 
|
|||||||||
              
|
The Working Life: Ex-PennDOT manager's endgame is making a business of 'endwalls'
Tuesday, June 26, 2001 By Joyce Gannon, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
There's nothing glitzy about a supporting wall that anchors a drainage pipe. Take it from Bruce Hartman, an O'Hara businessman who invented such an "endwall" and a year ago was trying to persuade potential investors to get excited about it.
That was before high-tech stocks went bust, so Hartman confronted a tough sell. "If you weren't selling a dot.com, some people didn't even want to talk," he said. "They were geared toward the Internet, not old-world manufacturing." Still, the scrappy inventor, a former PennDOT manager, was confident his durable, plastic endwall made more sense than the conventional concrete structures that are prone to crumble and crack.
So he got a patent, sought help from Duquesne University's Small Business Development Center and eventually secured a couple of hundred thousand dollars from local investors who see a viable market for Hartman's product. The HartmanEW, as the creator calls it, is now being manufactured in Ohio.
When he worked as an assistant maintenance manager for PennDOT in Indiana County, Hartman, 42, oversaw the installation of endwalls. He thought the traditional concrete version installed over a drainage pipe at the side of the road or driveway was costly and tough to maintain. The walls surround the end of the pipe, holding it in place while protecting it.
One day during an outing to a park with his children, Hartman studied an endwall and wondered why it couldn't be made of sturdy plastic. In his spare time, he sketched his idea, researched it on the Internet and in industry catalogs, and determined there were no plastic endwalls on the market.
A formal patent search turned up nothing either.
So he spent $10,000 of his own to apply for an international patent and took the idea to Duquesne's SBDC.
The center referred him to Bucknell University, where engineering students built the system as part of academic training.
While the prototype was being developed, Duquesne's SBDC staff assisted Hartman with market research and a business plan.
"We think this product should really take off," said Merilee Madera, a business consultant at the center. "It's a common-sense approach to a problem the construction industry has had for many years. You see endwalls crumbling around pipes and they look crappy. Bruce has a solution that will look beautiful." When Hartman approached longtime Pittsburgh advertising executive George Hill about how to market his product, Hill became intrigued with the endwall and decided to invest in it.
"He had everything but money," said Hill. "He had the patent, had done the research and knew the business because he worked for PennDOT." Hill rounded up other individuals who together invested between $100,000 and $200,000 into the venture.
By October, the business was incorporated and Hartman had found an Ohio manufacturer of toys and outdoor sheds, Step Two, to make the endwall.
Hartman left PennDOT in February to work for his business full-time.
The HartmanEW, as it is officially known, is 3 feet tall, 5 feet wide and 1 foot thick. It is made of polyethylene and weighs less than 100 pounds before installation. After installation, it can be filled with sand, dirt, concrete, glass or waste material to stabilize it, Hartman said.
It retails for $733 and can be adapted to accommodate 18-inch, 15-inch or 12-inch drain pipe. Hartman contends that its relatively light weight makes it quicker to install than traditional concrete and reduces worker injuries.
Because it's plastic, there is little maintenance. Other advantages, Hartman said, include a top section that breaks away on impact and is a better cushion than concrete; and reflectors that make it visible to motorists at night.
Hartman currently is seeking approval from PennDOT to sell the endwall to the state. Meantime, he's sold 50 units, including five to Centre County for installation near Penn State University's Beaver Stadium.
Another early sale was to O'Hara, which used one at its municipal building.
Other markets Hartman plans to target are pipe distributors, golf course developers and home builders in rural areas where owners maintain their own driveway drainage pipes.
Hartman, who grew up in O'Hara and graduated from the University of Pittsburgh with a bachelor's degree in public administration, said his earliest inspiration in business came from high school Junior Achievement activities.
His JA mentor was U.S. Steel Corp.'s former chairman, Edgar Speer, and his group was ranked among the top in the Pittsburgh area.
In college, however, Hartman switched his major from business to public administration. He interned for a congressman as well as for the Allegheny County Department of Planning, where he conducted early planning for the regional biking trails.
After a couple of jobs, including superintendent for a bridge design firm, Hartman took time off in the early 1980s to care for his sick father.
He also did a stint as a stay-at-home-dad while his wife, Bridget, worked at Matthews International. They have four children, ages 5 through 14.
Hartman joined PennDOT in 1996.
He is the only employee drawing a paycheck from HartmanEW, although Bridget, who now stays home with the children, "is helping without a salary," Hartman said.
He realized the risk of leaving PennDOT to pursue his own company because working for the state "was very secure. You know your raises and pensions in advance." Still, Hartman believes the endwall business has strong potential.
"Failure is not an option. I told my wife, 'We have to fly before we hit the ground.' "
|
||||||||
