A Story of Grit, Innovation, and Sustainability
Please enjoy our 2023 Impact Review!
Mission
Our mission is to support growth-stage companies creating sustainable technologies by partnering and integrating our team of experienced and diverse engineers to deliver consistent, quality outcomes for complex challenges.
Why Next Rung Technology?
The story of Next Rung Technology starts with my mother - RoseMary Quinn. While growing up as a first-generation American in New York City, she worked for a chemistry degree from Hunter College. She was also a mother of four, and an early participant in the environmental field working as a member of the team cleaning up the Love Canal Superfund site in the 1970. Later, she worked for many years with CDM coordinating laboratory quality control at contaminated sites around the country.
While "Next Rung Technology" evokes the ideas of developing the path towards true sustainability and working to define clear "next rungs" with the companies that are getting us there, the name actually comes from a practice my mother followed when I was a child. Frequently she was required to travel to manufacturing facilities for “stack-sampling” - climbing smoke stacks that may be hundreds of feet tall to test regulatory compliance. In preparation, my 5-foot-tall mother would take a ladder and put it on the front of our house, climbing up and down ten times a day for several weeks to get in shape. (Clearly, she also foresaw the development of the StairMaster.) Although our neighbors may have questioned her sanity and perhaps her parenting, the image has stuck with me to this day — an unsteady aluminum ladder leaning against the front of our house, and my mother climbing it over and over again. The memorable preparation that I witnessed, dedication to quality, grit, and ethos of sustainability all inspired the name "Next Rung Technology".
The story behind the name
Written by John Ellersick, Founder of Next Rung Technology
After 20-25 years focusing on commercialization of a wide variety of technologies, I had two realizations. The first was that I've gained a tremendous set of experience across activities in technology commercialization. The second realization was that we needed to start working intensively towards creating a truly sustainable future if we wanted to continue and build on the progress that's been made over the 20 and 21st century.
These two realizations inspired me to start an engineering consulting firm that helps companies working with sustainable technologies commercialize or grow faster and more effectively, all while staying true to making the world more sustainable.
But to do this, I needed a team. Over the years, I've been blessed to work with some of the best process engineers in the Boston area. In early 2019, I tapped into my network to bring together the founding team of Myself, Leah, Herve, and Linda. They've validated my decision to bring them on beyond expectation and have embodied the Next Rung Technology values of mutual support, high-quality work, and continuous learning since they joined.
Bringing Together a Team to Empower Sustainable Growth
On to the Next Rung!
Now, in early 2023, our team has grown to 16+ members across the United States. We've completed 100+ projects together and have had a great time while doing it. As we grow, we stay committed to the principles that my mother embodied. We stay committed to working hard for our clients to create the next rung for their growth. On a larger level, we stay committed to bringing into existence technologies that empower sustainable growth for the world.
“In our year of working with Next Rung Technology, we’ve gone from lab scale process → Pilot scale → Making major manufacturing purchasing decisions with confidence and minimal risk”.
— CEO of $100M+ BioTech Company
European technology company has a full-scale facility operating in the EU to handle sludge, a wastewater by product, and engaged Next Rung to manage the commercialization of the technology in the US.