Tennessee Software Company Offers Non-Carpet Carpe

Chattanooga, TN, Oct. 21--Chattanooga-based Tricycle Inc. has won one of the bigger awards in its industry, but a CEO's false step meant just as much to the company's chief creative officer, according to the Chattanooga Times/Free Press. Michael Hendrix said he and Jonathan Bragdon, Tricycle's president, demonstrated the company's simulated carpet samples a few weeks ago to executives at a carpet-tile manufacturer. Mr. Hendrix said several of Tricycle's computer-generated images were on the floor alongside conventional samples of the same carpet. One of the executives "thought they were all real tiles until he stepped on one of" Tricycle's, Mr. Hendrix said. "He was really surprised. That was one of the best compliments we've had," he said. Mr. Bragdon said Tricycle was incorporated in May 2002. Working in a 1,000-square-foot space in the Bread Factory lofts on Cowart Street, the company counts the world's largest commercial carpet makers among its customers and means to "change the way this industry works," he said. Tricycle uses digital photocopies to replicate actual carpet sample colors and patterns. Tricycle's simulated samples serve three main purposes, Mr. Bragdon said. When a manufacturer outsources with his company for sample production, he said, it means the manufacturer saves big money not having to make its own conventional samples. Manufacturers spend about $1 billion a year on samples, he said. "Samples are expensive, heavy, costly and inefficient," he said. "They take a long time to make, and they're wasteful." Ann Weeks, a commercial interior designer for 35 years, said the simulated samples also make life much easier for people in her line of work. "As we present concepts to our clients, we may present many concepts involving three or four carpet styles or patterns," said Mrs. Weeks, general manager in Chattanooga for Ivan Allen Workspace. After a client chooses a sample, Mrs. Weeks said, the samples the client didn't choose typically pile up in the designer's office. "We've got 20 jobs going all the time," she said. "Multiply that by five or six (rejected) samples (per job). In two months, we've got a ton of samples sitting around." Eventually, she said, the vast majority of those samples find their way to a landfill. Frank Hurd, chairman of the Dalton, Ga.-based Carpet and Rug Institute's Carpet America Recovery Effort (CARE), said Americans toss 5 billion pounds of waste carpet into landfills every year. He said simulated samples could make a sizable dent in that number. "I would say of that 5 billion, 30 percent is in the commercial arena," in which Tricycle works, he said. "What Tricycle does is eliminate the need for the first set of samples. The designer doesn't bring in regular samples until the client's narrowed it down to two or three, not 50." Mr. Bragdon said he and Mr. Hendrix, who've spent their careers in the carpet business, first saw the technology at a British company. He said they partnered with the British company with an eye on bringing the technology to the United States. In June, Tricycle won the top software technology prize at NeoCon, which Mr. Hendrix called the "largest commercial interior show in the world." Mr. Bragdon declined to discuss specifics having to do with the company's financial position. But he said it has established a steady, growing monthly revenue flow. He said Tricycle will soon double its square footage at the Bread Factory and is looking for more production workers. He said the opportunity to create jobs downtown was one of the reasons he and his partners opted to set up shop in Chattanooga. "Half the world's carpet is made very near here," he said. "We're tied in with programs like Tech 2020 and the Center for Entrepreneurial Growth and we're in the Renewal Community.