When Brian Bischoff was about 4 years old, he took apart his family’s television remote. He tried — unsuccessfully — to put it back together afterward. His parents weren’t too happy with him.
Several years later, he’s founder and CEO of Copprium Inc., a Buffalo-based startup spun out from the University at Buffalo.
“Growing up, I was always tinkering with stuff,” he said. “I was always putting stuff together. I always wanted to be an inventor.”
The business, which officially launched in March 2022, creates conductive inks for manufacturers to use to print electronic pathways – from solar panels and biosensors to antennas and clothing with wearable sensors. Copprium licenses technology from UB, works with one of the school’s entrepreneurs in residence and aims to bring the products to market.
The startup operates out of a UB satellite building at 1576 Sweet Home Road, Buffalo, with four employees. So far, the business has raised $297,000 in non-dilutive funding, according to Bischoff, who graduated from UB in 2015 with an engineering degree.
Copprium recently participated in the TechConnect World Innovation Conference and Expo in Washington, D.C., and its conductive ink solutions earned an award for innovative technology.
The business is starting to raise its seed round now, targeting between $500,000 and $1 million. The startup has been working with a Launch NY entrepreneur in residence for a little over a year and expects to apply for Launch NY funding.
The seed round will help the startup expand operations, grow its employee base and add equipment to scale the business.
The company is launching its first product, nanotech conductive ink, and Bischoff expects to start collecting revenue within the next few months.
“We have some really good ink, and we’re just sending out ink to potential customers right now, getting feedback and starting to sell the product,” Bischoff said. “Overall, the feedback has been very good.”
The startup expects to launch its second ink product within the next six to 12 months.
The hustle of entrepreneurship is not new to Bischoff. He previously founded in 2016 a 3D printing company, called Innosek, and stepped away from that business about three years ago.
During his time owning that business through now running Copprium, he has continued to work a full-time engineering job. All the money that goes into Copprium is put toward resources like staff and equipment.
“There’s so many roadblocks in everything I’ve done,” Bischoff said. “I feel like a lot (of people) would have just given up and stopped. You have to keep going, trust the process, know the goals and work towards them.”
