Nano Magic specializes in nanotechnology-powered solutions with a focus on liquid industrial and consumer products to apply to surfaces such as glass, porcelain and ceramic.
A Jewish son and father, born and raised in Metro Detroit, have reinvigorated a once-struggling business.
Tom Berman and his father, Ron Berman, are breathing new life into Nano Magic, which specializes in nanotechnology-powered solutions with a focus on liquid industrial and consumer products to apply to surfaces such as glass, porcelain and ceramic.
Tom Berman, Nano Magic’s president and CEO, is an attorney by trade who also served a term as an Oakland County commissioner. Ron Berman helped start Rock Financial with business mogul Dan Gilbert in 1985 and has decades of business experience in Metro Detroit.
Nano Magic was originally two different companies that merged, one based in Cleveland, NanoFilm Ltd., and one based in Austin, Texas, Applied Nanotech Inc.
The merger occurred in 2014, and through 2018, they were never able to integrate well. On top of that, the business was on the brink of bankruptcy.
Ron Berman was on the board of directors of Applied Nanotech Inc. and survived the merger. He remained on the board but would just be on quarterly board calls. It wasn’t until the summer of 2018 that he heard about the challenges the company was experiencing, and he was surprised to hear it. At that time, he saw an opportunity to help turn around a once-strong company.
“My dad actually approached me,” Tom Berman said. “I had just left a company I helped build and grow, and it was fun to help parent their child, but it was time for me to start my own thing. I was working on a startup at the time, and my dad, knowing that, asked me if I would be interested in partnering with him in helping turn around this venture.”
The company was in rough shape and had significant debt, but seeing a diamond in the rough, they decided to take a stab at it.
“We put in some of our own personal money, we raised a few dollars from some family and friends and initial investors, and we negotiated an offering with the then-majority owner of the business to issue new stock and give us operational and financial control of the company,” Tom Berman said.
He said they’ve faced a lot of challenges but have clawed their way out of the grave. Nano Magic is now debt-free, according to Tom, helped by fundraising as well as the coronavirus pandemic leading more consumers to purchase cleaning and anti-fog products.
“We’ve made significant progress, we’ve continued to have a few fundraising rounds and we have a lot of support and great investors, the majority of them from the Detroit Metro area, many of them Jewish,”
