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Launch HN: GreaseBoss (YC W21) – Real-time system to manage industrial greasing
We are Steve, Tim and Pete, the cofounders of GreaseBoss (https://www.greaseboss.io https://www.greaseboss.io). GreaseBoss is a hardware and software system that verifies that the greasing of industrial equipment is completed on time and according to specification.
Greasing, you say? Yup, you heard that right. Incorrect greasing is the number one cause for machinery failure on industrial sites. Industrial machinery failure costs the global economy $21B a year. Greasing is a big deal!
We know this is an unsexy part of the economy, so we won’t judge you if you have never heard of a zerk (grease point) before. Some of our favourite places you can find zerks include super yachts - 200 zerks, private planes - 80 zerks, breweries - 2000 zerks, theme parks - 1500 zerks. Other places with lots of zerks include factories, mines, utilities, farm equipment, trucks and military vehicles.
The idea for GreaseBoss came when Steve and Tim saw frequent machine breakdowns due to incorrect greasing while supporting mine sites in Outback Australia. This problem costs Australian mine sites hundreds of millions of dollars in lost productivity every year - disrupted production, spending on parts and labour for repairs. We built and tested our prototypes during the pandemic lockdowns on the back deck, over Zoom calls. We have now developed our MVP and have quit our jobs to chase GreaseBoss full time.
On the hardware side: we put RFID tags that fit like washers under each zerk. These are read by a head unit that is retrofittable to existing grease guns, which includes a custom RFID reader integrated into the nozzle. It also includes a flow meter and supporting electronics. Our device has 4G, Wifi and LoRa for comms, but also operates in an offline mode for customers in remote locations. Our hardware is rugged, dust proof, and water proof for some of the toughest operational environments (and operators..)
On the software side, we record each greasing in the cloud, right as the worker greases the zerk. Since most industry is still tracking this using paperwork, you can imagine how much more efficient this is. Our customers get back to production much faster.
We are building a HaaS (Hardware as a Service - is that a thing?) business model: we charge customers upfront for the hardware and then a software subscription fee. We are experimenting with per zerk, per machine and per site pricing. We haven’t found the sweet spot yet.
We have GreaseBoss installed at a large coal mine, a quarry and on excavators at the dump in Queensland, Australia. We also have a South African greasing contractor using our system.
We will be online for the rest of the day answering your questions (we are in AEST timezone). We are very excited to receive your ideas, experiences and feedback!
- dsugarman 6y agoCongrats on the launch and excellent writeup, I learned something new today!
- SteveGreaseBoss 6y agocheers, its one of those things that you would never imagine is still a problem
- ayewo 6y agoEchoing the parent, your intro is very well written. I'm surprised I read till the end, even though I had no clue about zerks, until I read your launch post.
- xupybd 6y agoI'm currently trying to track down simple software to monitor our machine maintenance. Most of the products are either way to complex or far too much work to enter the data. So paper records become the best solution. Low cost, low complexity, and agile. Your system looks amazing and solves the complexity and data entry problem. I wish it was just grease we need to track.
- SteveGreaseBoss 6y agothanks. We saw early on that if we were going to add a computer to grease gun, it had to be very simple and never crash or lose connection. Our operators have zero tolerance for complexity. What are you trying to track?
- xupybd 6y agoWe cut at a saw, then edge at an edge bander, after that we drill and mill on a CNC. The saw has blades that need changing. The edge bander has cleaning cycles that have to be run. The CNCs have drills to be changed, milling tools that need sharpening, vacuum pumps that need filters cleaned, and sacrificial beds need surfacing. Those are all the regular tasks but each machine has maintenance tasks that each have different periods. Such as the vacuum pumps need veins changed every six months. Oh, and general plant machinery like forklifts and vehicles all need regular servicing. We want a system that throws up alerts when maintenance doesn't happen. So we are not replying on people to remember or check maintenance books. People leave and the organisation forgets all the irregular tasks they did. The plant needs its own nervous system to tell us it's not well. Else we run until failure and have unexpected downtime.