I returned from a business trip late and tired and wanting to rest, but needing to create a presentation for a talk I’d committed to give months ago. I can only blame myself for procrastinating on the talk preparation. But I amped myself up to push through and get it done. Then the power went out, and with it my internet connection.
Fortunately for me, the power outage was brief, and I was able to get my work done. But it reminded me of just how much we rely on technology infrastructure. In the physical world, plumbing is invisible by design. You don’t think about it when it’s working — you only notice it when it fails. And when it fails, it’s all that matters.
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The same is true for the infrastructure powering the emerging data economy. Hidden beneath the flashy AI demos, consumer apps and sleek hardware is a layer of unglamorous but indispensable technology. These are the “plumbing companies” of the 21st century — the small, specialized firms building the pipes, valves and filtration systems for real-time data flow. They are rarely household names or venture capital darlings, and they definitely don’t trend on social media. But we should care deeply about them. Because without them, stuff we take for granted stops working.
Invisible, until critical
The infrastructure of data commerce is complex. Sensors collect streams of raw information — temperature readings from a shipping container, vibration patterns from an industrial pump or GPS signals from a fleet of delivery trucks. But the raw data is noisy, incomplete and incompatible.
Plumbing companies solve this problem. They design low-latency networking hardware, edge computing modules and data integration platforms. They filter, normalize and route information where it needs to go. They manage data ingestion and structuring. They ensure that IoT devices talk to cloud services, AI algorithms and enterprise dashboards — without anyone thinking about the kilometers of digital pipe connecting it all.
When this infrastructure breaks — when a sensor loses connection, a stream corrupts, or a routing table fails — it’s kind of like the power going out. If you are fortunate, until the issue resolves, your business grinds to a halt, productivity slows, machines go offline and you lose some time or money. But greater risks exist. Safety systems may stop functioning. Quality control may be lost. You may lose trust with customers or suffer an irrecoverable issue.
Entrepreneurship in the shadows
In the RIoT Accelerator Program, we have always taught that creating value trumps creating buzz. I have always been drawn to "plumbing companies." They are so un-sexy that there is little competition. And their platforms are so critical that companies that depend on them will pay reliably forever for reliable service. The sector rewards quiet excellence. Plumbing companies don’t win on hype; they win on reliability, integration expertise and deep industry trust.
A startup making an API that translates obscure industrial protocols into usable JSON might sound dull — until you realize it unlocks an entire category of AI-powered maintenance software. And because the work is specialized, competition is often thin. A company that owns a niche — like secure firmware updates for smart streetlights or low-power mesh networks for remote sensors — can build a defensible business with global reach without ever chasing the consumer spotlight.
The multiplier effect
Part of what makes plumbing companies so cool is the outsized impact they have. Every successful plumbing innovation enables dozens of other companies to exist. Consider:
● After an integration specialist builds a platform that connects a patchwork of city infrastructure sensors into a unified dashboard, urban planners can model traffic, air quality and energy usage in real time.
● When someone builds a better compression algorithm for high-frequency sensor data, suddenly rural wind farms can transmit real-time turbine performance to control centers without costly network upgrades.
● If an edge computing startup figures out how to filter and aggregate video data from security cameras before sending it to the cloud, it enables AI analytics companies to run complex object detection at a fraction of the cost.
North Carolina has been an epicenter for IoT and the data economy over the past decade. And some of the unsung heroes of the “plumbing economy” are right here in the Triangle. I’ll profile three local startups that are doing this multiplier platform work. Each went through the RIoT Accelerator Program years ago and has continued to grow and make an impact since. I hope you’ve heard of them, but I bet you haven’t. That’s the nature of infrastructure companies. They create silent value all day, every day.
Trilliott (Raleigh, NC)
● What they do: Trilliott’s SaaS platform integrates with next-gen RAIN RFID to digitize asset and inventory tracking. By replacing error-prone barcodes with inexpensive RFID that works at 90-foot ranges without batteries, they improve asset accuracy from ~60% to over 98%, enabling individualized interaction with millions of assets.
● Impact example: Leveraging Trilliott’s platform, Alfred Williams & Company manages enterprise assets across the Southeast, including major hospital systems. They’ve reduced labor, improved accuracy and achieved real-time visibility across facilities.
● Plumbing value: Without Trilliott’s digital piping, asset data remains fragmented and inaccurate — limiting the effectiveness of any downstream analytics or AI systems.
Microgrid Labs (Durham & Cary, NC; Boulder, CO)
● What they do: Their software platform uses digital twin modeling to help fleets, municipalities and enterprises plan and optimize electrification — from battery sizing to charging infrastructure.
● Impact example: For the Greensboro Transit Agency, they modeled bus routes, charging needs and grid impacts to ensure operational feasibility while avoiding costly over- or under-building of infrastructure.
● Plumbing value: MGL provides the unseen conduit connecting transport operations to grid, storage, and charging systems — ensuring energy and data flow as one coordinated system.
ROWND (Durham, NC)
● What they do: ROWND provides a modular open-source framework for building production-ready AI applications locally. It integrates the most up to date core AI tools and techniques so users can build on a laptop and deploy anywhere.
● Impact example: By offering a "batteries-included" AI development platform, startups and enterprises can deploy AI features in minutes instead of months — shifting resources from infrastructure work to product innovation.
● Plumbing value: ROWND provides the digital pipework for AI applications—quietly handling document processing, model orchestration, and intelligent retrieval so developers can focus on building AI experiences without vendor lock-in or losing control of their data.
These companies are not building the apps you see. They aren’t posting Reels on Instagram or cutting 9-figure deals in Silicon Valley. Instead, they’re making sure all the hype that other companies are touting can even exist.
A perfect time for plumbing entrepreneurs
Don’t just take my word for it. I’ll admit a personal bias for the lower risk and higher value of boring plumbing companies. Market data also supports the headline of this section. It is a great time to build a plumbing company. Several forces are converging to make this a golden age for infrastructure entrepreneurship:
● The explosion of IoT devices means exponentially more endpoints that need connectivity, security, and interoperability.
● AI’s appetite for real-time data demands cleaner, faster, and more reliable information streams.
● Democratization
○ AI democratization allows subject matter experts to launch more new companies. This opens an ever-growing market for supporting infrastructure to help use case startups to scale.
○ Cost democratization — cheap sensors, open-source frameworks, and cloud platforms — makes it feasible for small teams to compete with legacy providers.
● Edge computing maturity allows more processing to happen close to where data is generated, opening new possibilities for responsive systems.
For founders willing to work in the shadows, the market is enormous. You don’t need millions of end-users. If you capture a dozen loyal customers who depend on your product to keep their business alive, you may have a multi-million dollar business.
Betting on the unseen
We’ve all heard the old saying – In the gold rush, the people who made the most money were selling picks and shovels. In the data economy, the picks and shovels are APIs, data brokers, secure device firmware, cybersecurity layers, IoT middleware and low-latency networks.
The companies building these systems won’t get flashy headlines — but they will get contracts, renewals and a level of business resilience most consumer-facing startups can only dream about. In the end, every great advance in the data economy will stand on the quiet work of entrepreneurs who built the pipes. And if history is any guide, they’ll be the ones quietly cashing the biggest checks.