Serial entrepreneur Henry Thorne knows that if you have a big enough lever, you can move the world. For Thorne, that lever is the robot, and he has spent his entire career proving how useful they can be.

Henry Thorne, shown here with a machine used in automotive assembly lines, has launched a number of successful robotics companies. His latest venture, 4moms, is something of a departure. The company develops products like a bathtub temperature sensor (inset) that fits over a faucet to protect children from overheated water.

After finishing his graduate work at Carnegie Mellon University in 1984, Thorne left Pennsylvania to create robotic assembly lines for General Motors in Flint, Michigan. While living there, he launched his first startup venture, Cycle Time Corp., to improve cycle times on automotive assembly lines. His business idea caught the interest of Ben Franklin Technology Partners (BFTP), who offered him a grant to get the company up and running.

"I ended up moving back to Pittsburgh because of Ben Franklin," he says. "I received the grant and decided this was the place to start the business. They provided the funding and business advice I needed, and Pittsburgh had a great entrepreneurial infrastructure, so I moved back and set out to make an impact."

The Good Ideas Kept Coming
Thorne soon launched another startup called Probotics (later renamed Educational Robot Company), selling robots to tech education classrooms. He also launched Personal Robots, whose product "Cye"—a robot designed to take on household and office chores—brought him international attention.

His biggest commercial success to date has been Aethon Inc., which also received funding from Ben Franklin Technology Partners. The company makes robotic "Tugs" for hospitals that autonomously deliver supplies and retrieve equipment like wheelchairs and respirators. Aethon, which employs 85 people, has Tugs in more than 40 hospitals. Sales have quadrupled over the past year.

"Ben Franklin's screening process is a huge wake-up call for many aspects of your business," Thorne says. "My first attempt to get funding for Aethon failed. They told me I needed a senior marketing person to determine the right market for my mobile robot—and they were absolutely right. So I hired an executive from Smith Kline Beecham, and sure enough, he figured out the health-care market for the Tug."

But his persistence and hard work paid off: Aethon ultimately succeeded in winning $800,000 in BFTP funding, and then went on to raise significant venture capital investment. The company now employs 85 and is the leading provider of robotics for hospitals.

Another Kind of Robot
Thorne's most recent venture, 4moms, launched in 2005 to develop and market a line of innovative juvenile products. The leap from robots to babies may seem odd, but Thorne sees it as a great way to apply his expertise and to make a real difference in people's lives.

"Robots are sensors causing actuation through intelligence," he says. "The 4moms products are precisely that—electronics added to otherwise dull products. In that sense, they really are mini-robots."

4moms currently has two products in production. The first is a bathtub spout cover with a built-in digital thermometer that actively monitors bath water temperature. The other, an infant bathtub with a novel design to expel dirty water, also features a digital thermometer. Similar temperature-monitoring products for sinks and showerheads are in development.

"Robotics involves mechanical, electrical and software skills combined," Thorne says. "Making the 4moms products requires the same three disciplines. The big difference is, instead of taking five years to get a complex mobile robot to market, these products are on store shelves, in volume, within a year." Leading retailers Baby Depot and Babies R Us have placed orders for thousands of units.

Critical Help for Startup Companies
At 4moms, Thorne is again putting BFTP funding to use—this time for prototyping and market research. "BFTP provided half of our early-stage funding," says Thorne. "That capitalized us enough that first year so we could develop our products. Now the fax machine is ringing every day with new orders."

For the most part, Thorne's previous ventures, which are all still operating, are being run by other people. Now he focuses most of his time and creative energy on 4moms. "We are less than a year old, but already have orders for 2,000 units in over 500 stores across the country," he says.

Knowing that thousands of moms are going to benefit is the jolt that Thorne needs. "If I created products that were widely popular but didn't excite people, it wouldn't turn me on," he says. "These products change the game and make it so much easier on stressed-out moms."

 From the December 2006 issue