Three is a charm for Mike Formica, president and CEO of threeRivers 3D, a Gibsonia startup that is poised for big things with the help of a partnership with Konica Minolta.
The three-year-old company manufactures standard and custom 3D imaging products and systems that create digital models from actual objects. The scanners have a wide variety of applications, from museum work – scanning artifacts and objects for further study – to automobile design and medical diagnosis.
The threeRivers scanner is a perfect complement to Konica Minolta’s line of higher-end products, which start at $50,000, says Formica of his third successful startup. The yet-to-be-announced product, Virtuoso, is a desktop engineering model that will sell for between $18,000 and $20,000.
“There’s a lot of demand right now for a less expensive scanner,” he explains. “It fits a niche they’ve not been able to fill.”
ThreeRivers plans to double its staff this year in response to the partnership. Hires will include technical positions and manufacturing engineers. Under the terms of the deal, Konica will provide the sales force. The company was started by Formica and Damion Shelton, chief science officer, in 2008.
Formica, a self-described geek who enjoys tinkering with gadgets, was formerly the CEO of AssistWare, a CMU spinoff, which developed a lane departure warning system for cars and was sold to Cognex; his first company was Axsys, acquired by Palomar Technologies in Calif.
Check out threeRivers 3D in action on YouTube.
Source: Mike Formica, threeRivers 3D
Writer: Deb Smit
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