Perovskite Power: How Sofab Inks Is Disrupting the Asian Solar Market
March 9, 2026
jray_jimray4@gmail.com
Episode 33: Sofab Inks is an innovative Kentucky-based solar startup that successfully transitioned from a University of Louisville research project to a global business player. Co-founders Peter Armstrong and Jack Manzella lead the company in producing a groundbreaking tin oxide nanoparticle ink designed to solve scaling flaws in perovskite solar cells. Recognizing that 90% of their target manufacturing market is located in Asia, the team prioritized international trade early in their commercialization journey. To navigate this expansion, they leveraged critical resources from the World Trade Center Kentucky (WTCKY), including international trade certification and compliance training. They also utilized the Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development’s STEP grant to facilitate essential face-to-face meetings with major customers in China and Japan. This "FaceTime" strategy allowed the startup to build trust and secure commercial agreements with manufacturers eager for their efficiency-boosting technology.
Beyond the tech, the leaders emphasize the importance of resilient co-founding teams and finding expert distribution partners to navigate complex foreign markets. The startup's success highlights the massive potential for thin, lightweight solar applications in industries ranging from aerospace to electric vehicles. Throughout the process, the WTCKY acted as an authoritative partner, helping the team master the nuances of international shipping and regulatory compliance. Ultimately, Sofab Inks serves as a prime example of how Kentucky startups can harness local expertise and global networks to achieve international success.
Welcome and Guest Introduction
Jim Ray:
And friends, welcome back to this episode. Today we are going to talk about a Kentucky solar startup growing a global business. I'm really happy to reintroduce to the crowd, Dr. Omar Ayyash, President and CEO of the World Trade Center, Kentucky. Omar, how are you guy?
Omar Ayyash:
Hey, Jim. It's always good to be with you, man.
Jim Ray :
I love having you in the office, in the studio here. We have a lot of fun. So thanks for all your help today and thanks for the preparation for this. Friends, I'd also like to introduce you, Peter Armstrong, who is a co-founder and CTO of Sofab Inks. Peter, how are you guy?
Peter Armstrong:
I'm doing great. Thanks for having me.
Jim Ray:
But I'm always glad to meet you. Glad you're here. And we have Jack Manzella, who's also the co-founder and COO of Sofab Inks. Jack, how are you?
Jack Manzella:
I'm doing great. Thanks for having us.
Jim Ray:
Absolutely. So as we typically do, I'm going to go ahead and turn this over to Omar and let Omar jump in. We're going to have a great conversation and I'll be back later on in the episode. Dr. Ayyash, it's all yours.
Omar Ayyash:
Thank you, Jim. For the listeners, I'm always excited when we talk about entrepreneurship, but I get even more excited when we talk about entrepreneurship and international trade and that's what we're going to be talking about today. So before we get into the nitty gritty of SOFAB and your international exposures and things of that nature, Peter, tell us about yourself.
Peter Armstrong:
Small Idaho boy that came to Kentucky to study chemistry and got into solar and grad school where I met our other co-founders, our CTO and our CSO, Blake Martin and Sashil Chapagain. And we learned about perovskites and we developed some materials that we thought could change the world. So that's where I got into this and we've been running with it.
Omar Ayyash:
Fantastic. Jack, introduce yourself.
Jack Manzella:
Sure. Great to be with you again, Omar. Yeah, so I'm Jack Manzella. I'm proud to be a co-founder and COO of Sofab Inks. Been with the company for about two and a half years. Before Sofab, I worked at GE in their commercialization lab, First Build, and I also work at U of L as an adjunct professor and instructor in their entrepreneurship department. I was lucky enough through that engagement to meet the brilliant co-founders of Sofab Inks. We banded together and launched the company about two and a half years ago. I mean, time really flies when you're having fun. When I'm not with Sofab, I'm probably playing pickleball.
Omar Ayyash:
How exciting. That's another boom in terms of an industry, right? There's pickleball court in every corner of the world. Just amazing. So what is Sofab? Did you guys actually get started out of U of L and Mushroom there or are you still housed there? Just tell us about the business.
Jack Manzella:
Yeah, absolutely. So Sofab got its started out of the Conn Center for Renewable Energy. Our three technical co-founders, Blake, Peter, and Sashil were all doing their PhDs and perovskite-related chemistry or chemical engineering, and they encountered some problems with the current materials that were being used to manufacture this new type of solar cell. It's called a perovskite solar cell. Very new technology. And so people at that time hadn't been thinking about the challenges of commercializing the technology in 10 years, when we went from lab to full-blown manufacturing. But this group as a research group was looking ahead, we're very forward thinking. And so one of the materials that was used to manufacture these perovskite solar cells had some critical flaws at large scale production years before in the infancy of the industry, our team started tackling a problem that manufacturers solar panel manufacturers were going to face when they started to scale. Our team being brilliant scientists that they are invented a new material, a new material it's called, it's a tin oxide nanoparticle ink, and it helps charge transport through the perovskite solar cell. And so what we did is that after inventing this technology actually won a prize from the Department of Energy, we won about $200,000 from the Department of Energy for this groundbreaking technology. And that was the seed funding that launched Sofab Inks.
Omar Ayyash:
And for the layman, let's say, how common is it for PhD students to commercialize their work at U of L, at UK or nationwide?
Peter Armstrong:
Not very common, actually. Most graduate students, the pipeline is you come grad school, you go do a postdoc, you come professor somewhere or you go become researcher at a company. So there's a very small percentage that actually say, Hey, we actually did something that is worth turning into a bigger company or a bigger thing, so let's go do that.
Omar Ayyash:
Wow, 25 years later and it's still there. I graduated from the University of Louisville with my MBA in entrepreneurship, and I remember it was President Shoemaker at that time, he was at our graduation ceremony and he looked at us and he's like, you're the entrepreneurship guys that almost got me fired because I was trying to convince the Board that we need to commercialize inventions out of research and things of that nature. So we're still working on it. Okay.
Peter Armstrong:
Yeah. Yeah. So many ideas. They get wonderful research done, they get a patent and then they just sit on the shelf and nobody ever uses them. And we had a patent from our work and we were like, this is worthwhile. Like Jack was saying, our development was targeted as something that could be used, something that would address the needs of the industry. And so we didn't want it to just be a patent sitting on a counter.
Jim Ray:
What was that light bulb moment like for you guys? I mean, what was it that said, Hey, wait a minute, we've actually got something here?
Peter Armstrong:
That would've been, it was really on in our graduate work. So that would've been seven years ago, back in 2019-2020 when we were developing our material to like Jack said, address a flaw in the system. And it was, when it worked, it was like this is actually something that's a game changer. It's replacing something that is a fundamental flaw in the current architectures that people are using. And so when we saw that we could do that and we could do all our work using this material instead, it was like, this is something that needs to go around. And every time we talk to people at conferences, other researchers and collaborators, they're like, that's super interesting. And they always get excited.
Jim Ray:
Fantastic.
Jack Manzella:
There was a moment for me as well, so obviously I wasn't part of the technical development on the project, but I believed the team when they said this was groundbreaking. But in terms of external validation, a real light bulb moment that I will never forget, we went through the National Science Foundation Innovation Corps program. And what that is that's a program that helps commercialize technology that's invented at universities, like the University of Louisville, and part of the program, we had to go out and interview over 100 subject matter experts and customers in the solar industry to better understand, hey, is this a real problem that we're solving? Is this technology solving a real problem? Does it have commercialization potential? And we somehow managed to get the CEO of a perovskite company, a manufacturing company on the phone with us. We said, Hey, we're affiliated with the university. Do you have a couple moments to chat? We'd really like to get your opinion. And he said, yes. And we were excited and nervous and we told him about the technology and he said, I think the quote was something like, man, if this technology works and does what you say it does, you hold the keys to the kingdom. And that really was my light bulb moment early on.
There was one more actually really interesting light bulb moment I think that Peter will agree. It was just an electric moment. We ended up traveling over to Asia to a perovskite manufacturing company. That's where 90% of the manufacturing of this type of solar cell takes place. And we pitched our product to the CEO of a huge perovskite manufacturing company, and he looked at us and he said, wow, that's pretty good. Let's go to the lab right now and make some solar cells with your material. That's how excited he was about the problem that we were solving. And we did. We went in the lab, we made material right there. Our team helped with the deposition, measured it. Peter brought it with us.
Peter Armstrong:
Yeah, I actually brought in one of the devices that they made on that test, two years ago. That was the test that resulted in this little module here.
Jack Manzella:
And we've been working with them ever since. So they've been an excellent commercialization partner for about a year and a half now. They're really committed to integrating this technology, and we've signed several commercial agreements with them.
Jim Ray:
Now, did you guys get patent work done ahead of time or does U of L, does their school help with that at all or?
Peter Armstrong:
So the patent was originally filed, like I said, when we were doing the technical development back in 2019, it was like we had the light bulb then. So we put through U of L, qe did put it in an initial patent then, because at that time we were still young students, not sure what we were going to be doing, but we knew this technology had a lot of value. So the patent was filed at that time through U of L, and one of the first things we had to do as a company once we formed the company was to license the technology and the patent from U of L because they own the original patent.
Jim Ray:
Outstanding. So you've got some kind of protection there. U of L's got some kind of protection and now it's all about going to market.
Jack Manzella:
Right. And since then we have filed a few more patents and developed some trade secrets internally. So we feel pretty good about it.
Jim Ray: Are you going to share those with us?
Peter Armstrong:
No, no, on this podcast. My lips are sealed.
Omar Ayyash:
So, I first got introduced to you guys when Peter attended our International Trade Certification, and I hope you enjoyed that and learned a lot. Also as a result of the international trade certification, I got to know that you're a step grant recipient and we appreciate the STEP grant, which is part of the Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development to help exporters in the state of Kentucky to navigate the international marketplace. Fast forward beyond that, I think that you guys have been traveling the world. You've already mentioned that. And this is when I said I got to bring these guys in. We got to have a conversation. Where have you been?
Jack Manzella:
Gosh, where haven't we been at this point? So first of all, I have to give a shout out to Mary and the Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development. The STEP grant has been instrumental in our success as a company. We would never have been able to travel to afford the travel to Asia that we've done without being a recipient of that grant. And you, Omar, were also instrumental in introducing us to that grant opportunity and Mary, so thank you.
Omar Ayyash:
Sure, sure, sure. And was the Asian company that you talked about your first commercialization customer, or did you have ones here first?
Peter Armstrong:
We had one domestic before, but like Jack said earlier, 90% of the market is in Asia. There's only a small handful of the US market.
Omar Ayyash:
And why is that?
Peter Armstrong:
The manufacturing environment is really, it's just the manufacturing environment. Solar is major manufacturing over there, traditional solar, silicon, solar, and you have less regulations there to get those facilities, those factories built than you do in the us and there's just more manpower.
Omar Ayyash:
And who's the user of the solar?
Peter Armstrong:
The end user?
Omar Ayyash:
Yeah.
Peter Armstrong:
The end user is almost any application that solar is being used in right now. So we've been hearing anything from industrial scale to building-integrated. Some people are positing stuff for small internet of things, small items, small internal stuff, as well as integrated into your cars and into windows.
Jack Manzella:
Yeah. One of the most exciting aspects of this technology is that perovskite solar cells are very thin and lightweight, significantly thinner and more lightweight. I'd say maybe what a 10th. 10th of the thickness of traditional silicon solar panels. And for that reason, all sorts of new markets are opened up for applications of this technology. So because they're super lightweight, super thin, you could put them on top of a car, you can use them as windows in buildings, you can put them on boats, shoot them into outer space. I mean, when we're talking terrestrial applications, every gram is thousands of dollars. And so you can imagine the cost savings that we have there. So that's one of the most exciting aspects of perovskite, solar panels, this very new technology.
And then the second exciting component to perovskite solar panels is that something that's never really been done before is that you can stack a perovskite solar panel on top of a silicon solar panel of a traditional Silicon solar panel for a huge boost in efficiency. And every percentage of efficiency gained reduces the cost of clean energy and we can all get behind lower-cost clean energy. And to kind of put this in perspective of what we're talking about here, entire industries in solar have been disrupted and have shifted due to half a percent to a percent change in an efficiency gain of the solar panel by stacking perovskite on top of silicon, I think the record is something like 34% up from 27%. So we're talking huge 6-7% gains in efficiency, which is enough to shift entire industries.
Omar Ayyash:
So I'm going to circle back to the international, but before I do that, I'm sorry if I'm not fully aware of the industry here. I'm thinking about the adoption rate in international market. I've got a sister that lives in Jordan, solar panels all over the home. All of their cars have become EV. And I never thought that even electricity wasn't that expensive here, there. And when I compare to say here in Kentucky, I don't see the adoption rate at the level that it needs to be. Are we spoiled here? Is that what it boils down to? I mean, LG&E is looking to crank the rate up, aren't they?
Jack Manzella:
Yeah, that's right. And so I think sometimes the US does get a little bit of a bad rap for being slower to move on renewable energy, but I believe we're probably, from what I remember, we're the second largest consumer of solar in the world behind China. China's adoption rate is drastically outpacing ours though. So they're producing and consuming significantly more solar than we are. I believe that we are going to get there. It's just going to take longer.
Jim Ray:
Well, it's also the right technology, and you guys are on that trail, obviously. And I love what you said about the ability to stack because you're not looking for any more square footage requirements. You can go right on top of the existing and up at would you say six, seven, 8% in terms of the efficiency. So fantastic.
Omar Ayyash:
So circling back, where have you been internationally? What have you done internationally?
Jack Manzella:
We have been to China three times, Japan once. We're going to go to Berlin this October, Puerto Rico, we're going to Japan again this fall, and I'm sure we'll be back in China probably in the spring.
Peter Armstrong:
Italy and Austria too.
Jack Manzella:
Italy and Austria. That's right.
Omar Ayyash:
Trade shows or direct customers or both?
Jack Manzella:
A little bit of both. A little bit of both. We always try to visit customers especially so we can take advantage of that STEP grant. And what we found as a young startup company, as young founders, is that a lot of business is done through building relationships. It's done through trust. And so to be there in person to bring some gifts, to bring some Kentucky bourbon over to China and Japan, that goes a really long way to building trust.
Omar Ayyash:
Face time.
Jack Manzella:
Face time, it's all about face time.
Omar Ayyash:
Glad to hear that. So what are some of the things that you've learned on these experiences that you can shed with our audience?
Jack Manzella:
Yeah, I was amazed when we visited Shanghai. Shanghai is now one of my favorite cities that I've ever been to in the world. The skyline or on the bun is beautiful and it is far cleaner and safer than I ever imagined. There's not nearly as much pollution. Before we went, everyone told me, Hey, it's going to be, the air quality is going to be bad. It really wasn't. There were electric vehicles everywhere. It was really extremely clean. Not a lot of pollution, not trash anywhere. So I was amazed with how safe and how clean Shanghai is and just how quickly they're adopting renewable energy technology.
Omar Ayyash:
And the number of electric cars.
Jack Manzella:
It was astounding.
Omar Ayyash:
It is.
Jack Manzella:
Almost every car is an electric car. Amazing types of scooters, all the scooters everywhere, and types of cars that we've never heard of before, right? Different car companies that we've never been exposed to in the western world that makes them beautiful, beautiful cars.
Omar Ayyash:
So Jack, I moved to the United States in 1990 coming out of Europe. And at that time, I really felt like we are a lot more advanced than the rest of the world coming in, dropping into a mall or getting, I know this sounds silly, but as a 17-year-old going to a restaurant and getting a free refill, that was mind boggling. But now when you talk about, I spent a lot of time in Dubai and now you're talking about Shanghai, there's a lot of emerging cities that are amazing in terms of development and infrastructure and public transportation and story goes on.
Jack Manzella:
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, the infrastructure blew my mind. It really did. The size of the roads, the new developments, the skyline where every building is built with lights in it so that it lights up at night and moves in patterns, the public transportation systems in Japan, we took the subway and it was quite an experience. Luckily we were the tallest people, so it was a little less claustrophobic, but we were still getting elbowed in the ribs. I mean, we were packed in there like sardines. But the actual system itself operated extremely smoothly. We got all over the city that way and had a lot of fun and had a lot of fun doing it. But yeah, extremely clean as well. So safe. And I think that the United States does adopt quite a lot of emerging technologies, but in terms of infrastructure development, I think recently, especially in China, so much money is invested into their infrastructure. And so I was really impressed with how modern it is.
Jim Ray:
Well, you had mentioned earlier the STEP grant, and I'll put a link to that in the show notes. If you're listening to this, you want some information on that that'll be in the notes directly below the player that you're using at this point. What other types of resources from the World Trade Center, Kentucky, were you able to leverage going in? One of you all went to the International Trade certification.
Peter Armstrong:
Yeah, I did that training. That was very helpful. Very much appreciated that training, very useful information there. And put us in contact with some very useful customs brokers and people to talk to there. Because one of the things we very quickly ran into when we were going from, alright, we're shipping around to the US to, alright, I need to ship this to another country. How do I do that? How do I manage the customs process? How do I manage the shipping process?
And so being put in contact with people who help with customs brokerage, that's been very helpful. And then also we've been put into contact with some distributors and freight forwarders and people in that shipping industry to help direct us and be like, I don't know what I'm doing. Not only do I not know what I'm doing, I'm also trying to ship something that is a chemical across country lines. And there's different regulations when you're shipping dangerous materials across state borders, but even more so country borders. And so that's been a real learning curve for me.
Jack Manzella:
Peter has done an unbelievable job becoming a master of international shipping and customs trade compliance.
Omar Ayyash:
He’s a trade compliance guru. I’m going to be calling on you, Peter, when we have other people at the World Trade Center. We don't know what the answer we'll be like, Hey Peter.
Jack Manzella:
Absolutely.
Omar Ayyash:
What are the duties for the harmonized tariff schedule for pipe fitting?
Jack Manzella:
Yes.
Peter Armstrong:
I know where to find it.
Jack Manzella:
Peter has become a master, but I will say in the very early days of Sofab, when we started receiving some of our first orders, man, I think every other order we sent out would get sent back maybe two or three times and it was just a real headache and you did an excellent job figuring everything out and dealing with our freight forwarders over and over again.
But it really wasn't until, I think you went through these trainings, several of these trainings. And then we also started working with some international chemical shipping companies and distributors. We've been extremely fortunate to build strong relationships with a few international chemical distribution companies who believe in this industry, in particular. And we're really kind of impressed with our technology, who have taken us on and smoothed out shipping and international customer relations.
Jim Ray:
Now are you also taking advantage of foreign trade zones or is that part of your shipping where you might go, for instance down here, the Louisville Riverport where they've got the trade zone where you can go in and if you're bringing things in or shipping things out, it's again duty free there or at least duty deferred I might call it. But do you guys make use of any of those types of resources?
Peter Armstrong:
Not yet, but it's worth our time.
Jim Ray:
Sounds like Miguel Zamora going to get a phone call.
Omar Ayyash:
Yeah, the minute they get warehousing down in the riverport and they've got enough customer base where they're shipping to 30, 40 countries, that's where the FTZ comes in handy.
Jim Ray:
Yeah, it can be really interesting the way they put that together. We did an episode on that, and I'll put a link to that in the show notes as well, just the advantages for companies that are moving around chemicals and pharmaceuticals and all sorts of different things. It is really impressive, but outstanding guys. So what's your next trip? I got to ask, so you said Berlin's coming up?
Jack Manzella:
That's right. We're going to be heading to Berlin in October.
Jim Ray:
Want to go down to Munich about that time. I'm saying!
Jack Manzella:
Trust me, it has absolutely crossed my mind. I might pack some lederhosen in for the trip. Hey, it's about building relationships. It is.
Jim Ray:
Go ahead, be that guy.
Jack Manzella:
Yeah, yeah. So we're headed to a conference called Perovskite Connect. It's I think one of the first industry conferences that we'll have attended. Perovskite in this market is very new and so we already know most of the people who will be attending this conference outstanding through the industry, but I'm really looking forward to seeing them again.
Jim Ray:
That's fantastic. Now your distribution, how did you go about identifying in-country distributors? That must be just a daunting task. Were you leveraging some of the US Commercial Services or anything like that?
Jack Manzella:
We have worked with the US Commercial Services on a few occasions. One of the challenges with working with those services, and I'm sure they provide stellar service, is that we had to do so much education on what our product is and then who our customers are, that it was almost a little bit more difficult for them to learn about us and then go out and find our customers than it would be for us to maybe do that on our own. So we have engaged with them and they offer great services, but we kind of chose to blaze our own path as a startup, we have to move incredibly fast. And so one of the ways that that happened was we were exhibitors at a different industry conference, a solar conference, and I think we were maybe one of two or three other perovskite-related exhibitors at this conference that had maybe 200-300,000 people plus.
Peter Armstrong:
Biggest solar conference in the US
Jim Ray:
And what's the name of it?
Peter Armstrong:
Jim Ray:
As all the big trade shows do.
Jack Manzella:
Right. It wasn't fun at all. We didn't have any fun in Vegas, but we had our tiny booth, we had very little funding at this point. And so our booth was like a pop-up white foldable table and a cover. And it was just, I think Blake and I standing there. We had mouse pads that we actually gave out that was our swag. And this group of Japanese gentlemen approached us and said, Hey, are you Sofab Inks? We were looking for perovskite-related companies in the exhibitor directory. And so they found us. They had been looking for companies in this industry and they did a little bit of research on what we were offering. And that was the start of this relationship that again, has been one of the most transformative relationships that we've had in the entire experience of the country.
Jim Ray:
That's something that I think a lot of companies overlook is the power of actually being at the trade shows, the industry events. Some people go, but a lot of times they'll throw out a few reps and they'll kind of mill around and they don't really work the event. They're there and they'll hand out swag, they'll get some business cards. But being able to really have a game plan, a strategy for that trade show. And then Omar, as we were talking earlier about the upcoming Dubai mission trip, we're going back over there and again, there's three different trade shows really wrapped up into that trip. Do you want to talk about that? Because again, that's one of the advantages of a trip like this is going over with someone who's going to curate that entire journey. So you've got the World Trade Center, Kentucky, putting together the entire itinerary, meeting up with everybody, making sure the hotels are worked out, helping out with the STEP grant and making that part of the process so people can go over there really almost free of charge at the end of the day, but if they get the grant, they're able to apply it.
But Omar, would you mention a little bit more about the upcoming trade show and then the three trade shows? GITEX is one we talk about a lot, but North Star and there's another one, right?
Omar Ayyash:
Yeah. This time around, this is the third year that the World Trade Center here in Kentucky is hosting the trade mission every October to Dubai. And we go to Expand North Star, which is one of the largest startup events in the world. The number of startups from all over the world. The number of investors that are there is phenomenal and it's got a startup feeling to it. And that's what I like about it. And then the next, after a couple of days past that, we go to GITEX, which is the largest technology trade show in the world, and it's got a B2B feeling to it.
And then this year, Sharjah World Trade Center or Sharjah Expo invited us to an EV trade show. So a lot of Chinese cars, we keep talking about electric cars, a lot of Chinese cars will probably be there. And these are the three anchor events that we do. And then we do a few other things associated with it here and there.
So Peter, what are the three things that you would advise companies that are looking to do international trade and Jack, what are the three things that you would advise entrepreneurial companies that want to scale?
Peter Armstrong:
One of the first things I would recommend is doing the International Trade Compliance that the Kentucky World Trade Center puts on that. It was really very pivotal for me. There is very much that relationship aspect. I would say going over meeting our customers, having those face-to-face moments, learning the culture that was probably big. And then courage to step out and do it and just go for it. Don't sit around and take the risks is worth it.
Omar Ayyash:
Cool.
Jack Manzella:
Yeah, I would say probably the number one that I can think of is find great co-founders. I can't say enough good things about Peter and Sashil and Blake, our fearless leader. We compliment each other tremendously. And I don't think there's another group of people that we could have done this and been as successful as we are because we really compliment each other and I don't think we could have done it without each other.
The second one is kind of playing off the same theme is stand on the shoulders of giants, basically find excellent collaborators. Like I said, our distribution partner, Nagase really just blew the doors open. And I think people sometimes overlook the power of distribution in entrepreneurship. Distribution can really make or break the business. And so to have excellent partners in that space has been tremendously impactful. And then third, you have to be willing to do some crazy things.
One story that I want to tell really quickly is that one time Blake went and spoke at an industry conference in Shiyan, China, by himself. And so he took a 19-hour flight to Shanghai and then he took another five-hour flight to the north part of China. And he was the only westerner at this conference. Hundreds and hundreds of people, probably thousands of people, dozens of speakers. He was the only westerner at this conference. And we had to have our deck translated and he had to have an interpreter come up on stage with him during this presentation. He told us this story, it ended up being a great experience, but that takes a lot of guts and that takes, you got to be a little crazy and you got to believe in yourself to do something like that. And it ended up being very productive. We received some inquiries from customers who wanted to work with us, but that takes a lot of guts to travel to the end of the world basically by yourself. So you got to be a little crazy to do this.
Jim Ray:
Man, I love this comment because it's one of those things, it seems like it's such a daunting thing. I mean, just going through the shipping documents and things like trying to figure out how do I get through customs and having it returned three different times in the early stages with that perseverance obviously. But I loved what you said about the courage of being able to say, you know what, we're going to go for it. And sometimes you just got to rip the cord and go. And you guys, congratulations, what an incredible story here. Do you guys have a website or anything like that where if people want to do some research on you all or contact you, how do they find you?
Jack Manzella:
Absolutely. We have a website, www.SofabInks.com. You can find us there. You can also find us on LinkedIn. Just look up Sofab Inks on LinkedIn. That's probably the best way to get ahold of us. Send us a message, we'd be happy to chat.
Jim Ray:
And so that's S-O-F-A-B-I-N-K-S, right?
Jack Manzella:
That's right.
Jim Ray:
Okay. Dot com.
Jack Manzella:
That's right.
Jim Ray:
There we go. Not.org. We're actually going to make money on this. Alright, I like it. I like it. Alright. Well guys, thank you very much. Dr. Ayyash. I always appreciate your giving us some time on the podcast and coming in and helping plan all these conversations out. They've been fantastic. I really appreciate your My pleasure guys. Seriously, what a story, what an acceleration. We're looking to hear some great things in the future here.
So keep in touch friends, if you're listening to this, I'm going to put a link to some of the resources we talk today about and obviously to the website. That'll all be available to you in the show notes. So hopefully you'll have time to go and check it out. And if you're thinking, if you're dreaming, if you think this is something you might want to do, you've got some guys right here that have just spent the last 30 minutes talking about their journey and I hope it's inspired you. So from all of us here at the World Trade Center, Kentucky's This Global Trade Adventure podcast, when you're ready to engage in international commerce, we connect businesses globally.
To Learn More:
Website: www.sofabinks.com
Upcoming WTCKY EVENTS:
- 04/14/26 – 04/16/26 – International Trade Certification
- 04/22/26 – Protecting Corporate Assets in the Global Marketplace
- 0825-26/26 – World Trade Day 2026 Global Business Summit
- 10/12/26 - 10/21/26 – Discover Beautiful Ireland with WTCKY
The next episode of our podcast will launch on 04/13/26. Thank you for listening. Be sure to follow This Global Trade Adventure on your favorite podcast platform, or at www.WTCKY.com/podcast.
We hope you enjoyed this episode. Our schedule is to publish a new episode on the 2nd Monday of each month.
Please consider sharing this with your colleagues. Until next time, thank you for listening and welcome to This Global Trade Adventure.