LayerZero Power Systems Celebrates 24 Years of Operation!
By Brian Love
For Milind Bhanoo and James M. Galm, it started with an idea: to provide the power distribution market with safer, more reliable products designed for mission-critical environments with advanced power-quality monitoring capabilities. That idea formed LayerZero Power Systems, now celebrating 24 years of operation.
"The owners of where we previously worked didn’t get the products or the customers, so they weren’t investing in anything new or making customers as happy as they could be," said Galm. "Milind and I thought that we could do better. We wanted to come up with more reliable products and better experiences for customers. At the end of the day, that is what it is all about."
Still, an idea is easier said than done. To achieve this dream, Bhanoo and Galm had to leave secure positions and put their life savings on the line. With Bhanoo serving as President and Galm as Vice President, they worked out of the attic of a garage, designing and building the very first LayerZero demo unit.
"It was terrifying when we first started," said Galm. "We didn’t get any loans, venture capital, or private equity. We didn’t get anything. We started the whole business with our own money, which made us highly motivated to be successful."
They hired a mechanical engineer, an electrical engineer, and a software engineer to help them along the way. That team ended up designing the Optical Power Transfer Switch (OPTS), a Triple Modular Redundant Static Transfer Switch that was ahead of its time.
The team behind these first designs understood that their products differed from any other power distribution system with their mechanical design and user interface. These innovations included fiber optic controls, redundant technologies, and a fault-tolerant design. The introduction of a touch-screen interface, TCP/IP access, and waveform capture further pushed innovation.
Eventually, the company’s big break arrived when LayerZero Power Systems convinced a U.S.-based bank to invest in a set of new OPTS Static Transfer Switches, boosting the reliability of their data processing center. At the same time, LayerZero launched a three-source OPTS and a Single Modular Redundant OPTS.
"We started by wanting to make the most reliable products that we could," said Galm. "At the time that we started, static switches had started to fall out of favor because other manufacturers were making products that didn’t satisfy what customers really wanted. We knew we could build relationships with customers and give them a great experience. The business has grown a lot since then, but the core ideas behind LayerZero haven’t changed."
In the years following the construction of that first unit, the company continued to grow. In 2021, LayerZero experienced a surge in demand, requiring increased testing and manufacturing capabilities. In 2022, the company opened a state-of-the-art assembly and testing facility at 350 Harris Drive in Aurora, OH.
But that expansion wasn’t the end. In 2024, LayerZero Headquarters at Driver Drive underwent a significant expansion, allowing for more production. That same year, the company acquired a new facility at 10030 Philipp Parkway in Streetsboro, OH. This acquisition has increased manufacturing capacity and provided new job opportunities to the local community.
"We are going to keep growing and expanding our production capacity because, right now, what is limiting us is simply the ability to make more products," Galm said. "The demand is very high. I see us starting to do overseas work in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region. I see LayerZero expanding into more four-pole products. In the U.S., three-pole products are the most predominant, but in the rest of the world, you need four-pole products. We have the core technology for that. Looking back on all we've done, it’s been a marvelous journey."