N.H. FIRM PUTS CARBON NANOTUBES TO WORK
Originally printed in The Portsmouth Herald (.PDF)
PORTSMOUTH NH, February 7th, 2010 — Peter Antoinette is a total rock star and a genius. First, the genius part. Who would have imagined that carbon nanotubes, an unnoticed discovery from the Soviet Union during the cold war in 1952, would transform into a strong, lightweight, electro-thermally conductive material used in high performance aircraft, military body armor, and energy efficiency. Peter Antoinette is Co-founder, President, and Chief Executive Officer of Nanocomp Technology in Concord, NH. He had the brains to transform carbon molecules, realize their extraordinary strength, electrical properties, and thermal conductivity and spin them into light weight, delicate yarns and sheet-like fabric (for you fashion bugs, it only comes in black, sorry!).
Now with yarn and fabric, you can cover aircraft wings, weave body army for the military, and even cover buildings with energy efficient architectural fabric that’s allegedly one hundred times stronger than steel and conducts heat. Now you get the genius part. Normally carbon nanotubes are found in powder form which makes application development difficult. Using Nanocomp Technology’s patented process, they have removed the impurities and delivered a durable, portable, protean material that can be intermingled for immediate applications like their current project with the U.S. Army to create the next generation of body armor. In fact, they were able to arrest 9MM bullets in controlled ballistics testing using carbon nanotube fabric integrated into razor thin composite panels.
What makes this particularly compelling is that they’ve created a category buster with a platform technology on the magnitude of aluminum when it first came on the market, or Post-it-Notes for you office-types. So flexible that it can draped like a scarf or used as a strong-as-steel composite. They’ve brilliantly created an esoteric market to structural composites competing with Kevlar®. Their patented process has created near term demand at very high multiples and is light, strong, and conductive. This creates a fire storm, or mass markets.
Now the rock star part. Peter Antoinette’s leadership, integrity, and focus has enabled him to attract investors and earned him a seat on the Board of Directors for the New Hampshire High Technology Council, the National Science Foundation’s Center for High-Rate Nanomanufacturing Industrial Advisory Board, and member of United States Senate’s Small Business Advisory Council. What’s more, Nanocomp Technology won two new Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Contracts from United States Air Force for aerospace applications.
Peter’s outlook on investment is encouraging. He feels we’ve reached an economic plateau and that investor confidence is back. Furthermore, investors want to invest in New Hampshire, particularly in manufacturing to stop the hemorrhaging and develop a 21st century manufacturing economy region-by-region across America. This means we could see job creation in our state for the well trained manufacturing-types, not just the PhDs.
His advice to entrepreneurs is to “ultimately be persistent”. When investment dollars are tight, research government grants through SIBR and the U.S. Department of Energy. Figure out from the beginning what the vision is for the product, but more importantly, how investors can make money. Also, figure out how your customers can make money with your product to enhance their gross margin, increase sales, and enter new markets. If you are able to find how to serve niche markets with a quality product, then stay focused. Finally, with true integrity, he encourages entrepreneurs to be respectful of other people’s money and be good stewards. Be rigorous about every dime you spend because “cash is your most precious commodity”. And finally, it’s all about execution. Now you have all the nuggets you need to spin your idea into gold!
Media Contact:
Catherine Blake
Sales Protocol International
580 Bay Road
Durham, NH 03824
(603) 828-7312
cblake@salesprotocol.com