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Benkelman native’s invention targets power outages, wildfires
KEARNEY, Neb. — A Benkelman native’s company is producing equipment and software that promises to help prevent power outages and wildfires like those that have devastated the mountain west.
The Benkelman native and University of Nebraska-Kearney alumnus, Dusty Birge, is founder and CEO of Snappy Workflow, which has secured a $45,000 prototype grant from the State of Nebraska Department of Economic Development and over $75,000 in orders for software and equipment to help electric utility companies lower inspection costs by 95% and speed the process by 10 times. Five Nebraska utilities have committed to a limited paid beta program for 2022 which involves the installation of roof-mounted thermal cameras on vehicles to quickly spot problems with distribution systems.
“We’re creating proprietary software, paired with thermographic and 360-degree cameras to help identify problems invisible to the human eye,” Birge said. “Thanks to a $100,000 investment from NMotion/gener8tor and Invest Nebraska, my team and I have quite the running start toward solving this industry problem this year.”
Snappy Workflow has completed preliminary design work and is preparing for substantial growth this year, hiring employees to speed product development and deliver on 2022 customer pilot programs.
Sixteen weeks into the NMotion Venture Studio accelerator program for startups, Birge applied to compete in the 10th annual Big Idea Kearney event hosted by UNK, providing an opportunity to share an early version of the concept and make important industry connections.
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