Dan Meyer, President and CEO of
Comet Solutions, credits incentives from the state of Ohio among reasons the New Mexico-founded company opened its executive offices to Cincinnati, growing in the process.
Comet Solutions uses virtual modeling to test a variety of products for functionality and durability prior to manufacturing. Incorporated in 2001, the company moved its headquarters to Cincinnati suburb Blue Ash after in 2008 after being awarded $1.4 million in incentives from the Innovation Ohio Loan Fund. The company also received Ohio Job Creation Tax Credits valued at more than $400,000.
"We were attracted to the type of incentives Ohio had that would help companies like ours grow," Meyer said. "It really was life saving. The Innovation Ohio Loan Fund allowed us to continue to invest in our product software development and to advance our product."
Comet Solutions' six-person executive team is in Ohio, including the heads of corporate development and customer support. Excluding Meyer, who worked remotely in Ohio for the company prior to receiving incentives, all the executive team members have been hired within the last year or so, and were hired from the Ohio area.
Though the company's original software developers remain in New Mexico, the future of the company's growth is in Ohio. Comet Solution plans on hiring customer support employees and engineers who will work out of the Blue Ash office within the next year, Meyer said.
Comet Solutions works with advanced manufacturing companies with a special emphasis on the aerospace and defense sectors. Though the company's client base is global is scope, Ohio's cluster of advanced manufacturing and aerospace industries made the state an attractive place to relocate, Meyer said.
"There is a lot of talent here and people who know this industry well," he said. "And many of our clients are in the Midwest, just a few hours' drive from Ohio."
Source: Dan Meyer, Comet SolutionsWriter: Feoshia Henderson