Hound Labs

"We've done ride-alongs with police officers. One of our guys even got to wear a bulletproof vest," says Nick Lopez, providing a vivid example of how "we do whatever it takes" for our clients.

He's talking about Hound Labs, an Oakland-based company with whom Triple Ring has partnered to develop a breathalyzer for cannabis. Triple Ring began working with Hound when they were a seed-funded company with some chemistry technology licensed from a university.

Since then, Hound has raised multiple rounds of venture capital from top-tier firms. Along the way, Triple Ring has served as the primary technical partner for Hound's development efforts. That has led to some interesting tasks. In addition to describing field studies with law enforcement, Nick describes challenges ranging from setting up a driving track to test impaired drivers to flying across country to pick up parts for a critical demo.

"I was quoted in Rolling Stone," says Joe Heanue in describing an interview about the Hound technology. "It's not what I expected as a tone-deaf physicist." He goes on to explain that Triple Ring tries to support their clients at the business level, not just the technical level. In the case of Hound, this has included some co-investment in each of the funding rounds. Joe explains, "We like the motivation that comes from investing in our client's success." It's this type of motivation that prompts Nick's comment: "I like to say that we go to eleven for our clients."

Learn more about Hound labs on their website: houndlabs.com

ViOptix

"Scott [Coleridge, CEO] and Mark [Lonsinger, GM] are family now and we treat ViOptix like it's our own company," says Kate Bechtel as she describes ViOptix, a Triple Ring client aiming to improve surgical outcomes through the deployment of technology that can easily measure soft-tissue health in the operating room.

Triple Ring has served as the entire technical team for ViOptix since it switched to a virtual-company model nearly 10 years ago. The novel relationship allows ViOptix to access extensive technical resources on an as-needed, variable-cost basis that can be matched to its own revenue and cash flow constraints.

At the same time, the relationship gives Triple Ring's team a sense of ownership of the technology and the opportunity to follow products from fresh idea to fielded product. Echoing Kate's sentiment, Jessica Warring cites the mutual respect between the client and Triple Ring as one of the best aspects of her work on the technology over the years.

"A great thing about working at Triple Ring is that we can both see a wide variety of projects and technologies and develop key technologies that go all the way from concept to treating patients." The relationship works well for the client also. Scott Coleridge, the ViOptix CEO observes, "Triple Ring has served as our development and engineering group since we decided to go virtual. I don’t think we could have found a higher caliber of scientists and engineers under one roof. They are flexible to work with and have grown with our needs. I would highly recommend them.”

Learn more about ViOptix on their website: vioptix.com