Eric Einem

I'm a software engineer specializing in embedded hardware programming of monitoring and control systems. I've worked for 15 years at CSTS programming and improving successful emissions monitoring systems.

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/ericeinem
Member since July 25, 2014

I am a designer and inventor by nature. I love challenges and problem solving, whether it's building a chicken coop out of random lumber I found for free on craigslist, or writing software to monitor emissions. Quote_down

About

I am a(n):

Entrepeneur, software & firmware developer

Companies I've founded or co-founded:

Plantaware

Companies I work or worked for:

Capay Organic, DeMott Technologies, CSTS

Achievements (products built, personal awards won):

Designed and programmed the prototype PlantAware sensor and control modules

Lead a team implementing a continuous emissions monitoring system for Cemtrol

Implemented a set of Visual Studio WinForm controls for easy creation of a Machine UI for DeMott Technologies

If you're an entrepreneur or corporate innovator, why?

I want to invent something cool.

My favorite startups:

Uber, Airbnb, Pinterest

What's most frustrating and rewarding about entrepreneurship/innovation?

What I find rewarding about entrepreneurship is getting to work on an innovation that I'm passionate about, and enjoy being involved in many aspects of a business. This includes discovering where there are problems to be solved, brainstorming with a teams ways to solve these problems, how to market them, and designing a solution. Granted, I'm not an expert at all these things, but I enjoy learning new things, and it has been a great experience so far.

The most frustrating thing about being entrepreneurship for me has been not being able to jump in full-time while in the pre-investment state.

What's the No. 1 mistake entrepreneurs/innovators make?

Choosing the wrong co-founders

What are the top three lessons you've learned as an entrepreneur?

It's more work that you think, so you better enjoy it!
Start with the simplest valuable version of your innovation
Be careful in choosing co-founders

Full bio

I consider myself a jack-of-all trades, as I'm always learning new things - currentyly I'm learning some German and learning to juggle pins. That said, my strongest skills are in programming embedded hardware for data aquisition and real-time control systems. Below are some of the projects I've worked on.

Stretch Wrap Forming Control System

I worked with DeMott Technologies as my first programming job, starting in 1985, and continuing for 7 years, and periodically as a consultant until today. With DeMott, I programmed the controllers which controlled the motion of the stretch wrap press which formed large parts for use in building airplanes.

More recently I updated the UI for DeMott Technologies, creating a set of UI controls which made it easy to create the UI for their PLC based stretch wrap control systems. The controls could be dropped on a Visual Studio WinForm and configured at run-time to connect with specific tags on the PLC. New UI forms could be created without programming experience.

Continous Emissions Monitoring

Working for Cemtrol, I created software which aquires data from emission motitoring equipment, and provides reports through a web interface. The reports allow the refineries or power plants using the equipment to meet EPA requirements. The system used Windows Embedded as the OS. The data aquisition could collect data from a number of sensor types or emission analyzers. We used a plugin model for interfacing with the sensors. Support for new sensors or emission analyzers could be added without changing the data aquisition software.