Phillip Merritt, Vice President and COO of Lakota Software Solutions, and co-founder Aaron Wilson left their jobs at NASA and took a chance on themselves to pursue careers in the growing field of biometric identification in their home state of West Virginia. They founded Lakota to create state-of-the-art technical solutions in the expanding biometrics industry right here in the Mountain State. Last year, Lakota partnered with TMC Technologies, another West Virginia-based company, to win a large contract to build a biometric system for the Somalia government. “My recommendation to people is that you have to enjoy learning and constantly seek out new opportunities to learn technology. Technology changes so fast — the stuff we’re doing today, they weren’t teaching in school ten years ago. Some of it they’re just now getting to so you have to stay up with it. ” Innovators and Entrepreneurs is a bi-weekly segment of the daily304 that features discussions and wisdom from West Virginians who have built their companies and launched new ideas here in the Mountain State.