MANATEE -- Growing up in the Manatee-Sarasota area, speed junkie Blake Fuller couldn’t get away from his hometown fast enough.
Flying 120 mph, while dodging other drivers in a professional auto race just years ago, Fuller never thought he would create a $1 million business here. Yet that’s exactly what the entrepreneur has done.
The president and founder of Braille Battery in south Manatee now is selling his products to some of the world’s most successful race car drivers, with a specialty performance battery that shaves off valuable pounds while increasing life span.
Fuller’s technology can be found under the hoods of NASCAR, IndyCar series and American Le Mans series vehicles. He’s even expanding out to provide batteries for the medical industry, for golf carts and for industrial uses.
“Technology has made cars faster, safer and more advanced,” Fuller said. “The battery, however, hasn’t changed. They leak acid, corrode parts and throw out somebody’s back when they try to put them in a vehicle.”
With the help of aerospace engineers, Fuller began experimenting with options. The company started with a few pilot models in 2004, and using some connections from his racing days, Fuller was able to quickly jump back into the industry.
Braille Battery really began to accelerate in 2006, when the products went on display at the Performance Racing Industry Show in Orlando. The company has since expanded to 400 worldwide retailers, with affiliate offices in the United Kingdom, Germany and Australia.
Fuller expects that growth to continue as more emphasis is placed on batteries through the proliferation of hybrid and electric vehicles.
He said the company will continue to enhance its technology, causing prices to drop, and making the batteries more appealing to the general consumer. Braille used to sell 80 percent to just professional racers. During the last two years, that ratio has been trimmed to about half.
“We didn’t start with the result we have today, and we’re not done today,” Fuller said. “The vision has been to never stop putting out a lighter, more advanced battery. Batteries are traditionally the ugly, non environmentally friendly things we only think about when they die. We try to make them cool and exciting.”
The company has developed dozens of models all using one of three inhouse technologies: the Absorbed Glass Mat lightweight series, Absorbed Glass Mat carbon fiber series and lithium ion series.
The lithium series are the company’s top models -- replacing the heavy steel found in most standard batteries with the lightest metal available. For example, the technology can knock an average 8-pound racing battery down to under two, while tripling its life cycle, Fuller said.
To a professional racer those weight savings can’t be overstated. In fact, a Braille Battery powered each of the past two IndyCar champions and the stock car that won Trevor Bayne the Daytona 500 last year.
“I was always a race fan, so I was watching anyway,” Brand Manager Ray Ferreira said. “But I was doing back flips when that happened. We all were.”
Josh Salman, business writer, can be reached at 941-745-7095.
