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The Newest Flex Shop in the U.S.
July 7, 2016 | Barry Matties and Angela Alexander, I-Connect007Estimated reading time: 27 minutes
Matties: It's going fast, wherever it's going.
Lencioni: Yes, between wearables and all that kind of stuff, our next factory we will probably be more focused on moving into that marketplace. Right now we are still waiting to see what's going on, who's going to build it, and how cheap it's going to have to be. The price point is so low that it's not exciting for us to chase after it. We need things that give us margins so that we can invest in capital equipment. If we don't have those margins to work with, then our company becomes older, technology becomes obsolete, and we can’t keep up with the newest, latest and greatest widgets.
Matties: Right now it looks like it is best suited for rapid prototypes and one-offs. Sitting at your desk, if you wanted something in your hands, you can print it out. Five to ten years from now I think it's a game changer.
Lencioni: Yeah, we are keeping an eye on the additive processor. We're going to see where that's going, but I haven't seen the tools entering the market segment just yet.
I think wearable electronics are things of the future. There's things that I have looked at from an investment standpoint to figure out, "Well, how is that going to happen?" and, "Oh they're going to have to have a sensor in there to do certain things." I'm keeping an eye on it.
Matties: Mark this has been great. Thank you so much for inviting us, and walking us through and letting us see what you've done here for 30 years.
Lencioni: It’s been a great journey and it's been fun. With this platform here, we are able to do wonderful things. We had a clean sheet of paper, and we spent years figuring out how to bring it together. Then to execute and bring it up to speed while maintaining a growing and thriving business at the same time was really an accomplishment that not very many companies can pull off. I can understand publicly owned companies that print money and go buy a bunch of stuff, but we did it all privately.
Matties: It was all self-funded.
Lencioni: It was, and we have a very small shareholder base. It’s been a good development time for businesses because interest rates have been low, but there's also a threshold and risk of banks reducing their cash flow.
Matties: You happen to be on the high end of a growing market, so this is an easy decision.
Lencioni: Yeah, but if you look at our SIC code, a lot of companies have not made it. They're leery because they see other shops that just didn't make it, because they didn't have the infrastructure and they didn't grow the market.
Matties: They're leery of management, but when they come and look at what you've done, obviously it’s different. You're the first public shop being built in how many years?
Lencioni: Twenty years probably, and the first in the Bay Area. You have to believe in the industry, you have to believe in the products, and I was able to convince everybody that this was the right thing to do, and to do it now.
Matties: You're a second generation PCB guy right?
Lencioni: My father grew up in the business and so I grew up in the business.
Matties: You have it etched in your blood.
Lencioni: Yes, once it's in there, it doesn't get out. What else am I going to do anyway?
Matties: Exactly. We get to a point in our life that’s "What else would we do?" We're having fun.
Lencioni: Even at my age, I'm 55 this year, I've got a good 15 years left in me.
Matties: And you have a lot of experience to apply.
Lencioni: I think that's probably the key to our business growth. Because I grew up in the manufacturing world, I've done every process in 30 years of building circuit boards, so you can't bullshit me. When we have a process issue, processing engineers and customers cannot talk over my head. I understand what we are doing. Let's go fix it, get it back on track and go.
Matties: That's a great spot to be in.
Lencioni: Most CEOs tend to be hands off. I'm more hands on and definitely still get tremendous excitement from walking around and seeing the product.
Matties: You've been hands on in the past, you've run etchers and you know what the deal is. Mark, thanks so much. It's been great catching up with you.
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