TDA combines the creativity, drive, speed and flexibility of a small
entrepreneurial company with the business acumen that comes having turned
concepts into products. Going from idea to product is a multi-step process.
In the first step we merge the cutting edge ideas of our staff with the needs of our customers (both federal and
commercial). After formulating the initial concept, we generally seek
federal funding to support the proof of concept experiments and the initial
development. Federally funded R&D is particularly advantageous to us,
because the government grants TDA the rights to the intellectual property
developed on our government funded projects. TDA has significantly benefited
from its participation in the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR)
program, which has provided much of the funding that we have used to develop
our technologies.
In some cases, we can move from a leading-edge concept to product in under a
few years (take for example, some of our conducting polymers that will go on sale
this summer). In other cases, multiple funded projects over a six to ten
year period are required for the production technology and the market
develop in parallel. For example, it took twelve years for fullerenes (BuckyBalls)
to go from a Nobel Prize winning discovery in the laboratory to a forty ton
per year fine chemical product.
Most of TDA’s products address needs in the chemical and pharmaceutical
industries, the aerospace industry or the military. These industries are
populated by large, mature, technically sophisticated companies with
extensive manufacturing, marketing and product support capabilities.
Virtually all of our projects establish partnerships with such companies in
which we work together to bring our products and processes to market. In
general, we license our technologies to industry leaders who have the
infrastructure needed to rapidly introduce our products and grow their
sales.