fluxworks powertrain update #003

Hi

Welcome to the FluxWorks powertrain. If you're new on this train, thank you for coming aboard. We appreciate your prayer, support, texts, calls, hand-written letters (shout out Austin Hill!) as we continue to empower progress and transform motion! Let's dive in.

fundraising – series seed round

On July 11th, Scout Ventures officially closed as lead investor in our priced Series Seed Round. With $3.44M in new non-dilutive R&D funding YTD (NASA Phase II, NSF Phase II, Army Phase III, Texas Space Commission) and a fresh $2M Army Phase II Sequential invitation, the round has come together in a thrilling way.

Allocation remains for follow-on investors but the round is closing quickly. If you know a fit, please send them my way while slots are still open.

POV: After winning a Texas Space Commission Grant (Aaron Demerson of the Texas Economic Development Corporation suggested the finger guns pose).

key metrics 📊

2025 at Q2 close vs. 2024 at Q2 close.

• New Sales (PO): $21,600 vs. $9,800
• New Cumulative Non-Dilutive Selected: $3.44M vs. $2.15M
• YTD Revenue (All): $885,587 vs. $621,315
• Gross Margin (at Q2 Close): 74% vs. 65%

In the last update, we were sitting on $6.9M in proposals plus $5M in Phase III potential funding. As of now, we’ve locked in $3.44M: 90% of our R&D funding target for the year.

The last six months were so lean we were near breakeven. We don’t expect that to continue as we ramp hiring and sales & marketing, but it was a great exercise that built a strong rhythm of cash management and forecasting the team will carry forward.

Commercially, sales revenue is under target at $50K YTD; we're targeting $350K by end of year. The good news: the funnel has matured significantly. Alex Lee is here to help.

technology development

NASA testing delivered our first “You up?” text from a customer late at night after seeing the stiffer-than-passive and damping impedance results. That level of performance is now shaping new programs. Their test setup of FluxSense™ is shown below.

team

Big hire alert: Alex Lee is on board part-time to lead GTM for our automation segment.

Our team of eight (plus kiddos and partners) also made it out to a Top Golf hang. No injuries, just a few bruised egos.

learnings since last update

Strengthened intake process and new product development process after Blue Bell lessons learned (more below) in what doesn't feel good.

Alex Lee's impact on the robotics & automation pipeline underscores a key learning from last update: technical founders can only get you so far in BD. 🙆‍♂️

what feels good

Going to space is exciting. Even better, our NASA, NSF, and Texas Space Commission grants we’ve won this year feed directly into our beachhead commercial product, keeping our technical roadmap laser-focused.

what doesn't feel good

On the commercial side, we have to own a big miss. Our first Blue Bell gear failed—thankfully before their actual line—when an underrated shaft met an off-axis load we never asked about. It wasn’t the magnetic gear, just a shaft design 101 miss from having no intake process and not understanding fully how they would be using it.

The failure pushed us to build technical questionnaires so the team gets the right data without me hand-holding. We’ll get to prove it soon with Alex’s first customer we're set to close soon.

what we need help with

1️⃣ Referrals & Hiring (Most Urgent)
We’re actively seeking referrals for key hires to scale execution:

• Software Engineer: embedded systems & actuator control
• Project Engineer: lead government programs in space
• Application Engineer: customer integration & technical sales
• Engineering Manager: manufacturing/test leadership
• Systems Engineer: spearhead Hub Drive vertical for Army & defense
• Manufacturing Leadership: build out production discipline

Engineering referrals with actuator/mechatronics experience are especially appreciated. These hires are critical to hitting delivery schedules and scaling without burning out the current team. We started interviewing last week.

2️⃣ Facility Strategy (Near-Term)
We’ll need to move in late 2026, and last time we underestimated things like power and futureproofing; we're not limited yet, but we can see it on the 18-month horizon coming. We want a strategic approach this time around, ideally closer to a major city (inner loop Houston is on our radar). If you have experience with facility planning for manufacturing/test labs, we’d love your advice as connections to realtors alone is not what we are seeking.

3️⃣ Investor Intros (Lower Priority)
We’re almost allocated fully this round, but intros to investors focused on dual-use, industrial tech, or smart sensors/actuators who can write $1M-$1.5M to support the rapidly approach close of the raise is welcome. Loads of folks from this raise are already in the pipeline for a Series A, so if you know any Series A-type investors, introductions are always interesting.

final thoughts

thanks

• Col. (Ret.) Ross Guieb for DIU introductions and connecting us with heavy-hitting co-investors like Gen. (Ret.) Ross Coffman.
• Brad Jenkins, Mike Bridges, and Austin Hill for mentorship and communicating our raise to Seed Round Capital.
• Al White for fundraising advice, Army/BAE Systems strategic coaching, and connecting us to Army contracts navigation.
• Mitra Miller for expediting my Houston Angel Network application.
• The entire Scout team for leading this round, believing in FluxWorks, and already making so many introductions.
• Jody James (Beachhead), Austin Langley (Cofounder), Kyle Akin (Talkot Capital), Sherman Williams (AIN Ventures), Matt Morris (Lutroco) for partnering in this fundraise alongside Seed Round Capital, Monica Capital, and Scout mentioned above.
• John Peterson (OECIF) for investor and government POC introductions.
• Chrissy Liotta for introductions and fundraising advice.
• Sassie Duggleby for prayers, guidance, and nominating us to Praxis.
• Keith Bower and the Brenham C12 forum for prayers and mentorship.
• A number of VCs and Family Offices who promptly told us “no” (seriously, the quick and clear answers were appreciated).

what's next

Website relaunch scheduled for Oct. 1 to communicate our brand more clearly. Alex Lee is spearheading Marketing & Communications and from the previews I have seen, I am stoked.

Thanks again for following along, supporting us, and sharing in our mission to transform motion for the future.

With gratitude and momentum,

Bryton Praslicka
Founder & CEO, FluxWorks Inc.

FluxWorks, 1026 Outpost Dr, Ste B1, Conroe, Texas 77304, United States, 9794310990

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