This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer and Tim Steneveek on Bloomberg Radio.
All right, well, we talked a lot about this during the pandemic, of course, the supply chain crunch all the things that have chips in them, and we saw that, like have some really serious situations because the supply chain when it comes to chips just wasn't happening at least wasn't certainly keeping up with demand. So everything like cars, washing machines, refrigerators, we don't think about it, but everything folks you know, has got chips in it.
Well, it turns out the same thing goes for motors. They're not just in the stuff of like electric cars and elevators. We got medical devices, renewable energy, robotics, automation, transportation, consumer electronics, HVAC systems, Carol, like heaters and air conditioners, those all have motors. Yeah, So motors are everywhere.
Yeah, they are.
So we've got with us Brian Casey, the CEO of ECMPCB stater Tech. It's a company that designed specialty electric motors and the software that makes them, and really delighted to have with us Brian. He's joining us on Zoom from Massage.
It's Brian.
Welcome, Welcome, Welcome. First of all, give us a little bit more of an idea. Specifically, we're talking about these motors as software, but we hear motors and we think one thing.
But tell us exactly what you guys are up to.
I'll think first off, Carroll Tion, thank you so much for having me on. And I think it was only fitting that I come in after Yaba Daba Doo time.
So you're welcome.
Even the Scooby Doo Show uses motors. So you know ECM's offering is we're taking software and allowing people to design their own motors. And that's everyone from large enterprises that are fully integrating, so they can, as you guys opened up, get rid of the supply chain kind of issues and concerns that they had during the pandemic. So it really creates a unique opportunity to have all these motors printed basically through our software.
Bill I want to talk about that development process. I mean, forgive me, I don't know a ton about the motor development process, but I do understand that you at CEES unveiled some new software that's really going to change the way at least according to you, that electric motors are developed and manufactured. So talk to me about the problem that you've solved here, the problem that you're trying to solve, what needed to be fixed in the manufacturing and development process.
Well, I think what you need to be fixed is kind of is more of like an a macro kind of evolution where there really hasn't been anything kind of
unique or new in the motor motor world. And as we move towards as you opened up with tim like sustainability electrification, that requires a more exacting and a more nimble type of offering, and through software, we're able to leverage printed circuit board manufacturing and create very exact motor specifications and motors for end use applications, which allows innovators and engineers to kind of solve problems very rapidly.
You know, it's interesting, and you guys, you should with our producers some research. But the need and there's a line in some of the background material that you sent the need for specialized electric motors as an overlook technology trend. The world was required or will require billions of specialized motors annually in every vertical imaginable and a sector valued it over two hundred billion dollars a year, So money
talks in our investing audience. One of the things we always like when we have a guest on is like, tell us why they should care about what you are doing. What is it that they need to know and understand.
I think that it's the disruption that's going to occur, you know, I think big motor OEMs and traditional there's always going to be a place for traditional motors there where you order through a catalog or you order through a specification. But when you have you know the emergence of the Internet, the emergence of new kind of fast speed chips and people innovating very quickly, they need that response time and in order to fulfill that, that's where
that's where ECM comes into play. And the analogy would be. And you know in the music industry, you know, when the Beatles and the Stones were recording, they were using eight tracks and sixteen track recording. And now you have music artists that are doing everything on their laptop right and they're all doing that through software. And that's really kind of that turned that industry upside down. And even
at ces that opened up our eyes. I mean Our booth was just jam packed for four days straight and we had everyone from large you know, Fortune one hundred companies that were there kind of kicking the tires to what I would call one off like you know, consultants and engineers that are looking for new ways to get their robotics, their robotics, you know, startups off the ground, and their medical device companies off the ground. So ECM's
PCB state or tech enables that. So it's a it's a powerful kind of disruptive tool that I think is going to really kind of turn things upside down.
And is the tool software, yes.
Sir, yeah, So, so the software allows users to do zach specifications for what they want for a physical motor, and then the end of the product of the software creates what they call a gerber file, and that file gets sent to NDI print circuit board house in the world and we're able to print these staters and then these staters go into mechanical systems that become as a traditional kind of motor that you'd see here. And what's great about that, the ubiquitousness of the software is that
you can print these staters anywhere in the world. So if you have a production facility in Chicago. You can print them right there.
It's so interesting, right because we talk so much about chips, right, we say chips are in everything, But if it's some kind of mechanical device, whether it's a robot or something else, like, you're going to need some type of motor and that's where you guys come in, right. It's kind OF's got to be that connective tissue, if you will, And that's what you guys.
Are up to.
Absolutely, it's spot on, Carol, Like, well, we have a Scandinavian company that makes robotic applications for exoskeletons, and you know, from thought to finish, you know, was you know, eight weeks and they had a they were able to put a prototype motor on on on one of their devices and actually had an actual patient using it, right, you know, within within eight weeks. And then they were able to model that and say, hey, this is we want we want to have a little bit more more torque here.
We want to have a little more power and that direct kind of instant feedback. You can only do that with what I would call dynamic modeling proof software.
Well, I connected the dots. My dad was an engineer.
We talked a lot about how things worked, and you took up apart a lot of things at home while we were growing up, So not.
Gonna lie, Brian. It also helped when you held up the you know, the props.
Our whole control room was.
Like, oh, so if you're watching us on YouTube, there's some great images right now that you can see of what exactly Brian Casey is talking about.
I do want to ask you who are your biggest customers.
Give me an idea, so you know a little bit of like kind of we're kind of protected with some NDAs. Everyone wants to keep this great secret to themselves where they kind of get out in front of it. But very large HVAC companies, some robotics companies, medical device companies, what I would call electronics manufacturing companies. We have a partnership with Celestica. They were early adopters and a very innovative company. They've been able to really kind of exploit
the technology for their customers and clients and everything. You know, also what I would call haptics, so people that are doing you know, cinematography and gaming.
So it's like it all over the place.
You guys are private right, I've got that right, Yeah, okay, I thought we had to checked and stuff. So obviously, so your numbers and everything are private, but give us an idea just so that we understand the business. What kind of growth you're anticipating over the next twelve months, so what it tells us about the business, and then what it tells us about the business environment.
Great question, Carol. So you know, back in twenty eighteen twenty nineteen, it was just it was really still in the lab and the thought process, and we're still building the code, and revenue is doubled or maybe more than doubled year after year since that. We're expecting another kind of what I would call exponential growth this year, but looking at the turnout that we had at CEES, it could be even larger than that. And some of the
adoption is where the revenue is created. So if we have a large, let's say Fortune one hundred company that wants to vertically integrate and they're using the software and they're creating their own designs and they're building their own motors, well sometimes it takes a while for that to be digested. So yeah, we have pretty good predictable future revenues going forward, and it's just fun to.
Just ten seconds fifteen seconds left. What would you describe the economic environment right now? Our business environment just quickly based on what you are seeing.
Yeah, you know what, we're pretty optimistic. We feel like things are what I would call is kind of quieted down. Interest rates have improved a little bit, so, but as far as like capital investing in tech, we're we're really busy and you know we've been We've been very fortunate. People aren't holding back, they're releasing their capital budgets to try projects with us. So we're pretty bullish for the next, uh, you know, foreseeable future.
Really fun to talk with you, and I love somebody who gets a Flintstone's reference and also has a prop So, Brian, thank you so much being about Brian Casey their CEO of e C m PCB stater a