Archives
ParkVu relocating to Louisville & Hiring
March 8, 2010 | Filed under Blog, Events, Startups
Jeff Fedor and Terry Goertz, the founders of ParkVu, contacted me over a year ago through this blog, asking whether Kentucky would be a good place to relocate their startup. Over the past year they have investigated and compared it to other startup hotbeds and have chosen Kentucky. ParkVu is a mobile consumer media company. We [...]
startup-slam
March 4, 2010 | Filed under Blog, Events
Two Kentucky Energy Startups receive funding
March 2, 2010 | Filed under Blog, Startups, Venture Capital
Wellhead Energy Systems, located in Somerset, was approved for an investment of up to $500,000 to develop generator systems that can be placed near natural gas wells to produce electricity for rural communities. Southeast Biofuels, in Mt. Sterling, was approved for a grant of up to $30,000 to develop a portable system that can produce ethanol using sorghum [...]
Paratechs received funding
February 26, 2010 | Filed under Blog, Venture Capital
Paratechs received $120,000 from the Cabinet for Economic Development’s High-Tech Investment Pool.ParaTechs has an exclusive license to market a patented special line of insect cells developed at the University of Kentucky that employs the baculovirus expression vector system used to manufacture proteins for use in vaccines and therapeutics to prevent or treat a wide range of diseases. The technology improves [...]
Backupify: good news and Bad news
February 16, 2010 | Filed under Blog, Startups, Venture Capital
Louisville based Backupify recently raised and angel round from some prominent national investors and was featured on Techcrunch. That is the good news. The bad news is founder Rob May states that the company will probably be moving from Kentucky soon. The idea that you have to build these type of web services only [...]
April is Tech Month in Lexington
February 9, 2010 | Filed under Blog, Events
The month of April is called Tech Month here in Lexington. Many different organizations are planning events that are technology or innovation related. Below is a highlight of some of the most interesting happenings:
Creative Cities Summit
www.creativecitieslexington.com
Date: April 7-9, 2010
Time: varies
Location: Lexington Center Corporation
Costs: $199
A multi-disciplinary conference bringing together leading thinkers [...]
Innovation Scorecard and playbook
January 26, 2010 | Filed under Blog, Politics, Startups, Venture Capital
Bill Warner, A technology entrepreneur in Boston posted the following Scorecard and play book for building an innovation economy. Bill is in Boston but this simple methodology is applicable elsewhere including Kentucky. We need plays and metrics with which to judge the success of efforts to boost a technology cluster. Our politicians often tout the work they are doing in these areas [...]
Nine companies receive matching funds from the state
January 25, 2010 | Filed under Blog, Venture Capital
Through the SBIR-STTR matching funds program:
Four Tigers, near Paris, is developing blackberry-based cosmetics, dietary supplements, food and medical products that offer the fruit’s potent anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties.
www.four-tigers.com
NaugaNeedles, of Louisville, produces nano-scale probes and electrodes for use in mechanical, electrical, and electrochemical sensing and manipulation at cellular and molecular levels.
www.nauganeedles.com
SCR, of Louisville, is developing a [...]
Free Innovation Workshops
January 20, 2010 | Filed under Blog, Events
The Eastern ICC at EKU will host a special Innovation training program on Feb. 9.
Eureka Ranch, a nationally recognized Innovation Lab will present two sessions on Innovation-Profit 101 (8:30am-12:30pm) and USA National Innovation Marketplace (1:30-2:30pm) in the EKU Perkins Building on Kit Carson Drive on the south campus at EKU in Richmond.
The first [...]
Entrepreneurs Foundation creates High-Tech helpHaiti fund
January 17, 2010 | Filed under Blog, Politics
Check out the info at EFKY about the High-Tech HelpHaiti fund. An example of the leadership shown by entrepreneurial companies in the US. The funds donated are being matched leading to at least $1.2 million for Haitian relief.
Alltech & UK offer entrepreneurial FastTrac program
January 8, 2010 | Filed under Blog, Events, Startups
Alltech and UK are putting on the program for $2500 a person. Details can be found here.
The Fast Trac program was conceived in 1986 at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles and the Kaufman Foundation purchased the program’s intellectual property in 1997.
Topics covered include:
Exploring Entrepreneurship
Identifying and Meeting Market Needs
Objectively evaluate your concept and [...]
New Media Factory
January 6, 2010 | Filed under Blog, Events, Politics
The group behind the IdeaFestival have launched a new media factory. Few details have been released and I have asked Kris Kimel for additional information but one event in the pipeline is a Collective Intelligence/Augmented Reality game design workshop they are hosting on February 26th. I will post more details as they are available. Below is [...]
3 resolutions for 2010
December 23, 2009 | Filed under Blog, Politics
For the last or one of the last blog posts of the year, I wanted to highlight three things that should be resolved to be implemented in 2010 to build the entrepreneurial economy both nationally and locally:
NATIONAL:
Startup Visa: This idea has picked up steam. I am an opponent of illegal immigration but believe we need a coherent [...]
Summitt Biosciences receives 250K
December 14, 2009 | Filed under Blog, Startups, Venture Capital
Summit Biosciences, a specialty pharmaceuticals business will expand its operation investing over $5 million in new people & facilities. The company received 250K from the state’s high-tech investment pool.
Summit develops and manufactures generic prescription and new over-the-counter (OTC) pharmaceutical products administered to patients by means of a nasal spray. The company is also developing new OTC [...]
Buildycrunken equals collaboration
December 7, 2009 | Filed under Blog, Events
This is a guest post by Todd Willey about an event collexion, the local hacker co-op put on a few weeks ago. Unique and new events like this help juice creative thought and collaboration and can lead to the next new thing
It is important for a creative community to have spaces and associations that not [...]
Kentucky ranked 22nd for small business Policy environment
December 2, 2009 | Filed under Blog, Politics
Kentucky ranked 22nd for its business climate in a report from the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council, a lobbying and policy group. The council assigned index numbers ranging from 25.693 for South Dakota — deemed the friendliest state for small business — to 84.795 to the District of Columbia — the least friendly. Click Here for full [...]
How to handle PR problems
November 30, 2009 | Filed under Blog, Politics, Startups
Below is an interview with Gary Gerdemann, Vice President of Account Services at Peritus Public Relations. Gerdemann has been involved in several high-profile startups including eToys.com, Homestore.com, Gamefly.com, Boston Market and Einstein Bros. Bagels.
On the tech and startup side of your experience, what was a major Public Relations issue you encountered?
A very interesting [...]
Startup Weekend-Lex
November 23, 2009 | Filed under Blog, Events
Startup Weekend was held in Lexington this past weekend for the second time. The ideas brought forth for the weekend included:
Digital Daddy – a brand for role model Dad’s that will include content such as videos, audio podcasts, and more
Wedding Memories – a smart phone wedding photography system that turns your wedding guests into your [...]
Five companies receive matching funds
November 17, 2009 | Filed under Blog, Startups
The following five companies received matching funds through the state’s program to match federal SBIR/STTR awards:
Adaptive Intelligent Systems, established in Lexington in 2005, is developing innovative, intelligent sensing and control technologies that help improve welding quality and productivity.
SureGene, of Louisville, is developing and commercializing its AssureGene™ test, the first in a planned series of proprietary tests designed [...]
Louisville’s Hot Dozen
November 13, 2009 | Filed under Blog, Events
The Enterprise Corp., a division of Greater Louisville Inc., the metro chamber of commerce, has released its “2009 Hot Dozen” list of fast-growing, locally owned entreprenurial companies.
• Achieve CCA Inc.;
• Hello Metro Inc.;
• IMC Licensing;
• NaugaNeedles LLC;
• PGXL Laboratories;
• Planet Telecom;
• Stonestreet One LLC;
• SureGene LLC;
• The Corporate Playbook LLC;
• The Learning House Inc.;
• TubeMaster Inc.;
•US WorldMeds LLC.
Advantage of being a Startup outside the valley
November 11, 2009 | Filed under Blog, Startups
The following post by Ali Davar , CEO of Worio, a Vancouver-based startup creating a new category of personalized Web search highlights many of the advantages that I have been preaching about when your high-tech startup is not located in Silicon Valley (or Boston, Austin, Boulder etc). Also some valuable tips about how to stay relevant in the [...]
Comparing entrepreneurial cultures
November 6, 2009 | Filed under Blog, Politics, Startups, Venture Capital
Below are some excerpts from an article on xconomy about the startup scenes in Boston, Boulder and Seattle. I highlighted the statements I thought were important to or resembled Kentucky and other areas trying build high-tech ecosystems.
Brad Feld of TechStars and Foundry Group gave a brief history of the startup scene in Boulder, CO—useful for any [...]
Are celebrity investors/advisors/board members worth it?
November 3, 2009 | Filed under Blog, Politics, Startups
I recently read two posts on this subject, one from Altos Ventures and one from Chris Dixon and I agree with the key theme that celebrity (the term that i would use is “big name” not necessarily famous but known like a politician or well connected person locally) are not worth it:
“ In our experience, [...]
Project Management Training
November 2, 2009 | Filed under Blog, Events
If anyone is interested in project management training, The Solarity Group & the Bluegrass Business Development Partnership (BBDP) are hosting a two day workshop for 15-20 people on November 16th and 17th. The BBDP will offer a scholarship (50% off) the already discounted registration fee of $1,000. This means that the first respondents to this offer [...]
Two Companies Awarded Funding
October 30, 2009 | Filed under Blog, Startups, Venture Capital
The Kentucky Economic Development Finance Authority (KEDFA) today awarded two high-tech Kentucky companies, Louisville Bioscience, Inc., and Laboratory and BioDiagnostics, LLC, (LabDx), state funding of up to $250,000 each from the Cabinet for Economic Development’s High-Tech Investment Pool.
LabDx is employing technology to permit transferring lab results directly from the company’s new medical laboratory to customers’ [...]
