Hand Technologies, LLC (HAND) is a startup committed to developing and commercializing high-performance polymers and ultra-high temperature carbon/ceramic materials for the U.S. aerospace and defense market.
HAND Technologies, LLC (HAND) is a custom materials company founded upon extreme performance materials discovered at Mississippi State University (MSU). Our startup is committed to expanding the high-performance materials options available to the U.S. aerospace market, starting with one materials platform at a time. We are currently commercializing a platform of BODA-derived resins (BDR) to help solve a staggering production limitation plaguing the carbon/carbon (C/C) composites industry. Our BDR product line delivers superior melt infusion processability and converts to high-quality carbon with unprecedented efficiency, potentially accelerating current production rates of custom C/C composite parts from 6-9 months down to weeks! We are here to help the U.S. aerospace industry achieve faster C/C production times, but it doesn't stop there. Our BDR is one of many systems we're planning to role out for thermal protection systems (TPS) development and manufacturing. Our goal is to help achieve better, faster. Our goal is to FILL THE VOID.
Our Leadership:
- Dr. Ernesto Isaac Borrego is a founder and the CEO of HAND where he leads a team focused on accelerating the production of ultra-high performance aerospace materials via novel synthetic resins. Dr. Borrego is disciplined in organic synthesis, polymer chemistry, and materials science. He is successful in proposal preparation and management of externally funded programs with teams.
- Dr. Smith is Professor of Chemistry at Mississippi State University and a founder and CTO of HAND. Dr. Smith has over 30 years of experience, has published 153 refereed journal articles, and 28 US patents issued or pending.
- Mr. Johnson is a Senior Operations Manager at HAND, has >30 years of experience in management and coordination of several hundred employees at AllState Insurance.
- Dr. Gustavo A. Munoz is a Director of Research at HAND where he is responsible for day-to-day project administration, SBIR/STTR acquisition, logistics, and coordinatior of HAND's technical team.
Target customers are decision makers in the Space & Defense industries (CEOs, CTOs, directors, founders, senior scientists/engineers etc.) of which a majority have large discretionary budgets. Their role is to make the key decision to evaluate BDR products as drop-in replacements to resins used in their current composite production lines or for new products.
What motivates them?
Most of our customers are trying to win large, competitive government contracts by solving a DoD need, in this case: mass producing hypersonic missiles (bipartisan). A huge win for them, in this arena, is having the manufacturing capability of producing an entire arsenal of hypersonic missiles quickly, which requires a ready supply of C/Cs aeroshells (or alternative TPS materials, if operable). For this reason, HAND’s target customer is typically looking at scalable technologies: most will not invest time or resources buying/testing a product that can’t eventually be mass-produced.
Who influences their purchasing decisions?
The senior personnel who make up our customer base often have significant technical expertise, years of working in the same industry, and a close network of professionals they trust. Trust within this community makes word of mouth effective in influencing a decision maker. Therefore, product-validation by key members in this community is crucial to gaining widespread brand awareness and customer acceptance."
We plan to generate revenue by selling our premiere BDR product for a profit (30-50%). In 2024, HAND achieved ~20x cost reduction in production price of BDR and we expect to bring the price down further in 2025 with a transition to production at a commericial scale (>1 ton). One customer consumes anywhere between 6-15 tons of resin a year.
We are requesting funds between $0.6-$0.7 M to complete our transition to commercial production in 2025. We expect to produce over 1 metric ton of our premiere BDR material to produce >$0.5M in profit. Preparing for success, and with an optimized procedure in place to achieve reasonable market prices, HAND has put together a detailed production plan, with consultation from its scaleup partners to transition production to over one ton. In order to reduce risk, the steps towards commercial production is being broken into three discrete phases and is currently being scheduled for 2025. This allows HAND to terminate the project at the earliest stages with its commercialization partners, if the commercial process needs to be readapted to reach targeted post-production prices. HAND has currently raised the funds to execute the first phase of this production plan which will take four-five months to complete. We are currently raising the money for the last two phases which are anticipated to take between one-three months to complete each.
For this expanding market (>$1B), BDR has swiftly emerged as a leading technology choice for C/C composite structures and, over the past year, has progressed from a technical-readiness level (TRL) of 2 (Basic Concept) to TRL-5 (Prototype Demonstration). Customers are now interested in purchasing larger quantities (10-100 kg) of resin for further validation. HAND seeks to establish a multi-ton production capability in partnership with reputable toll manufacturers with the end goal of 1.) supplying BDR at larger quantities to prime DoD contractors wishing to incorporate it into their production line and 2.) becoming profitable and self-sustaining.
Currently, HAND has raised capital via private investments (totaling ~$0.5M) from accredited state (invest MS) institutional and retail investors to execute on the first two stages of this scaleup.
