Blacksburg-based Modea changes its course

Published August 28, 2015 by Joan Tupponce

Blacksburg-based Modea has a new look and a new focus. The company has shifted from being a digital advertising agency to a digital consultancy. It also spun out one of its divisions so it can focus on the expansion of its software tool for the wireless industry.

“We started transitioning away from being a full-service digital advertising agency about three years ago,” says CEO Ted Boezaart, who joined the company in July. “The advertising agency wasn’t the right fit for us. We were starting to run up against multi-conglomerate agencies. We looked at our core competency and asked ourselves: What do we do that is unique? We wanted to shift our focus to where we provide value.”

Moving forward, the company will focus on large transformational technology solutions for health-care and wireless providers. Its clients include Duke Medicine and Verizon Wireless.

“The health-care and wireless industries are a few years behind the technology curve from the client interaction perspective,” Boezaart says. “We really want to help solve user problems with technology. We will work with them to create more meaningful interactions with their customers.”

The company recently helped a large academic health-care organization create a technological solution that gives patients the ability to find the right doctor.

“There are thousands of doctors to choose from,” Boezaart says. “We built a tool where patients can go online and list their problems and preferences. They get a small list of doctors with short bios. We helped the health-care system restructure the way data is entered online.”

The company’s clients are located throughout the U.S. “We have a lot of interactions on the East Coast,” Boezaart says.

The former Modea division, which hasn’t been named yet, has been functioning independently for almost a year. It will be led by Modea co-founders Aaron Herrington and David Catalano. It is focusing on a product for the wireless telephone industry. “We provide tools that empower users to self troubleshoot online,” says Boezaart.

Sixty percent of Modea’s 96 employees work in the division. The remaining 40 percent work for the consultancy. Both are located in the same building in Kent Square.

Modea’s new logo with three triangles pays homage to its Blacksburg heritage as well as the assets of the region, such as a large technology university and community in addition to like-minded tech companies. “We wanted to communicate the fact that being here in the mountains of Virginia affords us a perspective, both physically and intellectually, that you can’t get anywhere else,” Boezaart says.