Location: Wauwatosa
Founders: Larry Grassmann and Pehr Anderson
Founded: February 2018
Product: Innovative glass technologies
Website: dglassp.com
Employees: Two
Goal: Develop more OEM and distribution channel relationships; increase marketing
Experience: Grassmann previously held sales leadership roles at Super Sky Products Enterprises LLC in Mequon and Nabco Entrances Inc. in Muskego. Anderson was previously vice president of platform technology at Brookfield-based HarQen LLC, and in corporate development at Brown Deer-based Metavante Technologies Inc.
Credit: Lila Aryan Photography
Imagine if your company’s glass conference room walls changed from clear to opaque at the start of a meeting, based on the information entered in your Outlook calendar.
That’s one of the custom solutions Wauwatosa startup Dynamic Glass Products LLC has developed for customers who install its innovative glass film technology.
The film was invented by South Korean company Livicon, and once applied to a glass surface, can be turned from clear to opaque with the touch of a button through the use of liquid crystal nanotechnologies. Livicon came to the U.S. seeking distribution partners, and presented to investors at a meeting of Milwaukee-based Silicon Pastures Angel Investment Network. Two of them –Larry Grassmann and Pehr Anderson – decided to form DGP to sell the product in the U.S.
In early May, DGP received its first shipment of film for distribution in the U.S. and Canada under its exclusive agreement with Livicon. The pair have been working to establish partnerships and distribution agreements across DGP’s markets. Its distributors are window film dealers and glazing contractors, and it is building relationships with custom manufacturers of aluminum frame glass glazed film.
“There’s a lot of interest in the technology, in the product, in the on-demand privacy that it creates,” Grassmann said. “When people see it, they’re very interested. There’s traction gaining with our name and our brand, so we’re starting to get contacts, people just doing Google searches.”
The plan is to eventually begin distributing other glass technologies, such as an external glazing that would darken a window as the sun hits it, Grassmann said.
Dynamic Glass Products’ film can be used in a variety of applications, from car windows to high-rise viewing decks.
“Most frequently, we’re seeing corporate conference rooms,” Grassmann said. “We just finished an install on a high rise in Chicago.”
Dynamic Glass Products has 1,000 square feet of space in the Technology Innovation Center in Wauwatosa’s Milwaukee County Research Park, where its employees cut and attach the electronics to the film for each project.
Grassmann and Anderson are bootstrapping the startup.
