Business case histories
PROBLEM: Remote locations without power outlets, such as home patios, depend on battery-powered lighting, which is short-lived and unsatisfactory.
SOLUTION: Portable LED lighting that is energy efficient, long-lasting and low cost.
STRATEGY: An inventor’s fledgling company with the product solution needs to get the word out. A start is news releases to various media outlets.
Colorado company sheds a new light on lighting technology
It’s been said necessity is the mother of invention. It certainly has been for Longmont entrepreneur Anthony Catalano, and in a very big way.
Catalano’s wife didn’t like the fact their Longmont home had no patio lighting. With no power outlets on the patio, Anthony purchased some ordinary battery-powered incandescent lights. Running on four AA batteries, the lights lasted only 45 minutes.
Catalano, with a background in electronics, knew there had to be a better way of solving a 21st century problem than with old technology. Incandescent lights produce mostly infrared, non-light producing heat, a wasteful and inefficient way to create light. With incandescent lights, a relatively large amount of energy is used to produce some light.
The proverbial light bulb turned on above his head, and it was a different kind of light bulb. Why not explore the use of LED lighting?
“I set about investigating how to build a circuit, build the electronics and build a prototype LED bulb,” Catalano explains.
He solved the problem. He had a much better alternative for lighting, and his wife was happy.
Catalano knew he had a winning idea. “I figured if it works for my wife and that application, probably people throughout the world will want this product.”
The winning answer is the LED concept. LED (light-emitting diodes) bulbs were first used for status, indicator, directional and accent lighting, but recently have advanced to be able to produce high brightness, the kind that would nicely light up a patio. LEDs are able to convert electrical energy into a great deal of light, the way incandescent bulbs do, but efficiently, without the extra, wasted energy. LEDs can run on portable battery packs and even solar energy.
Catalano hired an engineer and a marketing expert. The start of his company, TerraLUX Illumination (terralux.com), was on its way. And the rest is, as they say, history.
In two years Catalano’s company has grown from fewer than ten employees to more than 40 now, with revenues in eight figures. His company is indeed a bright light on the green, economically-sustainable scene.
The LED solution is clear-cut: the purchase price for a basic LED bulb for a home is $40; it lasts 12 years. The old-fashioned incandescent bulb is 75 cents to buy, but burns out after six months, using twice the power of an LED.
Half of TerraLUX technology is the manufacturing of modules/engines for buildings, new or retrofit. The other half of manufacturing goes to portable lighting. His company is an industry leader, producing the “smartest” LED module on the market, with cost-saving automated integration technology.
Catalano’s Colorado success story is one of many that have brought “clean-tech 2.0” industries to the state with energy-efficient alternatives to outdated technologies. TerraLUX is in a geographically hot area for these new industries. Just a few months ago GE purchased Albeo Technologies, a Boulder LED company.
Several Colorado venture funds have helped this revolution, helping put Colorado on the green map: Aravaipa, Infield, and 9th Street. Yet, even with great new infusions of capital, these innovative enterprises are still taking a backseat to conventional energy-generation companies -- the battle is not yet completely won.
