This time around we are blessed to be able to interview Evan Bybee as our new Entrepreneur in Business Xcelerator. It is such an honor to be able to interview someone with such deep understanding in trade and life experience, not forgetting accomplishment. And besides that, Mr. Bybee is a very fascinating chap to talk with.

He served as a tanker and military policeman in the Nevada National Guard for nearly a decade, he has been a certified oil drilling engineer, and made his fortune in the nutraceutical/cosmoceutical industry as a cofounder of Basic Research. Sounds like a nice full resume in and of itself, but part of what makes this man tick is that the word enough isn’t in his vocabulary. He is busier and more anxiously engaged than ever in his new exciting pursuits with his latest research and development company, Mirage Products based out of Orem, Utah, and their flagship product, Xylexin. What is Xylexin? Well, according to their website, it is a unique hybrid coating combining the strong adhesion and abrasive resistance of inorganic based resins and the pliability and durability of organic polymers. What does this mean and why is it so special? Read on!

BX: Enlighten us with then background and expansion of Xylexin.

Evan Bybee: It was around 2000, maybe a little bit earlier, my partner, John Horne and I were looking at new and different resins and polymer combinations out of some large companies and we came across some that had many exciting characteristics, and some had characteristics that pleasantly surprised us. So John and I came across a company called Ameron, and Ameron has many products with unique properties. The one that interested us was an industrial resin that was going on many aircraft carriers and chemical farms where there were the large tanks. There were also large cement pipeline projects and the same product was popping up on those. To make a long story short, we negotiated with them to be able to use their product because we found that the products had unique applications that Ameron wasn’t even familiar with or interested in focusing on, so we actually pioneered some applications.

We discussed a contract with them to where they get all the profitable retail privileges to sell their services, and we can have the privileges to any manufacturing application if they haven’t gotten their hands on it yet. It turned out awesome, we never faced any problems with them and we were working on a lot of housing works covering siding to the tune of approximately four hundred homes within Utah and Southern California.

BX: That sounds like a great operation. Is this still a part of what you are doing?

In the end, although we own all of the rights to the PPG product, they said that they had no interest to continue making it because they couldn’t get it right. So, got another entity making a product that was based on different concept but, it has many of the same characteristics and then some cases even better characteristics than what we referred to the old Xylexin (the product made by PPG).

At last, even though we have all of the privileges to the PPG merchandises, they mentioned that they were not interested to keep the production coming because they are not good at it. Therefore, we got ourselves another unit making a merchandise that is from a different idea, but it has a lot of the same qualities and then a few units were even more fantastic than our old Xylexin (produced by PPG).

Evan Bybee: Frankly, it was extremely lucrative with very minor setbacks but the crisis started to surface when Ameron make the decision to sell to PPG. And, PPG took control Ameron for its maritime merchandises, not for the merchandise that we were attracted to. Once PPG bought over, they shifted the set plant to different spot, and that’s when we started to have difficulties with the merchandise. It got to the degree where just one out of ten tins would be practical, and the rest were meaningless. We had applied the merchandise to some very significant companies like GAP and Banana Republic and it started to crust and scrape. That absolutely is not the quality of the merchandise, in fact, it is extremely resilient, solid, and doesn’t cut simply. Thus in the end we had to redo everything ourselves at our own cost. In case you’re wondering, the order from GAP/Banana Republic worth several of diesel lorries. We couldn’t afford to lose their business!

BX: So the latest Xylexin is not even old at all, it is your own invention?

Evan Bybee: Right! And with the new Xylexin, we can now own the whole broad market niche of coefficient of friction coatings onto floors. We can solve the whole grout issue for cleaning grout because once you get it penetrated, the grout that doesn’t get dirty, you can easily clean it just like you can clean any floor and the grout doesn’t get dirty down inside. Just the traditional, horrible problem with grout and that’s why there are companies called Grout Doctor that go out on a monthly basis to restaurants and pressure wash their floors to try to clean their floors to the grout.

BX: Grout? My wife HATES that problem. You’re expanding to broader applications!

Evan Bybee: That’s one of the issues, and one of the reasons we’re now out at the Cheesecake Factory putting it on all of their Jerusalem stone tables. And now they have a nice uniform satin shine to them. More importantly, though the tables are no longer susceptible to the chemicals that they clean them with which, by the way is the problem with grout sealers, floor cleaning chemicals break them down and the grout gets dirty again, but with Xylexin, these Jerusalem stone tables no longer look dirty or get rings from the coke bottles. Needless to say, the Cheesecake Factory folks are extremely happy about Xylexin! Now that we’ve done the tables, we’re going to be going to all the Cheesecake factories and applying it to grout issues on their floors, bathrooms, and kitchens as well.

BX: Any other exciting applications in the works?

Evan Bybee: Our current project would be with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) to work on the floors in the cultural halls (editors note : the LDS Church has to be refurnished every two to three years for most of their 17,000+ buildings worldwide). In our discussions, they requested us to take out the stops and concentrate on putting all the bells and whistles in order to meet the ecological standards in the United States.

Presently given the noise that comes from VOCs (volatile organic compounds) in the oil-based paints, the LDS Church has to find another way to substitute the oil-based coatings. Thus, they have made the decision to switch oil-based coatings to the only alternative they could think of; water-based coatings. Little did they know, oil-based coatings can last up to 3 years as opposed to water-based coatings that could only last up to 2 years (if not less). Obviously this takes up more money and time to recoat the whole cultural halls.

BX: If only they had knew…

We’ve also laid down a coating on the floor of the LDS Church’s big conference center. They used to recoat this floor every 6 months. It is the kind of floor where they drive vehicles onto it and where they use giant air bags to lift and move the stage. So this floor is getting a lot of friction all the time moving things around for all the different events. All the friction just tears up the other paints they’ve used. Well, we’ve had Xylexin down on that floor now for two years, they haven’t had to touch it and the love it!

Evan Bybee: Therefore, allowing the Church the option to have a coating that could last up to 3 years, if not longer but with no VOCs. Needless to say, we possess a high quality product where one coat equals to 3 oil-based coatings, much better than water-based coatings. Also, if we apply 2 coats of Xylexin, then it’s going to equal five to six oil-based coats. That is why, although the coating of Xylexin is not much, but it is more durable, and flexible.

Evan Bybee: Thus, we offer the Church the selection to use a coating that could last till 3 years or more without VOCs. Naturally, we have one of the premium quality products where it only takes a single coat that is equivalent to 3 oil-based coatings, let alone water-based coatings. Furthermore, should we use 2 coats of Xylexin, then it will be just as having 5 or 6 coatings of oil-based coats. It is obvious that although the amount of Xylexin layers are not much, but they perform just as superbly!

BX: Sounds like a very happy client.

So, we’re nearing the end of that test, I think at the end of July, but it was taken out a third of the way through and there was virtually no degradation on both the already weathered samples from the temple that we coated with Xylexin. The ones that were not coated the fiberglass was disintegrating, and the new fiber glass showed tremendous weathering and the coated new fiber glass, again, looked as pristine as what was put in.

Evan Bybee: They definitely are. Currently we are collaborating with them to preserve a few of their more holy structures. We are collaborating with them to protect the fiberglass arrangements on their place of worships. The places of worships are stone-built, but a large number of the modern temples architecture are more complex and made of fiberglass and painted to go with the stone of the main architecture.

Therefore, we do not wait for any difference from then on, but that will be important for the LDS Church since they do not have to repaint and still get to save a lot from that. The ROI for us to get the job done will save them a lot of cost as we will be working on all the brand new place of worships. The entire fiberglass will be coated with Xylexin.

Presently UV degradation on fiberglass causes it a 7 to 10 year duration before it begins to wear out and change in color, so they are in the midst of redoing the Mt. Tempanogos place of worship. We are going to expedite the weather testing and demonstrating to them that we can drastically lessen the degradation if not bring it to an end altogether. We got hold of the current samples from the place of worships and sent them out (some coated, some are not) for split testing purpose and position them in an illuminometer and weatherometer. They exposed these pieces to high density of UV light, a certain force of wind, salt water and a couple of few other samples. From there, they will see that a lot of the elements tested are similar to a few years.

BX: It sounds like after a few bumps and curves, it has been nothing but success for this amazing product.

Evan Bybee : Frankly, it is not the newest supreme that we’ve possessed, however there are a few other enjoyable things here that are coming soon. We have had experts having a ball in Hawaii on some big projects that are pushing us. So it has been hilarious and enjoyable, and the most important thing is we have had such awesome experts to embody the company throughout the entire thing. Produce a good product, employ the right employees, and it will work out fine.

Find out more about Evan Bybee on EvanBybee.com and check out more Utah business news on TBXMag.com

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