EP29 | Boiling Point: Innovating an Industry Left Behind with Brad Medford

Hey everybody, welcome back to another episode of the Growth Capital podcast.

I'm your host Justin Dixon and today we've got Brad Medford on the podcast.

He is the co-founder and CEO of Imperium Technologies. Uh Imperium Technologies

Technologies. Uh Imperium Technologies is a startup manufacturing company uh that is manufacturing a new age steam trap for the steam distribution

companies uh and manufacturing companies that utilize steam for heat. um their

steam trap uh is kind of disrupting an old archaic industry that hasn't uh had any kind of advancements in steam trap manufacturing for at least 20 or 30 years. Uh and so their steam trap

years. Uh and so their steam trap reduces greenhouse gas emission while also helping these companies save on fuel. So we dig into his journey

fuel. So we dig into his journey starting this business with his co-founder uh kind of the differences and complexities of starting a physical product business startup versus uh you know just starting a a more technology

SAS type business. Um, and so it's a very interesting uh concept. He lives

here in Austin, Texas. So we talk about, you know, building and starting a manufacturing plant here in Austin. Um,

so very fascinating and interesting episode. So let's get Brad on the pod.

episode. So let's get Brad on the pod.

interested in hearing conversations with private equity leaders, CEOs of private equitybacked companies and startup entrepreneurs where they share their stories about their career journeys,

starting, investing in, and scaling successful businesses, and the important role that having the right talent plays in building a successful business, then you are in the right place. Welcome back

to another episode of the Growth Capital Podcast. Here's your host, Justin Dixon.

Podcast. Here's your host, Justin Dixon.

[Music] All right, Brad, thank you for being a guest on the podcast. Hey, glad to be here. Awesome. Well, let's uh let's kind

here. Awesome. Well, let's uh let's kind of jump in uh give the audience a little bit of a an update or or kind of an intro to you. So, maybe share like where you are, what you're doing, and and kind of, you know, the role that you play in

the business that you're running. Yeah,

again, my name is Brad Medford. I'm CEO

of Imperium Technologies. Uh we are operating in an industry that most people don't know much about. But

surprisingly this industry consumes 37% of all the fossil fuels out there. It's

industrial steam. And the first question that people ask is uh 37% that seems very high. And every time I say that I

very high. And every time I say that I immediately see people's phones pop up and I see them Google it and they immediately go, "Oh my gosh, you're right." Uh but what's even more

right." Uh but what's even more surprising is that 37% of that fuel is lost and it's being lost because of of these devices that don't work very well.

Uh and so we have actually come up with a solution on that. Uh and why this is so important is that in the manufacturing space anywhere that they need heat, so this could be paper

manufacturing, this could be pharmaceuticals, food production, um wood manufacturing, anything that requires large amounts of heat, they're

probably using steam. And so when they're losing 20% of that energy, that's a huge loss. Imagine for a minute if you had a hole in your gas tank and every time you filled it up, you lost

20% of that through that hole. Well,

that's exactly what's going on in the steam industry today. And the fact that 37% of all fossil fuels are being used to produce steam. It's amazing to me.

And I uh so it's something that u my business partner and I, we looked at and we said, "Boy, we can solve this." So

that's what we're doing today. So yeah.

Well, let's kind of I always like to hear people's origin stories of, you know, how they start businesses, whether they're, you know, a B2B SAS business or or a product or anything like that. So,

how did how did you and your co-founder kind of get to the point where you were like, "Hey, let's start this business um and and then kind of how did that kind of first domino fall to kind of actually

starting it?" Yeah. So, my business

starting it?" Yeah. So, my business partner, Gordon Jud, had been in the uh steam industry for a very long time. He

worked for a large uh steam uh utility in a major metropolitan area and they sold steam to buildings uh in the downtown metro area and and they sold steam the same way they sell

electricity. People would say, "Hey, we

electricity. People would say, "Hey, we need heat. We need uh some sort of

need heat. We need uh some sort of heating source for this building." And

they would buy heat and so they'd buy it the same way. uh he and I went to grad school together and he was we had stayed friends over the years and he had called me up one day and said there's a real

problem in the industry we got to find a way to fix this. So with his steam background in mechanical engineering, uh very smart, a lot of experience in that space, he knew that I'd spent my career

in the electronics industry. And he

said, "Brian, there has to be a way to do this." He and I said, "Well, hasn't

do this." He and I said, "Well, hasn't somebody come up with a solution to this?" Because uh this sounds like a

this?" Because uh this sounds like a area that's right for an electronic solution to come into. And he said, "Brian, there isn't." And I said, "You're you're kidding me. No one." He

said, "Yeah, every solution out there is purely mechanical.

It is unmonitored. And believe it or not, the

unmonitored. And believe it or not, the way they inspect these things is they literally go around with stethoscopes and heat imaging devices. And they have to go to each one and they have to put

the stethoscope on it and listen to make sure this valve is opening and closing.

They'll then sometimes use a a heat gun to actually look at it and see, hey, is this thing working properly? Uh this is supposed to be done maybe once a quarter, but in reality it's probably

done much less than that and it's very expensive and you can have uh hundreds if not thousands of these traps in an industry. So when you're speaking when

industry. So when you're speaking when you're talking about sending people around doing that type of very manual work, uh it gets very expensive just the inspection of them and also you don't

know. And when these things fail, you're

know. And when these things fail, you're gonna uh have either water building up in your pipes or you're going to have these things fail open and you're wasting the energy. So that's where you

get that 20% loss. So either way, they fail open, you're losing the energy. If

they fail shut, you get water building up and you start damaging infrastructure equipment. So as he was telling me about

equipment. So as he was telling me about this problem, uh we tried a couple of different things. We tried a couple of

different things. We tried a couple of different prototypes real quickly. We

finally landed on something that worked.

And with that, we went over and talked to a friend of the family, Rob Neville, uh of Springbuck Ventures. He's done

multiple startups throughout the industry. And I said, "Hey, Rob, do we

industry. And I said, "Hey, Rob, do we have something here?" And we gave him the pitch. And u our pitch deck, such as

the pitch. And u our pitch deck, such as it was at the time, and he was very kind looking back at that deck, I still have it. Uh he said, "Yeah, you guys got

it. Uh he said, "Yeah, you guys got something here. You got a lot of work to

something here. You got a lot of work to do on the pitch deck, but uh he said, "I'm starting a venture fund. I'd like

to, you know, support you guys." And so we started and and took off and here we are today. Uh we're actually shipping

are today. Uh we're actually shipping products. So it's it's been an

products. So it's it's been an adventure. It's been a lot of fun. And I

adventure. It's been a lot of fun. And I

think what's been the most satisfying is in speaking to people in the industry and speaking to those people who are living with the with this inherent problem. It's been around for more than

problem. It's been around for more than 40, 50, 60 years or more. They are

saying this is a gamecher. This is a huge impact. So the um the the journey

huge impact. So the um the the journey really has been one of I can't believe they still do it this way to boy, not only have we solved this problem, we've solved a whole lot of other problems as well. So for the you know, obviously

well. So for the you know, obviously we're recording this in in video and audio. Uh so for people that uh maybe

audio. Uh so for people that uh maybe aren't familiar with your company or or the product that it produces, I guess maybe ex I guess at a high level explain

what um how how these valves work, what they're actually used for in these manufacturing systems and then maybe how your solution is different better um just so we kind of get a better

understanding of of exactly what Imperium kind of is solving and and you know what their solution is essentially.

Yeah. So you have these these large boilers that produce this steam and it comes out at very high pressure typically 150 PSI and it's going to go over a distribution system of pipes and

these pipes can be thousands of feet sometimes 5 10 miles or longer. As that

steam is moving around some of that steam is going to turn back into water.

Well you have to get that water or condensate the technical term for it.

You have to get that out of the pipes.

And the only thing a steam trap does is it opens when these sinks fill up with water and then it closes trapping the steam inside. That's its only job. The

steam inside. That's its only job. The

problem is it doesn't do a terribly good job because it's purely mechanical. In

reality, there's about 24 different types out there in the industry today.

And why are there 24 different types?

Well, it's because none of them work perfectly well in every situation. So,

it's a bit of an art and a science of what they do. So they put these steam traps in the distribution system at all at these various points and they hope that they are removing the water that's

building up in the pipe and they hope that they aren't releasing the steam that they have produced. Uh we came up with an

produced. Uh we came up with an electronic way of doing it. In fact,

it's the first electronic steam trap in the market. Nobody else has done this.

the market. Nobody else has done this.

Uh we have the patents on it. And so

fundamentally what we're doing is we are now able to remove that water from the steam pipes in a reliable fashion.

What's been very surprising is not only have we come up with we have we solved that problem removing the water reliably and not wasting the energy but we're

also finding out other problems as well but finding out problems about their uh other equipment problems problems of the boilers design problems operational problems so we have really solved the

first problem the reliable reliable traps problem one solved but problem two is a much larger problem and that is the fact that the steam distribution systems today are largely unmonitored. People

really don't know what's going on in a in a momentto moment basis. And when you think about the importance of this, if you're talking about semiconductor manufacturing or wood manufacturing or

paper manufacturing where you have these continuous processes, when this heat delivery system fails, the steam delivery system, they have to shut down the production line. causes lots of

downtime, lots of money, and lots of uh trouble trying to find exactly where the problem is because just because the problem has the system has failed, they then have to send people out trying to find out where that failure is taking

place.

And so is your solution obviously a better mechan or or electric valve that kind of I guess opens and closes um automatically or through your your

electronics but then it's also monitoring I guess the what is being released so it to make sure that is actually releasing the thing the water that it's supposed to and not releasing the steam that it's not supposed to. And

so it allows uh a the not a lot of manual input that is needed from inspectors and things that have to go out and actually listen to to you know what you said earlier about listening to

hear if these valves are working. Uh but

it also it allows that that kind of maintenance crew to be reduced so they don't have to like go out on a regular basis. Um, and so I guess as you think

basis. Um, and so I guess as you think about, you know, one of the things when you're trying to solve a problem that impacts an industry that's been doing the same thing for generations, it seems like it there are slow adapters to to

new technology. So, um, you know, how

new technology. So, um, you know, how have you kind of seen adoption rates or I guess interest in from these companies that would probably have to spend a

significant amount of of capital to replace the valves or or kind of bring in your technology. from my

understanding I guess or from my assumption are you replacing the valve or are you adding on to it to make it more efficient and so yeah I'm just kind of curious about the adoption of uh from the kind of traditional players to shift

from what they've been doing. Yeah.

Well, the the thing about these valves are is that they are so pervasive in these systems. They they are everywhere and even in a small system, they have lots of these things. And uh these are actually not capital expenses. So

they're replacing these things about every 2 to four years anyway. So a good way to think of this is this is these are like tires for trucks for UPS. Yeah.

They're it's just an expense item that they're replacing. So what we're hearing

they're replacing. So what we're hearing from our um from the people in the industry who are very excited about this, what they're saying is, okay, we're just going to instead of buying this older technology, we're going to buy the newer technology. We're going to

buy intelllet traffic. That's going to give us uh it's not only going to solve the reliability problem that we have with the current technology, but it's also going to provide us lots of information that we never had before.

Uh, one way to look at this is we are essentially providing them a miles per gallon meter in in some ways to their system. Uh, they we don't necessarily

system. Uh, they we don't necessarily tell them exactly where the problem is.

Well, first of all, we'll know if there's a problem with the trap. We

they're going to know that right away.

But if suddenly you see the amount of water you're removing going very high or going very low from what it typically is, it's going to raise questions. Why

is that suddenly happening? You know, if you're driving your car and suddenly you drop from 25 miles per gallon to 15 or 10 miles per gallon, you maybe not maybe you wouldn't know where the problem is,

but you know, hey, there's a problem here. I need to get it looked at. Well,

here. I need to get it looked at. Well,

it's the same thing with with what we're doing because of the way our steam trap and yes, we are replacing the entire steam trap. So, take out the old steam

steam trap. So, take out the old steam trap, this old reliable, these unreliable things that have been around for 30, 40, 50 years. And we during your normal maintenance as you're just

swapping replacing these devices that you have to replace anyway, put in a telet trap. And what you're going to

telet trap. And what you're going to find is boy, not only do we now have a reliable trap, but we're now getting information about our the overall operation of our steam system that we

never had before. Yeah, I was going to I was curious about the data, I guess, that you're providing to them. to your

point, if if that trap is releasing more often, that probably means there's some deficiency upstream, right? Um, and so I guess what what kind of data and I guess

what I guess insights are you providing back to you know the owner of this this steam distribution system to uh I guess make their lives easier better from a

maintenance perspective because again if you can tell a lot easier that there is some problem downstream or upstream um you know it makes their life easier so they maybe don't have to shut down the

entire plant um or the entire production line to to solve the problem. uh I guess like talk about the data I guess that you're providing back. Yeah. Well, let

me just start where we ended there. Uh

one one of the things that they found is that boy because of the data that we're getting, we're able to see problems weeks in advance, if not months in advance. And so, you know, one one

advance. And so, you know, one one person said, you know, and because of this, I saw a problem that would have been created a huge issue in two or three weeks. I would have gotten a call

three weeks. I would have gotten a call at 7:30 in the morning say, hey, this thing isn't working. Get somebody out of here. I'd have to call somebody, send

here. I'd have to call somebody, send them over. But now I was able to call

them over. But now I was able to call and say can you go out tomorrow and fix this problem? There's something going on

this problem? There's something going on out there. So the data that we are

out there. So the data that we are providing that by the way nobody else is providing this is the amount of water removal of condensate. That's parameter

number one. The second parameter is how often is that valve open? How long is it staying open? Because if you look at at

staying open? Because if you look at at that valve and it's staying open 100% of the time, it means that you're not getting all the water out. It means that your whatever is going on upstream is

creating so much condensate, so much water that the valve itself cannot remove that. So there's you know it was

remove that. So there's you know it was able to remove it for the last 3 4 months but now suddenly it can't. Well,

why not? What's going on? What's

creating all that water? The other thing is that as you look at the amount of the amount of water that's being removed, it really tells you, hey, what is going on

in my plant? What? What? Why is this taking so so much water out of the system during these times of the day? Or

sometimes it's even very informative when it stops taking out a lot of water.

Well, why not? We actually found that there was a very significant design problem in this system because it during certain times of the day the water removal rate dropped almost to zero.

Turned out that was a design problem, but they never would have known that. If

they had gone out with their stethoscopes and heat guns, everything would have been fine. They would have checked it off and said there's a great problem. But because we're getting this

problem. But because we're getting this data, this and you're seeing the data over time, we're reporting data every 15 minutes as opposed to a two or three minute inspection that takes place a

couple of times a year because you're getting real-time data every 15 minutes.

You're getting data that you've never had before.

Are you guys leveraging any kind of AI uh in your systems to kind of make the I guess the data output more readable, efficient so people just kind of like

hey this you know the AI is learning about these different systems and then it can tee up some type of alert or you know preventative maintenance schedule etc etc like I don't know how you know everybody's talking about AI so I

figured even though you're a physical product with some electronics I figured we you know could probably uh leverage it a little bit. Yeah. Well, we do we do have a monitoring system and so there is what's telelet trap which is the actual

device that sits in the steam system but then we have steam view which gives you the visibility to all all the intelllet traps in your system. Uh so yes we we

are looking at at getting AI into that but and we're in fact we're working with a college professor and a couple other grad students on that exact problem. I'd

like to make the difference between uh data and information. Data is just a bunch of is what you get out of a device. Information is okay, I now know

device. Information is okay, I now know what's going on. I'm going to do something. What's interesting in

something. What's interesting in speaking to uh the people who are very deep in the AI is that there's is that there always has to be some sort of

priming of the data. So you have to have some sort of data to put into it for the AI to be able to work. There is no data like this. No one

work. There is no data like this. No one

has ever collected this type of data before. So, we really don't have any

before. So, we really don't have any data to feed into an AI system at this point. We're going to be collecting the

point. We're going to be collecting the data. We're going to be using the data.

data. We're going to be using the data.

We're going to be working with um this university to actually get AI built into it. And this has been one of the things

it. And this has been one of the things that has really intrigued an awful lot of the uh people we're working with is they're saying, "Boy, I have never been on a project where there is no data."

Just about every system they look out there is there's some sort of history.

There's some sort of data they can start feeding into this thing. But they're

saying this is actually we're starting at day zero on this. Yeah, that's

fascinating. So you're so you've got these intelllet traps throughout the system. You know, now the steam

system. You know, now the steam distribution operator uh can can have more visibility into how their entire system is is kind of working positively,

negatively, any any issues. You're kind

of almost creating a a kind of monitoring system for their entire their entire distribution model. Right. So

today there are things that we can spot.

There are things that we look at and we say, "Boy, here's a problem that's coming up. This is what the data is

coming up. This is what the data is telling us." But there's an awful lot of

telling us." But there's an awful lot of data that we know there, we know there's something in it. We just got to find a way to find it. And that's really where AI comes into because they can start uh finding patterns, uh looking other

pieces of equipment, knowing what's going on with that, and make those correlations that frankly the human brain can't look at that much data and pull uh information out of. So yeah, we

we are truly uh breaking new ground with this. Awesome. Well, no, I I I I felt we

this. Awesome. Well, no, I I I I felt we should spend a little bit of time kind of understanding the problem, understanding the solution because, you know, this is not just another B2B SAS company, you know, that that are a

little bit more um cookie cutter. This

is definitely a unique kind of zero to one kind of model. So, uh so thank you for kind of walking an uninitiated person through kind of what that what the system looks like. I have a better picture of that. Um I guess to take it a

little bit more broadly, you know, I think the business you guys started it a handful of years ago at this point kind of officially where where are you in the journey? You I think you mentioned

journey? You I think you mentioned earlier that you're starting to ship products. So obviously you've gone past

products. So obviously you've gone past that you know kind of demo phase or or kind of MVP phase. So maybe maybe share a little about where you are in the journey of kind of the the business.

Yeah, where we are right now is we are actually in our first production run. We

are selling uh products to to a lot of our frankly a lot of our trial customers uh because when they got it into their system, they were so impressed with it.

In fact, uh when we when when that trial was over and we said, "Okay, we're going to start a production run." They said, "Well, we want the first ones off the line because it's been that impactful to us." Um I was thinking, "Well, boy, who

us." Um I was thinking, "Well, boy, who who do I want to sell these things to?

Who would be the biggest, you know, the the big name that we could sell it to?"

and these people who are part of our trials came back and said, "Man, we'll pay you two and a half times the price.

It's been that impactful to our business. We we really want to get these

business. We we really want to get these things." So, when you're a startup,

things." So, when you're a startup, you're looking for money, there's only one right answer to that. So, we did that. So, we are shipping product. Uh we

that. So, we are shipping product. Uh we

are right now trying to scale our manufacturing. Uh it's going well. But

manufacturing. Uh it's going well. But

as you can imagine, anytime you start assembling these things, there's a million little every screw, every joint, every tube has to be accounted for, has

to be looked at. Uh we're getting we're we're working through that. We have it uh frankly pretty close to where we wanted to be. Uh we're finding some efficiencies that we didn't think we were going to find early on, but uh

yeah, so far we're doing really well and we're really happy with what the progress we're making. And is this uh you know talking about manufacturing, talking about kind of assembly and products and all that you know we're

recording this in kind of early May so tariffs are obviously uh you know all the buzz at the moment. So where are you manufacturing the product and and are you sourcing materials from you know

other countries and so you've had to kind of battle through the tariff uh situation.

Yeah, this product is is made in the US.

It's made right here in Austin, Texas and we we are very proud of that. We did

not want to ship this overseas. We want

to have and and that's really a quality issue when I we our team is going to be watching these things. We're making sure we're shipping a quality product. Uh we

do obtain some parts from overseas. Uh

and yes, the tariffs have impacted us to a degree, but you know, in some ways the the tariff issues and everything that that has caused, it's really have our team go back and look at these things

and what can we do differently? How can

we look at this? And what we've found is that there are certain things that we've been able to do that's really reduced the price. So yes, tariffs have impacted

the price. So yes, tariffs have impacted our costs. Like it's impacted everybody,

our costs. Like it's impacted everybody, but we've also been able to drive down uh a lot of the price that we originally were thought would be years away, but in reality, we've been able to get those

moved out very quickly. There's still a whole lot of um cost savings we can get to. Uh we're shipping our first

to. Uh we're shipping our first production run and uh we've actually sold our second uh sold out of our second production run. We haven't even started that yet, but we've already sold

out of that and we're actually starting in into our third production run. So uh

once we get those things out there and moving, we're going to start looking at some other significant cost reductions out there. So we're very confident that

out there. So we're very confident that we can get our cost of product our bomb cost down and looking forward to seeing that happen. Got it. So, so has the I

that happen. Got it. So, so has the I guess I'm curious. Has the tariff situation caused you to kind of ramp up or pull forward some of that kind of cost cutting measures or or kind of, you

know, cost savings or or strategies that you've looked at that maybe you're like, we'll look at that down the road. Maybe

that'll be, you know, production run three, four, whatever. Or has that kind of forced the your hand a little bit to kind of look at more more efficient ways to do things? It it has because when you

sit there and you look at okay well this divi this part of the process it was going to cost us this much money. Okay

well it's gone up by this much and you add it all up and you say well boy if I had that money I instead of just paying it into a tariff I could take that I could improve the product that makes a

lot more sense from a overall strategy perspective. So yeah, we don't like the

perspective. So yeah, we don't like the tariffs, but when you have that money and you're looking at spending, you're saying, "Well, boy, if I put in the tariffs, I'm never going to see that money again, but if I put that back into

the product, I use that money to gain efficiencies." Then that's a long-term

efficiencies." Then that's a long-term win. Yeah. And how are you selling this

win. Yeah. And how are you selling this to customers? Obviously, it sounds like

to customers? Obviously, it sounds like they they almost pay for themselves over time, I would imagine. So there's

probably some type of a, you know, costbenefit analysis that you show to a customer. Uh, and I guess as you're

customer. Uh, and I guess as you're answering that, how many of these traps are in a I'll call it a standard dist steam distribution system? Obviously,

they're small and large, but you know, is it five? Is it 500? Like what what kind of when you're going to a customer and saying, "Hey, you know, as you're replacing, you know, let's move these in. You know, how many are they buying

in. You know, how many are they buying over over time?" Yeah, I would say the typical steam system will have anywhere from 100 to maybe thousands of it. you

know uh it's ants probably land somewhere in the you know 3 400 range.

It depends on the size. It is very dependent on the size of the system but uh you know in some ways the smaller systems uh represent smaller businesses who are much more concentrated on

reducing cost and the fact that we can reduce their fuel consumption by 20%.

Well that's 20% fuel reduction. So that

that becomes real important to a lot of these people. And I'm assuming your

these people. And I'm assuming your steam trap is more expensive than traditional just because there's some electronic component in it. Um, and so yeah, you would kind of want to show

that cost reduction over time to say, hey, by saving 20% on your, you know, fuel cost, then it's it's going to pay for itself over the long haul. Well,

yeah, the fuel is obviously a big part of it, but there's also the labor cost.

There's the infrastructure damage because when this water builds up in these systems, it causes huge, huge amounts of damage. In fact, one of our

trial customers was replacing a $1.1 million pipe underneath the streets of a major metropolitan area because condensate was building up. And he had no when he completed the project, he had

no idea where that condensate was coming from because when he inspected his traps with the stethoscopes and the heat guns, they were all working and they were. But

the problem was there were design problems that that they didn't know about that they needed to be fixed. They

were able to fix it. Uh but to answer your question maybe more precisely, yeah, it's it's about a 12-month payback period. Okay, most people say, "Yeah, in

period. Okay, most people say, "Yeah, in about 12 months, I'm going to do it."

Because when you start calculating in the labor cost, uh because the type of people who go around inspecting these things, these are extremely well-trained people who are very knowledgeable of

their business. I'm always amazed by

their business. I'm always amazed by what these things I can learn from talking to these people. Uh so there's that and then there's a damage to the infrastructure. there is uh the downtime

infrastructure. there is uh the downtime and and downtime becomes very critical.

If you're talking about semiconductor manufacturing plant, if you're talking about uh somebody's continuous process, if you have to shut down that production line for any g every for a given period

of time, it's going to be expensive to get it back online and the loss revenue from product you should have been producing. Yeah. Uh I'm kind of curious,

producing. Yeah. Uh I'm kind of curious, you know, I talked to a lot of people kind of especially here in Austin, um because we're we're actually live very close to one another, but you know, a lot of the people are starting tech

startups and and all that stuff. And so

how how has it been kind of starting, you know, a physical product company, you know, from the onset? Like, you

know, what what kind of journey did you go through or what maybe lessons do you wish you would have known about now, uh you know, but back then that you learned kind of through the process? I'm just

kind of curious how how you think about that. Well, I I think the first thing I

that. Well, I I think the first thing I learned is don't uh do a startup in the middle of a pandemic. That's that's

problem. So hopefully that will not be an issue going forward. But uh I would also say that you know early on there was kind of this view that boy physical products we really want to do the SAS

model. We're all about software. It

model. We're all about software. It

scales quickly and I understand that.

But I think what I have seen over time is that people are starting to realize that boy uh the manufacturing base is very important and and we can do that.

The other thing I would say too is that uh you know finding the right people to talk to is very is important and some people are just you know they're in the

they have a maybe they're focusing on medical things, maybe they're focusing on financial tech, you know, all these different things. But finding the right

different things. But finding the right people to to speak to has really been I think probably the key learning I've had because you speak to the right people who understand it.

Uh that makes a lot of difference. Yeah.

How do you find those right people?

Because I know you know there's especially here in Austin there's a ton of there's a ton of access to startup ecosystems uh you know kind of founder kind of factories and and you know

accelerators and all that stuff. But,

you know, I guess as somebody that maybe has an idea for a physical product, if they're listening to this, uh, or even if it's a SAS startup, doesn't matter.

Like, how do you kind of identify the right people? Because obviously

right people? Because obviously everybody's going to want to give you an opinion on, you know, what they what they think about your business or your product, but how do you kind of sus out or try to find the people that are going to, you know, kind of shorten the the

runway that you need to get to the point where you're going to be successful, right? Kind of shrink that that kind of

right? Kind of shrink that that kind of learning curve as much as possible.

Yeah. Well, this we're actually part of two groups here. Uh the first one is Greentown Labs, and this is located down in Houston, Texas. A great group. They

were very focused on the greenhouse gas reduction. Uh the fact that we can

reduction. Uh the fact that we can reduce fuel consumption by 20%. Well,

that's a 20% reduction in your greenhouse gases out of your expense budget. I don't no

budget. I don't no uh expense budget device that can reduce your greenhouse gas emissions by 20%. So

that that's an example. So you find those accelerators that are are very much focused in your area. So that's one thing. Uh we're also part of Capital

thing. Uh we're also part of Capital Factory and Capital Factory is very good in just uh finding people who are very interested in ways to

improve the operation or some sort of business problem that's out there. uh

from a operational business perspective these traps are a huge uh issue a cost issue for these uh companies out there.

So by basically playing both sides of that fence one side we're playing the greenhouse gas environmental side and green and green town has been very helpful in that. The other side of it is

really that financial thing. What what

is the business impact? What are we doing to help these uh business owners reduce their overall cost? Well, that's

where Capital Factory has been real helpful. Yeah, I used to have a hot desk

helpful. Yeah, I used to have a hot desk at Capital Factory, so I worked out of there uh you know, once a week typically to get me uh get me out of the house and and go see people in in person when we first moved to to Austin. Um speaking of

Austin, uh you said that your manufacturing plant is here. I'm kind of curious. Um you know, Austin is known

curious. Um you know, Austin is known for more tech and and things like that.

How how have you found kind of the local talent market for the types of of people that you need in your manufacturing plant?

Yeah. Well, I've got the best team anybody could could hope to have. I

mean, that just the uh I would say the depth of of experience and the depth of uh willingness to work and understand problems. Um you know, frankly, a lot,

you know, there's not a lot of people out there who understand steam traps, right? It's a very obscure industry. So,

right? It's a very obscure industry. So,

what I look for is who are the people out there who can figure things out?

We're the people that when they they can look at a problem and say, "Man, I know nothing about this, but I'm going to dig in. I'm going to find out uh everything

in. I'm going to find out uh everything I need to, I'm going to come up with a solution to this problem, whether it be in marketing or finance or operations." Uh Austin's been a great

operations." Uh Austin's been a great place for that. And we've also hired people from outside the Austin area as well. And so, overall, I'd say that

well. And so, overall, I'd say that Austin's just been a a great place to start a business. Yeah. No, I would agree with that wholeheartedly. Um, you

know, I think the I always like kind of like to wind things down with like a look to the future. Um, you know, you obviously are are it seems like things are going quite well. Uh, you know, you you've already kind of started shipping

product. You you've already sold out of

product. You you've already sold out of your second production run. Uh, and so I guess you know, if we jumped on a podcast 12 months from now, you know, what what would you like to have accomplished from a business

perspective? Uh, you know, to kind of

perspective? Uh, you know, to kind of have that be a very positive and and upbeat conversation versus, oh, we missed the mark, uh, you know, as far as that goes. So, what are you kind of

that goes. So, what are you kind of looking forward to? Yeah, what I would like to like to do is is really get past the whole idea that we're a steam trap company. I mean, we are it's what we

company. I mean, we are it's what we make, but you incorporate steam view and there's other products that we have uh under development that are going to be providing overall information. So, if

you look at the importance of heat, which is what steam is, it provides heat to all these manufacturing processes. Keeping that working is an

processes. Keeping that working is an important thing for all these industries. And so what I would want

industries. And so what I would want people to look at is sit there and say Imperium Technologies has stepped into an industry that has really been overlooked by the tech industry at large

and they have solved a lot of these problems. They have they have now providing a more reliable heat distribution system.

They're providing information to people they never had before. And as a result, their production uh uptime has gone up.

Their costs have have gone down. the

people that they've hired, they're doing more important things. They're doing

things that are actually improving the product, not going out trying to find which of these hundreds of traps is causing the problem in the system.

That's what I'd like to see. I'd really

like people to say because of Imperium Technologies, we have improved our overall product efficiency. Makes sense. Well, hopefully

efficiency. Makes sense. Well, hopefully

uh we can get the message out there uh and scream it from the rooftops uh essentially. So, um I appreciate that.

essentially. So, um I appreciate that.

Um awesome. Uh I guess last kind of thing before we jump into the final three pack I guess any kind of recommendations you kind of shared a little bit about this earlier but you know if somebody is listening to this um

you know what kind of recommendation or or advice would you give somebody that you know is is interested in starting a product that is disrupting or going into

a market like yours that really had had no innovation in 20 30 40 years. Uh

because somebody might think look at that and say that's a a a target-rich environment. Or some people may say

environment. Or some people may say that's going to be way too hard because the status quo is the status quo and that's what people like and change is hard. So you know what what advice would

hard. So you know what what advice would you give somebody that's kind of trying to get into the a similar style market that what you're into? Yeah. Well, if

you're concerned about being hard, I I would suggest you don't do it because I promise you it will be hard. But I would say that in speaking to investors, I spent way too much time trying to

explain the problem. M I think investors really just they kind of trust that okay whatever you're talking about you get it. So at that first

it. So at that first conversation get into the financial benefits get into what does a deal look like? Uh I think my you know I first

like? Uh I think my you know I first heard boy I got to keep this thing under 10 minutes. I just about fell over. How

10 minutes. I just about fell over. How

am I going to do that now? My pitch it's probably about seven minutes.

And I think you know getting people quickly up to speed on on the overall uh company direction on that. So uh if you look at doing something very technical

yeah keep it focused on the financial model. Yeah. Financial investors really

model. Yeah. Financial investors really want to know what what am I going to get out of this right? What's going to be the return? Um versus you know obviously

the return? Um versus you know obviously they care about the problem typically right but uh they care about about money uh a lot of times. So uh no it makes a lot of sense. Uh Brad, this has been awesome. Uh I want to end the show like

awesome. Uh I want to end the show like I do with every guest and ask a a three-pack of questions. Um so first question here, uh what's like an influential book or or podcast that you

might recommend to our audience?

Yeah, I would say probably the one that really spurred me on was uh Peter Field's 0ero to One. Okay. uh because

you know he was talking about startups and what how to do it and I kept in every chapter I read well I thought boy this is going to be the chapter where uh you know the anvil drops and blows a hole in our business case and all that stuff but as I kept reading it's like

boy this is us this is us so it was very encouraging by somebody who's been in this business for in the startup business for a long time knows how to do it so it was very

encouraging to see his information awesome no I I've read that book it's been a while so I may have to go back and and check that one out. Um, all

right. Second question here. Uh, what is your favorite thing to do outside of the office? Yeah, I I really enjoy doing

office? Yeah, I I really enjoy doing woodworking. I I like just building

woodworking. I I like just building things with my hands and and stuff like that. Uh, it's it's it's much different

that. Uh, it's it's it's much different than working in the tech sector because you you actually see it and it it comes out and you can come up with something that's actually quite beautiful. Uh

there's nothing really beautiful about a steam trap to be honest, but you do some good working and it turns out to be a very relaxing thing to do. Yeah. Any any

specific um outcomes that you look at or are you doing like birds or like you know uh you know any any kind of specific kind of woodworking kind of output? Yeah, it's typically tables,

output? Yeah, it's typically tables, beds, you know that type of stuff. Um so

Got it. Yeah. I have a neighbor who uh he like takes a big stump of wood and like with a chainsaw cuts out like dogs or like eagles. It's quite impressive.

Um so fair enough. Um all right, last question here. Uh favorite vacation

question here. Uh favorite vacation spot.

Boy, any place warm and tropical. So

this could be Hawaii down the Bahamas, you know, any place like that where you can just sit on the beach and relax. U

and frankly any place with my family is probably my favorite vacation spot. Fair

enough. Awesome, Brad. This has been awesome to to learn about Appirium Technologies and and about your journey kind of over the last couple of years. I

guess if people are listening to this and they want to learn more about what you're doing, uh learn more about your story, what is the best way to connect with you? Yeah. Go to our uh web page,

with you? Yeah. Go to our uh web page, imperiumzone.com, imperiumzone, all one word.com. And it's got a information

word.com. And it's got a information thing. We are I'll tell you, we are

thing. We are I'll tell you, we are upgrading our web page uh as we speak.

uh uh we were, you know, trying to keep a lot of this secret, but now that we're out in the market, we're we're trying to push it out there. Our web page is running a little bit behind where I'd like it to be, but if you click on that,

there's an information button and you'll get in touch with somebody here at the company. Awesome, Brad. Like I said,

company. Awesome, Brad. Like I said, thank you very much. It's been awesome to to learn about your journey. I

appreciate you sharing your story. Yeah.

Well, thank you, Justin. I've enjoyed

our time together and look forward to working talking to you soon.

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