Entrepreneurs / Small Business  February 10, 2015

Navigant Research founder launches Tractica, new market analysis firm

BOULDER – Clint Wheelock is hoping the model he used to build one successful market research firm can come through for him again.

Wheelock on Tuesday announced the launch of Tractica LLC, which will offer syndicated research reports, custom research and consulting on markets related to human interaction with technology.

Clint Wheelock
Clint Wheelock

Wheelock founded Boulder-based Pike Research in 2009, a research and consulting firm that zeroed in on analysis of global clean technology markets. That company was acquired by Navigant Consulting in 2012 and was rebranded as Navigant Research in 2013. Wheelock stayed with Navigant Research as managing director until August of last year, when he left to start working on Tractica.

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“Fundamentally speaking, it’s a similar type of product but obviously focused on pretty different types of industry sectors,” Wheelock said Tuesday.

Boulder-based Tractica has been in a ramp-up phase for the past six months, and Wheelock said the company is getting set to publish its first research reports.

The company will focus on three main sectors: user interface, such as voice recognition, biometrics and gesture control; wearable devices like smart watches, clothing and body cameras; and automation and robotics, in particular artificial intelligence but also including drones and robots in commercial and industrial environments.

Human interaction with technology is an area Wheelock said he’s been interested in for some time and had wanted to apply to a research firm model. He said the company will face competitors in each of the different markets covered, but characterized coverage of the human-technology interaction industry as a whole as “pretty fragmented right now.”

Wheelock founded Tractica with his own money, and said he’s hoping that focusing on cash-flow-driven growth rather than bringing in investors will help give the company flexibility early on as it zeroes in exactly on what the marketplace demands.

“I found that it worked well last time,” Wheelock said.

Tractica has about a dozen employees so far, including a mix of full-time and contract workers. Five are based at the company’s Pearl Street Mall headquarters, while the rest, mostly analysts, are spread throughout the United States, Europe and Asia. He said more employees in operations and business development would come as the company grows.

BOULDER – Clint Wheelock is hoping the model he used to build one successful market research firm can come through for him again.

Wheelock on Tuesday announced the launch of Tractica LLC, which will offer syndicated research reports, custom research and consulting on markets related to human interaction with technology.

Clint Wheelock
Clint Wheelock

Wheelock founded Boulder-based Pike Research in 2009, a research and consulting firm that zeroed in on analysis of global clean technology markets. That company was acquired by Navigant Consulting in 2012 and was rebranded as…

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