 2013. Voalte Labs will be located in the HuB, a downtown Sarasota startup business incubator. Voalte's corporate headquarters are on Fruitville Road, just west of Interstate 75.

“We're excited to open an offsite lab where our engineers will focus exclusively on future-facing technologies,” Voalte Founder and CEO Trey Lauderdale says in the release. “By forecasting 24 to 36 months out, Voalte will be in a unique position to help our customers stay ahead of rapid changes in the marketplace.”

The team of product development engineers and researchers will begin to move into Voalte Labs this month, the firm says. The firm's core application, Voalte One, enables nurses and hospital employees to improve communications through iPhones and smartphones.

“The model we're adopting is that of an independent development unit, also known as a skunk works, which was pioneered by Lockheed Martin and IBM, and championed by management consultant Peter Drucker,” Fletcher says in the statement. “Using this model, we can innovate rapidly and bring products to market quickly, away from the typical distractions at company headquarters.”

Voalte was founded in 2008. The firm, with about 130 employees, received a $36 million capital investment from White Plains, N.Y.-based private equity firm Bedford Funding earlier this year. More than 35,000 caregivers in a host of top-ranked medical centers use Voalte's applications.