Sam is a fellow Pratt alum who has gone on to become a creative entrepreneur. He moved from his product design background to creating hi-tech systems that function on an architectural scale. SMIT’s products are beautiful, sophisticated panels for harnessing renewable energy. Their work is already in MoMA’s permanent collection. WOWZA! http://s-m-i-t.com
Your company is strongly rooted in an ethical philosophy. Could you tell us a little bit about that?
The company was co-founded by myself and my sister, Teresita. Having grown up with the same people, our parents, we naturally brought the ethics we were raised with into our lives and our business. Our father was a Peace Corps volunteer. And prior to that, he studied architecture, so he has a design background which came out in our upbringing. Our mom grew up in India, where you inherently learn how to live close to the earth. In India, versus the United States, you don’t have the luxury of being hidden from how you use things and where those things go.
I think the ethics of how humans make things and do things is drastically changing. Designing that change is where we see SMIT fitting into the big picture.
Do you think that starting a business is a good way to express a moral philosophy? I think that’s a pretty new idea.
At SMIT, we design and make things for humans and their environment. The products that we choose to design at SMIT and bring into the world are because we believe in their ability to lessen our (humans’) impact on the earth’s resources in an accountable way.
Our moral philosophy comes out in how we design and the choices we make in that design process. When it comes to starting a business, it has to make money. That’s the agreed system in which we all do business. Our customers value not only our products’ physical design and functions, but also the fact that the product itself has integrity and a sustainable relationship to the world. And as long as people choose to buy the products, then the business and the moral philosophy can both work.
You’ve shown your work at ICFF and at MoMA. Those must have been two big turning points for you! How did those shows happen?
When I was graduating from Pratt, my sister was also graduating from NYU’s ITP program. She and I were kind of taking similar paths. I was creating a product, GROW, while she was creating a business, SMIT. Her business plan incorporated some ideas that I was really interested in, in terms of starting a business and entrepreneurship, and my product fit well with the business plan.
When I was a senior, I showed my project to the committee who was choosing what was going to be shown at ICFF in the Pratt Booth. It was chosen for the show, and that was a big turning point. ICFF opened the door to a much broader audience. I walked away from ICFF with probably 200 business cards in my pocket, and a number of different architects who said, “When this is real, let me know. I want this for a building.”
It was great timing for my sister and I. Deb was gathering people for the Pratt Design Incubator. She looked at us, and at this product, and said, “Do you have a business plan? Do you want to be in the Incubator?” I didn’t have a business plan! But, my sister was right there and she did. We had a meeting a week later and were accepted into the Incubator. Then began the process of starting SMIT, Sustainably Minded Interactive Technology, LLC.
And MoMA?
The MoMA show was another big turning point and they actually found us. You know, one doesn’t exactly go after, “How do you get into a MoMA show?” and expect anything to come from it. It’s something I had written off as an impossible thing. After ICFF we went about developing GROW. One of the first things we needed to do was raise some development money. We got a grant, and with that, we agreed to create a blog in order to keep everyone up-to-date on our progress.
Someone working at MoMA stumbled onto the blog. They wanted to get in touch with us, but on the blog we didn’t provide a phone number or e-mail to avoid spam and what not. A persistent MoMA intern read through our entire blog and spotted our uncle’s name. She happened to have gone to Cornell and taken one of his courses! She emailed him, saying “I think I’m looking for your nephew and niece” And he says “Yeah, that’s them,” and forwards us the email. We literally freaked out. What, the MoMA is looking for us?!?
As it turned out, they wanted the GROW concept be a part of their catalog for an upcoming exhibit Design and the Elastic Mind. So we said, “Yeah! We’ll send you images, of course, whatever you need!” And ever-so-slyly also said, “We could make a prototype for the show, if you want to show it.” Not being pushy, but just slid that one under the door.
They deliberated on it, and they eventually said yes. We made an up-to-date prototype and installed it in Feb ‘08. It was a very exciting experience! I have always gone to and been inspired by the shows at the MoMA, and to be putting up a piece in one was truly an honor.
After the show we got some more good news. Paola and her team were considering our piece for the permanent collection. Again, we were overjoyed, but trying to be reserved about it. I think we said, “Oh! Really!? ” They eventually got back to us with a yes. So our piece from the show is now in the MoMA’s permanent collection. A little surreal, and very welcomed!
Did it lead to a lot more architects getting in touch?
Absolutely. GROW and Solar Ivy are products that are able to interact with many different typologies of architecture. So, naturally, architects and developers are interested. Most of the Architects from ICFF were in and around New York, or in the United States, with a good handful of companies from the rest of world. But after the Design and the Elastic Mind exhibition opened and its catalog released, our exposure went all over the world.
I also knew from the beginning that architects were going to be the first adopters of GROW. My sister and I brought on Benjamin Howes (Pratt Arch. 2006) as an equity partner in 2007. He’s a great thinker at many levels and can break down the most complex ideas into logical systems. Plus his last name is Howes, pronounced “house” and he’s an architect. What more could we ask for?
I’d like to back up to where you were talking about the grant that you got. I don’t think we’ve talked to anybody who’s taken that route. Was that part of your original plan? How did you make that happen?
GROW came from examining the relationship between humans’ built environment and how nature responds to it. When you build a building, plants will start growing on it. Things start to inhabit it that you don’t want to inhabit it. GROW’s concept was to harness energy in a similar way to what plants do, through a form of biomimicry. Ivy, for example, finds the side of the building where it will get the most sunlight. It creates its own footing. And it has this beautiful kinetic sculpture effect, as wind blows through it across the side of your building. This, in turn, presented a unique opportunity to harness both wind and solar energy.
We applied for the grant to prove out our technology and develop GROW into a product. Since we were in the Pratt design Incubator, we were able to utilize Pratt’s grant writers, who found the organization, NCIIA (National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance). NCIIA had an Advanced E-Team grant, which is set up to foster ideas from concepts into actual working prototypes. We used the grant to fund R&D for GROW as well as pay for legal fees involved with filing a utility patent, which we now have.
What’s next?
We recently hired David Rose as our capital campaign adviser. His background is in design innovation (he teaches at MIT’s media lab) and business creation. David has been great in helping us fine tuning our business plan and ushering us into this next round of developing SMIT. We have been pitching to some venture capital firms and angel investors. The process is kind of like finding a dance partner. Some people you find a rhythm with, while some you don’t. It has been a fun process as we have been learning a lot about how this works.
For the past year or so, we’ve been making alliances with emerging solar tech companies, universities, and manufacturing companies to help facilitate our designs. It’s also just really fun to see what others are up to. So, we continue to meet more people and work to move new ideas forward.
We are also going to be part of a few shows coming up. There is a show in Germany which is traveling from Hanover to Berlin in which we will be showing the GROW concept. There is another possible show in Paris later on in 2009. We also have the GROW concept in few book publications due out early ‘09. And, soon, look for a website update that’s happening as we speak: http://s-m-i-t.com