Date: Jul 18, 2014 Author: Josh Pichler Source: (
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Jack Cassidy, the retired Cincinnati Bell CEO, says nothing's more valuable to a startup than customers.
CitiLogics, the Covington-based software company that aims to help the nation's 53,000 municipal water systems manage their supply and infrastructure, can attest to that.
The startup is leveraging partnerships with Greater Cincinnati Water Works and Northern Kentucky Water District to pursue funding, customers and strategic partnerships and launch its product nationally over the next two years.
At the end of July, CitiLogics will apply for a $750,000 Phase II Small Business Innovation Research grant from the National Science Foundation. The application will take five months to review. A successful effort could open the door for a $500,000 match from Kentucky's Cabinet for Economic Development.
That would be considered a "private match" and create the opportunity for a Phase IIB award from the National Science Foundation of $250,000.
CitiLogics is also finalizing business relationships with six to eight national utilities to test its software, called Polaris.
The ultimate goal is to mold Polaris into a product that doesn't just work, but features an engaging, intuitive user interface and market it to utilities across the United States. Greater Cincinnati Water Works, a national leader in water technology, is a critical partner in the effort.
The relationship means revenue for CitiLogics, which formed in 2009 and graduated from Northern Kentucky accelerator UpTech. More importantly, Greater Cincinnati Water Works provides invaluable feedback.
"Finding a customer is one thing. Finding one that is engaged, will give you honest feedback about what they like and don't want … that's not easy," said CitiLogics co-founder Jim Uber. "GCWW can envision what this can be. It's the kind of interaction you only get from having very close relationships."
Polaris is designed to help large municipalities integrate raw operational data into infrastructure planning models and make better decisions. For example, utilities can determine how much water they're pumping in a service area that's not being billed, and better align the supply and demand for fresh water to analyze potential distribution changes and avoid problems before they start.
The ultimate goal is to give utilities across the country a much clearer picture of the approximately 880,000 miles of piping and other infrastructure buried under ground.
Functionality isn't enough. During a recent interview, co-founder Sam Hatchett picked up a television remote littered with buttons, and cited it as an example of what CitiLogics must avoid.
"I don't know how to use most of the buttons," he said. "Our software needs to look pretty, it needs to behave pretty."
Enter Greater Cincinnati Water Works, led by interim director Biju George. George has made innovation a cornerstone of his tenure at the local utility, which supplies 133 million gallons of water per year through 3,000 miles of pipes. It typically takes 15 years to move from concept to commercialization in water technology, but George is determined to help fast-track promising technologies.
It's why he took Uber's call two years ago, and why he and local waterworks executives subsequently leaned in to help CitiLogics. George considers the company a potential game-changer because it allows utilities to move from being reactive to proactive.
"They have a very stable, highly capable technology platform, and Jim and his team are highly technically qualified," George said.
"We can explore how far we can take the technology and develop various applications. In the end, I think we're looking at a breakthrough product."
