Why We Started Entry Point

James is one of my closest friends. Half an hour ago, I had a blowtorch trained on his hand. 

He didn’t owe me money, he just had his hand coated in a fireproof gel. We were testing just how fireproof it was so that we could pitch it to NASA. We get to do stuff like this all the time. That is the short answer as to why we started Entry Point.

The long answer is a little more involved. 

I work for a sales company called Righter Group. At Righter Group, I represent a coatings supplier called Tnemec, and I work with Architects and Engineers to specify coatings systems that help preserve their structures. While my expertise falls in sales, my job required me to be relentless and inventive. Our founder, for example, sold all the paint for the first World Trade Center by pioneering the use of the first cement-based coating (as opposed to lead-based ones). Similarly, I’d travel to the tops of skyscrapers to figure out the best way to make it impervious to volatile weather. I’d delve to the bottom of sewers to figure out the best way to keep effluent channels intact for decades. 

James used to work for a chemical company called Cabot. At Cabot, James acted as the keeper of a particle called Aerogel-- an additive that could make fluids, gels and foams more lightweight, durable, even insulative. While his expertise fell in chemical-engineering, his job required him to align supply chains. Every day, people came to him with new uses for Aerogel. Some ideas excited him (like using it to clean up oil-spills), some ideas were just ridiculous (like using it as an additive to sex-dolls). Most ideas proved too small for Cabot-- selling to new clients cost time and money and would only be worth it if they sold massive quantities. If the idea proved big enough for Cabot’s purposes, he’d get suppliers and some of their clients in a room and pitch them on a product. 

We met at one such pitch. James had helped Tnemec craft a paint featuring Aerogel that could prevent heat-transfer across surfaces. When used on the side of a building it could save thousands in heating or air conditioning costs. When used on pipes it could prevent condensation and corrosion. James got me and a bunch of Tnemec guys together with some of our biggest clients to show us how well the paint worked.

I spent the day spraying, rolling, and testing the properties of the paint, then picking James’s brain about it. In paint, Aerogel could prevent condensation, insulate spaces, even make hot (or cold) surfaces safe to touch. In other materials, it’s capabilities seemed endless-- you could safely stand atop Everest in only an Aerogel-coated t-shirt (and an oxygen tank), you could line your submarine with it and dive to the bottom of the Mariana trench. You could coat your fiddle with it then travel to Hell to challenge Satan himself. 

We talked for hours. James lamented at how often he was approached with cool ideas for Aerogel that were too small for Cabot to take on. I lamented at how often I’d see problems with structures for which Tnemec just didn’t make a solution.

What if, I asked him, we started our own company that combined our passions and our expertise? You have a passion for tinkering. I have a passion for solving problems. You can align supply chains. I can sell anything. 

So we founded Entry Point. James comes up with ideas. I find people whose problems can be solved with those ideas. I sell them on the idea. James brings the product to life. 

People still approach James daily with absurd ideas for Aerogel (sometimes James even has a few of his own). Now, if he likes them-- no matter how small they are-- he can connect the inventors with suppliers and producers, and I can connect them with consumers. With our combined experience over a variety of markets, we can take problems from one industry and find answers in another-- we’ve used chemical coatings meant for buildings to protect submarines. We’ve used insulation for subsea pipelines to make athletic foams stronger. 

Our efforts aren’t limited to Aerogel modifications. At a Naval Conference, where I was trying to pitch the military on using Aerolon coatings, I met a representative from a UK company that sold polypropylene sheets that worked as plywood replacements. These sheets were lightweight, labor-saving, recyclable, and didn’t require leveling entire rainforests to produce. After a few conversations, Entry Point started selling these sheets to contractors at job sites for temporary surface protection. Since then, James has designed a new brand of tape to work with them, and we’ve branched out from job sites to watercrafts to disaster relief.

Ideas are everywhere, there for the taking. They’re forgotten for a variety of reasons-- they’re too small, too expensive, or simply not in front of the right people. James and I created EntryPoint to combine our talent for sales and solutions with our passion for innovation-- we find these shelved ideas that can change the world and bring them to life.