Influent | Technology in Motion

Extending the Horizon of Air Cooling

Richmond, Virginia, June 11, 2009 – Influent Corp. announces the release of a white paper validating a 25% reduction in total server energy consumption using pulsed air jets. For example, a 25% reduction for a given data center with 10,000 server racks would equate to $64.5MM in power savings over the 5 year life of a server.

SAN JOSE, CA – A thermal management hot spot, the mission of the IEEE Semiconductor Thermal Management, Modeling and Measurement Symposium(SEMI-THERM) is to provide an annual forum for the exchange of the latest technical developments in thermal management of electronic devices, components and systems. Held March 15th-19th, this year’s Semi-Therm features over 45 exhibitors and additional technical presentations on the latest thermal management progress in both academic and commercial sectors.

Semi-Therm Exibitors

Featured sessions include a luncheon hosted by Chandrakant Patel, Fellow and Director of HP’s Sustainable Ecosystems Lab regarding Sustainable Information Technology Ecosystems. Another highlight of the week, a tutorial from Kevin Skadron, of the University of Virginia, entitled Making Sense of Recent Research in Temperature-Aware Design.

Thermal Management Software Exibit

This is all well and good, but why am I here? I am serving as a representative of Influent while acting as a sponge, soaking up the thermal management community. I am truly interested to discover what makes this community ‘tick’. Everyone I meet seems extremely close-knit, aware of each other’s accomplishments and open to learning. I found myself giving a large amount of impromptu presentations about Influent’s technology and receiving very positive feedback. Many comments validated that the limitations of fans and other conventional cooling solutions and the need for a ‘new approach’ technology like Influent’s. I also ran across a particular vendor that could be a powerful partner for accelerating Influent’s modeling capabilities. MacroFlow would allow Influent to create system-level thermal design analysis without intensive CFD modeling, greatly reducing the lead time necessary when designing new components and products.

Attendance of Semi-Therm validates that this event is an ideal venue for Influent to become more involved. The conference draws the world’s most notable figures in thermal management and provides a forum to present new ideas. Look out for Influent’s exhibit next year!

Influent’s CEO, Larry Hatch, announced plans to attend the first Going Green East conference, located in Boston, MA. The Bay Area’s Going Green conference has been such a success, that is has birthed an east coast version. The event, scheduled for March 9th-11th, promises to draw cutting-edge greentech CEOs, investors and other prominent industry players. The event will honor the GoingGreen Top 50 Private Companies and feature 50 greentech CEOs that will pitch their market strategies to a panel of industry experts in the “CEO Showcases.”

For more information visit Going Green East.

Influent’s CEO, Larry Hatch, was recently featured on Forbes.com for spearheading the company’s 2007/2008 $1.5 million capital raise. Times are tight but there are still investors looking to support promising startups. Hatch continues to raise additional funds while juggling the management of sales, recruiting and other strategic initiatives. Visit Forbes.com to receive insights from Hatch and other executives on weathering the economic storm.

We have completed our Low Pressure Air 30 (LPA30) prototype and we will be demonstrating its versatility and cooling ability to various potential customers.  I will be updating our customer visits and conversations, highlighting trends and needs in the industry.

I have two exciting new hires to announce. The first is our Controller, John Mills. John brings 30+ years with HP as a Global Project Manager and Analyst for the Ink Jet division. John has extremely valuable experience through his time spent consulting and administering executive education programs. The second is Mike Fitzgerald, Chief Product Development Officer. Mike has spent her career at Tektronixs and was most recently VP and General Manager of Tektronixs’ Measurement and Accessories Product Line where she almost doubled the business in her four year tenure. John and Mike will be valuable assets to the Influent team, enabling us to bring our breakthrough technology to market in the most efficient and well executed manner possible.

Before I get into our current work, I must mention our team and the amazing resources that we have supporting our product development efforts. In the summer of 2007, three former HP executives located in Corvallis, Oregon formed SynnOps, LLC to act as Influent’s operations arm. They were greatly interested in the technology and wanted to take on a new challenge. This connection has only multiplied to include many Corvallis area engineers that ironically have skill sets that are extremely aligned with our R&D and product development efforts.

LPA30

Tim Lucas, our CTO, spent the majority of his summer in Corvallis, working with a team to create LPA30, otherwise known as Low Pressure Air 30. There has been an amazing amount of design wins that have benefitted from the development including small size, efficiency, life and multiple hot spot cooling. The finished device will shortly be in the hands of our sales team and in front of prospective customers.

Welcome to Influent’s blog. In the coming months you will witness a firsthand account of what it is like to bring a disruptive technology to market. We will be optimizing our technology and meeting with potential customers to uncover more opportunities to enable the cleantech industry.

These events will be narrated from my perspective. Who am I? I am a member of the founding team and just as importantly what I call a ‘startup lifer’. This description is not meant to encompass my professional life, but rather my entire life. I am a member of a family that has lived and breathed startup since I was five years old. I have heard the terms prototype, business plan, venture capital and milestone since I can remember. I know what success looks like; the long hours, the ups and downs and the unparallel excitement when you finally ‘make it’. I will be recounting these elements of Influent from a unique perspective while drawing attention to major trends in the thermal management and cleantech industries.

We will also feature guest contributors, industry experts and advice from Influent’s executive team.

If this sounds interesting to you, check back for more posts.