06-19-96 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

• Data Sciences International, Inc. LSC, Inc. 4211 Lexington Avenue North 1 4211 Lexington Avenue North Arden Hills,MN 55126 Arden Hills,MN 55128 481-7410 fax:481-7417 482-4535 tax:482-4595 CEO:Brian Brockway � r Revenues:Under$10 million(up 15 percent from a year ago) CEO:James Murdakes Founded:1983 tl11pl0yeW:55(up from 52 a year ago) Revenues:$3 million projected for 1996(up from$700,000 last year) What they do:"We make implantable radiotelemetric devices for Founded:1985 by Don Crouse and Harriet Covertson,who acted monitoring vital signs,primarily for screening new pharmaceuti- solely as independent consultants until 1992 cals and other biomedical research," Brockway says. Employees:16(up from 12 a year ago) "We have customers in 30 countries,in- What they do:"We're a software-development company;we tar- _ eluding universities,government research gel the UNIX storage management market at the mid-and high "- labs,independent testing labs,and all the end,"says Murdakes,who joined the company in January 1993. DATA major pharmaceutical companies.If,for "Last October we launched a new software product,Storage INTERNATIONAL instance,they develop a new compound, Archival Manager File System it's necessary for them to determiner(�(� (SAM-FS), that manages, whether the drug is safe and effective.In order to do that,they LRIJI]�TORACECO..F1aR.a «] archives,and safeguards network need to collect vital signs from laboratory animals before and after data. It runs under Sun Micro- administration of the new compound they're testing.Our system system's Solaris version of the UNIX operating system.In the ma- provides a more humane method for collecting this information, jority of enterprises,about 75 percent of information is nonwork- reduces animal use,and provides them with a more accurate, ing data,another 10 percent is scratch data,and 15 percent is data more thorough,and more rapid technique for testing.Once our that you leave in your cache memory and work with every day. device is implanted,you can't even tell that the animal is being SAM-FS automatically and transparently archives nonworking monitored,as opposed to a typical tether system,where the ani- data onto the correct media." mal has a device or a catheter exiting the skin that is connected to Goals:"We're focused on storage management and want to be a sensor.With those devices,it's necessary to restrain the animal the dominant player in the UNIX Sun Microsystem market.Our • to prevent its movement.Our device allows the animal to move goals for 1996 are to build our distribution channels worldwide freely in its cage and go about its normal activities while it's being and to be profitable." monitored." On going publfC:"To really build the company we'll need to raise Goals:"We intend to grow a lot.We're developing new products capital through an IPO,and I suspect my board would like to see and new technologies that are going to continue to drive sales up- that sooner than later." ward.In the future,we will also be applying our technology to the Initial funding:Self-funded human health-care markets,where there are a number of applica- tions in which it's necessary to very frequently and accurately monitor vital signs of patients who are ambulatory." On going publIC:"It's certainly is an option we're keeping open." Initial funding: "The primary source of funding for the company was$1.2 million in SBIR[Small Business Innovation Research] grants and a lot of sweat equity as well.The founders also took salaries that were significantly below the norm,which helped a lot in getting us started.Because we've used SBIR grants extensively, the employees own about 90 percent of the stock of the company. We've only had to sell off about 10 percent through a couple of small private placements." •