Noel then rolled up his sleeves and went to work with his investors / shareholders:

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As follows is a list of REELSTRONG SHAREHOLDERS:

 

Toni Leslie:  Marketing guru (and Noel's girlfriend at the time). Like Noel, Toni put in no cash, just unrelenting sweat equity. She designed the website, brochures and logo and added model pics on the website as Noel fabricated each design. She is responsible for coining the name "Reelstrong." 

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Bryan Kelly:   An old friend who pitched in cash and introduced Noel to a local Construction Company Owner and investor: Ivar Galilea.

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Ivar Galilea: Owner of Alternate Construction Concepts and of Viking origin. He provided Noel Capital and a one car garage to build prototypes while providing Noel welding work from his company at night and on the side..

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Austin Saylor: A friend of Noel's and Toni's. He injected capital and maintained the website for free while Noel allocated all available capital to furthering the line card, R&D and manufacturing infrastructure.

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Stuart Burns:  Ivar's Father-in-Law and Founder of world renowned SAFWAY SCAFFOLDING. Stuart has recently passed away and our hearts go out to him in and the rest of his family.  We owe a debt of gratitude to Stuart for his support through tough times and will make sure to make him proud in heaven.

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That said, it was the start of the Great Recession, and after two years of building prototypes and hustling around PA Dutch Country trying to get his designs manufactured he just didn't have much luck outsourcing manufacturing and R&D. Always on the verge of bankruptcy, and chomping at the bit to get a large investment to buy fabrication equipment, he finally convinced Stuart to inject capital for fabrication equipment. The Recession was still in full force and Noel didn't know anyone in the power or telecom industries and needed connections for sales help.

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Not having much capital, but knowing he had to take a risk he applied at the invite only EUFMC conference in Williamsburg VA in 2008 and was accepted! He showed his CL Autolock design at the drive through parade and not being much of a public speaker totally tanked his speech. A few fleet managers thought this to be admirable and genuine and approached Noel with interest in purchasing. Luckily, Gerry Brown from the Philadelphia Electric Company (PECO) needed the exact style trailer Noel showed, bought it and literally saved the company from bankruptcy. Additionally, that year Noel was approached by the late Bill Flemming from Asplundh to build some very large self-loading reel trailers. Bill would visit Noel in his garage and mentor him through the necessities and safety features required of large power company reel trailers. Unfortunately, shortly thereafter Bill passed away. Bill, will always be remembered as one of Reelstrong's most important pioneers for helping and mentoring a 1-car garage start-up through tough times. His kindness with no expectation of anything in return was a true blessing and we are forever grateful to Bill. He will live forever in our hearts.

 

Since 2006, REELSTRONG trialed, scrapped, re-trialed and sold numerous prototypes with the vision to eliminate  manual reel-securing and loose hardware on all types of reel and pole trailers. Eager to market his new technology, but constrained by the chains of a recession and a limited line card, Smith purposely repositioned his strategy to take advantage of the recession by diving deeper under the radar to build a local, personal reputation for unrelenting service and reliability by building one off custom jobs that few established reel trailer companies wanted. Every one-off model Noel built he put up on his website and built the line card. The recession could have buried Noel, but he turned this obstacle into an opportunity allowing him the extra time to fine-tune and perfect a more comprehensive line of equipment so when the economy improved REELSTRONG UF would emerge the world's premier powerline construction equipment leader.

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All said, the recession churned on and Noel needed all the help he could get—especially in sales. Luckily,  Tommy Goldhorn from Goldhorn Electrical Construction introduced him to Local IBEW 126 retiree Tom Roberts:

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