Matt Cheng '94's brother and three sisters all went to the University of Michigan but as is custom in their family, Matt was the one to break the tradition and discover his own path.

“I think I’m used to breaking the mold for my family so this (attending Kettering) was probably no different,” Cheng said. “I was youngest; they knew I charted my own destiny.”

Inspired by his physics teacher at Athens High School in Troy, Michigan, Cheng attended Kettering University and graduated with a degree in Mechanical Engineering in 1994. Throughout his educational choices and professional career, the one characteristic that he’s maintained is the ability to take calculated risks necessary for entrepreneurial pursuits.

Cheng’s latest pursuit: leaving a global consulting firm to pursue a job with Towel Tracker, a startup venture out of Grand Rapids that is attempting to protect the environment by conserving energy, reducing expenses for businesses and introduce a technology that leads to future innovations.

“I was one of the seed investors in Towel Tracker back in 2010. I’d consulted the company and was involved with helping the company getting started,” Cheng said. “I stayed in contact with Steven Molewyk, the founder of the company. This year, we were both checking the pulse on where we want to go and he was looking for assistance in how to commercialize the product.”

Matt Cheng '94

Seeking Fast-Paced Solutions

Cheng completed his co-op at General Motors Buick Oldsmobile Cadillac group in Lansing, Michigan, and returned to work there for four years after graduating. Even while in the company, Cheng shifted roles in order to find his optimal position.

“I went from engineering to manufacturing,” Cheng said. “Manufacturing is a lot quicker and solving those problems has a quick impact on the entire operation.”

In 1999, Cheng pursued an MBA at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania before returning to GM, this time in the business development office at Service Parts Operations in Grand Blanc. Cheng was there for two years before moving to the controller’s office in downtown Detroit where he remained until 2005.

In 2005, after working for nearly all aspects of GM, Cheng joined A.T. Kearney as a managing consultant and remained there until 2014 when he was named chief financial officer at Towel Tracker. He has since been named chief executive officer of the company.

“This year, I was compelled to take this job to Towel Tracker,” Cheng said.

What is Towel Tracker?

Kettering University has a Towel Tracker in the Connie and Jim John Recreation Center.

Towel Tracker is a service technology that allows fitness centers, resorts, hotels and spas better manage their inventories by placing an RFID chip in each towel and requiring customers to scan their facility identification badges (room keys, membership cards, student IDs etc.) in order to receive a fitness center or pool towel.

“Initially, we were looking at it more as a product. Over the years, we recognized that it was a solution,” Cheng said. “The intended market was for laundry companies. We initially thought this would be a machine for them but we’ve also developed inventory management capabilities.”

The towels are scanned when they are taken by the guest and again once they are placed in the return bin. The result is the ability to tie towel shrinkage to each user in the facility.

“When people’s towel usage is monitored, they use less,” Cheng said.  “This will reduce towel usage by 30-to-40 percent compared to a system where towels are just sitting out in the open.  Typical fitness centers and resorts spend $0.10 to $0.30 to wash each towel. This is a solution that a facility would want to buy in order to reduce volume of towels used and the number of hours staff have to work bussing towels.  The best part is that with eliminated theft, fitness centers and resorts can offer the guest a better towel!”

The Connie and Jim John Recreation Center at Kettering University installed a Towel Tracker in August 2014 and so far the results have been tremendous.

“The biggest attraction for me was the technology that it involved. It makes the management of towel checkout procedure easier,” said Mike Schaal, recreation services director at Kettering. “It brings in technology, it reduces the potential for theft and I think it looks great.”

Cheng and his staff have estimated the U.S. market for Towel Tracker at about $750 million. They are targeting universities, private fitness clubs, resorts with more than 50 employees, timeshares and other high-end, high-volume hotels.

“Not only does it stock towels, but it solves problems that a typical or resort might have,” Cheng said. “We feel that our inventory management system is superior. If I was going to buy towels, I can definitively calculate if the lower costs towels last longer than the higher cost towels.”

The applications of the technology are vast. As a phase 2 start-up organization, Towel Tracker has raised $1.4 million in startup funds and is currently seeking investments in order to advance the technology beyond towels and into the realm of tracking other commercial services and habits.

The first step could be to track towels on the back end as shipments are received and then possibly expand to other items with large inventories like guest room linens, towels and robes. Then, pending funding, Cheng imagines it would be interesting to consider the implications for assessing consumer habits.

“I think the key thing that is going on right now is that we are a startup organization. We’ve been partially funded and we have significant installs going on,” Cheng said.  “We have a perspective pipeline of products that we know are of interest to the market.”