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Getting to Know OpenEye

A summary of the history of OpenEye and its beginning.

1 min read

When OpenEye founder and CEO Rick Sheppard began his company, he was a junior at Gonzaga University in Washington State. He started it with a mere $5,000 and a desire to create a company that was competitive, creative, and stayed true to its grassroots beginning. It didn ‘t take too long for others to join him, although Sheppard said he spent from 1999 to 2000, “convincing the smartest kids I knew to turn down promising jobs elsewhere to help me create a business we would all be proud to dedicate our lives to.”

In 2001, OpenEye introduced its first digital video recorder at ISC East. Among its first customers was Jay Hunt, president of Allied Fire & Security. “To date, he is one of our longest standing integration partners,” Sheppard said. Over the past decade, OpenEye has created partnerships with numerous customers throughout the Northwest and in the education, commercial, hospitality, healthcare, and retail segments. His 125 employees are U.S.-based and many of them are software and systems engineers.