Brontes Technologies had built something genuinely new: the Lava COS, a 3D dental scanning device about to go from beta to commercial launch. I had been supporting beta dentists across New England and knew exactly what was coming. Dentists are traditionally low-tech customers — but also exacting, time-pressured, and running expensive practices that cannot afford downtime.
The founders, when asked who would handle support at launch, had no answer. Their assumption: 3M HQ in St. Paul would absorb it — a phone tree staffed by generalists who had never seen the device and had no context for the customers using it.
No support function existed. No budget, no process, no team, no tooling.
I proposed keeping support inside Brontes. They said yes.
I became the sole support contact at commercial launch, traveling with a 3M cell phone as the direct line for every customer across a growing US install base of 100–150 devices.
When the hiring budget couldn’t attract Linux engineers, I thought about it differently. I couldn’t teach people to stay calm under pressure, or to make a frustrated dentist feel heard. But I could teach them Linux. So I hired bartenders — people who had spent years managing difficult situations and making people feel at ease. I put them in the open office next to the product engineers. The technical knowledge transferred. The people skills were already there.
We deliberately didn’t optimize for time-to-resolution. When a scan fails mid-procedure, a dentist doesn’t need a fast ticket closure — they need someone who stays on the line until the problem is solved. That shaped the entire support model: high-touch, technically capable, patient.
From there we expanded to Europe — 50–100 devices across Germany, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, and the UK. I led the training of Linux-capable support staff in Germany, building out a model 3M hadn’t run before.
When 3M closed Brontes, the entire company was laid off — engineering, product, sales, everyone. Except support.
My team was retained for six more months to manage the customer transition to St. Paul. Being the last team standing in a company-wide layoff is a clear signal of what the function was worth.
“Seemant started out as the founder and sole member of the customer service group, during the launch of our 3D scanning system. He developed the staff of the US support team and moved on to do the same for Europe. In Germany, he led the training of Linux-capable support staff, something completely new to 3M. In the US and Europe, customers know him as their advocate into Brontes and 3M.”
Ed Tekeian · Senior, Brontes Technologies
“The expression ‘when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object’ loses its meaning when we’re talking about Seemant. He personifies said unstoppable force, and I have yet to see an object that he cannot move.”
Ilya Kriveshko · Engineer, Brontes Technologies