Walling Data founder skipped college to build multi-million dollar company

Walling Data Systems looks like a typical $300,000 a year "break-fix" computer services company where the owner and one or two techies fix everything from routers to laptops.

Take one look at founder Luke Walling, and you'd pretty much figure he's a geek from State with a nice little business.

Not so. Walling never went to college. He can barely remember what year he graduated from high school.

That's because the 30-year-old entrepreneur started his $5 million a year business when he was 15 going on 16.

Nowadays he operates the IT solutions, maintenance and software reseller from a storefront off I-77, a stone's throw from JR's Cigar Store on East Broad in Statesville. He has some 60,000 customers across the globe, half of them in the field of education.

His agenda is all about growth, within some strict guidelines. "I want to be what we are with a larger number of employees. I want to better the lives of customers and employees," he says from a barely decorated office just behind the retail showroom.

In five years he would like to have the business organized around business segments-with total revenue in the $25 million a year range.

The location is great, he says, with quick access to national accounts via Charlotte Douglas International Airport. A new location in Claremont will provide just as easy access to the airport, although Walling likes using his own Robinson R44 helicopter to visit with clients as far away as Washington, D.C.

This, from a guy who never took even one course in college. And who are some of Walling's largest customers? School districts around the country in need of customized anti-virus software.

Rather than go to college, Walling incorporated as soon as he was of legal age, at 18.

Al Gore still hadn't invented the internet, and personal computers-AKA white box systems-were largely used for word processing and games. Back then, before he graduated from high school in 1996, the Walling family was pretty typical. Father Walling was retired military, offering private flight instruction on the side. His mother, then as now, was an artist producing her own line of handmade pottery.

There was no indication that their only child would be a technology wizard, with a Forbes-like mentality for growing a business, finance and strategic thinking.

Indeed, his growth plans call for revenue of $7.5 million in revenue in 2008. By selling via catalogs, the internet and even trade shows, Walling has built a business focused on security related products that address common and specialized network security problems in home-based businesses, good-size enterprises and large school systems.

He is putting about $1 million into a new building on Highway 321 that was a foreclosure. All along, he's pulled himself and his business up by the bootstraps.

Walling expects to move from 12 employees now to more than 20 later this year, with a deeper commitment to telephone support and service 24 hours a day. The service center staff will be local, based in Claremont. Their North Carolina accents will be a selling point, Walling grins.

Here's how he responded to questions about current business issues:

Business Today: How do you decide to bring on new product lines?

Walling: "We don't sell just anything. We evaluate, talk to management-level people. If we see a truly a good company to work with, with an innovative and different product that accomplishes something in a special way-cheaper for example-we'll put it in our catalog."

Business Today: Do you have various products that do the same thing?

Walling: "When we bring in a new line, it's serious. We don't have a thick catalog. We don't have lines that compete with each other."

Business Today: For example?

Walling: "AVG is lightweight, the footprint is smaller, so it does not slow you down. The definitions are aggressively updated."

Business Today: How are you financed?

Walling: "I deal with the local banks, the ones that are left, but my favorite financial tool has been Amercan Express. It's really helpful to a small business."

SNAPSHOT: Luke Walling, CEO Walling Data Systems

Family: Wife, Michelle, and one son, eight months old

Lives in: Sherrills Ford

Drives a: Mercedes diesel with Walling Data Systems decals on both sides

Payroll right now: $55,000 a month

Hobby: Helicopter pilot; has several Lotus autos, all for sale. "No time," he says.

Goal: "Balance in life. I'd like to see more family time, that's the biggest thing I would like to see more of."

Quotable: "Everything I do is slightly different. That's the secret to our success: We don't operate on a straight line."