Tuesday, September 19, 2006
Interview with Jonathan Weisz, CEO of OnTech
Last week, we were at VentureNet, a venture capital conference which presented local technology firms to an audience of venture capitalists. Among the companies we spoke to was OnTech (www.ontech.com), a San Diego-based firm that develops self-heating containers. OnTech was showing its self-heating coffee drinks and technology. We spoke with Jonathan Weisz, President and CEO of the firm, to get an idea of what the company's all about.
Ben Kuo: What are OnTech's products?
Jonathan Weisz: OnTech has portable heat solutions, which we are currently developing for applications that would require portable heat, such as medical applications--autoclaves that don't require power on the battle field, veterinarians out in the field, cosmetic hair removal systems--and also bowls and trays for food. The application we've launched day one is our beverage market for the on-the-go market.
Ben Kuo: Are those beverage containers available yet?
Jonathan Weisz: Yes. You can buy them at Sam's Club, Ralph's, soon to be Walmart, and many other retailers.
Ben Kuo: Tell me a bit about your funding?
Jonathan Weisz: We've been around for about three years, and we've completed three rounds of funding. Our partners are outstanding partners: Draper Fisher Frontier Fund -- Scott Linett, David Cremin, Tim Draper; and GRP, Global Retail Partners.
Ben Kuo: What's the stage of the company?
Jonathan Weisz: We're in distribution of our the product. We're raising our Series C round, and looking to raise about five million dollars.
Ben Kuo: Do you have a lot of competition in this space?
Jonathan Weisz: There is no competition in this space.
Ben Kuo: Where'd the idea come from?
Jonathan Weisz: It came from Japan. The idea came from a product in Japan, which heated about 1 ounce of sake. However, that was not a shelf-stable product, and was not a beverage container that could hold as much as ten ounces.
Ben Kuo: Thanks for the interview!