From Better Disks To Better Rest
Venmill Industries started in 2002 with a simple mission: Give libraries, rental outlets and everyone else an easy way to fix broken CDs and DVDs. The Uxbridge company makes machines that buff scratched disks and restore them to playable condition.
President Michael Schmidt said that mission still keeps his 20 employees busy. But a few years back, he was feeling that maybe, with the way streaming content was starting to displace disk storage, they wouldn't be able to stay quite busy enough.
"It's no secret it's not a fast-growing business," he said.
So Schmidt called some meetings to look for new problems to solve. He asked all his employees to think about what the company was good at, and how those strengths might be put to different uses.
These are questions that face many businesses today, whether they're worried about changes in their industries or simply looking for new ways to excel. Schmidt said he's been surprised at how many companies that he talks with are making similar moves toward innovation.
Venmill pursued a few concepts, but the one that really caught on was suggested by Tim Leyva. He worked in IT for the company, but his idea grew from a few experiences in his personal life. For one thing, Leyva said, he's "pretty much a hands-on kind of guy" who does his own car repairs and understands how to think about mechanical problems. For another thing, a few years back, he was diagnosed with sleep apnea.
Drawing On Personal Experience
Like many people with that condition, Leyva has to use a CPAP—or "continuous positive airway pressure"—machine at night. And, he said, like most people who have to use a CPAP machine, he hates it. Aside from the annoyance of having a mask strapped to his face, Leyva said, one of the worst things is cleaning it. At times, he would be ready to go to bed, only to realize he hadn't cleaned the machine that morning. So he'd have to spend 15 minutes taking it apart and cleaning it, and, since he wouldn't be able to get it dry right away, he'd have water spray on his face once he put it on.
Leyva started thinking about the issue, drawing on knowledge of sanitizing technology gained from a previous job in the food industry, and developed a concept for a machine that would sterilize CPAP machines on days users couldn't find time to clean them.
Venmill did some research, surveyed CPAP users and enlisted a few MBA students from Clark University to help them investigate the market for the product. What they found was very encouraging—many CPAP users hated dealing with a dirty mask, and no other company seemed to be addressing the problem.
"It was phenomenal how much there was a need and a want," Leyva said.
Board Approval
The process that unfolded was driven by the evident market demand, Schmidt said. Leyva first brought up his idea in the spring of 2011. In May, Schmidt brought the concept to the board of directors, and by July, they had formed a new, separate company, Better Rest Solutions, and begun ordering materials.
Leyva's invention, the SoClean, went on the market at the end of January, and now, Schmidt said, "we're moving quite a few every week."
Schmidt said the product not only fills a real need, but encourages people to actually use their CPAP machines, which can help prevent more serious problems, such as heart disease.
"If there is something we can do to make it easier to use the CPAP machine, people will use it," he said.
Starting Better Rest Solutions has, in some ways, meant building up a whole new operation from scratch. The SoClean machines are aimed at a consumer market that's completely different from the buyers of disk-repair machines, and selling them requires making new connections with health care providers and sleep labs. But Schmidt said Venmill's employees have embraced the new mission. It helps that the company is small, and that its workers are able to adapt to a different sort of assembly work.
"We put together machines," Schmidt said. "They know how to do it."
So far, Better Rest Solutions has only one employee fully devoted to it. Others share time with Venmill. Schmidt said the company hopes to hire a couple more employees in the next month.
Meanwhile, he said he's still asking his workers for ideas of new business lines to pursue.
"I've always said I never had a good idea, but I know one when I see it or hear it," he said.
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