Small startups often skip engineering simulation because they think the cost can be prohibitive. As a result, engineers in those nascent companies spend an inordinate amount of time and waste funding developing their products building multiple physical prototypes - or miss effects that cannot be discovered using traditional product development methods. As a result, these innovative companies risk being slower to market or only partially fulfilling their bold product promises.

ANSYS has been committed to helping small and large companies innovate since its inception and the ANSYS Startup Program, formally launched today, aims to benefit the tens of thousands of small companies around the world by giving them virtually free access to ANSYS' leading suite of engineering simulation products.

"It's incredibly valuable for a small business like mine to have access to this kind of professional toolkit," said Robert Lumley, founder and CEO of AirLoom Energy, one of the program's initial members. "Not only has ANSYS software helped answer key product-development questions, but it's given me the credibility to win funding. I recently received a research grant from the National Science Foundation, and a key element of my proposal was ANSYS simulation results showing my idea is feasible in the real world."

"Our mission with the Advanced Prototyping Center at LACI is to help ensure the success of our entrepreneurs," said Brandon Iglesias, director of engineering, at cleantech incubator LACI. "Offering ANSYS solutions to the startups in our portfolio will help to alleviate the long simulation and design timelines that are a pain point in the cleantech industry - and will give our companies and prototyping center members a leg up on the competition as they try to get their products to market faster."

"The startup program at ANSYS has helped me access a world-class simulation tool that is invaluable in our product development efforts," said Mohammed El-Kurdi, co-founder and director of research at Neograft, a healthcare startup. "Without ANSYS it would be impossible to move so quickly and analyze so many simulated device geometries. The complexity of the variables we analyze from patient-specific data is handled easily with the workflow we have developed using ANSYS. This has been essential during our clinical trials. ANSYS software helps us add to our knowledge base every day."

"These startup companies are creating cutting-edge products that can change the way we think or do things," said Paul Lethbridge, senior manager of the ANSYS Startup Program. "Entrepreneurs typically invest their time and energy into an idea because they believe it can change the world. ANSYS is no different, we believe simulation can change the world, by helping them succeed."