Lee Company is teaming up with six peer companies across the nation to launch an Innovation Partner Exchange. The long-standing, combined group of companies is known as Contractor Innovation Group (CIG). The goal of the exchange is to provide innovation startups and early-stage companies a new way to share, refine and move forward with business ideas targeting the facilities solutions and mechanical/electrical contracting markets, with the ultimate goal of co-developing successful technologies for the industry. 

Lee Company began working with Nashville-based, innovative startups and early-stage companies XOi and DST in 2013, which led to successful outcomes, including the co-development of industry-leading technology and applications that have created long-term synergies to better serve customers throughout the industry. For example, in 2016, Lee Company's partnership with XOi created the largest commercial roll-out of wearable technology of its kind. Subsequently, additional members of CIG have successfully partnered with these technology companies providing a platform for growth to them throughout the industry. 

"We are looking to build on that initial success by bringing additional partners to the table to provide more resources to more startups and early-stage businesses," said Richard Perko, Lee Company president and CEO. "It is our goal to utilize the combined experience, resources, and industry intelligence CIG offers to assist early-stage technology companies in developing new technology solutions for our industry. Through our recent experience with other technology partners, we have found that these partnerships are beneficial to assist technology companies in their journey into our industry, while providing successful outcomes to our company and the industry. We look forward to working with our CIG partners in this capacity, and we are excited to see which technology companies are interested in partnering with us."

The exchange will be a "Shark Tank" type approach to identify which technologies and partners are of interest to CIG. With the results from this exchange, the next step will be to formalize partnerships between these companies and CIG members.

Companies interested in becoming an Innovation Partner can learn more by visiting www.innovationpartnerexchange.com. Innovation Partner applications are due by March 30.