Guardian Machine Protection

David and Yan Wall pivoted from engineering machinery to preserving it; the decision, in turn, saved their business. They started Guardian Machine Protection (GMP) as a solution to a cash flow problem for their first business, Wall Control Services, an industrial machinery engineering and technical service company established in 2011.

Robert Clark of Big Wave Ventures assisted with their business plan by asking what specifically the duo does well. “That was a tough one to answer,” said David, GMP’s chief operations officer. Their answer was preventative maintenance. And, for consistent revenue, the business needed to be a recurring revenue model (i.e., subscription-based). As a derivative of a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model, they anointed their new company as a Maintenance-as-a-Service (MaaS) business.

Guardian Machine Protection was launched in August 2019.

Fort Wayne native David Wall has 25 years’ experience in the machine tool building industry, as an engineer of various disciplines. Yan Wall, the company’s chief financial officer, who was born and raised in Liaoyang, Liaoning, China, has 11 years’ experience in administration, finance, and sales; she dealt directly with manufacturers. And it was her intimate knowledge of the Walls’ former business’s finances, David recalled, that prompted her to create GMP as a solution to Wall Control Services’ cash flow concerns.

Unpredictable costs and revenue streams were two of their former business’s biggest weaknesses, according to Yan. “GMP became our cash flow solution because it’s a business model that [allows us to] control the cost, and our revenue is [now] monthly recurring.”

Guardian Machine Protection was selected for startup accelerator gBETA, an intensive seven-week program, in April 2020. The City’s SEED Fort Wayne nonprofit organization sponsored the program’s five area businesses, including the Walls and GMP. “It was a lot of late nights and early mornings,” David said. “And then there was running the businesses as well,” during a pandemic. Guardian Machine Protection added PPE procurement to continue through that stressful and tough stretch of their early history—but they also helped others by donating some PPE to Fort Wayne Community Schools. “We learned so much in those seven weeks coming out of it that made us so much stronger as businesspeople,” David said.

For more information about Guardian Machine Protection, visit their website, GuardianMP.com.