Pioneering Predictive Manufacturing Maintenance with Jeremy Frank
Jeremy is co-founder and CEO of KCF Technologies, a technology company based out of State College PA. KCF Technologies provides proprietary machine health optimization hardware, software, and services to industry and military clients. Under Jeremy’s leadership, KCF has pioneered advancements in wireless vibration sensing and machine health monitoring. Today, the company is a global leader in predictive maintenance, monitoring over 80,000 machines across numerous industries, driven by Jeremy’s vision of eradicating unplanned downtime and enhancing industrial safety.
In this episode, Jeremy shares the evolution of KCF Technologies, from an imports/exports company to a consultancy to the thriving solutions software company it is today. He shares his background growing up in Pittsburgh helping with his father’s forensic engineering business. He also talks about the devastating realities of failure in business, juxtaposed with the allure of all the freedom entrepreneurship provides.
Episode Chapters
0:00 – 2:54 Intro/Jeremy’s background information
2:54 – 3:32 Formative years growing up in Pittsburgh, Pitt fan
3:32 – 5:36 Decision to come to Penn State, studying mechanical engineering, unclear career path
5:36 – 6:11 Working at father’s forensic engineering business
6:11 – 7:14 Never applied for a full-time job, but good at making money
7:14 – 10:18 Crashing cars for science, acoustics and vibrations studies
10:18 – 11:51 From Tokyo to business launch
11:51 – 14:35 First go-to-market business idea
14:35 – 19:04 Dad’s advice on failure
19:04 – 21:17 What it means to be wired for entrepreneurship
21:17 – 24:32 The KCF business model today
24:32 – 31:21 Scaling and growing the business from 1 employee to 250
31:21 – 35:03 The entrepreneurial environment in State College, then and now
35:03 – 36:28 Penn State Athletics, measuring vibrations at Beaver Stadium
36:28 – 37:09 Intro for student guest Ankur Verma
37:09 – 38:20 Targeting mid-market companies
38:20 – 41:59 – AI and industry