In 1997, Professor Alan Weimer of chemical and biological engineering heard a campus talk by Professor Steven George of chemistry about a novel process of coating surfaces with the thinnest of materials possible, known as atomic layer deposition (ALD).
“One of the things Steve talked about was putting an extremely thin film coating on a flat piece of metal as part of a research project for the U.S. Navy looking for ways to better protect the hulls of ships,” explains Weimer, an expert in fine particle processing. “We talked afterward and eventually decided to team up on the research.”
The thickness, or lack thereof, of ALD is breathtaking. Each layer of the coatings the researchers lay down is generally the thickness of a single atom—about a million times smaller than the thickness of a human hair. The team also can control the number of atomic layers, changing up the chemistry depending on the project.
Starting up a start-up
Within a few years Weimer and George had filed a number of patents on the technology, gaining exclusive rights to a wide range of intellectual property. When the CU Technology Transfer Office strongly hinted it would be a good move to start a spin-off company, Weimer and George sought out CU Boulder postdoctoral researcher Karen Buechler, who was working in Weimer’s lab at the time.
“They told me they knew I was looking for a job, and they needed someone who has the energy to pursue this outside of the university,” she recalls. “So I said I would do it. But we still needed someone who had experience running a business, which none of us had.”
No problem. Weimer called Mike Masterson, his former graduate school office mate at CU Boulder in chemical engineering. Masterson, who was embarking on a career in Boston as a venture capitalist, became the first and only CEO of ALD NanoSolutions (ALD Nano).
“In a weak moment I said ‘Sure, I’ll do that,’” Masterson recalls with a laugh. ALD Nano was now officially rolling with its four CU Boulder co-founders.
“When you start a company, there are a lot of things you can’t control, and there is a lot of luck involved,” says Masterson, who has started eight high-tech companies. “You really can’t control the markets and you can’t control the global economic environment. But one thing you can control is who you get into business with. With Al, Steve and Karen, I knew I was going to be working with honest, smart and very dedicated people.”