Ed Mitchell on New Hampshire's Business

MANCHESTER, NH, Oct. 4, 2010 – APA President and Co-Founder Ed Mitchell was featured on New Hampshire’s Business, a television show hosted by Fred Kocher on WMUR.   Mitchell and fellow guest Jason Alexander, of Alexander Technology Group in Bedford, NH, spoke on issues ranging from New Hampshire’s high-tech economy to the upcoming Techworld event to be held in Portsmouth on Oct. 14 and 15.

Mitchell stressed the importance of collaboration, which is made possible, in part, by the size of the State, but also by the collegiality between startups and entrepreneurs.   “The New Hampshire tech community is very collaborative,” said Mitchell.  ”The New Hampshire High Tech Council… is terrific at bringing together businesses.”

Jason Alexander said that New Hampshire is “seeing a faster turnaround in terms of hiring from this recession, as compared to the previous turnaround from the dotcom bust.”   Both guests mentioned that they are looking to hire new workers, recruiters and tech professionals for Alexander Technology Group, and technology sales professionals for Air Power Analytics.

Chris Buck, Esq. is Sr. Marketing Analyst for Air Power Analytics, of Bedford, NH.  Air Power Analytics (APA) is a 2010 winner of the Green Launching Pad competition at the University of New Hampshire.  APA is dedicated to helping industrial manufacturers dramatically reduce their compressed air energy consumption, as well as cut their greenhouse gas emissions.  More information about the Green Launching Pad is available at GreenLaunchingPad.org.  Air Power Analytics is online at AirPowerAnalytics.com.

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Case Studies

Christopher Buck, Esq.
Air Power Analytics, Inc.
603-865-1918
cbuck@airpoweranalytics.com
www.airpoweranalytics.com

Air Power Analytics targets costly wasted energy in industrial compressed air systems

New company uses breakthrough methodology to profile clients’ performance, identify savings opportunities, and right-size their supply

BEDFORD, NH, Aug. 31, 2010 – A team of proven entrepreneurs today launched Air Power Analytics, a company dedicated to reducing companies’ energy bills and carbon footprints by better analyzing their compressed air systems.

Large-scale compressed air systems are ubiquitous in industry, used for a wide range of industrial applications like drilling, blasting, sanding, vacuuming, feeding and fastening. Air compressors consume more than 90 billion kilowatt hours of electricity each year in the United States, according to the US Dept of Energy. That’s more than 10 percent of all US industrial electric consumption.

But these systems are notoriously inefficient. To address the waste and resulting environmental impact, Air Power Analytics (“APA”) manufactures and sells the most advanced diagnostic tool for these systems. By spotlighting potential efficiencies, APA can help companies reduce their electricity use by 30 percent or more.

“The potential energy savings from compressed air is huge yet often overlooked,” says Ed Mitchell, co-founder of APA. who co-founded successful telecom start-up Granite Systems. “There’s a misconception that ‘air is free.’ Deep down, most factory managers know that they can save big money by optimizing their compressed air systems, but they don’t know how much it will cost, and, more importantly, how much it will save. We give them answers they can act on.”

Until now, consultants have typically installed “dumb” meters on compressed air systems for a week, each meter with a separate data logger recording readings every 30-60 seconds. Then the consultants pulled out the meters and aggregated the data.

APA, however, has developed a new method of compressed air system optimization that is more comprehensive yet more affordable. It looks at both the supply and demand sides of the compressed air equation and calculates a range of documented ROI projections. APA’s sophisticated data logging equipment is fully networked and automated, recording meter readings every 3 seconds and continuously uploading data to a central server. APA software analyzes and reports efficiency in real time, crunching a year’s worth of data or more. APA can also run a broad array of reports without affecting ongoing data collection.

“With our automated approach, we can install our system in a facility with as little as 75 horsepower of compressor capacity and achieve a 24-month payback,” says Mitchell. “The larger the compressor package, the bigger the energy savings, and the faster the payback.”

APA, formerly Compressor Energy Solutions, is one of five companies to win the Green Launching Pad (“GLP”) competition at the University of New Hampshire for companies working to bring clean new energy products to market. The company is located in Bedford, N.H., employing interns, analysts, and other professionals from around the state and region.

# # #

• Governor Lynch, UNH President Huddleston Announce Companies Chosen for Green Launching Pad – 5/3/2010
• Green Launching Pad names 5 winners – 5/4/2010
• Shea-Porter Highlights Local Business Partnership at Congressional Competitiveness Task Force Forum – 6/15/2010
• Green Launching Pad Companies Meet at Unitil, Governor and Local Entrepreneurs Give Valuable Advice – 6/17/2010
• Green Launching Pad Companies Leverage Social Media to Keep Momentum Going – 8/26/2010
• Air Power Analytics targets costly wasted energy in industrial compressed air systems – 8/31/2010
• APA President Ed Mitchell featured on New Hampshire’s Business – 10/4/2010

Christopher Buck, Esq.
Air Power Analytics
603-865-1918
cbuck@airpoweranalytics.com
www.airpoweranalytics.com

Green Launching Pad Companies Leverage Social Media to Keep Momentum Going

Newly funded Green Launching Pad companies are looking to cooperate to build clean-tech industry in New Hampshire.

Durham, NH, August 26, 2010 – On May 1, five Green Launching Pad finalists were informed that their companies were receiving funding. Today, those finalists and the sixty-seven other applicants are banding together to share in a common vision for the future of New Hampshire’s green-tech industry.

The Green Launching Pad is a business plan competition for New Hampshire green-tech companies, conceived by UNH President Mark Huddleston, UNH Professor Ross Gittell, and Governor John Lynch. It awards Department of Energy funds to stimulate growth for early-stage green-tech companies in New Hampshire, and to provide a path for local employment.

Just over a fiscal quarter after receiving funding, the participants are finding that cooperation may be the best strategy for industry growth.

“We have so many resources at our disposal,” says attorney Chris Buck, Marketing Analyst for Green Launching Pad finalist Air Power Analytics of Bedford, NH. “There is the institutional support of UNH, which includes business mentorship from companies across New Hampshire, as well as networking opportunities with key players in our industry. But we also have our common experiences to draw from, which may be our best asset. As a collection of bootstrapped companies, social networking is driving that collaboration.”

This past Thursday, the five finalist companies were privileged to meet with Governor John Lynch, a UNH alum and Harvard Business School graduate, who asked the companies about what they needed from the public sector to succeed. Several of the companies responded that they would like to see meetings with the utilities to prove out their technologies. The companies address a variety of needs from reducing energy in heavy manufacturing to monitoring gas tanks to financing large solar arrays. The company presidents were confident that they could win the support of the utilities and Public Utilities Commission (PUC), if they could have more opportunities to demonstrate their energy-saving products and services.

The companies also enjoyed a presentation from Gregg Fairbrothers, Professor at the Tuck School at Dartmouth. Fairbrothers stressed the importance of knowing the target customer, and demonstrating that knowledge in a simple, concise, and well-polished business plan.

After the meeting with the five finalists, all seventy-one applicants were treated to lunch with the Governor and UNH President Huddleston at the Durham campus’ Holloway Commons. Emotions ran high at one point when several of the participants expressed feelings of frustration and uncertainty, saying that they had invested substantial personal savings in their technologies, and that they were unsure how they were going to make ends meet without greater assistance and visibility from the Green Launching Pad.

While every business expressed frustration about raising capital in the current economic climate, there were two other prominent needs that were conveyed to the Governor – a lack of internal networking, so that companies might develop synergistic relationships with each other, and a lack of media coverage. To address the latter concern, the Governor suggested that an interactive website and blog could be built to provide a more public face for the accomplishments of the green-tech companies. It was acknowledged that a success for one company is really a success for all of the Green Launching Pad participants, and that what all the companies aspire to build is really a green-tech industry in New Hampshire, in addition to promoting their own products and services. Professors Ross Gittell and Venky Venkatachalam agreed with the proposal and are working on solutions for the site.

Another positive development to come out of the meeting is that the several companies are now collaborating with each other via a Linkedin group. “This will provide networking opportunities with each other and chances to develop relationships with other companies that would not have been possible without the Green Launching Pad,” says Ed Mitchell, founder of Air Power Analytics. “In the end, we want everyone to succeed. We feel a great responsibility to the other companies and the people of New Hampshire to create jobs, save energy costs, and help the environment wherever we can.”

With a common vision beginning to form among the participants, the Green Launching Pad companies appear to have a bright future ahead.

Christopher Buck, Esq. is a New Hampshire attorney and Marketing Analyst for Air Power Analytics of Bedford, New Hampshire. He is also the founder of Docketz.com, a local legal research website in New Hampshire.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Christopher Buck, Esq.
Air Power Analytics, Inc.
603-865-1918
cbuck@airpoweranalytics.com
www.airpoweranalytics.com

Green Launching Pad Companies Meet at Unitil, Governor and Local Entrepreneurs Give Valuable Advice

Governor John Lynch and distinguished entrepreneurs offer advice to Green Launching Pad companies on how to make it to the next stage of growth.

Hampton, NH, June 17, 2010 – Green Launching Pad companies were treated Thursday to presentations by Governor John Lynch, Kedar Gupta, CEO of ARC Energy, and Andrew Kellar, Founder of Simply Green of Portsmouth, NH.  Approximately fifty people representing a variety of green-tech companies and investment firms piled into a conference room at Unitil’s Hampton campus to hear the distinguished presenters discuss a wide range of topics from  how to make it to the next stage of growth, when to approach investors, and how to engage in effective marketing.

The Green Launching Pad is a collaborative project of UNH and the Governor’s office.  Fifty-five teams, many of whom were represented at the gathering, competed earlier this year for Department of Energy stimulus funds.  Five companies were ultimately selected for amounts ranging up to $60,000.  The purpose of the Green Launching Pad is to cultivate New Hampshire’s green-tech economy and create sustainable employment opportunities for New Hampshire citizens.

Governor Lynch opened the presentation by discussing his experience as CEO and President of Knoll corporation.  When the Governor joined the company, “it was losing about one million dollars a week,” he said.  “Worse than that, our variable costs were terrible, meaning the more we sold, the more money we lost.  When it was my time to speak at a meeting with our parent company” he quipped, “I told them that it seemed to me that it might be a good idea to make our costs less than our revenues.  And then I sat down.”  Jokes aside, Governor Lynch was successfully able to turn the company around from a $50 million dollar loser to “one making a profit of nearly $240 million.”  The significance of that accomplishment was not lost on the Green Launching Pad companies who are hoping the backing of the Governor’s office and UNH will help them be received seriously by investors.

Kedar Gupta impressed the crowd with his company’s innovative approach to manufacturing LED lightbulbs, and at a cheaper price than any other company.  LED’s typically last twenty-forty years, he explained, and offer the potential to save billions of dollars in energy costs for third world countries, not to mention significantly reducing CO² emissions.  One of the highlights of Mr. Gupta’s presentation was when he modestly told the audience that he had the “lowest IQ” in his company, which has become a fast success, even receiving a visit from President Obama earlier this year.  Gupta stressed the importance of surrounding oneself with good people and thinking of ways to help others.  “You can’t eat a pile of money,” he said, an illustration that doing good is one of the best ways to be successful.

The audience was equally impressed with Mr. Kellar, the Founder and Owner of Simply Green.  Simply Green serves bio-fuels to local companies in the form of heating fuels and bio-diesel for transportation.  The company supports local businesses by purchasing leftover oils from restaurants, thereby giving them an additional revenue stream and reducing waste.  It has grown quickly with the awareness of environmental concerns, and has benefitted from a number of high-profile customers, including supplying the Dave Mathews Band tour bus.

Kellar credits his team with employing innovative approaches to marketing and public relations.  “We didn’t start out with a large advertising budget,” he says.  “We had to go out and raise awareness by selling to customers who were passionate about the environment and by taking advantage of any free press we could get.”  That strategy paid off when Rolling Stone magazine wrote an article about them, in part because of the excellent service they had offered to an eco-conscious band playing in Hampton.  Simply Green now operates a “ConGreenience” store in Dover, the first of its kind in the nation.

The attendees were made up of Green Launching Pad companies, including the five finalists, Air Power Analytics (Bedford), EnerTrac (Hudson), Green Clean Heat (Newton Junction), Innovacene (Durham), and Revolution Energy (Dover).  The Green Launching Pad will meet four more times over the course of the summer, offering participating companies a chance to learn business development strategies from some of the State’s most successful companies.  The next seminar will focus on financing and will be hosted by the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation in Concord.

Christopher Buck, Esq. is a New Hampshire attorney and Marketing Analyst for Air Power Analytics of Bedford, New Hampshire.  He is also the founder of Docketz.com, a legal research website.

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http://www.shea-porter.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=708&Itemid=67
Note:  This article references Compressor Energy Solutions, which is now Air Power Analytics.

http://www.seacoastonline.com/articles/20100504-BIZ-5040370
Note:  This article references Compressor Energy Solutions, which is now Air Power Analytics.