{"253721":{"#nid":"253721","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Georgia Tech incubation services boosts start up firm Soneter","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EAt the Oct. 7 Georgia Tech Manufacturing Institute Brown Bag Seminar, Soneter Chief Technology Officer \u003Cstrong\u003EJeff Duggar\u003C\/strong\u003E told Georgia Tech students and faculty that growing a start-up business isn\u2019t a one-person job. \u201cYou need outside help; we can\u2019t do it alone with just two people,\u201d he explained. \u201c[The Advanced Technology Development Center] brought in consumers and commercial\/industrial customers. That led to a huge number of contracts that we didn\u2019t think of.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ESoneter has developed a product and service that extends the smart grid technology to water and gas meters. The firm initially targeted multi-family residential customers, but has since expanded to commercial\/industrial and public sector groups through the help of ATDC.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ECompared to current water and gas monitoring technologies, the unique aspects of Soneter\u2019s technology are that it is lower cost and non-invasive \u2013 i.e., doesn\u2019t require cutting pipes. The company uses ultrasonics to monitor low-flow pipes using off-the-shelf, low-cost software. \u201cThe software costs approximately $750 compared to the thousands of dollars you will spend on meters,\u201d Duggar explained. \u201cAnd we\u2019re adding wireless communications to provide information to the end user whether that is the property manager, resident, or facilities manager. That is all tied back into the Web.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ESoneter\u2019s product-enabled service does more than simply capture the data, however. It also reports analytics such as how much time the resident spends in the shower or how much water is used in the manufacturing process. In addition to flow-specific analytics, Soneter also offers back-end billing software.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIn terms of manufacturing the product, again ATDC has proven to be of great assistance. \u201cCurrently we are producing these through contract manufacturing,\u201d said Duggar. \u201cATDC put us in contact with those manufacturers, and have developed a lot of interest with other industrial partners who have an interest in the technology.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDuggar also clarified the difference between Georgia Tech\u2019s VentureLab and ATDC incubation services. \u201cVentureLab is focused on faculty and students,\u201d Duggar explained. \u201cATDC is focused more on entrepreneurs with established start-up businesses looking to expand. VentureLab helps someone become a company but they move to ATDC once they are a company.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe biggest challenge Soneter has faced in developing its business, Duggar said, \u201cis bridging that gap between prototype to production-level product.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDuggar\u2019s presentation was part of the GTMI Brown Bag Seminar Series, which takes place each Monday between noon and 1 p.m. in the Manufacturing Research Building, Room 114. Students and faculty are invited and are welcome to bring their lunch to the meeting. If you have questions or you want to be added to the reminder list for these events, please contact Tina Guldberg at \u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:tina.guldberg@gatech.edu\u0022\u003Etina.guldberg@gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E.\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EFormer Georgia Tech Research Engineer Jeff Duggar explains the benefits of the university\u0027s incubation services at a recent Georgia Tech Manufacturing Institute Brown Bag Seminar.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Former Georgia Tech Research Engineer Jeff Duggar explains the benefits of the university\u0027s incubation services at a recent Georgia Tech Manufacturing Institute Brown Bag Seminar."}],"uid":"27857","created_gmt":"2013-11-11 16:55:29","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:15:22","author":"Tracy Heath","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2013-11-11T00:00:00-05:00","iso_date":"2013-11-11T00:00:00-05:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"groups":[{"id":"155831","name":"Georgia Tech Manufacturing Institute (GTMI)"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[{"id":"79611","name":"Brown Bag Seminar"},{"id":"79621","name":"Jeff Duggar"},{"id":"215","name":"manufacturing"},{"id":"167803","name":"soneter"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ETina Guldberg\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDirector, Strategic Partnerships\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E404-385-4950\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:tina.guldberg@gatech.edu\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003Etina.guldberg@gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["tina.guldberg@gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}