Seattle Business magazine September/October Preview — Spotlight

Seattle Business

STORIED GRANDEUR

FAIRMONT OLYMPIC HOTEL RENOVATION PRESERVES A PIECE OF SEATTLE'S RICH HISTORY

DARING WOMEN

BRISTOL MYERS SQUIBB’S TERI FOY ISN’T JUST A WOMAN IN SCIENCE. SHE’S A SCIENTIST, PERIOD

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2021

THE CENTER OF THE GREEN UNIVERSE OFF-KILTER FREMONT ‘LEEDS’ SEATTLE’S

PUSH FOR RESOURCE-EFFICIENT, ENVIRONMENTALLY RESPONSIBLE BUILDING

OPENING BELL PHOTO FINISH.

SPOTLIGHT

INSPECTOR GADGETS TECH-CONSTRUCTION COMPANY HEADLIGHT BRINGS A LEVEL OF SCRUTINY TO PROJECTS

by Rob Smith

   his construction-tech company because of his experience with potholes.

You read that right. Potholes.

White had recently graduated from the University of Washington with a degree in mechanical engineering when he joined a project led by UW 58 / S E AT T L E BU S I N E SS

researchers investigating how potholes were formed. Tasked with building a database, he immediately realized “a huge opportunity for technology.”

Skip forward 15 years, and his Seattle-based company, HeadLight, has raised more than $25 million and has worked on projects across 35

states. Its photo-based inspection tech nolog y c apt u re s a nd interprets data at construction sites and is being used at Seattle’s $740 million central waterfront improvement project, which began with the removal of the Alaskan Way Viaduct and is now in the process of constructing a park promenade along Puget Sound between roughly Pike Place Market and Pioneer Square. It is scheduled for completion in 2024.

Fifty-employee HeadLight also recently garnered headlines for its work in Louisiana after Hurricane Laura last year.

At it s core, W hite says HeadLight’s photo and video observations create a feedback loop that helps officials monitor, inspect and verify

construction progress while preventing mistakes, thus saving municipalities millions of dollars.

“As you can imagine, that loop gets pretty protracted,” says W hite, who leads the company with Si Katara and Steven Velozo. “Maybe somebody is writing it down in their notebook and (the information) didn’t get to the engineer in time for them to make a decision. There could be a whole cascade of events before the feedback comes and they can make an adjustment.

We provide a verifiable source of truth that can be shared in real time.”

HeadLight was recently named to the Inc. 5000 list bec au se of it s t h ree-ye a r revenue growth of 334%. It says its technology can reduce claim disputes by up to 75% and administrative work by 23%. It also recently expanded its leadership team to support its rapid growth.

Contractors working on Seattle’s waterfront improvement program praise the company for helping keep the program on track, particularly during the pandemic.

“The sudden office closure in response to the pandemic could have resulted in significant disruption and project delays,” says Jody Robinson, program construction engineer with Seattle's Jacobs Engineering, adding that the real-time access kept the project moving.

HeadLight has so far focused most of its efforts on transportation and construction, but is expanding to additional sectors, including energy.

COURTESY OF HEADLIGHT

Ellie Northington, a senior inspector for Jacobs Engineering, using HeadLight technology to monitor the waterfront project.

OPENING BELL

Craig Kasberg, left, and Kari Ingalls.

QUOTE/UNQUOTE

—Ryan Neal, chief executive officer at Bellevue-based BluePrint Technologies. His band blends modern rock with alternative country.

THE BIG NUMBER ON REFLECTION

A SHELL OF AN IDEA Former commercial fisherman Craig Kasberg thinks about shrimp, crab and lobster in very different ways than most people.

Kasberg is the founder of Tidal Vision, a Bellingham-based company riding an explosive wave of growth based on its use of chitosan, a type of fiber derived from shellfish shells.

“We certainly didn’t invent it,” says Kari Ingalls, director of business development at Tidal Vision. “We just found a way to make it widely accessible to the marketplace.”

Chitosan, a biopolymer — produced by the cells of living organisms — has historically been used in many industries, including medical cosmetics and textiles. Tidal Vision devised a cost-efficient, environmentally friendly chitosan extraction process that utilizes the entire shell for zero waste, making it attractive to industries such as water treatment, agriculture, food preservation and a range of consumer products.

In wastewater treatment and agriculture, for instance, chitosan is an alternative to harsh chemicals, Ingalls says. It is nontoxic, biodegradable and biocompatible, and displaces synthetic chemicals that are harmful to health and the environment.

The company expects to more than double its employee count to around 50 by year’s end. It recently opened a production facility in Wellford, South Carolina, after announcing a partnership with Leigh Fibers, North America’s largest textile processor.

Ingalls says Tidal Vision may one day go public, though that's not top of mind.

“We’re really growing fast and we’ll continue to do that,” she says.

— Rob Smith

60 / S E AT T L E BU S I N E SS

Franchise fee for expansion team Seattle Kraken to join the National Hockey League. The club’s first game, a preseason contest, is against the Vancouver Canucks in Spokane on Sept. 26.

Source: SEATTLE KRAKEN

S TAT S H O T

RENTER REALITY LOWER-INCOME WORKERS INCREASINGLY STRUGGLE TO AFFORD HOUSING, POSING A HUGE CHALLENGE TO BUSINESSES have skyrocketed in recent years. Here’s a look at how rising rental rates have outpaced wage growth and make it difficult for businesses to hire workers.

HOUSING COSTS IN THE PUGET SOUND REGION

$13.69 MINIMUM WAGE PER HOUR $1,247 FAIR MARKET RENT FOR A ONE-BEDROOM APARTMENT $23.98 AMOUNT A WORKER MUST MAKE TO AFFORD A ONE-BEDROOM APARTMENT $1,524 FAIR MARKET RENT FOR A TWO-BEDROOM APARTMENT $29.31 AMOUNT A WORKER MUST MAKE TO AFFORD A TWO-BEDROOM APARTMENT $2,158 FAIR MARKET RENT FOR A THREE-BEDROOM APARTMENT $712 RENT AFFORDABLE AT MINIMUM WAGE 70 NUMBER OF HOURS A MINIMUM-WAGE EMPLOYEE MUST WORK TO AFFORD A MODEST ONE-BEDROOM APARTMENT

1,055,157 NUMBER OF RENTERS IN STATE 37 PERCENTAGE OF RENTERS IN STATE $15.08 MEDIAN HOURLY WAGE FOR COUNTER AND FAST-FOOD WORKERS $15.84 MEDIAN HOURLY WAGE FOR RETAIL SALESPERSONS (Housing wage is an estimate of the wage a full-time worker must earn to afford a modest rental home at HUD’s fair market rent without spending more than the recommended 30% of income on housing costs.)

Source: National Low Income Housing Coalition

COURTESY OF TIDAL VISION

Tidal Vision rides chitosan growth wave