Richard Nolan had been working for nearly eight years at Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory when he started his own engineering side business out of his basement.
He got so busy that he had to leave six months later and now has about a dozen employees at the Burnt Hills office for Nolan Engineering.
Over the past 14 years completing structural home inspections and repair drawings, Nolan has invented several products to help with certain home repair processes and founded a startup for that business called Nolan Structural Products.
Now, Nolan is working to spread the word about his products and expand sales as much as possible – nationwide if he can.
“I think we could easily do a million a year. We're not quite there yet, but every year it's growing,” Nolan said in reference to sales numbers. “I hope that within a year or two, we can hit a million. And then with any luck getting the word out, it could be multimillion.”
Nolan reached out to startup mentor Robert Manasier and has been part of the new Tech Match program, which Manasier designed as part of IgniteU.
"We were really looking for someone to help us market these products because we really believe in them. The people that use them love them,” Nolan said. “But getting into bigger venues like Lowe's or Home Depot is so difficult.”
The products are currently sold at Curtis Lumber and online. Nolan said his company has submitted multiple inquiries over the last several years with some of the major chains but has never gotten any kind of response.
"I think it's who you know,” he said.
The products
The first product Nolan made, several years ago, is a piece of steel equipment meant to sit underneath a new structural post installed in an unfinished basement or crawlspace. It's a relatively simple piece of equipment but wasn't really available on the market previously, so it can save owners the time and money of having to make something themselves, he said.
The next invention was a thick steel strap meant to stabilize a damaged joist, the horizontal structural beams built into a floor that can typically be seen in a basement ceiling. That can save owners from having to rearrange plumbing to install a new joist. Nolan will likely sell more than 1,000 straps this year, he said.
"Those are our best sellers. They sell like crazy, mostly online."
The company has three products on the market and just completed testing on another – steel straps to stabilize a bouncy floor. He’s also redesigning some steel plates using carbon fiber to make them lighter and less expensive. And another product in development is a beam he says is stronger than steel.
"I'm always thinking and doodling on paper about the next product,” Nolan said.
He'd like to spend more time on the startup, but as the only licensed engineer at Nolan Engineering, he needs to spend a lot of time there.
"We're looking for structural engineers. We've had an ad out for a long time. We'll pay whatever they're worth. But from what I hear from talking to all my colleagues, everybody's in the same boat."
