Zimmerman’s instincts help propel Farsounder

Cheryl Zimmerman’s approach to business is to listen to customers and follow her instincts.
Doing so has led her to open new markets for FarSounder Inc., a Warwick-based, sonar-technology company. After winning the Rhode Island Business Plan Competition in 2002 and receiving some early financing from the Slater Technology Fund, the six-year-old business has turned into a profitable company with customers worldwide.
“In the last year, we more than doubled our product sales,” said Zimmerman, CEO and chairman of the board for FarSounder.
When the company incorporated, it started selling its unique sonar technology – which enables a real-time 3D view of in-water obstacles and sea bottoms for navigation – to yacht owners, then to small cruise ships, passenger vessels and ferries.
Since then FarSounder has entered the offshore oil industry’s service-boat market.
The company has contracts with the U.S. Navy and government projects in Japan, China and Australia.
Much of the new market penetration comes from Zimmerman’s ability to recognize when FarSounder technology can solve a problem in a market, when no one else realizes the market said Matthew Zimmerman, FarSounder co-founder and vice president of engineering. (Matthew is Cheryl’s son.)
Cheryl Zimmerman came to FarSounder with a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from Tufts University and 20 years of experience running businesses, including an engineering services company.
She started making connections between FarSounder’s capabilities and new markets after spending a lot of time listening to customers’ needs and wants.
For instance, before the company launched the sonar, its principals interviewed ship captains to find out what they needed and wanted from new sonar technology.
“They wanted an easy-to-understand graphic interface that you could see the obstacles and you didn’t need a degree to make a decision quickly,” she said.
The company has acquired three patents for its FS-3 sonar technology. In September it was awarded a $2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology Advance Technology Program to help develop a long-range, high-speed, navigation-and-obstacle-avoidance sonar.
Jody Esfeller, president of Alabama-based E & R Marine Electronics Inc., said he sees the sonar’s potential to provide solutions for large vessels in the petroleum industry.
“I think there will be a market there for that,” Esfeller said. Hopefully it will be a standard piece of equipment.”
With that prospect on the horizon, FarSounder is in expansion mode. The company hired a vice president of sales and marketing last year and is looking to hire at least one more employee this year.
FarSounder also is looking for a second facility, so that it can move testing of the technology and assembled parts in-house.
Zimmerman sees no end to future growth. Since the cruise ship MS Explorer sank Nov. 23, the company has gotten inquiries about whether the sonar technology detects icebergs.
The company also has been developing applications for security initiatives with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. •