Tenrehte’s smart grid wins CES Green Tech award
January 9, 2010
Rochester, NY based Tenrehte Technologies Inc won the CNET Green Technologies award at the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show. Their new PicoWatt smart plug will provide the benefits promised to consumers by a “smart grid” including real time electricity usage information and the ability to control all your appliances from a central plug. You can even control usage to make sure that high-energy using utilities operate at off-peak times - saving money.
CNET cited the PicoWatt for letting the home user set up monitoring themselves, unlike other smart grid technologies that are waiting on long-term deployment of smart home power meters. Each smart plug is a mini linux wifi router, gathering data and controlling devices remotely through a central control program. Users can view their data on a smart phone, or even a facebook application. It can automatically monitor and eliminate standby power on televisions and other appliances when they are not in use.
According to CNET’s reporter Martin LaMonica, the final consumer version has a planned price of $79 and will be sold direct to consumers later this year.
This blog of course has covered success story Tenrehte from their humble beginnings, to their planned TED Talk later this year. I am happy to count Tenrehte as one of Rochester’s entrepreneurial success stories! Great job to Jen Indovina (CEO) and the rest of her awesome team. Check out the CNET Video on Tenrehte here.
Entrepreneur Profile - Tenrehte, Inc.
June 17, 2009
Company name: Tenrehte Technologies, Inc.
Principal: Jennifer Indovina
Website: www.tenrehte.com
Contact: jennifer.indovina@tenrehte.com
Industry Focus: Wireless semiconductors
# of employees: 5
Startup Stage: Bootstrapping our hardware development system, Linux run-time, and application software which validates and demonstrates our technology. On the business side we are raising seed capital, and engaging initial customers.
Lee Drake: Every entrepreneur learns early that a careful concise, one paragraph elevator speech describing their product or service is a key component of success. What is your elevator speech:
Tenrehte is a wireless semiconductor company which was founded to address consumer demand for smart Wi-Fi enabled products. We simplify wireless product development for electronics manufacturers by providing a turn-key platform which includes a high performance, low power, and low cost Wi-Fi processor bundled with an optimized operating system and a suite of intuitive application development tools. Our products enable customers to create end products more efficiently. Our unique intellectual property provides innovative features for Wi-Fi device manufacturers. On a broader scale, our mission is to improve people’s lives through wireless technology. Tenrehte will revolutionize wireless devices because we understand that the future of consumer electronics depends upon hassle-free plug-and-play connectivity.
Lee Drake: What was the biggest challenge that you’ve faced in building your entrepreneurial business and how did you overcome it?
Raising operating capital. Although my team has been involved in previous start-up companies that have managed to raise the capital to grow a company before does not mean it’s any easier for us this time around. Although the current economic climate has made things “interesting”, we are managing to successfully navigate the situation by remaining focused on the end result. Bootstrapping a semiconductor operation is not feasible for us, however, we have found other creative ways to keep the lights on and we are making good progress.
Lee Drake: What do you anticipate the next biggest challenge will be?
In the short term, the success of our company is dependent upon our ability to validate our business to investors. In the long term, our challenge is the same as every other company; it all comes down to sales.
Lee Drake: What has been the most pleasurable surprise you’ve had as you go down the road of an entrepreneurial startup?
The local Rochester, NY support has been overwhelming. Even though we aren’t revealing too many of our secrets, it’s just incredible to see local elected officials, investors, financiers, and customers getting excited about our technology and our mission. Overall, people want to see us succeed. Indeed this was a bit surprising for me. The very first seed funding pitch I gave was less than 5 months ago to a boardroom full of accredited, but not very tech savvy angels in Manhattan. I stood at the front of a rather large conference room, describing my company and our technology to an audience of harsh scowling faces. I was only about 2 minutes into my pitch when an older gentleman sitting in the back raised his hand and said “So, you make, like, mini-routers that can be put in anything? Cool, it sounds like the Terminator to me.” Everyone in the room erupted laughing. Unfortunately, our technology was not aligned with their investment strategy, so they chose not to invest in our company on that day. However, a managing partner of another investor group was in the meeting and her personal impressions lead her to refer us to more interested investors!
Lee Drake: What did you want to be when you grew up?
I wanted to be a plumber, a singer, a vet, and an astronaut. I was jack of all trades, apparently. I think if you ask anyone else in my team, they’ll say “Engineer” or “Test pilot”, which is why they are in my team.
Lee Drake: If you could give just one piece of advice to someone with a new entrepreneurial idea, what would it be?
Do not get sidelined by fear. Believe in yourself, your idea, and your team and charge forward. Sure there will be bumps along the way, probably many, so just keep pushing forward.
