Nicole Boliaux, Deseret News
Piryanka Bakaya, CEO of PK Clean, shows off a jar of fuel made from plastic waste during a five minute presentation during the Technology Commercialization and Innovation Demo Day event hosted by the Utah Governor’s Office of Economic Development at the Impact Hub in Salt Lake City on Tuesday.
SALT LAKE CITY — Del Turley has a new product idea that may best be described as mind-bending. Sort of.
He and partner Lee Edgar have developed a flexible concrete that’s stronger than the stuff that makes up sidewalks and can be colored, inlaid with designs or corporate logos and be poured over virtually anything, including carpet. When they attend trade shows, one of their favorite tricks is to demonstrate their product’s most unique characteristic by laying a slab between to boards and jumping up and down on it, an act that leads to a lot of boinging, but no breaking.
And now, thanks in part to a grant from the Utah Governor’s Office of Economic Development, Turley and Edgar are growing Elastocrete, with expansion into new markets and improved distribution channels and appear to be well on their way to success.
Elastocrete was one of 12 new innovations on display at Salt Lake City’s Impact Hub Tuesday evening as part of the GOED’s 2017 Technology Commercialization and Innovation Demo Day. Each of the companies, who gave 5-minute power pitches to the assembled crowd of about 100 fellow innovators, investors and supporters, were recipients of grants aimed at helping Utah small businesses and university teams bring new technology to market.
GOED Executive Director Val Hale said the grants, which range from around $50,000 to the maximum $100,000, help get startups past the point where they’ve likely run out of “family and friend” funds and need a cash infusion to keep the development of their…