Teleosoft founders hand over leadership reins to create longevity and a legacy 

Luke Gatchell sat before the hiring team at a large HVAC company. He was excited about the prospect of a solid engineering job with a regular paycheck and good benefits. At the same time, he knew that working for someone else wasn’t his long-term plan.   

“This probably wasn’t a very smart idea, but I told the guy interviewing me that I’m excited to come work here, but eventually I want to start my own business,” Luke says. “I think just something about that has always been inside of me.” 

He got the job.  

In 1997, when offered the opportunity to switch divisions, he said he would if he could do it as a contractor rather than an employee. That was the first brick laid in the foundation that, 26 years later, has been built up into York-based Teleosoft, which provides a suite of software systems to support county governments across Pennsylvania and in three other states.  

Finding their niche 

Luke soon brought aboard his brother Matt Gatchell and fellow HVAC employee Boone Brumagen. Together, the three owners/founders focused on contract work for Luke and Boone’s previous employer.  

It would be six years before they truly found their niche and began creating their own suite of software products. In 2003, a chance conversation led to the next step in Teleosoft’s evolution. 

“A friend of a friend said, ‘I hear the York County sheriff is looking for somebody to take them off of the mainframe. Would you be interested?’ And I said that sounds interesting,” Luke says.  

The project led to the birth of Teleosoft’s flagship software to help sheriffs’ offices streamline their workflow and manage the vast amounts of information and paperwork required to operate a government office. 

It was the beginning of a shift that would propel Teleosoft from consisting of the three founders to a company with nearly 40 employees serving over 75 county governments around the country.  

Slowly, the company expanded its suite of products to serve other county government agencies, focusing on case management, accounting, document management, and reporting for sheriffs’ offices and various county courts. 

Looking to longevity and legacy 

As Teleosoft continued to prosper, the founders recognized the need for a different skillset to lead the company effectively. In 2021, they started the process of handing over all the C-suite leadership responsibilities to key employees, though the trio remains deeply involved in the company in other ways.  

“I think the wisdom of stepping out of the way was opening the door for people to have a place to go to, and that helps attract talent,” Boone says. 

Luke, Matt, and Boone hope Teleosoft becomes a company that supports, grows, and adapts to customers and employees alike for the long haul as it builds a legacy.  

“People talk about business-to-business or business-to-government, and the bottom line is you’re always dealing with people,” Luke says of Teleosoft’s employees and clients. “I don’t want to leave these people hanging. I want to leave people with something that for a long time, they’re going to have a company that supports them and that grows with them.”