Aerospace is not the only game in Huntsville. Local engineer Hans Schantz, 44, recently founded Q-Track to develop patented indoor wireless tracking technology using a type of low-frequency radio wave that he claims can penetrate walls far better than the high-frequency waves used in radio frequency identification and GPS technology. Potential civilian and military applications include locating shipping containers in ports and tracking soldiers across urban battlefields.
Local incubator BizTech provided Q-Track with office and lab space, as well as an accountant to ensure that the firm's books could survive the audits required for federal contracts. BizTech even persuaded a large local engineering firm to lend Q-Track expensive equipment that it wasn't using and that Q-Track needed to test its technology.
The startup has since scored research contracts with the U.S. Army and the Department of Homeland Security, among others.
"Before BizTech, Q-Track was a bunch of guys working out of a garage," says CEO Jerry Gabig, an intellectual property lawyer with an engineering degree from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. "Statistically, the company should have died." Q-Track now has 25 employees, according to Gabig. The CEO projects $1.5 million in revenues this year and expects Q-Track to roll out its first product in 2010.
Still, Gabig can't hold back a couple of grumbles about Huntsville. Venture capitalists are scarce in this small city dominated by government contractors, and Q-Track has struggled to raise money. Travel can be difficult too, with no direct flights from the small airport to New York City or L.A.
Entrepreneurs benefit from Huntsville's low cost of living and beautiful surroundings. On weekends
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Last Updated: October 13, 2009: 12:23 PM ET
