CEO Gary Klinefelter of Edina-based IrriGreen has won innovation and green-tech technology awards and earned patents for the water-saving software built into his IrriGreen Genius rotating sprinklers.
Independent researchers at the International Center for Water Technology at Fresno State University in California concluded last year that the Genius dispenses at least 40 percent less water while achieving the same soil moisture as conventional systems. Anecdotal tests with individual homeowners put the savings at closer to 50 percent.
Patient Minnesota individual investors have pumped in about $2 million to get the six-year-old company up and running and available through 30-some distributors who do business with housing contractors throughout the country, most recently Coast Water Technologies with 20 warehouse locations that make it among the largest in Florida.
But superior innovation and technology don't necessarily result in a roaring sales engine.
Klinefelter, an electrical engineer and veteran software executive at the former Fargo Electronics, recalls that the one-time CEO of that company once mused: "Pioneering doesn't pay."
"We're trying to introduce Wi-Fi and electronic sensors and [one] electronic sprinkler head to an industry where people are used to shovels to dig and put a lot of sprinkler heads in the ground," Klinefelter said. "We're one level removed from the consumer."
Building contractors tend to prefer installing traditional systems for as little as $2,500-plus compared to at least $3,500 for an IrriGreen system. The savings is realized by the homeowner over several years in dollars and the satisfaction for some that they saved precious drinkable water in an era of rising water and sewage costs.
Klinefelter, who declines to discuss the company's revenue, said IrriGreen needs an institutional investor to provide capital that would permit IrriGreen to market to growing ranks of "green-oriented" homeowners in need of a new or replacement system. Or it would be open to being acquired by a major manufacturer or distributor in the housing or hardware trade.