To ease the workload of engineers, Trevor Newsom, an engineering student at the University of Utah, founded Gearhold Technologies three years ago. The engineering consulting company provides computer-aided design (CAD) services to help projects progress as efficiently as possible. They specialize in creating automated systems for rapidly adapting CAD files for sales and development purposes.
Newsom is now developing the company with help from the Lassonde Entrepreneur Institute at the U.
“Engineers buy software for being productive; we buy CAD systems because it makes us faster and improves the research and development process,” Newsom said. “What a lot of people don’t think about when they buy it is all the requests that get tacked on. Marketing will ask for models occasionally, or the company will change vendors, which requires changing models to meet new specifications.”
Extra requests result in a greater workload for the project manager and fewer standards for a team. Gearhold Technologies wants to keep costs as low as possible, keep procedures in place, and ensure a great customer experience. “We want the customers to feel like all they have to do is hand the CAD project over to us, get a quote, and let us get going on the project,” Newsom said. Users will be able to log online and quickly see where their project is in the development process.
Sample engineering work by Gearhold for SitUP, a company developing an inflatable wedge to help people sit up in bed.
One project Newsom enjoyed working on was an adjustable bed pad that combines both comfort and convenience. One major engineering focus in the development involved the device’s ability to smoothly inflate to a desired angle. Newsom is using CAD to work on a bladder design to handle inflation of the pad one layer at a time. Newsom elaborated: “It was quite technical and took me a while to set up. It will be a cool design at the end of the day.”
The immediate goal for the company is to receive funding for software programs. He needs $15,000 for a program license and marketing. CAD program licenses are expensive, often a $10,000 fee. Additional funds would go toward developing Gearhold Technologies’ image in the field through online help videos and other media.
Newsom worked with the Lassonde Institute extensively over summer and fall 2018 as part of the Company Launch program. “I got a lot of my questions answered, and it was like a boot camp for a startup business,” he said.
The Company Launch community has also been important for Newsom. He assists other companies in prototyping and even posts office hours on his door, so people can pop in and ask questions. “I want to create a comradery. It is really hard to start a business on your own,” he explains.
Newsom hopes that Gearhold Technologies can become both intuitive and effective, so people can fulfill their projects. “We want to be creative, we are naturally that way,” he said. “We want to keep people on their creative paths.”
Learn more about Gearhold Technologies at gearholdtechnologies.com.com.
