After a one-year international sabbatical with her family, Theresa Reno-Weber is back in town and ready to get to work as the chief operating officer of Louisville-based startup GoodMaps.
When she gets settled, Reno-Weber, who started in the new role on Nov. 28, will be in charge of overseeing the growth of the company as it looks to scale up its headcount and rfesources, while improving capacity from an operational standpoint. Currently, GoodMaps has 30 employees, but the company plans to double its headcount in the next 12 to 18 months.
Reno-Weber becomes the fifth member of the company’s leadership team, as Neil Barnfather, the former vice president of sales, was named as its chief commercial officer at the same time of Reno-Weber’s arrival.
Before leaving the country beginning in August 2021, Reno-Weber served a little less than five years as the president and CEO of Metro United Way, where she had met GoodMaps CEO Jose Gaztambide, who served on the organization’s board. Her accolades at Metro United Way included being named one of Louisville Business First's Power 50 in 2021, and she was among our Enterprising Women honorees in 2020.
“As we continue to expand our operations and serve clients across more verticals and geographies, Theresa will be fundamental in overseeing that growth and guaranteeing our execution with quality,” Gaztambide said in an email. “We’re lucky to have her.”
In September, she met up with Gaztambide to catch up. Although she was looking for a new opportunity by meeting up with different people in her professional network, she was not necessarily looking for a job at GoodMaps when he had asked if she was interested in joining the team.
Upon reflection, though, she realized that GoodMaps checked the boxes that she had created: In Louisville, not too much travel, C-suite position with ability to help company get to the next level.
“I’ve known Jose and I’ve known what he was doing,” she said. “But it was really in September, when I realized just how exciting the potential is to work for a company that is homegrown right here and local, but starting to serve the world.”
When she spoke to me, she was doing so inside the company’s new office — with approximately 5,000 square feet of space — located at 1741 Frankfort Ave. two blocks east of its former spot inside the American Printing House for the Blind’s (APH) building at 1839 Frankfort Ave.
The company was founded by APH in 2019 under the name Access Explorer. Named one of KY Inno’s Startups to Watch in 2022, the company uses technology in which mobile scanners capture LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) point clouds and images, which then convert into digital maps of interiors of buildings.
The LiDAR technology, paired with the GoodMaps Explore app, allows blind and visually impaired users the ability to navigate to destinations located both inside and outside of buildings.
Coming full circle
Prior to joining Metro United Way, Reno-Weber said that one of the projects that she worked on during her five years with Louisville Metro Government was working with APH on an outdoor explorer navigation system.
“It’s actually the precursor to what GoodMaps has become,” Reno-Weber said. “And so it was really an interesting moment — as Jose was telling me about — where the company has grown to and what they're looking to do next.”
According to Gaztambide, GoodMaps tripled revenue from 2021-22, and has a similar projection of growth in 2023. The company currently has 50 clients in four countries.
Although GoodMaps will always place its focus those that are low vision and blind, she said the company also will have to address the growing demand from sighted customers.
“The growth potential is that this product that started in wayfinding and navigation for the blind and visually impaired, actually has so many uses for all of us who want to be able to navigate indoor spaces more effectively,” Reno-Weber said.
As we first reported back in August, GoodMaps closed on $3.5 million in fresh capital following a successful seed round, led by Strike Ventures, with assistance by Keyhorse Capital, Future Labs Capital and APH.
Reno-Weber’s husband, Ben, is also well known in the startup tech scene as co-founder of MobileServe. He currently serves as the deputy director of the Humana Health Equity Innovation Hub at the University of Louisville. He previously served as the executive director of the Microsoft Future of Work Initiative from 2019 to 2021.
On their international trek, the Reno-Webers, their three children and extended family visited 38 countries and stopped by 80-plus cities along the way.
“The world is an amazing place,” Theresa Reno-Weber said. “It was actually kind of unique to do it as the world was opening up from Covid ... And to come back to Louisville and be able to re-enter, [it feels] really good and rejuvenative.”
