FloDesign
"The
MSBDC’s Dianne Fuller Doherty not only offered us sound business advice;
she embraced our dream and urged us to think big," emphasizes
Stanley Kowalski III [photo right], who is CEO of the
Wilbraham-based engineering and design companies, FloDesign
and its spinoff, FloDesign Wind Turbine Corporation.
Founded in 1990 by its current chief technology officer Dr.
Walter Presz, Jr. [photo left], FloDesign focuses on
innovations in air and fluid dynamics and process engineering. Its
dozens of patents have yielded product innovations for military aircraft
that generate reduced heat signatures, a nonlethal cannon that fires
bursts of air instead of bullets, more efficient, quieter jet engines
and leaf blowers, and now a wind turbine that Kowalski believes will
prove to be a game changer in the renewable energy market. Says
Kowalski: “It’s what Harvard business professor Clayton Christiansen
calls a “disruptive technology”—a revolutionary innovation that topples
a market’s technology status quo.”
A radical improvement over traditional horizontal axis wind turbines,
FloDesign’s mixer/ejector alternative generates 50% more power at a cost
of 25% to 30% less. “Dianne realized that we had a potential winner in a
green technology market poised for enormous growth,” notes Kowalski, who
joined the firm as its CEO in 2007. (Although Kowalski spent nine years
as a new product development engineer with a photo finishing firm in
Palmer, his involvement with FloDesign dates to the early 1990s when he
was Presz’s engineering student at Western New England College.)
“Dianne was persistent in encouraging us and in helping us to sharpen
our presentation to potential funding sources,” he continues. “She
pulled together a team of entrepreneurs and financiers who listened to
our presentation and gave us precise, strategic feedback.”
“Stanley is a serial entrepreneur and he’s also an engineer in love with
his technology,” remarks Doherty, who is regional director of the
MSBDC’s Western Regional Office in Springfield. “During his
presentations, we kept stressing—ease up on the technology; focus on
your business and marketing plans.” To that end, Kowalski honed an
airtight business plan in support of a well-researched message that the
market for wind turbines would likely exceed $20 billion and that his
company could capture $3 billion of that potential market. With
critiques from Doherty and her cohorts under his belt, Kowalski was
ready for the real thing.
In April 2008, FloDesign Wind Turbine Corporation secured a $500,000
loan from the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, the state’s
development agency for renewable energy and technology innovation.
Kowalski is using the loan, which requires a company match, to
build his first prototype. A month later, the company won the $200,000
grand prize in the MIT Clean Energy Competition. In that contest,
Kowalski received valuable support in preparing and presenting his
financials from William Noto, a UMass Amherst MBA student. The UMass
Amherst campus’ Isenberg School of Management frequently collaborates
with Doherty’s center and is headquarters for the statewide MSBDC
Network.
Even more momentous was the outcome of Kowalski’s presentation earlier
in the spring to the eminent venture capital firm, Kleiner Perkins
Caulfield and Byers. The firm, which includes Al Gore, Colin Powell,
Bill Joy, and V.C. icon John Doerr among its partners, was duly
impressed. It has earmarked several million dollars in first-stage
financing for Kowalski and his project.
With its new-found resources, Kowalski is moving full speed ahead to
bring FloDesign’s revolutionary wind turbine to market. That includes
developing its prototype, searching for a more spacious facility, and
readying to hire the company’s first wave of core employees. If all goes
according to plan, Kowalski foresees his product’s market entry by as
early as 2010. "Dianne helped us to set our sights high,” affirms
Kowalski. “Now we must execute against the clock to maintain our
competitive advantage."