After 50 years of hands-on steerage by its founder, Micromanipulator feels fresh wind in its sails. It's got a new owner, new captain and new money.
Flywheel Ventures acquired the firm, recruited Bill Hartman as president and chief executive officer, then tossed in a $1 million cash infusion.
"Flywheel realizes there's opportunity in change," says Hartman.
He predicts 20 percent growth next year and more the next.
Change may be overdue at the longtime Carson City company.
After half a century of control, founder Robert Hancock left the company to the California Institute of Technology in his will. But Caltech is not in the business of running companies and went shopping for a buyer.
"It was looking for someone who would honor the gift," says Hartman, and not simply flip the firm for fast financial gain. "Caltech liked that Flywheel took a longer term view;
it had an interest in growing the company."
And it's a longer-term growth plan as well, with new processes and new mindsets. Hartman's vision will take the company from craft level to disciplined design processes. And the new ways will depend on teamwork, not top down direction.
That, he says, is the biggest change coming down the pipes changing from a long established climate of departmental competition to one of teamwork.
"When a founder directs product development, that limits teamwork," he says.
Now, he brings all departments together on the assembly floor to talk about how to fix a problem.
While he sees the upgrading effort as a three-year process, he's tackling one problem right away: a revamping of the flagship product. It's a semi automatic probing station that can test 12-inch silicon wafers.
"Performance and reliability are not as good as it could be," he says. "We took it off the market and completely redesigned the software, hardware and electronics."
The company will re-launch it around the end of the year.
The present product sells for $125,000; the new improved version will bring twice that.
"We need to re-prove to the market that it's a top product," says Hartman.
Customers are semiconductor design or manufacturing businesses such as Micron, Intel, and Samsung. Other buyers include military sub-contractors, nano device developers, and universities doing research.
It's a big market, but Micromanipulator doesn't have that market to itself. It's got big competition: publicly-traded Cascade Microtech and precision German engineering by Suss.
Micromanipulator isn't looking over its shoulder.
"Our near term challenge is to do a better job with what we have," says Hartman. "We compete on cost effective value."
And to keep an eye on the ever-changing technology of integration and compatibility.
But the new management looks beyond simply keeping up with an ever changing industry. It means to take advantage of it.
"That's the plus of having new board insights," says Hartman.
Flywheel Ventures brought more than mere money to its new acquisition; it brought brains. Interim owner Caltech retained a 10 percent interest in Micromanipulator and retains a seat on the board of directors. However, now the board also seats a Stanford MBA, ex-execs from Intel, and Hartman himself. He was president of a high-tech company in Albuquerque, which sold late last year, leaving him free to take up Flywheel's offer.
The board, he says, "Is a real resource: smart and connected. It can mean nothing but good things for this company. I expect we'll have connections with Caltech and Stanford."
But while the company casts a wider net for seats in the boardroom, its main focus is on the workforce.
"We want high-energy, risk-taking employees," says Hartman.
And he plans to create them in house. Company spending on training and certification has lagged, he says. The company is even creating an employee stock option plan.
With 40 employees on staff, it's hiring for several high tech positions, including a new one: director of engineering.
It's tough finding qualified people, Hartman admits. The company is looking locally because it's tough to attract people from the Bay Area.
"As soon as the next thing comes up, it draws them right back there," he says.
Employees and directors alike are closely tracking changes in the industry
"Chip surfaces are getting larger and being made in bigger batches, while the geometry of design is getting smaller," Hartman says.
Meanwhile, the cost of testing is going up. And that's a profit
opportunity.
On the far horizon, nanotechnology may be a promising market for the company's products, he says.
"It looks like a big market, being about very small things that need to be tested. But it could be very long term, having already had several false starts."
In the near term, Hartman is looking at better ways to manufacture Micromanipulator's existing products.
