Advanced engineering meets natural solutions to build coastal resilience

Saving Our Shorelines

Long Island natives, Nick Thatos and sons, George and Paris, witnessed firsthand the devastation that coastal land and ecosystem losses are having on communities.  With Nick’s years of construction industry experience, George’s environmental degree and Paris’s entrepreneurial expertise, Coastal Technologies (CTC) designed simple, cost effective, easy-to-implement tools based on nature’s own solutions to beach erosion.  Launched in 2021, the company now has 13 US utility patents and its products are in place, protecting coastlines in Nantucket and Long Island; with a $9M collaboration with the Army Corps of Engineers, there’s a lot more to come.

As Nick says, “We identified that engineering solutions to these wide-ranging problems is a vital societal need, and also a massively compelling business opportunity.”

We asked the team what it’s been like to build the business.

What are the pros & cons of being your own boss?

I’ve always found being my own boss to be a joy. Solving problems and delivering beyond expectations is exciting and challenging. Cons are that the buck stops with you and the line between your business and personal time is fuzzy. Falling asleep as a thousand new ideas swirl through your brain can be exhausting. Thank god for melatonin! 

What’s special about your product, team, or approach to the business? 

Our base innovation is a technological biomimicry of how plants have evolved to absorb wind and water energy by “soft-flexing”. Humans have long attempted to block wave erosion by “hard” barrier methods, basically dumping rocks, concrete, and such on the shore. But energy is not reduced by blocking it, hard barriers only can redirect forces, often causing the loss of the very shores these methods purport to protect.  This base innovation, which was inspired by the superpower of wetlands, was then expanded to create a wide range of resilience and restoration products which function in unique and cost efficient ways. 

What are you proudest of? 

Working with my sons who are brilliant innovators and caring humans. They’ve grown up with convictions to be positive contributors to society and with a respect for nature. Their core beliefs are foundational to our company. We’ve found that providing a public good is not antithetical to a profitable business.And as innovators, with patent protections, we feel our solutions will change this market while protecting vulnerable peoples and ecosystems. A win-win. 

Tell us about a really smart decision you made for your business? 

Putting in the hard work to successfully be awarded 13 utility US patent claims. But we couldn’t have done this without first purchased modeling software and a 3D printer to run our own R&D department. Being able to produce all our patent renderings, and build thousands of prototypes across many product lines for field testing, saved us millions and allowed us to expand our technological applications and IP. Saving these costs allowed us to move our business forward without the need of early dilutive funding. 

How has being a business owner changed how others perceive you? Or how you perceive yourself? 

Because our technologies are innovative we often find it difficult for others to understand not only the technology, but their potential. Thankfully coastal engineers understand our technologies immediately, often wondering, “Why didn’t I think of this??…”I perceive myself as part of a team that will change the way the world deals with coastal, fluvial, wastewater remediation, flood plains, erosion control, habitat/ecosystem restoration and lots more. It’s sobering. 

Do you ever regret starting a business? 

Not in the least. I started my first business selling concert tickets in high school and have never looked back. And launching CTC has brought new wonderful people into my life. Our c-suite team is composed of professionals who are enthusiastic and smart. Every meeting with them results in new ideas, solutions and paths. 

What’s next for your business? 

We’re building our patent portfolio to increase value and mitigate infringement. Our goals are to double our IP each year over the next few years. Fortunately, our base tech allows tremendous opportunities for expansion. We also have major pilots with Nantucket in the works. These pilots, showing significant early successes, should have great interest from tradition and viral media and will be one way knowledge about us gets disseminated. We also have several established sales reps that are coming on line,