100%

Scanned image of the page. Keyboard directions: use + to zoom in, - to zoom out, arrow keys to pan inside the viewer.

Page Options

Share

Something wrong?

Something wrong with this page? Report problem.

Rights / Permissions

The University of Michigan Library provides access to these materials for educational and research purposes. These materials may be under copyright. If you decide to use any of these materials, you are responsible for making your own legal assessment and securing any necessary permission. If you have questions about the collection, please contact the Bentley Historical Library at bentley.ref@umich.edu

November 28, 2003 - Image 95

Resource type:
Text
Publication:
The Detroit Jewish News, 2003-11-28

Disclaimer: Computer generated plain text may have errors. Read more about this.

Arts Life

Business

Clean Sweep

A little idea has led to $2 billion in automotive orders.

ALAN ABRAMS

Special to the Jewish. News

A

young Israeli law student's
culture shock over scraping
ice off his windshield led to
an invention that may
bring his Farmington Hills-based corn-
pang $1 billion in orders within the
next 24 months.
Solomon Franco was studying law in
London, England, when he encountered
snow and ice on his windshield, some-
thing he never had to deal with in Israel.
"I wondered why, if the world had
the technology to send men to the
moon and bring them back, hadn't -
anyone created a successful system to
clear windshields of snow and ice at the
push of a button."
Franco, now 34, put his curiosity to
work. "I began to ask questions and to
search the Internet. I learned that in
the 100 years that automobiles have
been around, many attempts had been
made to deal with the problem but
none had been successful."
A veteran of the Israel Defense Forces,
Franco had already set the money aside
to pay for his third year of law school.
However, he quit school to do research
and raise money for his project.
By March 1998, he launched the
nucleus of Microheat, Inc., with a
group of engineers and opened a labo-
ratory in the industrial center of Petah
Tikvah, Israel. However, getting his first
$1 million investment took two years.
'Actually, the investor found me. I
had used the Internet to contact various
investment companies around the
world. And then this gentleman
[Franco won't reveal his name] made
contact with us. He came to Israel and
visited us. Then I went to New York
and met his attorney.
"I had a prototype with me, which
his attorney said could be patented.
He said he would draft the application
and I got my million dollars," Franco
said. Microheat's products now have a
total of 27 patents.
General Motors was among the first
companies Franco contacted. "Their
engineers looked favorably upon the
product [which eventually would be
called HotShot] and gave us suggestions.
The product is very complex. Most peo-
ple looked at it strictly from an electron-
ic point of view, neglecting the heating
part. However, it requires integration

into the computer system of a car.
"We were told that it would probably
take at least two years to find a manufac-
turer who would buy the product and
bring it to GM. And GM would have to
test it for about three years until we
could become a supplier. So we decided
to do it ourselves," said Franco.
Franco, with his wife Monique,
moved Microheat's operations to
Michigan. When he came here,
Microheat employed eight people.
Within 18 months Microheat had
become a Tier One supplier for GM
with a full product line and a ware-
house. The company now has about
50 employees.
"But we still had to raise money,"
said Franco, "because we were a com-
pany with no income. The lending
institutions wouldn't offer us favor-
able terms, so we decided to turn to
private investors. But after Sept. 11
and the decline of the stock market,
finding financial investors became a
difficult task."
Meanwhile, the company was devel-
oping a product to go beyond wind-
shield cleaning. HotWASH will also
clean rear windows and headlights. .

Target Date

Microheat's first contract with GM
specifies customizing the product to a
selection of GM vehicle models,
including cars, trucks and SUYs. The
total volume of that contract is equal to
about $70 million, and the target
for the first shipments to GM assembly
plants is January 2005. That means
production must start by next July.
Microheat has been told that more
GM contracts will follow, and that it is
the auto giant's intention to have
HotShot installed in all their vehicle
models.
Meanwhile, DaimlerChrysler decided
to use HotShot in their Jeep line, esti-
mating that 35 percent of Jeep
Cherokees will have it. That will bring
Microheat another $70 million starting
with the 2006 model year, shipping in
early 2005. DaimlerChrysler said the
product could become a premier pack-
age dealer option for Chrysler's 2005
models next fall.
Although Microheat worked primari-
ly with GM and DaimlerChrysler,
other international vehicle manufactur-
ers did not want to see their customers

literally left out in the cold. Franco
said Microheat is now servicing 28
vehicle manufacturers in America,
Europe and Asia.
He projects that by the end of this
year, virtually all global automobile and
truck manufacturers will have units for
testing and evaluation.
Microheat educates the manufacturer
about the product and product
demand, works with them in testing
and evaluation of the product, and
designs services for custom fitting the
product to the manufacturer's vehicles.
As Franco explains, "It is not a simple
task, like pushing a button to make
coffee. We have to deliver a heated fluid
to a windshield in 30 seconds."
Microheat faces no serious competi-
tion in the marketplace. There is an
existing product but Franco says com-
paring it to HotShot is like comparing
a bicycle to a motorcycle. Indeed, a
senior DaimlerChrysler engineer, who
asked not to be identified, said
HotShot is the only unit on the market
that "does the work."
.
Bloomfield Hills-based attorney
Lawrence S. Jackier is at the forefront of
community leaders who help link Israeli
companies with American corporations
seeking access to Israeli technology.
"In many ways, even if it wasn't an
Israeli company, Microheat is a classic
example of what's great about
America," said Jackier, who is president
of the Jewish Federation of
Metropolitan Detroit.
"Solomon Franco had an idea and
then had some patents for heating fluids
economically to clean windshields of

cars and trucks. He came here with vir-
tually nothing and was able to persuade
venture capitalists to invest in his
dream. And now he has a company that
employs 100 people worldwide. That is
what America is about," said Jackier.
"Franco's story is the story of entre-
preneurship at its best. The technolo-
gies were developed at his R&D center
in Netanya. He brought over his staff
of Israeli engineers and researchers and
helped them integrate themselves into
the greater Detroit community. He has
gone beyond the norm in taking care of
the people he brought over here by tak-
ing personal responsibility for their wel-
fare," added Jackier.

Centered Here

Microheat is systematically closing its
Netanya, Israel, operations and moving
them to Farmington Hills, which
already is headquarters and home to
research and development facilities and
manufacturing operations.
But Microheat remains very much a
global operation, assembling electronics
in St, Petersburg, Russia, and using parts
from mainland China and Hong Kong.
For recreation, Franco likes to write
music and songs, especially techno. He
wrote all the music and took the lead in
the creation of the graphics on the
company's Website,

-wwvv.microheat.com

As he explains, "I am only the inven-
tor. I had some business experience and
now I'm CEO and chairman. It gets
very complicated sometimes, and I need
to keep seriousness at the forefront.
"But music and graphics help keep
my creativity flowing." Franco and his

HOTSHOT on page 68

Solomon "Shlomie" Franco with his "HotShot" and two of his employees: Gal Golod
and Elain Yarden, both of West Bloomfield.

d

11/28
2003

67

Back to Top

© 2024 Regents of the University of Michigan