Capital-area Investor Looks for Wealth Underfoot
Talk about your undergroundeconomy.
Local business exec Chuck Hansen, who sold his last company for a reported $100 million, is looking to make millions more with a new technology for detecting leaks in sewer pipes.
Hansen, who retired after selling Hansen Information Technologies in 2007, learned last year of a system that sends electronic current through pipes to spot leaks instead of the decades-old practice of running tiny closed-circuit TV cameras through the lines.
“It was love at first sight,” Hansen says of a system he says is much more reliable than the camera method.
He quickly acquired a majority stake in the technology and started up Electro Scan Inc.out of his Arden area offices that serve also as the “Track Shack” recording studio.
He has 16 employees now, is looking to double that number by the end of this year and reports international interest.
He’s projecting sales of $1 million the first year, much more later on.
“I think we might have something bigger than my last company,” he says.
Electro Scan has two products, both manufactured locally. One, priced at $15,000, is sold to plumbers and detects leaks in the “lateral” lines that run from a house to a sewer main.
A larger system, going for $75,000, is offered to municipal utilities for finding leaks in main lines.
As he’s always done, Hansen is finding a way to mix business with pleasure – specifically, with his love of playing saxophone. He traveled recently to Europe to drum up business for Electro Scan – and ended up performing with Tower of Power, the legendary R&B band, during a gig at La Cigale in Paris.
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