Bulletproof Growth Steve Warshaw CEO/M CUBED TECHNOLOGIES
By Ed Welles

(FORTUNE Small Business) – Revenue for M Cubed has shot up since it started making materials used in body armor for soldiers. This year sales are expected to double to $40 million.

IN THE LINE OF FIRE: For eight years M Cubed, based in Monroe, Conn., made advanced composites for semiconductor manufacturing. But when the semiconductor equipment market slumped in 2001, M Cubed starting looking at other markets. Two years ago, in the wake of the war in Afghanistan, Warshaw hit on an idea: making ceramic tiles for use in bulletproof vests. The company's strong and lightweight composite technology yielded panels that can stop even AK-47 "armor piercing" ammunition.

WELL-SUITED: Body armor now accounts for more than half of M Cubed's revenues. (The firm provides the tiles to a company called Armor Holdings, which sews them into Kevlar vests and delivers them to the Army.) Monthly output has tripled this year, to 10,000 units, but Warshaw sees unending demand for his wares. "This could become standard issue for all GIs," says Warshaw. "I get e-mails from soldiers every week telling me, 'Your product saved my life.'" --ED WELLES