Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer and Tim
Speaker 1: Steneveek on Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 2: All right, well, we talked a lot about this during
Speaker 2: the pandemic, of course, the supply chain crunch all the
Speaker 2: things that have chips in them, and we saw that,
Speaker 2: like have some really serious situations because the supply chain
Speaker 2: when it comes to chips just wasn't happening at least
Speaker 2: wasn't certainly keeping up with demand. So everything like cars,
Speaker 2: washing machines, refrigerators, we don't think about it, but everything
Speaker 2: folks you know, has got chips in it.
Speaker 3: Well, it turns out the same thing goes for motors.
Speaker 3: They're not just in the stuff of like electric cars
Speaker 3: and elevators. We got medical devices, renewable energy, robotics, automation, transportation,
Speaker 3: consumer electronics, HVAC systems, Carol, like heaters and air conditioners,
Speaker 3: those all have motors. Yeah, So motors are everywhere.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they are.
Speaker 2: So we've got with us Brian Casey, the CEO of
Speaker 2: ECMPCB stater Tech. It's a company that designed specialty electric
Speaker 2: motors and the software that makes them, and really delighted
Speaker 2: to have with us Brian. He's joining us on Zoom
Speaker 2: from Massage.
Speaker 1: It's Brian.
Speaker 2: Welcome, Welcome, Welcome. First of all, give us a little
Speaker 2: bit more of an idea. Specifically, we're talking about these
Speaker 2: motors as software, but we hear motors and we think
Speaker 2: one thing.
Speaker 1: But tell us exactly what you guys are up to.
Speaker 4: I'll think first off, Carroll Tion, thank you so much
Speaker 4: for having me on. And I think it was only
Speaker 4: fitting that I come in after Yaba Daba Doo time.
Speaker 1: So you're welcome.
Speaker 4: Even the Scooby Doo Show uses motors. So you know
Speaker 4: ECM's offering is we're taking software and allowing people to
Speaker 4: design their own motors. And that's everyone from large enterprises
Speaker 4: that are fully integrating, so they can, as you guys
Speaker 4: opened up, get rid of the supply chain kind of
Speaker 4: issues and concerns that they had during the pandemic. So
Speaker 4: it really creates a unique opportunity to have all these
Speaker 4: motors printed basically through our software.
Speaker 3: Bill I want to talk about that development process. I mean,
Speaker 3: forgive me, I don't know a ton about the motor
Speaker 3: development process, but I do understand that you at CEES
Speaker 3: unveiled some new software that's really going to change the
Speaker 3: way at least according to you, that electric motors are
Speaker 3: developed and manufactured. So talk to me about the problem
Speaker 3: that you've solved here, the problem that you're trying to solve,
Speaker 3: what needed to be fixed in the manufacturing and development process.
Speaker 4: Well, I think what you need to be fixed is
Speaker 4: kind of is more of like an a macro kind
Speaker 4: of evolution where there really hasn't been anything kind of
Speaker 4: unique or new in the motor motor world. And as
Speaker 4: we move towards as you opened up with tim like
Speaker 4: sustainability electrification, that requires a more exacting and a more
Speaker 4: nimble type of offering, and through software, we're able to
Speaker 4: leverage printed circuit board manufacturing and create very exact motor
Speaker 4: specifications and motors for end use applications, which allows innovators
Speaker 4: and engineers to kind of solve problems very rapidly.
Speaker 2: You know, it's interesting, and you guys, you should with
Speaker 2: our producers some research. But the need and there's a
Speaker 2: line in some of the background material that you sent
Speaker 2: the need for specialized electric motors as an overlook technology trend.
Speaker 2: The world was required or will require billions of specialized
Speaker 2: motors annually in every vertical imaginable and a sector valued
Speaker 2: it over two hundred billion dollars a year, So money
Speaker 2: talks in our investing audience. One of the things we
Speaker 2: always like when we have a guest on is like,
Speaker 2: tell us why they should care about what you are doing.
Speaker 2: What is it that they need to know and understand.
Speaker 4: I think that it's the disruption that's going to occur,
Speaker 4: you know, I think big motor OEMs and traditional there's
Speaker 4: always going to be a place for traditional motors there
Speaker 4: where you order through a catalog or you order through
Speaker 4: a specification. But when you have you know the emergence
Speaker 4: of the Internet, the emergence of new kind of fast
Speaker 4: speed chips and people innovating very quickly, they need that
Speaker 4: response time and in order to fulfill that, that's where
Speaker 4: that's where ECM comes into play. And the analogy would be.
Speaker 4: And you know in the music industry, you know, when
Speaker 4: the Beatles and the Stones were recording, they were using
Speaker 4: eight tracks and sixteen track recording. And now you have
Speaker 4: music artists that are doing everything on their laptop right
Speaker 4: and they're all doing that through software. And that's really
Speaker 4: kind of that turned that industry upside down. And even
Speaker 4: at ces that opened up our eyes. I mean Our
Speaker 4: booth was just jam packed for four days straight and
Speaker 4: we had everyone from large you know, Fortune one hundred
Speaker 4: companies that were there kind of kicking the tires to
Speaker 4: what I would call one off like you know, consultants
Speaker 4: and engineers that are looking for new ways to get
Speaker 4: their robotics, their robotics, you know, startups off the ground,
Speaker 4: and their medical device companies off the ground. So ECM's
Speaker 4: PCB state or tech enables that. So it's a it's
Speaker 4: a powerful kind of disruptive tool that I think is
Speaker 4: going to really kind of turn things upside down.
Speaker 3: And is the tool software, yes.
Speaker 4: Sir, yeah, So, so the software allows users to do
Speaker 4: zach specifications for what they want for a physical motor,
Speaker 4: and then the end of the product of the software
Speaker 4: creates what they call a gerber file, and that file
Speaker 4: gets sent to NDI print circuit board house in the
Speaker 4: world and we're able to print these staters and then
Speaker 4: these staters go into mechanical systems that become as a
Speaker 4: traditional kind of motor that you'd see here. And what's
Speaker 4: great about that, the ubiquitousness of the software is that
Speaker 4: you can print these staters anywhere in the world. So
Speaker 4: if you have a production facility in Chicago. You can
Speaker 4: print them right there.
Speaker 2: It's so interesting, right because we talk so much about chips, right,
Speaker 2: we say chips are in everything, But if it's some
Speaker 2: kind of mechanical device, whether it's a robot or something else, like,
Speaker 2: you're going to need some type of motor and that's
Speaker 2: where you guys come in, right. It's kind OF's got
Speaker 2: to be that connective tissue, if you will, And that's
Speaker 2: what you guys.
Speaker 1: Are up to.
Speaker 4: Absolutely, it's spot on, Carol, Like, well, we have a
Speaker 4: Scandinavian company that makes robotic applications for exoskeletons, and you know,
Speaker 4: from thought to finish, you know, was you know, eight
Speaker 4: weeks and they had a they were able to put
Speaker 4: a prototype motor on on on one of their devices
Speaker 4: and actually had an actual patient using it, right, you know,
Speaker 4: within within eight weeks. And then they were able to
Speaker 4: model that and say, hey, this is we want we
Speaker 4: want to have a little bit more more torque here.
Speaker 4: We want to have a little more power and that
Speaker 4: direct kind of instant feedback. You can only do that
Speaker 4: with what I would call dynamic modeling proof software.
Speaker 1: Well, I connected the dots. My dad was an engineer.
Speaker 2: We talked a lot about how things worked, and you
Speaker 2: took up apart a lot of things at home while
Speaker 2: we were growing up, So not.
Speaker 3: Gonna lie, Brian. It also helped when you held up
Speaker 3: the you know, the props.
Speaker 1: Our whole control room was.
Speaker 3: Like, oh, so if you're watching us on YouTube, there's
Speaker 3: some great images right now that you can see of
Speaker 3: what exactly Brian Casey is talking about.
Speaker 1: I do want to ask you who are your biggest customers.
Speaker 4: Give me an idea, so you know a little bit
Speaker 4: of like kind of we're kind of protected with some NDAs.
Speaker 4: Everyone wants to keep this great secret to themselves where
Speaker 4: they kind of get out in front of it. But
Speaker 4: very large HVAC companies, some robotics companies, medical device companies,
Speaker 4: what I would call electronics manufacturing companies. We have a
Speaker 4: partnership with Celestica. They were early adopters and a very
Speaker 4: innovative company. They've been able to really kind of exploit
Speaker 4: the technology for their customers and clients and everything. You know,
Speaker 4: also what I would call haptics, so people that are
Speaker 4: doing you know, cinematography and gaming.
Speaker 1: So it's like it all over the place.
Speaker 2: You guys are private right, I've got that right, Yeah, okay,
Speaker 2: I thought we had to checked and stuff. So obviously,
Speaker 2: so your numbers and everything are private, but give us
Speaker 2: an idea just so that we understand the business. What
Speaker 2: kind of growth you're anticipating over the next twelve months,
Speaker 2: so what it tells us about the business, and then
Speaker 2: what it tells us about the business environment.
Speaker 4: Great question, Carol. So you know, back in twenty eighteen
Speaker 4: twenty nineteen, it was just it was really still in
Speaker 4: the lab and the thought process, and we're still building
Speaker 4: the code, and revenue is doubled or maybe more than
Speaker 4: doubled year after year since that. We're expecting another kind
Speaker 4: of what I would call exponential growth this year, but
Speaker 4: looking at the turnout that we had at CEES, it
Speaker 4: could be even larger than that. And some of the
Speaker 4: adoption is where the revenue is created. So if we
Speaker 4: have a large, let's say Fortune one hundred company that
Speaker 4: wants to vertically integrate and they're using the software and
Speaker 4: they're creating their own designs and they're building their own motors,
Speaker 4: well sometimes it takes a while for that to be digested.
Speaker 4: So yeah, we have pretty good predictable future revenues going forward,
Speaker 4: and it's just fun to.
Speaker 2: Just ten seconds fifteen seconds left. What would you describe
Speaker 2: the economic environment right now? Our business environment just quickly
Speaker 2: based on what you are seeing.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know what, we're pretty optimistic. We feel like
Speaker 4: things are what I would call is kind of quieted down.
Speaker 4: Interest rates have improved a little bit, so, but as
Speaker 4: far as like capital investing in tech, we're we're really
Speaker 4: busy and you know we've been We've been very fortunate.
Speaker 4: People aren't holding back, they're releasing their capital budgets to
Speaker 4: try projects with us. So we're pretty bullish for the next, uh,
Speaker 4: you know, foreseeable future.
Speaker 2: Really fun to talk with you, and I love somebody
Speaker 2: who gets a Flintstone's reference and also has a prop So, Brian,
Speaker 2: thank you so much being about Brian Casey their CEO
Speaker 2: of e C m PCB stater a