Passion insulates firm from doubt

Tom Kelly removes excess insulation from a wall and John Greenwood (insulation installer, uses a saw for the same process overhead. John Peters has back to camera. / PBN PHOTO/BRIAN MCDONALD
Tom Kelly removes excess insulation from a wall and John Greenwood (insulation installer, uses a saw for the same process overhead. John Peters has back to camera. / PBN PHOTO/BRIAN MCDONALD

Some small businesses are started from a love for a particular product or field. Others are born out of a person’s professional desire to be their own boss and control a career trajectory, while shaping service based on their specific ideals.
Either way, passion is the key to success and Tom Kelly and John Peters, co-founders of Ecologic Spray Foam Insulation, have that both for controlling their own business and for helping to make Rhode Island home and building owners more environmentally and economically sound.
They also had a little help in the way of happening upon an opportunity at just the right time.
“The success we experienced wasn’t just stumbling across this product. We filled a void in the market,” Peters said. “We established a competitive price line, did what we said we were going to do, and we [have a] treat-it-like-it’s-your-own mentality. That’s been our key.”
Peters and Kelly met as undergraduates at the University of Rhode Island more than a decade ago and always talked, they said, about one day going into business together, but the path to that wasn’t straight.
Kelly earned his bachelor’s in accounting in 2004 from URI, while Peters began a career with the United States military.
Kelly went on to work after graduation in 2004 for Textron in Providence as an internal auditor, earned his Certified Public Accountant licensure, and became supervisor of the company’s financial-audit team.
While serving in the military, Peters transferred to Embry Riddle Aeronautical University in Florida and earned a bachelor’s of science in aeronautics in 2004.
The two Rhode Island natives were both in the same area again once Peters finished his military service, but the veteran went to work for what is now Mahr, a dimensional- measurement services company, in Providence.
They both were always on the lookout for what might make sense for their careers and that long-talked-about business and, by mid-2005, they started paying attention to what Peters saw as shifting public views on energy usage.
Kelly had a friend who was working as a spray-foam-insulation installer and the pair began researching the cellurized plastic installation, often made of recycled or renewable materials that come out as a liquid and curs into a solid, which allows the insulation to be custom-molded to building materials. After researching the product, Kelly and Peters secured funding through Coastway Community Bank, the Small Business Express Loan and a micro loan from the South Eastern Economic Development Corporation.
When the duo actually got ready to launch the business, the economy wasn’t entirely welcoming and with the housing bubble looming, they were cautioned against going into a field that would rely heavily on the construction industry.
Their venture became the frequent topic of conversation at family gatherings and amongst friends.
“Pretty much everybody thought we were crazy. We just felt really strongly about the product and system and the demand for it in the long run,” Peters said.
All that talk helped them. Kelly left Textron to focus full time on the company, while Peters continued to work at Mahr while they got off the ground.
It was the just the two of them and they relied on word-of-mouth advertising to get the word out. They asked curious family members and friends to reach out to their contacts in the construction field and to homeowners who were doing remodels and renovations.
They also sought out homeowners and builders on their own, often stopping by construction sites to give out product information.
“We relied on being from Rhode Island and [with the state] being a pretty tight-knit community, we had a lot of personal connections,” Kelly said.
It worked. Six months after opening for business, Peters was able to come on full time and a little more than two years later they began to hire staff.
They now have six full-time employees and in 2010 won the SEED Corp.’s Start-Up Business of the Year Award.
Housed in a shared warehouse facility the company bought last year, they are planning renovations for the facility.
“We don’t necessarily have a 10- or 20-year plan. We have aspirations on where we want to go, but the market dictates all,” Peters said. “We’re just going to take it as it comes. We’re really focused on quality and maintaining that. We don’t want to sacrifice it by growing too quickly.” •COMPANY PROFILE
Ecologic Spray Foam Insulation
Owners: John Peters and Tom Kelly
Type of Business: Spray-foam home and building insulation
Location: 11 Hurst Lane, Tiverton
Employees: 6
Year Established: 2007
Annual Sales: WND

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