Chad Meyer is leading commercialization of the new Phyn Plus smart water monitoring system at Apple Valley-based Uponor North America.
Meyer, joining Uponor in a newly created role, said he is working across the organization to develop an intelligent water strategy and product road map.
He's also evaluating potential partnerships and possible acquisition opportunities.
"We're laser-focused on getting Phyn Plus out and launched," Meyer said. "My primary role is going to be to prepare what's next."
The Phyn Plus device measures home water pressure 240 times a second. It alerts a homeowner the moment it detects a leak and can shut off water automatically to mitigate damage. Homeowners control the device through a mobile app.
Meyer previously was with a pair of enterprise software solutions providers, as senior director of product management at Plymouth-based Solera Holdings — Parts Group and director of product marketing for Minnetonka-based Epicor.
Meyer has more than two decades of experience in product marketing and management for companies in industrial and consumer products, health care products and services and enterprise software.
Phyn Plus was a 2018 Innovation Award honoree in both the Smart Home and Tech for a Better World product categories in its debut in January at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
California-based Phyn is a joint venture formed in 2016 between Uponor, a providers of residential and commercial plumbing, fire safety and radiant heating and cooling systems, and consumer technology giant Belkin.
Q: What appealed to you about this opportunity?
A: I've always enjoyed the process of ideation and looking at what's possible with a product, starting from scratching and building or taking something existing and evolving it. This opportunity has a technology component with smart-home technology, Internet of Things, and that intersection with traditional plumbing.
Q: What channels are you using to market Phyn Plus?
A: To start with, we've developed the Uponor Pro Squad. That's a network of plumbers nationwide that will continue to grow as we roll out the solution. We're also looking at e-commerce channels, buildings and alternative channels that will leverage the pro squad to get the device installed properly.
Q: What's the market potential for intelligent water?
A: It's wide open. Look at some of the platforms out there, smart-home thermostats or [smart doorbell startup] Ring, which just sold to Amazon for $1 billion. ... They've skyrocketed in adoption. So the same thing with what we see with intelligent water and what we can do with this area starting with Phyn Plus and looking at where else we can go with it.
