June 15, 2015

Pittsburgh, PA— June 15, 2015 — Dick Zhang, CEO of Identified Technologies, was chosen as a finalist for the upcoming Entrepreneur of the Year Awards for the western Pennsylvania and West Virginia region. The awards ceremony is June 19th at the downtown Pittsburgh David L. Lawrence Convention Center.

 

Zhang said, “We would not be where we are today without the support of Alphalab Gear, Innovation Works, Birchmere Ventures, and the entire Pittsburgh Startup ecosystem. Our progress is a testament to the community’s ability to attract, develop, fund, and scale innovative new businesses, and we are very grateful to be a part of it.

 

Many of the Entrepreneur of the Year finalists have spent decades improving the region as they improve the world. I’m both flattered, and deeply humbled to be included with such an inspiring group. If there’s anything I’ve done well, it’s getting the right people inspired and on board.

 

Nothing that Identified Technologies has achieved would have been possible without the amazing team of people I’m lucky enough to call my co-workers.  Being a contender in this competition is a massive validation and victory for every one of us.”

 

When asked if he had any lessons to pass on to other entrepreneurs, Zhang said, “I’ve learned that it takes a long time to become an overnight success.  The rapid growth we’re now enjoying would not have been possible without the solid foundation of cutting edge technology, customer insights, and product market fit that we’ve spent the past 2 years refining.  If you want to grow fast, you’ve got to first take it very slow nailing your fundamentals.”

 

Zhang’s company Identified Technologies automates site continuous job site mapping and monitoring with self-piloting drone based data scanning, capture, access, and analytics solutions for leaders in energy, mining, and construction. Traditionally, this mapping work was generally done slowly and dangerously by hand, or expensively by chartered aircraft. These unattractive options often forced crews to risk using old, out of date information.

 

“We had outdated topographical maps when we budgeted for the earthwork on this site. Our estimates were 20% off, in the wrong direction. We were the ones that had to absorb that risk and error. I wish I had Identified Technologies data before we started.” – Jon Machen, Site Manager, Mascaro Construction

 

Their Pittsburgh, PA location places Identified Technologies in the heartland of a 1.2 billion dollar market in the local PA, WV, OH region. This expands to a 20 billion dollar market of over 200,000 job sites in the USA.

 

“The number of sites we can market Identified Technologies to is extensive, we should only be limited by how quickly they can expand operations.” – Rick Celender, Principal, CEC

 

Giorgio Coraluppi of Compunetix is the 2015 Master Entrepreneur for Ernst & Young’s upcoming Entrepreneur of the Year Awards.

 

The finalists are listed alphabetically by company below:

  • Kinesh Doshi, Accion Labs, Inc.
  • Cathy Mary, AEC Group, Inc.
  • Cathy Schnaubelt Rogers, Aero Tech Designs Cyclewear
  • Charlie Batch, Best of the Batch Foundation
  • Arnie Burchianti II, Celtic Healthcare
  • Judy Bannon, Cribs for Kids, Inc.
  • C.J. Handron, Diamond Kinetics, Inc.
  • Chris Edwards, Mark Edwards and Dana Edwards Manatos, Edward Marc Brands, Inc.
  • Michael Thomas, FeX, Inc.
  • Greg Petro, First Insight, Inc.
  • Dick Zhang, Identified Technologies
  • Jeanette Spofford, Justifacts Credential Verification Inc.
  • Chris Pacione, Pete Maher and Bill Lucas, LUMA Institute
  • Parag Batavia, Neya Systems, LLC
  • Joel Reed, OpenArc, LLC
  • Pam Cohen and Gail Klingensmith, Pamela’s P&G Diners
  • Meg Cheever, Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy
  • Buddy Flerl, RDX
  • Jonathan Plesset, Shadyside Inn All Suites Hotel
  • Michael Gallup, TeleTracking Technologies, Inc.
  • Ian Rosenberger, Thread
  • Robert Tudi, Tudi Holdings, Inc.
  • Leonardo Curimbaba, U.S. Electrofused Minerals, Inc.
  • Joe Peilert, VEKA Inc.
  • Jason Matthews, W. Blazer Holdings

 

About Identified Technologies

Industrial leaders use Identified Technologies fully-managed commercial drone solution to increase project visibility and team productivity. Construction and excavation companies reduce their costs and win more business using job site data and analytics. Identified empowers ENR 400 companies, including PJ Dick, EQT, Vulcan, and Casella, with the ability to track progress on highways, well pads, mines, and landfills in near real-time. Identified’s integrated software and services take care of everything from FAA compliance and flight planning to advanced analytics.