Startup NASA Feature Series: Simpli-Fi Automation

This webinar series provides an opportunity for you to hear about early-stage companies that have licensed technologies developed at NASA and are working to commercialize these innovations.

Discover the future of telehealth and automation during our next Startup NASA Feature Series with Simpli-Fi Automation on February 22, 2024 at 2:00 PM ET. Learn about the company’s evolution since 2018, leveraging NASA-licensed technology from Ames Research Center, and introducing their groundbreaking “Provectus” sensor chip.

During the virtual event, Chris Campbell, CEO, will present on their journey and product, the Provectus Sport, a handheld breath analysis system that will someday enable comprehensive metabolic analysis. This innovative solution is being developed with the goal of gathering health data that would normally require expensive chemical analysis equipment and a highly trained staff.

Hear how Chris Campbell got involved with NASA and where Simpli-Fi Automation is at in their growth stage. There will be a Q&A session where you can ask questions and engage with the presenter. Don't miss this chance to gain insights into the future of telehealth and its potential for commercialization, register now!

The founder of Simpli-Fi Automation, Chris Campbell, came from a humble background having grown up as the son of an inner-city minister in the historically black neighborhood of Rondo, just outside of St. Paul Minnesota.  His Father, Dr. Bill Campbell, was a community leader and social activist who instilled a deep sense of responsibility to the community into Chris.  Before even graduating high school, Chris was deeply involved in technology, having apprenticed under some of the music industry's top audio engineers. 

Shortly after Graduating high school, Chris helped found Youth Entertainment Studios, a non-profit 501c3 focused on technology development for underprivileged inner-city youth.  While attending ECPI Technical College for electronic systems integration, Chris successfully launched a music recording label and publishing company.  With a burning desire to push technological envelopes, he quickly developed his tech startup, Live Wire Entertainment, into not just a record label, but a top-ranked recording studio design and fabrication company.  At the young age of twenty-two, Chris had already designed and built recording studios valued at over two million dollars. 

Through decades of hands-on technical and management experience, Chris built the necessary skills and experience to launch his own Engineering Solutions Provider, Simpli-Fi Automation.  In 2018, Chris established Simpli-Fi Automation as an Electronic Systems Engineering Solutions company.  For the first two years of business, Simpli-Fi quickly became successful, going from two guys in a garage to having a million dollars in sales in one month.  With a brand new Control4 showroom in Orlando and 15 of the most highly trained and certified techs in the Central Florida market, Simpli-Fi’s future was looking bright. 

That is when the COVID-19 pandemic came and changed everything.  Overnight, federal containment and mitigation activities effectively shut down commerce around the entire country and Simpli-Fi was forced to make difficult decisions.  At that time, over 40% of minority-owned businesses failed, and Simpli-Fi was not spared that statistic.  They were forced by a government mandate to suspend installation activity and in many cases, cancel contracts.  After 6 months of waiting, training, and hoping, with no idea what the future would hold, Chris was forced to lay off most of his installation staff.  But instead of remaining a statistic, he chose to pivot the direction of the company. 

Simpli-Fi invested profits from the first two years of business, returned to the garage where they started, and re-tooled the engineering team.  With this, they prepared to change the entire business model of the company.  That was a monumental decision that has positively changed the course of Simpli-Fi.  They moved from electronic systems design, into electronic device design, a close fit.

Since that time, Simpli-Fi has gone on to commercially license and develop the NASA electronic nose (e-nose) sensor for human medical diagnosis.  Simpli-Fi created the Provectus Breath Biomarker Diagnostic device first, by building a team of leaders in the medical device field, then by leveraging extensive capabilities in electronic systems design, lean manufacturing, automated environmental systems, and Federal Lab Technology Transfer.  As a member of the Minnesota Chips coalition, Simpli-Fi works with regional EDA tech development hubs to increase US capabilities in the areas of nanofabrication, biotechnology, and autonomous systems.