Business Rx: Locator company needs roadmap for growth

“Ultimately the problem of indoor location tracking is a big one. People spend 90 percent of their time indoors. We expect this technology to take a path similar to GPS for the enterprise and consumer markets and to be a great compliment to applications currently driven by GPS technologies.”

The feedback

Personal Post

(Courtesy of TRX Systems) - TRX’s Sentrix Command Station shows the real-time location of people in two- and three-dimensional displays.

Elana Fine, director of venture investments, Dingman Center for
Entrepreneurs hip

“Congrats on your success in developing early customer and partner relationships. You have checked a lot of boxes for an early-stage company and now need to show revenue growth and prove customers will pay or can get funding for this technology. If you have the resources, look at niche markets like private security, where you can get some quick traction in comparison to some of the longer sales cycle of the partnerships and federal contracts that you’ve been successfully nurturing.

“Even if private industry isn’t your main target, it can make you more attractive to investors. As you go to raise venture money, private sector wins can reduce some inherent risk that some investors associate with partnerships and sales exclusively to federal clients.

“Continue what you’re doing in your current market successes, but also identify the relationships that you’ll need to start to nurture now to get to the consumer/personal navigation market. I know that is still down the road as the next phase of your business life cycle, but look for a bridge that can get you in front of enterprises that will ultimately expose your technology to consumers. That way, when the right mobile technology is more readily available and you are ready to tackle the consumer market head-on, TRX is already top of mind. And even though the end user is the consumer, you won’t necessarily be selling direct to the consumer. Focus on laying the groundwork now for partnerships and relationships with the right technology companies and providers, and determine roadmap for the next few years.”

The reaction

Politi

“We are already seeing demand from enterprise markets, and this market and the international public sector market are demonstrating that they can move quickly. We are focused now on successful deliveries for our early adopter customers and key government and industry sector partners. These early deployments and development programs are laying the groundwork for our future growth and will fund expanded business development within enterprise and consumer markets. Even though we see strong demand from Europe, we have elected to restrict our near-term sales activity to the United States and Asia so that we can efficiently focus our sales and business development efforts.”