The office.

• Author: Heffes, Ellen M.
• Position: DSI - Company overview

How did the company get started?

DSI was launched in 1984 by four engineers--Brian Brockway, Richard Fundakowski, Brock Lindstedt and Perry Mills--with initial investments from family members and friends, and lots of sweat equity. In addition, in the early years, DSI won several Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

The SBIR program was established by Congress in the early '80s to support technological innovation in the small business sector in areas of research deemed to be of critical importance to the U.S. These grants funded the development of DSI's implantable blood pressure telemetry. DSI pioneered the development and use of this technology for use in biomedical research and has become the global leader in its field.

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Examples of the physiological parameters that the devices can monitor include blood pressure, ECG, EEG, respiration, temperature and activity, And because of DSI's ability to miniaturize the devices, they can be used in animals as small as mice.

The ability to acquire this data is essential to the understanding of the safety and efficacy of promising new drugs. Scientists rely on DSI's innovative solutions to advance science, improve animal welfare and create effective and safe drugs and treatments for humans that otherwise might not be possible.

How has the business model changed?

The initial business was largely based on sponsored research from the NIH, supplemented by the sale of products that were essentially custom built for the specific customer's application (primarily academic laboratories).

The company then began focusing on key product features, standardizing the product offering and improving manufacturing capabilities. We also built a direct sales force in the U.S. and Europe and added dealers in Asia.

Through these efforts, we built a very profitable and sustainable business and are no longer dependent on grants. Exports now comprise approximately 45 percent of revenue and the company has created nearly 200 jobs in an industry that otherwise would likely not exist. The SBIR grants have been repaid many times in the form of tax revenues.

Today, DSI can claim that the top 40 pharmaceutical companies in the world as well as multiple government agencies use our products in their development process. And we believe that virtually every drug that has gone onto the U.S. market in the past 10 years has at some point been tested in the...