By:Eric Peterson on September 7, 2019
From Company Week
After working for Ascent Solar, Seagate, and Micron, Gutierrez joined founder and CTO Antonio Gentile at Jujotech in late 2017. The company’s focus remains on “software development for smart headsets,” but Gutierrez steered the company from its initial ebook reader to new markets, including industrial, manufacturing, and warehouse.
“We are providing solutions for the intelligent connected worker,” says Gutierrez, dubbing Jujotech’s hands-free, voice-searchable solutions “augmented reality as an interface that provides an opportunity for action.”
The product suite includes Fusion AR for delivery of “actionable augmented content,” Fusion Remote for two-way communication, and WorkLogic, “for enterprise integration of actionable workflows.” The software is compatible with headsets from RealWear and Vuzix.
The end result is “actionable workflow” and “actionable IoT [Internet of Things],” he adds. When working in concert with IoT technology in the field, workers “can bring that intelligence to [their] eyeballs hands-free.”
One key application is what Gutierrez calls “remote mentoring,” by which one experienced employee can help a team by seeing things from their perspective via a headset and Jujotech’s platform. “That person remotely can share and annotate files instantly,” he explains. “That is all connected to the supply chain.”
He adds, “Millennials don’t read standard operating procedures. They are the Youtube generation. We can bring video to the connected workforce in real time.”
In some cases, one mentor can oversee a team of 50 field techs. “The gray-haired people know how to do this,” says Gutierrez. Now you can have all these Millennials doing this and they don’t have the tribal knowledge. . . . The talent is retiring.”
“A high-quality and immediate repair with a high success rate can save a lot of money,” says Gutierrez. “Sometimes they have to fly in an expert for $5,000.” Jujotech’s products have a service-as-a-subscription (SaaS) model with annual fees starting at about $500 per headset.
It’s all about leveraging the expertise of a control room with a distributed workforce using the tenets of Industry 4.0, says Gutierrez.
Customers include Honda and Eagle Automation. Honda’s engineers in Japan use the technology to communicate with the production floor in Ohio. Denver-based Eagle is in oil and gas, and uses Jujotech’s products for mentoring less experienced employees in the field.
Jujotech’s streamlined communication and improved safety can have a quick payback. “The amount of ROI you get is quite significant,” says Gutierrez. “These instantly bring a return on investment of 40, 50, sometimes 80 percent.”
Challenges: “It’s a long sales cycle and it’s an educational sale,” says Gutierrez. “People are just starting to implement these technologies.”
Opportunities: Gutierrez says Jujotech is getting traction with utilities, manufacturers, industrial users, and telcos, and he sees potential with biomedical companies.
Needs: Capital and employees. “We are trying to scale right now,” says Gutierrez. He plans to open an equity round in the fall of 2019 with a target raise of $3.5 million.
The Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade (OEDIT) awarded the company with a $250,000 Advanced Industries Accelerator Grant in June 2019. “It’s a huge validation for us as a company,” says Gutierrez. “For a startup like ours, that’s significant.”
