Three Reasons Why Anton Paar and Deep Tech are the Perfect Match

Tensions are high and it’s reached a fever pitch.? The daily news cycle yields continuous updates on rate hikes and the impending or current or likely or whatever recession bulletin to captivate our attention.? Anguish follows so we set our alarms and sleep it off just to go “win the day” again tomorrow. ?Rinse.? Repeat.

Beyond this collective is a community focused on solving generational problems.? The questions these individuals seek to answer are right in front of our faces.? What technology will sustain our species? ?What future will we shape? ?How do we get there?

These basic questions delve into a host of marvelous topics based solely on the discovery of something new.? Biotechnology, renewable energy, advanced materials, quantum computing… you name it, is happening all around us.? While we can grasp at concepts and definitions, the engineering and R&D needed to advance these technologies are of the most ambitious kind.? Stretch goals, new innovations, and a risk/reward scenario only rationalized by the few who choose to go after the most pressing issues facing our planet.? Where will our water come from?? Can we feed our people?? Can we make the world cleaner? How about safer?? Will EVs and other sustainable technologies become cheaper? ?Is it possible to use AR/VR for the betterment of education and entertainment?? Where can we go in Outer Space?!

This list of questions is by no means comprehensive or complete.? But in the answers exist deep technology or deep tech - the subset of entrepreneurs who find themselves chasing a business opportunity where advancement rests on shoulders of the most ambitious scientists and engineers here on Earth.? Seated at the table is Anton Paar, a firm uniquely positioned to succeed for three basic reasons:

1)???Innovation is our life force

2)???Our people embrace freedom and potential

3)???We take action

Innovation is our life force.? There’s no way around it at Anton Paar. ?For years, we’ve re-invested revenue at a clip beyond industry norms with nearly 20% of our revenue going to research and development. ?EY Global featured us here in 2018 as an innovator because of our decision to “invest seriously in R&D”.? For a company whose history at the time went back 96 years to be recognized as an innovator is remarkable.?

Because like you, we are.

At the forefront of technology innovation is an investment in capital where people and their tools are allowed to create something real and meaningful and valuable.? Anton Paar has done so for a century.? Yet still, we’ve seen our organization grow from $100 million in revenue to half a billion over the last 15 years in large part because of our identity as an innovator.?

To the second point, our people embrace freedom and potential.? We were fortunate to have Dr. Andreas Kautsch, Global Product Manager for Particle Characterization at our Industrial Science Summit this past week in Salt Lake City.? He discussed his role as a leader of R&D, engineering, and manufacturing teams. ?At the most basic level, Andreas is responsible for gathering the best ideas from high-impact clients around the world and feeding them back through the value chain at a relentless pace.? At his best, Andreas is responsible for creating ideas yet to be discovered and directing this value towards clients immediately and at scale.? In response to a question on career goals, he made a comment that stuck with me, “I do what I do because it is challenging.? I’m not concerned about job titles - I’m energized by what we can accomplish with technology and the pursuit of far more important achievements.”

Like those in deep tech, we choose to wake up each day with the expectation to lean into challenges, fears, and high expectations without running away.? We understand the risk involved when capital is invested 1st and revenue is realized 2nd, a basic reality in entrepreneurial life.?

And lastly, we take action.? Anton Paar USA, Inc. has carefully placed leading scientists and experts collectively in “America’s backyard”.? We decided this 20 years ago when we opened our national headquarters in Ashland, VA and more recently over the last 4 years as we’ve transitioned to 3 additional regional headquarters in Chicago, Houston, and Los Angeles.

Individuals like Mark Coombs out of BYU with over 25 years of consulting experience are in your backyard to help investigate the physical properties governing research. ?Alice Thwin of Burmese descent and now living in Seattle, has witnessed rapid progress firsthand managing core facilities in her time in Silicon Valley.? Gordon Hall, a Veteran Army Officer with 15+ years in quality/regulatory operations management and the last 15 years consulting on synthetic chemistry joined us as our representative from the Rocky Mountains.

We were gathered around a few beers at our favorite local pub spot in Salt Lake City after the Industrial Science Summit. Before going our separate ways,?we had a chance to pick the brain of one of our lead scientists Dr. Semih Gulec.? Working with deep tech gave him a real sense of purpose and the people in our ecosystem provided joy through the process of discovery.

So dare we say, amidst the uncertainty of the next year - we will continue to serve where we stand.? According to the World Economic Forum, there have been 9 global recessions since World War I (link here ).? We've persevered through each one.? And whatever happens over the next year, we'll keep our heads down and stay focused on answering the big questions.