Fontus Blue Founder & CEO Chris Miller grew up in an entrepreneurial household and learned the tricks of the trade when it came to operating a business. His parents had owned multiple small businesses throughout his childhood, and he received firsthand experience with managing employees, processing payroll, and keeping up with the daily tasks that business ownership requires. However, it wasn’t until he had spent some time as a professor at The University of Akron when he began to explore his own venture to advance his research in water treatment solutions.
Chris founded Fontus Blue in 2017, and shortly thereafter moved into Bounce Innovation Hub, then known as the Akron Global Business Accelerator due to its relationship with the University for supporting startups for research, technology & software. Fontus Blue is a digital solutions provider for water utilities. The company created its initial software for use in water treatment operations to provide clarity and support in the treatment process, tracking metrics and other related materials used in solutions across the country.
“Our first real product that was sold really was a spreadsheet that had some water quality forecast that treatment plants could use to help guide them ahead of time,” said Chris. “At the same time, we were also beginning to develop a chemical dosing tool that worked with the forecast to help them modify their chemicals so they could be in compliance.”
While at Bounce, Chris participated in startup accelerator programs with the support of Bounce mentorship like the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF)’s I-Corps program, which helps startups like Fontus Blue to translate their technology into economically-viable products & services with widespread implementation. This experience in fundraising, growth, and product implementation set up the company for early momentum that would continue to provide breakthroughs for the team in the coming years.
Throughout their start, the Fontus team would also collaborate with other programming mentors & entrepreneurs through Bounce to refine their message, product offerings, and customer base. Chris credits his time at Bounce as a key component of the team’s early success and were even able to transfer their initial spreadsheet to a cloud-based software program to increase its efficiency and implementation as a sellable product. Another benefit they leveraged from their network was to focus on building out their product before pursuing a larger fundraising push once they had a strong customer base. This “buy vs. build” strategy led them to attract water treatment company USALCO.
“We chose to focus 97% on upgrading our product, getting happy customers, and customers that would pay us for that product. That was really a wise choice because the industry we’re in doesn’t move super fast, so getting clients who use this tool and can be advocates for the product was really advantageous for us when USALCO contacted us.”
USALCO, with a long history in treating over one third of drinking water in the U.S., was impressed by Fontus’ dedicated and supportive customer testimonials, and saw an opportunity for the use of their software in their treatment processes. They were also using a coagulant that could be measured using Fontus’ chemical dosing tool that was developed in addition to their forecasting software. These conversations led to USALCO’s acquisition of Fontus Blue earlier this year. Through this merger, Fontus Blue expands their reach from 18 locations to USALCO’s 26.
Through early mentorship, connections to valuable opportunities, and creating a headquarters in a space where founders are prioritized, Chris and the Fontus Blue Team were able to build their product, establish a market, and reach an acquisition deal with a major industry leader all while operating in Bounce’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. Bounce’s startup accelerator programming provides resources for startups in software, health-tech, and advanced materials industries to support founders and create opportunities in the region for economic growth and innovation.