Bethesda Tech Company Expands Without Leaving Town

While Texas Governor Rick Perry continues to assert that Maryland’s business climate is poor, some businesses actually prefer Maryland to nearby states.

Bethesda tech company Brivo Systems is one of them. Brivo produces software with which clients can monitor building security online. The company has been around since the 1999 and moved to Bethesda from Rosslyn, VA, eight years ago, Brivo co-founder Steve Van Till told Patch.

They originally chose Rosslyn because the real estate there was cheap. When it was time to expand, Van Till saw three choices: stay in Rosslyn, move out to the emerging Dulles tech corridor, or move up to Bethesda or Rockville.

Van Till and the others at Brivo wanted to be on the Metrorail system, in an urban environment, with access to community features like restaurants and entertainment venues. They also wanted to be able to draw from the labor pool in the DC area, and—since Brivo is a government contractor—to be close to the federal government. (Brivo also works with commercial clients and with educational institutions.)

All of those factors pointed to Bethesda, so to Bethesda they moved, and in Bethesda they have stayed.

Recently, Brivo moved again, from a small Bethesda office to a larger one a few blocks away—at 7700 Old Georgetown Rd. Right now, the company occupies about two-thirds of the floor that it’s on in the building, but Van Till hopes that Brivo will have need for and fill the whole floor before too long.

The company currently has about 70 employees, Van Till told Patch. In the past year, it’s grown by 12 percent, JuliAnn Tuleya, senior marketing manager for Brivo, told Patch. All but 15 of its employees work in the Bethesda office, Van Till added.

>>>Learn more about Brivo—and its unique card-reading, building access control software products—on its website.

Do you own a business in Montgomery County? Why did you choose to run your business here? Tell us in the comments.