May 11 Breakfast Meeting with Ryan Porter

Ryan Porter always dreamed of bringing a product to market—inventing, developing, and selling something that he could base a company around. Even today, as LiveView Technologies (LVT) has more than doubled in size in the past year, Porter states that he loves to run a company based on this dream.

Porter is the CEO, President, and Co-Founder of LVT. He is originally from southern California, and came to Orem, Utah to attend Utah Valley State College (now Utah Valley University). He studied finance, but that never stopped him from reaching his goal to create a physical product. In fact, Porter said, “Everything I learned in finance gave me the skills I needed to run LiveView Technologies.”

LVT started in 2005 as HomeView Technologies. Porter was then working in finance as a construction loan officer but saw a need for remote surveillance on residential construction sites. That is when he met and partnered with Executive Vice President of Manufacturing and Co-Founder Bob Brenner. At first, they intended to target the homeowners and give them the opportunity to see a live feed of their house. However, the pair quickly realized that it was the contractors who wanted video surveillance of the sites.  Soon the contractors started to request specific features that they wanted in their surveillance systems, and “We adapted to meet their needs,” Porter said. Just as the company was starting to make strides in the housing industry, the market changed. In 2008 when the housing bubble burst, Porter knew the company was in trouble. “It was very difficult,” he said. “That’s when we started looking into other verticals like options for departments of transportation and critical infrastructure.”

Thanks to some quick thinking by Porter and Brenner, they were able to shift from a residential market to a commercial one and started offering more remote and mobile security options. During this reinvention of LVT, the company also added two new partners— Chief Technology and Information Officer Steve Lindsey and Chief Sales and Marketing Officer David Studdert. Soon, LVT expanded beyond the construction industry to departments of transportation, retail, and even law enforcement.

“This is a bootstraps company,” Porter said. “At first it was just me and Bob. We would work with clients to define their needs, and then figure out how to meet those needs.” Lindsey and Studdert joined the company in 2011, but even then everyone still wore multiple hats. Porter quickly gained extensive experience with key markets, vendor relationships, R&D processes, and product/service applications. “When you start a company, you first have to prove that your product is worth it,” Porter said, “Then you focus on becoming self-sufficient as you grow. You always want to position the company for future success.” By expanding into other industries, LVT has proven its product and is poised for enormous growth. At the beginning of 2020, the company had just over 100 employees. Today, a little over a year later, the company employs more than 220 people with designated marketing, sales, and customer management teams to support the company’s growth. “It’s amazing to see a company you’ve built grow this quickly,” Porter said. “It’s humbling and exciting to have world-renown companies want your product. And I’m excited to see where we go next.”