Why We Invested: StrongArm Technologies
In 2018, Heartland Ventures invested in StrongArm Technologies, a worker safety platform. Why?
Industrial Athletes & Worker Safety — Protecting Essential Workers
There are 1.16 billion industrial workers in the world. They work in places like power plants, distribution centers, and construction sites to keep our lights on, pantries stocked, and shelter over our heads. Their manual work puts a strain on the body. It requires endurance, strength, and agility. Tragically, as if they were professional athletes, injuries are sometimes seen as part of the job. In fact, a worker is injured on the job every seven seconds in the United States.
It does not have to be this way. Where physical risks exist in other professions, technology has been leveraged to create safer conditions. Consider the evolution of safety in professional sports. There’s a reason Tom Brady does not wear a leather helmet. Advancements in technology over time have been able to protect the most valuable resources: people.
It should be the same for every line of work and for every job. Every shift. Without exception.
Why not do the same for our essential Industrial Athletes, who are keeping the modern economy moving?
This is the question StrongArm Technologies’ founder and CEO Sean Petterson asked before developing StrongArm’s patented worker safety platform, FUSE. It’s also a question many of Heartland’s manufacturing partners asked of us prior to learning about Sean’s innovation. Those manufacturers — Sweetwater, SmokerCraft Boats, Kem Crest, LaSalle Bristol, and Steel Dynamics — were driven to create a safer environment for their employees and believed technology could help.
When our co-investor friends from New York-based Tekfen Ventures asked if we were interested in meeting StrongArm, we jumped at the chance. We quickly dug into the platform and the competitive landscape and spent a full-day at the company’s Brooklyn headquarters. We loved the product, Sean’s passion for the mission and COO Matt Norcia’s operational acumen. The next step was flying Sean and Matt to Indiana to meet with our partners.
The question during two days of meetings was simple: Will StrongArm reduce injuries for you and would your firm use it? The resounding answer in each meeting was “yes!”
The FUSE Platform
The FUSE Platform provides workers with wearable IoT sensors that capture data related to physical, ergonomic, and environmental risks. The data gleaned enables the platform to make real-time interventions when, for example, a worker might otherwise lift something incorrectly or step in front of a forklift. It also helps businesses eliminate unsafe or unproductive routines as lessons are learned to coach the Industrial Athletes™ in real time and recommend new operational efficiencies automatically to senior leadership. Ultimately, this creates an individualized coaching plan for each worker.
In study after study, deployment of the FUSE has proven to demonstrably reduce worker injuries. At the world’s largest grocery retailer for example, a recent engagement showed that over the course of one million worker hours — or a few short months for an operation of their scale — injuries dropped by 54 percent. This amounts to a 355% return on investment for the firm.
What’s more, at a time where COVID is placing unprecedented pressures on the world’s most essential workers, the need for smart safety wearables is more urgent than ever before. Adapting to such a rapidly changing industrial risk profile, Sean and the team were able to quickly roll out social distancing and contact tracing platform enhancements, making StrongArm not just more effective, but essential.
Today StrongArm is deployed with some of the world’s largest retailers, manufacturers and chemical companies. The team is continuing to expand its customer base rapidly and to develop additional feature sets, all in the name of keeping Industrial Athletes proud, protected, and productive. In a world forced to take stock of the importance of worker safety and the $3.25 trillion cost of injuries each year, the company is extremely well-positioned to grow rapidly while addressing a very real societal problem.
Heartland’s relationship with StrongArm is typical of our Fund. Our trusted co-investors brought it to our attention because of our deep relationships in the Midwest manufacturing and logistics space. We were then able to leverage those relationships to validate both product and founder-market fit, prior to our investment decision. And since the investment, we’ve been able to work closely with the StrongArm team to make valuable customer introductions throughout the Midwest.
Heartland Ventures is proud to be partnered with another group of entrepreneurs looking to provide real value in our region and throughout the world in an area that helps both businesses and workers succeed. To learn more about StrongArm Tech, check out their videos page.
If you are interested in connecting with StrongArm Tech, or know of someone who might be, please email Conor McGuinness at conor@heartlandvc.com.
