Company name: Trace Eye-D
Headquarters: Sarasota, Fla.Signature product: Fentanyl and opioid detection wipe
Website: https://trace-eye-d.com/
1. Where did your company name originate from? From the very start of the company and product development, we were engineering to detect trace amounts of suspected substances, most notably explosives, and since all our products work by simple observation of a color change for identification, the name made sense to everyone. It’s a play on the term ID for trace.
2. What was the inspiration behind starting your company?
The Paris and Belgium bombing investigations in 2015 revealed there was no fielded product that was simple and effective that anyone could use to quicky and effectively identify explosive trace. The emerging epidemic of fentanyl in the U.S. led us to adapt our patented design to detecting opioids and other drugs.
3. What is your signature product and how does it work?
Our easy-to-use fentanyl and opioid detection wipe is generating excellent response from those in the law enforcement and corrections communities who have made the wise decision to try our innovation in drug identification. It’s as simple as “open, wipe and look” at the color change on the wipe.
4. Why do you believe your products are essential to the police community?
Limited time and task overload is a challenge to first responder effectiveness. Why spend unnecessary amounts of resources to perform the simple task of presumptive testing when you can save time, budget and improve safety? The use case argument for our wipe approach to presumptive testing is being proven every day in these verticals.
5. What has been the biggest challenge your company has faced?
Changing the mindset of the command structure and decision-makers. Trace Eye-D provides an objective improvement to the method of substance identification based on nationally established standards and existing product chemistry.
6. What makes your company unique?
All product development and manufacturing are done in-house. This gives us several advantages over other providers in our space. Elimination of supply chain bottlenecks and rapid prototyping and testing of new products is only possible in this model.
7. What do your customers like best about you and your products?
The industry likes our products because they’re simple, safe and easy to use. We’ve eliminated the risk of injury that has been historically associated with ampoule-based test kits. The soft, but durable pouch system we’ve developed and patented also reduces the loss from breakage in storage and handling because there are no ampoules or other elements that can fail. All our products provide the added benefit of convenient disposal without neutralization because of the very small quantities of chemicals that are needed for our products to function. In addition, long shelf-life has been achieved through our carefully managed manufacturing process.
8. What is the most rewarding part of serving the first responder community? The science behind some of the most advanced forensic methods in the world has been created here in the US. But the alternative to high-tech has always been safe and reliable low-tech that just works. We’ve created a tool for the masses that makes anyone’s job in public safety easier with respect to routine task of substance identification.
9. Do you support any charitable organizations within the public safety or the community? Tell us more.Trace Eye-D is a business member of the Florida Police Chiefs Association, as well as the Florida Sheriffs Association. In addition, we are longtime members in good standing with our local and nationally recognized chamber of commerce.
10. Is there any fun fact or trivia that you’d like to share with our users about you or your company?
All our products are inspired by our inventor’s time in the U.S. Marine Corps. Having served two tours in Vietnam, he understands a thing doesn’t have to be complicated or expensive to be effective and useful.
11. What’s next for your company? Any upcoming new projects or initiatives?
After we won our first two patents, we were confident that the world would not regard us as a one-trick-pony that only developed a wipe for detecting TATP. We are currently developing new wipe products for K2/Spice, as well as a clever wipe that can identify and distinguish between CBD and THC in one product. We’re also working on adapting our intuitive delivery system to applications in agriculture and industrial hygiene.