* Company Name: Stract Corporation
* Founders: Marsha Roberts, Richard Harrison, Nick deSomov, Chantz Yanagida
* Year founded: 2022
* Website: stract.studio
* Key focus: New product development
For all the non-tech people reading, help us understand the work being done at Stract.
Think of Shark Tank. All of those entrepreneurs started with a great idea, but nothing concrete. We help them go from their idea to a finished product. Could be they’ve got a drawing, or it’s just a clear vision in their mind. Regardless of where they are, we engineer their product for functionality and design, we create computer-aided design (CAD) files and a working prototype, which is usually 3D printed, but sometimes is physically assembled. When they’re happy, we manufacture a short run for them to test market their product. And when they are ready, we take them to one of our partner manufacturers for full production.
Who are your clients? What kinds of companies do you serve?
The list of companies we serve really runs the gamut from solopreneurs to big corporations like Mars and Nissan.
How did the company get its start?
Rick Harrison and I had been developing a multi-articulated 18-inch doll that can be customized for whatever disability a child may have. (thedollforall.com) There are no vinyl dolls being made here in the U.S., all of that manufacturing went to China back in the 1990s. We were determined to figure out a way to have these dolls made here, but one thing holding us up was getting CAD files of the doll parts. This is complicated because of all the organic shapes and compound curves in the body. We fortunately met Nick deSomov, a former Disney Imagineer, who has crazy good CAD skills and he fell in love with the project. Later, Chantz Yanagida came on board, a UTC grad in mechanical engineering, and Stract was born.
We hear you saved the Twix bar. Let’s hear it!
Last year Mars candy came to us because they had an urgent problem with their Twix bar. First manufactured in the 1980s, there was this special “spoon” that was invented to perfectly scrape the caramel onto the biscuit. This piece was certainly crafted by hand, then several thousand were made for manufacturing. Thirty-plus years later, all of them had either worn down or had broken. Mars was down to a handful of these parts, even having to stop production at one point. They had been to several engineering firms and manufacturers, but no one could duplicate this “spoon.” Turns out, there was this tiny organic indention at the tip of this part that no one else had seen. Nick has all kind of 3D scanning tricks, and he found this dip and reverse engineered the “spoon” perfectly. We saved the Twix bar!
Any projects currently in the works that you’re excited about?
Yes! Last month Stract was selected by LaunchTN to be one of the small businesses to represent Tennessee at SXSW in Austin, Texas. There was a large Department of Defense presence there, and when I shared some of the novel ideas we are working on to help bring manufacturing back to America, I was met with great enthusiasm. I’m currently working with the Marine Innovation Unit to move forward with a project we’ve been researching, in association with UTC, through a RevV Grant Oak Ridge National Laboratory awarded us.
What’s on the horizon?
Scaling up! We believe that Chattanooga is uniquely positioned be in the forefront of the new wave of reshoring manufacturing and we plan to be in the thick of this movement. There are two secret weapons here that will make all the difference. The first one everyone knows about: Chattanooga is the center of trucking and logistics in the Southeast. The second one is hiding in plain sight: the talent pools the education system has been building for over a decade. Through initiatives like Maker Spaces and Future Ready Centers, Hamilton County has developed young people who will be a major asset to entrepreneurs like Stract. These students are steeped in critical thinking and skilled in technologies like 3D printing.
– answered by Marsha Roberts, CEO, Stract Corporation