the construction of the desktop keyboard—you slide it into an enclosed chamber to sanitize it before or after each use—as well as the effectiveness of two 25-watt ultraviolet bulbs that Ranta says kill 99.9 percent of MRSA germs in less than 10 seconds. Right now the keyboard system is expected to sell for about $500. The company has gotten press from TechFlash, Seattle Times, and other news outlets, and is looking for more exposure as it gears up to go to market this year.
Here are some more highlights from my conversation with Larry Ranta:
Xconomy: How did Vioguard get started?
Larry Ranta: Craig worked on this project for almost a year at Microsoft. They wanted to know, is there a customer base, is it profitable? In his 12 years—he was director of research and development—this is one of the best things he’d seen that they didn’t elect to go with. So he said, “If you’re not going to do it, can we do it?”
We started in the last quarter of 2007. Craig left Microsoft in November 2007. We met twice a week, putting a business plan together. But we didn’t form the company until June 2008. We’re really excited about the company.
X: What kind of new exposure are you getting? And where is Vioguard’s technology being deployed?
LR: We’ve unveiled the machine in San Diego at the Society of Healthcare Epidemiology of America show [last week]. We’ll show it at the Healthcare Information and Management Systems meeting in Chicago in April, and the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology in Florida in June.
Evergreen Hospital [in Kirkland, WA] will be a beta test site. Seattle Children’s Hospital probably will be. We met with the UW Medical Center [two weeks ago], and got an e-mail from them saying, “We love this.”
X: What are your next steps beyond fundraising and the initial product?
LR: Beta tests are starting in May. We’re going into full production in the end of May. It’s done locally, in Kent and Tukwila, we’re keeping very close tabs. Our engineers are working here every day. The laboratory tests far exceed our expectations. For MRSA, the kill rate is 99.9 percent in less than 10 seconds, and we can go to 99.999 percent in less than 20 seconds.
Our next product is for smaller, mobile units. Right now it’s for a desktop, or mounted underneath the desk. But it’s a real simple fix—you just move some of the buttons and the touchpad right below. It’ll have the look and feel of a regular computer.
