Insights

Veracity Logic is a user-friendly, customizable Interactive Response Technology platform developed to meet the needs of the clinical trial industry. For more than a decade, Veracity Logic has delivered customized IRT solutions to leading Pharma and Biotech companies internationally. We recently spoke with David Goldston, President and COO, to learn more about how Veracity Logic started, what their recent growth looks like, and how he got involved with the company back in 2008.

How did Veracity Logic get started? 

We have two founders, Steve Zimmerman and Bruce Shankle. Bruce joined from another company where he developed a front-end system for creating interactive voice response workflows. And Steve was brought in and developed the Amino Tool Kit, which is a tool kit that allows you to take any database and build it with a web front-end. He built the tool for Interactive Response Technology (IRT) systems. IRT systems are used by pharma companies, clinical research organizations and biotechs, and it is highly configurable. 

Steve brought systems to the company and I brought validation, procedures, and processes to demonstrate the system does what it’s supposed to do. We’ve been doing that since 2008. 

What makes Veracity Logic unique?

We’re a little bit different than a lot of companies out there, and we have a different focus. We decided early on that we didn’t want to build a company that was the end all be all of our industry, we’re wanted to focus more on organic and steady growth. 

When Steve and I started working together we had one client. At this point we have 14 different clients with 40+ projects in production, 6 projects in development, and have added another three new clients this year.

Our client focus reflects the way we like to work. We like to work with smaller companies because our company is small. Small companies aren’t completely set in their ways, which from our standpoint allows us to use our processes, which are optimized to get things done quickly, and we help them understand what the processes are. We provide answers to their questions that are thoughtful, meaningful, and at their level. We’re not throwing a bunch of technical jargon at them.

As a small company our clients can afford us because we don’t have investors who are saying, “We’re going to do a million-dollar of investment with you this year and we expect to see a return of $800,000 every year for the next X years.” We don’t want to do that. For us, it changes the focus. We’re growing and doing more and more, adding people, but we don’t feel the need to explosively grow. 

Our focus is on building a solid community of companies and clients that we serve and to serve them at a level that is commensurate with their needs.

What is your favorite part of your job as President and/or COO?

I like interacting with clients out in the world to see what they have going on and how we can help. I consider myself an introvert but a lot of people think I’m an extrovert. Our sales effort is largely word of mouth so I attend a couple of conferences a year and interact with existing customers, as well as potential new customers. I always enjoy hearing referral stories that end in, “We need to bring Veracity in here.” 

What is the biggest professional lesson you have learned in your career?

Document everything you do. If you haven’t documented it, it wasn’t done. What we’ve done with our procedures and processes and documentations is to try and tell the story about what’s going on. Not just, this is what we did, but also why, and the exploration around it, as well as the final outcome. So an auditor can follow the train of thought, the process, and it gives them a better understanding of what’s going on in your company. 

What is your idea of a perfect weekend?

Lately, sitting on the deck at my condo in Boone and looking at Grandfather Mountain. I also like to work on a project or read a good book. 

What’s the last thing you read that you enjoyed?

From a learning new things perspective, I just finished a book called Motivation Based Interviewing: A Revolutionary Approach to Hiring the Best by Carol Quinn. I thought it was really helpful in terms of how to find good people. The last book I read that was fiction was Dragonsinger by Anne McCaffrey. I like science fiction, fantasy and international thrillers. But I’m on a fantasy kick right now. 

What’s your favorite restaurant in the Triangle?

Right now it’s Stoney River at University Place. My wife, son and I think it has the best steaks in the Triangle. I highly recommend it.