Tech Garden tenant Density is first to use new hardware center

SYRACUSE — Tech Garden tenant Density Inc. is the first firm to use the facility’s new hardware center, which can accommodate light assembly activity. 

The firm builds an anonymous workplace-analytics product to count foot traffic in and out of businesses, CenterState CEO said in a news release. The firm was founded in Syracuse in 2014 and also has offices in San Francisco and New York City.

Each of Density’s units has 800 subcomponents in it, Density founder and CEO Andrew Farah said in speaking with reporters at the hardware center’s formal opening June 4. By managing its supply chain “in house,” the company can manage volume, price, and supplying vendors and have all material shipped to Syracuse where the subcomponents are assembled and the units tested and packaged before the company ships the unit to the customer.

“Pretty much the final stage of all building of our product and shipment happens here in this facility,” said Farah.

Density is built to count the number of visiting customers, measure the length of their visit, and provide customers with data about foot traffic to and from their business, as described on the Tech Garden website.

“And then we turn that data into how buildings get used for large corporate customers so they can understand how this building is underperforming, [and] this building is overperforming,” said Farah.

Density has been Tech Garden client for eight years and is ready to expand.

As a result of the new hardware center and “growing demand from customers,” the company relocated its manufacturing operations from a third party in Dallas, Texas to the Tech Garden, where it will conduct final assembly, calibration, and testing. Its products are then shipped to companies “all over the world.”

In the coming year, Density plans to nearly double its Syracuse workforce as it expects to create as many as 15 jobs, including factory positions and supporting roles. That growth makes Density the Tech Garden’s largest tenant. It currently has 45 employees companywide.

About the hardware center

Density has one full production line that’s operational in the new 2,200-square-foot hardware center.

When fully utilized, the hardware center can support two lines capable of producing 30,000 units annually. The development of the hardware center will support companies in the expansion phase of their life cycle, offering small companies a significant opportunity to conduct product assembly “in a convenient and cost-effective location,” CenterState CEO said.

Farah joined CenterState CEO, Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh, and Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon at the formal-opening event on June 4. 

“We now have a road map at the Tech Garden. We can bring entrepreneurs in here all the way from the ideation stage. We bring through a stage called acceleration. We bring though a stage called incubation. The last stage on the road map is expansion, and that’s what we’re going to talk about today,” Rick Clonan, VP of innovation and entrepreneurship at CenterState CEO, said in his remarks at the event.

The hardware center is for Tech Garden clients that are in the expansion stage, he added. 

“[It] turns out that building it in Syracuse is cost-neutral with China. We decided that it would make zero sense to send our [intellectual property] overseas and instead keep it here in the U.S.,” Farah said at the event. “I’m very proud that our company was founded here and I’m very proud to say that our product is physically manufactured here.”