By Cara Aungst
ConidioTec started in 2014 when Penn State researchers made a breakthrough discovery in something that haunts everyone who has ever checked into a hotel or Airbnb: bed bugs. They developed a fungal biopesticide, which they named Aprehend®, which eradicates bed bug infestations in a nontoxic, long-lasting way. There was just one problem. Transforming these self-described “science nerds” into the marketers and entrepreneurs who would take the product into the marketplace.
Enter Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Central and Northern PA.
“It changed us from ‘science nerds’ to entrepreneurs who learned how to sell to investors and customers. I saw a transformation in myself as I learned to think about things differently.”
“We took a course from Ben Franklin [when we were just starting out],” ConidioTec lead entomologist and co-founder Dr. Nina Jenkins said. “It was a boot camp for people who had ideas that they wanted to commercialize. It changed us from ‘science nerds’ to entrepreneurs who learned how to sell to investors and customers. I saw a transformation in myself as I learned to think about things differently. Ben Franklin helped us analyze the market and see what portion of the market ConidioTec could capture.”
She said that was the first time she could see the potential for their idea to make money. “I realized, ‘I understand now!’ It was brilliant. That’s when I knew that we had something.”
ConidioTec won the pitch contest prize at the end of the Ben Franklin boot camp, marking the first time that their bed bug solution had money attached to it. They used the funds to create an LLC. Next up was the Big Idea contest, a business plan competition where the finalists pitch their business idea to industry experts.
“We won that round too!” Jenkins said. “That gave us enough capital to hire a graphic designer to work on a logo. That prize money was critical to our progress.”
Next up was a hard part — commonly known as Startup “Valley of Death” — when the company needed to hire staff, register their product, pay a licensing fee to Penn State and start doing things quickly, with little capital and no income from sales.
“I don’t know if a bank would have funded us at that point,” Jenkins said. “But Ben Franklin was there for us then, too.”
Ben Franklin gave first one, then two loans to ConidioTec as it launched into the marketplace. “They were solid loans and we knew who we were borrowing from — an organization that only wanted to do good. We had no concerns about signing those documents,” Jenkins remembers.
In 2017, Ben Franklin Director of Business Development Don McCandless joined ConidioTec as its CEO. A few months later, ConidioTec officially launched Aprehend® at National Pest Management Association (NPMA) Pest World in Baltimore, Maryland. Today, Aprehend® is used by pest control companies in all 50 states in the United States, as well as Puerto Rico and Canada.
When the company paid back its loans several years ago, Jenkins says that she asked Ben Franklin’s Director of Operations Sherry Davidson, “What now?”
The answer was simple. “We keep helping you,” Davidson said.
“And they do!” Jenkins said. “Ben Franklin still gives us ongoing support and advice when we run into problems. We know that they will be there with assistance if we ever need it again in the future.”
“Watching Nina and her team hand over a giant check paying back their final loan of $258,582.97 at a CREN event in 2021 was such a memorable moment,” Ben Franklin’s Todd Erdley said. As the Central Region director and portfolio manager at Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Central and Northern Pennsylvania, Erdley said that one of his favorite parts of his job is watching startups transform into profitable companies that create solutions on a global level. “CondioTec is just getting started, and Ben Franklin will be there every step of the way as it continues to transform pesticide solutions.”
Learn more about Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Central and Northern Pennsylvania at cnp.benfranklin.org.
Cara Aungst is a freelance lifestyle and business writer who writes about people, events, and how Happy Valley ideas change the world. She can be reached at caraaungst@gmail.com.
