This article first appeared in Buffalo Business First magazine on October 2, 2018.
Every week, the leaders at 3AM Innovations read about another work-related injury involving firefighters.
That’s one of the things motivating them to push their innovation into a market that has historically been underserved by technology solutions.
The company, led by co-founders Patrick O’Connor and Ryan Litt, recently closed $1 million in private financing to support development of its sales infrastructure and further refinement of its hardware and software product. The friends and family round included contributions from Z80 Labs and Launch NY.
3AM is building a system helps track the location of emergency responders. Firefighters, for instance, wear a piece of hardware that communicates their exact location inside of a building.
The company has five letters of intent with fire departments – including those in Snyder, Grand Island, Buffalo, Rochester and Reston, Virginia – that it hopes to turn into initial commercial relationships. Leaders believe those early adopters will help them hone a potentially lucrative business opportunity that helps save lives.
“I think we’re far exceeding our expectations going into the year,” O’Connor said.
And it’s been a busy year. The company received a patent for its system, earned a crucial industry certification and won local awards through the InfoTech BETAS and Bright Buffalo Niagara competitions. 3AM participated in a Las Vegas-based program that serves as a vetting process for Responder Ventures, an investment arm interested solely in first responder technology.
The company has also spent the year developing a system that can remain resilient during the worst emergency conditions, while also building a sales infrastructure to market municipal entities. Sarah Taylor, 3AM’s director of customer experience and customer success, visited fire departments in 18 states to gauge their reaction to the product.
“We’re developing this with the influence of the people we talk to,” said Litt, the company’s chief operations officer. “The chiefs are telling us, ‘Gentleman, I need it to work when it needs to work.’ Which means that one percent of the time when they really need it.”
3AM is the 13th local startup to acknowledge private, growth-oriented financing this year. The list includes:
- ACV Auctions ($31 million)
- PostProcess Technologies ($7.8 million)
- CleanFiber ($6.46 million raised this year)
- Viridi Parente ($4.05 million)
- Circuit Clinical ($1.75 million)
- Drone Energy ($1 million)
- Ru’s Pierogi ($1 million)
- Buffalo Automation ($900,000)
- EcoVerde ($450,000)
- RepHike ($195,00)
- OmniSeq (undisclosed)