How many thousand times have you heard someone talk about working remotely, saying, “The great thing about the internet is you can work anywhere.” Well, working in the oil field brings a whole new meaning to working “remotely.” It’s remote alright, and it’s still tech, but it’s of necessity, tech Acadiana style.
If you started out in the oil field before the internet, before apps, before social media, and in some cases before the computer, the relentless onslaught of technology drives you to a point where you either throw up your hands and decide to be a Luddite, or you embrace change. Like Tim Supple. Tim has embraced change in a big way.
For years the multi-billion dollar Acadiana oil and gas business depended for its existence on a breed of hydrocarbon cowboys called Landmen. A Landman secures the leases and rights for an oil and gas company to dig wells. That’s not nearly as simple as it sounds. It can involve masses of contacts, phone calls, promises, handshakes, lunches, drinks, scraps of paper, maps, blind alleys and frequent and expensive miscalculations.
Tim Supple and his partner came up with a way to take all the disparate inputs oil and gas company landmen accumulate, and assemble them in a whole new way: online. They created a web-based version of the Acadian Hydrocarbon cowboy and called himiLandman. In a tough time for oil exploration, iLandman is giving over fifteen hundred subscribers a much needed edge.
Chad Theriot is on the other side of the tech revolution. Although Chad grew up in Breaux Bridge his upbringing sounds more like a kid in Silicon Valley. Chad started working with his father in the family business, CBM Technology, at the age of 12. By 15 he was a computer programmer. Chad went on to create the first automated system that uses voice to produce a transcript for court reporters, and has designed and developed software for a wide range of companies including UPS and The Kellogg Corporation.
In 2011 Chad and his business partner bought his dad’s company, CBM, and for that reason Chad is living back on the Silicon Bayou.