for partnerships between young companies and a plethora of resources from institutions such as Ann Arbor SPARK and U-M.
And Civionics is already taking advantage of some of these amenities. The company is slated to move to U-M’s Venture Accelerator in the coming weeks. Zimmerman says the accelerator, which U-M officials unveiled last week, will allow Civionics to be “in a startup atmosphere with other companies that are at similar stages of development and are developing technology based solutions.”
In addition, Lynch says renting space at the accelerator is a bargain, especially considering all of the services it provides. “In a small company where you only have two or three employees, what happens is you get spread thin very quickly,” Lynch says. “Having people in the incubator that can help give advice, it’s really like having a few extra people in your company without it really costing you.”
Though they think the services provided by the accelerator will help to give them an edge, Lynch and Zimmerman say Civionics real competitive advantage over other companies making wireless “smart sensors” is in its technology.
“The real IP with the technology is actually this imbedded intelligence that’s sitting in the device,” Lynch says. “It’s an informatics driven solution that gives us the opportunity not only to collect data at low cost, but we’re also autonomously processing data; the idea being that you’re not giving raw data to the individual that has purchased the system.”
In addition to being accessible for end users, Lynch and Zimmerman say their product is more scalable than most smart sensors on the market. According to Lynch, because