Three years ago, InfoPathways, a Maryland-based technology company, knew nothing about Winston-Salem.
Today, InfoPathways has a growing office of four full-time employees working out of Bailey Power Plant in the Innovation Quarter–and the company has plans for more, including more employees to their team in the iQ.
How does a Mid-Atlantic technology services company go from no knowledge of a Southern city to a physical footprint in the city’s downtown? It starts with a business community that welcomed them with open arms and helped them see a vision for long-term growth.
A People-Centered Approach To Technology
InfoPathways helps companies use technology smarter. They do that by helping companies choose technologies best-suited for their business and providing an expert team that ensures those tech solutions keep running safely, smoothly, and efficiently, day in and day out.
“We provide services for people who rely on technology to do their business,” Theresa Bethune says. Bethune is president and chief executive officer of InfoPathways, which has headquarters in Westminster, Maryland.
“You’re probably thinking, ‘Well, doesn’t every company rely on technology to do their business?,’” Bethune continues. “And yes, they do, but when you start getting into multiple cloud programs or you’re trying to leverage Microsoft Office better–that’s when we become a good fit.”
InfoPathways’ clients include businesses in industries like life sciences, biotech, manufacturing, engineering, construction, and more. They work with clients of any size and from a wide variety of industries, who share the tech services company’s emphasis on building business relationships.
InfoPathways calls themselves “allies and advocates for human IT.” Yes, they’re in the technology business, but even more so, they’re in the people business. While InfoPathways brings a service to the table for their clients, relationships and trust are at the heart of all they do.
There’s a great deal of vulnerability required for a company to let InfoPathways–an outside organization–in to manage their technology.
“You’re entrusting the security of your business with us, and we have to be worthy of that trust,” Bethune says. “Once we’ve earned that trust, we work really hard to keep it. That has resulted in a lot of amazing long-term relationships, and we’re always continuing to work to deserve those relationships.”
Trust is not only key for companies who choose to partner with InfoPathways, it’s also at the heart of decision making for InfoPathways. And that sense of trust–of true partnership, shared vision, and belonging–is what led them to the iQ.
An Unexpected New Home for InfoPathways
InfoPathways has been around since 2004, but it wasn’t until the last six or seven years that they decided to really hit the gas on expansion, as opposed to the more organic, steady growth the company experienced up to that point. It worked. The company’s revenues increased at a rate of 40-50 percent year-over-year for the past several years.
During that intentional growth period, InfoPathways acquired a client in the biotechnology industry, a company with about 200 employees located in the Piedmont Triad area.
InfoPathways had a decision to make. They could help this client navigate an immediate, specific need and then hand them off to someone else for long-term support or they could start a dedicated InfoPathways presence in North Carolina to work with the client in an ongoing relationship.
Two key factors helped InfoPathways make a decision.
InfoPathways targets emerging biotech companies because they generally have strong growth potential (and technology needs), and the iQ is a prime location for biotech companies. With the concentration of biotech companies located in the iQ, there’s a lot of organic overlap with the kind of businesses that InfoPathways serves.
“When we evaluated the market [in North Carolina], we didn’t feel like there were lots of people doing what we were doing, so we felt like expanding there would be worth the risk,” Bethune says.
The kind of services InfoPathways offers provides a valuable skill set that is complementary to the biotech work happening in the iQ.
“Innovation is risky by nature, and companies like InfoPathways provide stability to early stage companies through not only their services but also their experiences,” Isaac Perry says. Perry, who is head of biotech and life science ecosystem development for the iQ, works with those biotech companies on a daily basis.
Perry sees InfoPathways’ as a valuable resource for companies in the iQ.
“Theresa and her team bring wonderful insights from their experiences in Maryland that continue to be beneficial and educational to our ecosystem,” Perry says.
And the other driver in their decision to open an office in Winston-Salem?
“The second piece was Nancy Johnston,” Bethune says. “She showed us more support than we’d ever gotten in our home state.”
Nancy Johnston serves as Executive Director of the Piedmont Triad office for the North Carolina Biotechnology Center (NC Biotech), located in the Innovation Quarter. She helped Bethune and her colleagues see the potential the Triad could hold for InfoPathways, far beyond their single local client.
“We initially reached out to NC Biotech, not because we thought they would show us spaces,” says Bethune. “We were only going to have three or four people there. I just wanted to know where people hung out, where people network, where we can go to try to establish relationships…things like that.”
But Johnston wanted to help the InfoPathways team make some connections in Winston-Salem, and so she arranged for meetings with Greater Winston-Salem Inc. and Forsyth Tech Community College, who are also iQ tenants. She also played a key role in helping them end up in Bailey Power Plant, showing them several office spaces herself. The genuine interest in InfoPathways that Johnston demonstrated again and again left Bethune surprised in the best way.
“I was blown away, because we’ve been in Maryland for a long time, and we do not get that level of attention,” Bethune says. “But Nancy felt that we were doing something different than what others in the area were doing.”
Johnston, for one, could see the role that a company like InfoPathways brings into the local ecosystem.
“Advancing life sciences research, discovery and new technologies requires access to essential infrastructure within a highly supportive, connected, and collaborative environment,” Johnston says. “The combination of an information technology solutions company like InfoPathways with the iQ district is valuable, something that our regional life sciences community recognized with the 2024 Biotechnology Support/Service Excellence award given to InfoPathways for providing outstanding support and service leadership.”
InfoPathways quickly caught the attention of many leaders in the Innovation Quarter, including Isaac Perry, who sees the company as part of an important trend in the Piedmont Triad.
“InfoPathways expanding into Winston-Salem and, specifically, the iQ, affirms our community’s strong momentum in attracting life sciences talent to our region,” Perry says. “As a critical enabler to biotech companies of all sizes, they clearly did their research in looking for high-value, high-potential cities for expansion. Innovation Quarter was thrilled that they chose our district as their new home.”
The Appeal of the Innovation Suites at Bailey Power Plant
When InfoPathways began to seriously explore Winston-Salem as an area to expand their footprint, it quickly became evident that the iQ was the right location for them. Not only did the location make it easy to get to and from the airport and other spots around the area, but it meant they were also part of the hard-working, connection-driven community that is the iQ.
There was also the aesthetic to consider.
“I do want to acknowledge how cool the building space and the amenities are, because that is a critical piece,” Bethune says. “Whenever I’m down in North Carolina and I’m on a Zoom call with someone from the team, the first thing they’ll say is, ‘Ooh, are you in North Carolina?’ It’s a great space. I don’t know how you wouldn’t want to love working there.”
It was important to Bethune and fellow leaders to actually establish Winston-Salem as a dedicated expansion of InfoPathways, not just as a keyman office space where technically they could say they have a local presence, but without plans to grow or invest.
“We feel like the Innovation Quarter mirrors our growth-mindset,” Bethune says, “which gives us the ability to expand.”
InfoPathways leases one of the Innovation Suites located in Bailey Power Plant, which gives them access to the amenities of Sparq, the iQ’s coworking space also located in the building.
“We have the ability to look a lot bigger than we are because we have access to the Sparq space,” Bethune says.
In addition to having the right vibe, the Innovation Suites of Bailey Power Plant also offer InfoPathways the ability to network with like-minded companies–and to co-host events in places like the Sparq space. In fact, InfoPathways is already collaborating with complementary organizations to co-sponsor upcoming events at Bailey Power Plant.
“We’re looking to meet more people and do more things in the community, and we see the Innovation Quarter as a key part of that,” Bethune says. “We’re grateful to be here.”
Putting Down Deep Roots in the Triad
The initial introduction to Winston-Salem has been easy for InfoPathways, thanks to the help and support InfoPathways received from the iQ, Greater Winston-Salem Inc, NC Biotech, and others.
As InfoPathways approaches their two-year anniversary of being in Winston-Salem, they’re working hard on becoming more integrated into the community–both in the iQ and beyond. The company has always had a strong commitment to giving back in Maryland, and they are ready to expand that part of their DNA into their Southern neck of the woods.
“I’d love for us to find nonprofits we can serve through volunteering or serving on boards, because that’s what’s worked for us as a company,” Bethune says. “It’s what we do, it’s what we know, and it’s how we like to give back.”
No matter how they choose to expand their reach in the Winston-Salem community, it all goes back to that people-centered approach they take in all they do–the kind of approach that does well in the iQ because it’s a value shared by many of the people and businesses who make up the community in the innovation district.
“The InfoPathways team’s ability to create and foster trusting relationships is indicative of their genuine caring about the community they serve. They create win-win-win scenarios,” Perry says. “We hope to see them continue to grow here, help the life sciences companies manage their growth through critical IT infrastructure, and that will result in stabilizing factors that can catalyze our region’s biotech and life sciences job creation and economic growth.”
Learn more about InfoPathways and the work they do–both in Maryland and Winston-Salem–by visiting their website and discover more about the community they’ve joined in the iQ.
