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Biographical Sketch

Brett Truett is founder, president and CEO of SoftNoze USA Inc, which provides components to the factory automation industry- a Shanghai subsidiary was formed in 2007. Truett attended both SUNY Morrisville and SUNYIT to study Mechanical Engineering Technology. Brett holds 5 patents and is actively working to develop real-estate and businesses in the Bagg's Square district of Utica, NY. As a founding member of the Mohawk Valley Seed Fund, Brett and his wife Michelle are active in various efforts to assist other area start-ups and young entrepreneurs.

Born on Long Island, in Patchogue, New York, Brett grew up with his 5 sisters and 2 brothers as the family traveled and lived among three different states; New York, New Jersey and New Mexico. During these moves Brett tallied a list of twelve different addresses by age 16! At 14, Brett lived in a remote National Forest in Canon Plaza, New Mexico, about 6 miles outside Vallocitos, NM (Map). Following two years of homesteading in Canon Plaza, Brett then worked for room and board on a 90-cow dairy farm in Peterboro, NY.

Brett attended two State University of New York (SUNY) colleges, taking classes in Mechanical Engineering Technologies. First was SUNY Morrisville, which at the time was an "agricultural and technical college". This college is now Morrisville State. Building dorm room "loft-style" beds for fellow students became Brett's first entrepreneurial venture. The experience required marketing via flyers, securing his first bank loan, designing the structures, purchasing supplies and completing the installations. Between the loft business, making pizzas by night, holding a work-study position, and two engineering-related summer jobs, Brett graduated Morrisville with little debt and a zeal for inventing new products.

Early understanding for engineering and technical job disciplines, as well as the factory ecosystem, came to by way of two summer internships. The first position was Plant Maintenance Technician, with the Pine State Creamery, in Raleigh, NC. Brett performed routine monitoring and regulation of critical temperatures and pressures, fluid levels and various operations of plant equipment. Working the 11pm-to-11am shift, during the summer 1983, Brett learn responsibility for both preventative and corrective maintenance. Another position followed, a Mechanical Engineering Internship. Employed and trained in areas of; assembly, testing and shipment of centrifugal process pumps used in the petroleum and petrochemical industry. Brett held this job with Borg-Warner, at their Byron Jackson Pump Division, Charlotte, NC, during the summer 1985.

With a good deal of work experience, and his A.A.S. degree in hand, Brett moved to Utica, NY. Here he attended the SUNY College of Technology. The college's Robotics curriculum attracted Brett. While there, Truett won honorable mention for his paper on his design for a "spinal robot". He was also an active member in the student section of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). In this role he toured local factories, as well as a General Motors plant in Michigan. Truett also developed a presentation for a pump he was working on (for a Utica business, see below) and presented to students and teachers at SUNY Binghamton. The SUNY College of Technology Brett attended has been re-named SUNY Poly and merged with SUNY Polytechnic Institute Colleges of Nanoscale Science & Engineering (Albany, NY).

After SUNY Utica, Brett held positions with three companies; The Union Fork & Hoe Company (Frankfort, NY) now Union Tools, Gray-Syracuse Inc (Chittenango, NY) that is now owned by Consolidated Precision Products Corp], and Darman Manufacturing Company Inc (Utica, NY). Five years in these positions, and other experiences, led Brett to discover and patent a product, which led to the founding of SoftNoze USA Inc.

Today, Brett is president and founder of SoftNoze, which was formed in 1991. SoftNoze provides components to integrate sensors used in the factory automation industry, and sensors within many types of industrial and commercial machines. The company's slogan is "World Leader in Sensor Integration Components", and mantra Mount|Apply|Position|Protect. A China entity SoftNoze China (Shanghai) Co Ltd was established in 2007. Brett is developing a plan that will establish a facility in Germany, where SoftNoze GmbH will better supply Europe's significant machine building and end user markets. Learn more about Brett & SoftNoze

As a former board member of the Greater Utica Chamber of Commerce, Brett currently holds 5 US Patents and a graduate of Leadership Mohawk Valley. Truett is currently working to redevelop two Utica Bagg’s Square properties, and a longer-term project for Truett is Briar House (see below). Brett is also a founding member of the organizing Mohawk Valley Seed Fund. This is in addition to the efforts that Brett and his wife Michelle gladly perform to assist other area start-ups and young entrepreneurs; through the YEA! program and at Utica's ThINCubator. Please visit the web pages for Brett’s Family Members.

Keywords

Current Career Interests

Brett's current business interests include:

SoftNoze USA Inc

SoftNoze China (Shanghai) Company Ltd

The WaterBasket Company

Bagg's Square West Realty LLC

The Briar House Foundation
(In the future, Brett's former home in Utica will offer free room and board to aspiring entrepreneurs.

Liberty Street Galley
Another developing project (that website isn't yet active) is an art gallery in Bagg's Square, likely to open in the fall of 2017.

Colabratory
Forthcoming Maker/Hackerspace within Bagg's Square to open in late 2017

Past Business Interests

Truett Technologies USA - Mr Truett organized a D.B.A. while in college with the hope of becoming an independent inventor. As Brett worked on his ideas, he also earned income on various projects such as patent drafting for a local patent attorney (a skill he developed after learning to create figures for his own patent applications), and other engineering and product design projects. One such project became the company NetFax Inc. NetFax left Utica for Boston in search of start-up capital. In the early days of the Internet, Brett was designing and drafting ideas for a fellow inventor's patent Internet Faxing Device & Technology. Endless hours netted Brett8,333 shares in the startup, yet the technology ended up (and may still be?) in the courts.

In addition to his own product ideas, Brett worked to help others on inventions such as: trailer hitches, a bailing bucket, barrier lighting for highways, cam mechanisms, candle and cup holders, a door knocker, jack handles, an electronic teaching device, vending machine-computer interface, ID tracking systems, a product for a terrarium, spring-based motor(!), an engine manifold, mobile yard equipment, handle bar grips, and others.

Now as an independent inventor/business owner, Brett continues adding to his "invention database", which now numbers over 1,000 ideas and business concepts.

Fukes Machine Company - While working as a part time intern for Fiber Instrument Sales, Brett met a machine shop co-owner, Michael Mahar. Mike's grandfather's firm (Fukes Machine Company) was selected to machine some pump castings for FIS owner Frank Giotto. Frank had Brett working to complete the design of a newly patented pump; this start-up company was called Flex-Tech New York Inc. Later, Mike went onto make prototypes of some of Brett's early inventions. Eventually Brett and Mike shared initial ownership of SoftNoze USA Inc.

WebCode Inc Brett had the basis for today's QRcode in the mid-1990's, and founded WebCode Inc hoping to create the Internet's Zipcode. SoftNoze was Brett's main focus, and a few years later he watched the CueCat come and go. However, the days of good cell phone cameras were years away.

Adventure Foods - With Mom's secrete intent of striking it rich, so to supply Brett with an endless supply of venture capital, Brett's Mom encouraged enterance into a business plan competition. Or was that the other way around?! Either way, their plan Adventure Foods LLC was based on Mom's energy bar recipe.

Bagg's Square Clay - After purchasing an old building, Brett set-out to find things to fill it with. One idea that attracted early praise, but not the funding was Bagg's Square Clay LLC Please watch the Bagg's Square Clay Video video, which supported the business plan. While the plan wasn't implemented, a portion of the building is now being developed into a loft-style home! In the near future the first floor will host a progressive new business. Learn more about the re-emerging Bagg's Square neighborhood.

Patents

Patents secured by Brett are described below. For a quick look:

Trim-Tammer™

GameTimer™

Soft Sensor Mount™

Hybrid Limit Switch™

Electro-mechanical Connector™

While others are being investigated, in this era of ever faster moving product cycles, often investments into marketing can win the day.

Trim Strip Protector - 1st Patent! Soon after accomplishing a childhood dream of buying a Corvette (and driving along California's coast), Brett developed a solution to prevent white wax residue from collecting in the textured black trim.

Interval Timer - Hourglass, sand-based, timers didn't seem to be the ideal solution for fast-paced family board games. Brett had another idea using a microprocessor, switches, buzzer, and light emitting diodes (LEDs).

Soft Sensor Mounting - As an automation project engineer, turned machine fabricator and controls designer and installer, Brett saw a problem and solved it with this patented spring-loaded mount. With cushioned sensor mounts industry's non-contact sensors no longer bring production equipment to a halt when targets over-travel.

Hybrid limit switch - Brett saw a way to combine "tried and true" mechanical limit switches, with modern solid state proximity sensors. Another patent is secured!

Combination Electrical/Mechanical Mounting Connector - This patent teaches how sensors can be connected both mechanically and electrically, with just a single "electro-mechanical" connector- in a single step!

Have questions about patents or need some advice on product development? Brett is happy to speak with you. Maybe you have a classroom full of kids just learning about inventors? Well, Brett is happy to talk with them about these topics as well. Because, after hearing them spout off ideas like a set of stairs that transform into a slide at the push of a button", who wouldn't?

Community Activism

Listening to the stories of Utica's industrial past and that of the valley after arriving to attend college, Brett Truett started to get ideas for the area. How to return some of the glory, how to make things better, and what needs to be done, were things that often entered his mind. Below are some of the ideas, it is a work-in-progress.

Brett is also a founding member of the organizing Mohawk Valley Seed Fund. This is in addition to the efforts that Brett and his wife Michelle gladly perform to assist other area start-ups and young entrepreneurs; through the YEA!program and at Utica's thINCubator. Oriskany 5S Traffic Concept Utica needs a quick and efficent East-West commercial route, this idea does this while also making downtown Utica greener and more livable!