OEN Blog

Making Profit from Worm Poop - with CEO Tom Szaky

larryw — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 22:20:28 GMT

In case you missed it, CEO Tom Szaky of TerraCycle Inc gave a presentation today at a StarveUps event. Tom gave a great keynote on the origins of TerraCycle, how he and his team made a million dollar plus company from collecting worm droppings and selling it collected bottles.

Tom's keynote was excellent, especially in the way he challeged conventional ways of thinking about garbage, recycling, the green movement and how we as a society consume goods.

So check out "the coolest startup in America" at http://www.terracycle.net/.

Trillium Fiber Fuels wins Round 2 of OEN's Seed Oregon PubTalk

sarenar — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 08:44:54 GMT

Trillium Fiber Fuels was the victor at OEN's Seed Oregon PubTalk, on Wednesday night . They will return to compete in the finals on February 11, 2009 along with Round 1 winner, 88, inc. and the Round 3 winner (competition on January 14, 2009) . Trillium Fiber Fuels seeks to capitalize on the growing alternative energy market and produce ethanol using crops other than corn. Other competing companies in Round 2 were, Rallypoint and TakeShape, Inc.

The winner of OEN's Seed Oregon PubTalk Finals will earn a spot to present at OEN Angel Oregon 2009, the Northwest's premier entrepreneur/investor matchmaking event.

Upcoming Deadlines:

Apply for OEN Seed Oregon Round 3. - Applications for Round 3 of OEN's Seed Oregon PubTalk are open through December 17, 2008.

Apply for OEN Angel Oregon 2009 - Earlybird application is open through December 12, 2008, regular applications are due January 7, 2009.

Call for Applications and Recruiting Investors - OEN Angel Oregon 2009

sarenar — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 20:10:50 GMT

OEN's Angel Oregon is the nation's premier investor/entrepreneur matchmaking event. Angel Oregon brings together Oregon and SW Washington's brightest entrepreneurial talent with qualified angel investors. The top six companies who apply, including the OEN Seed Oregon PubTalk winner, will present at the OEN Angel Oregon conference on March 12th at the Governor Hotel. At the conference a final vote of the OEN Angel Oregon investment committee will take place. Two investment prizes will be awarded.

This must-attend event combines valuable networking, interesting presentations from emerging companies and an exciting competition for angel investment.

OEN is currently accepting applications. Click on the following link to learn more about how to apply .

OEN's Seed Oregon PubTalk - Round 2 Wednesday, November 12th

sarenar — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 19:03:18 GMT

+Wednesday, November 12th, 2008
5:15 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.
Bridgeport Brewpub + Bakery
1313 NW Marshall, Portland, OR
Price to attend PubTalk: $15.00 OEN member price, $25.00 non-member price - Sign up to attend now!+

Come see this competition for Oregon and Southwest Washington seed-stage companies who are seeking capital within the range of $100,000 to $2,000,000. One winner from each preliminary round will move on to a championship round, where a finalist will earn a opportunity to present at OEN's Angel Oregon 2009 , the premier angel investing event in the Northwest. Angel Oregon 2009 will be held at the Governor Hotel in Portland on March 12th.

Round 2 Presenting Companies:

+ Rallypoint
+ Take Shape

+ Trillium Fiber Fuels

Five Minute Pitch:
Alpzite

Interested in applying for OEN’s Seed Oregon Pubtalk Tournament? You can still apply to present at Round 3 of OEN' Seed Oregon PubTalk Tournament by Wednesday, December 17.

Sponsored by:

Ater Wynne

ViaWest

Social Networking 101 with Rick Turoczy

sarenar — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 19:56:13 GMT

Rick Turoczy provided a handy primer on today's OEN Webinar: Social Networking 101. He broke the whole web 2.0 Social Networking world down into manageable bits and gave participants a place to start.

First you need to know the rules of the road:

1) Jump in. - Get over your fear and go for it.

2) Be polite. - Be nice and ethical.

3) Have fun. - This is fun, there is a lot of interesting things you are about to learn.

4) Listen more than you talk. - It will help you find something interesting to say.

5) Give more than you get. - In that spirit here is the link to his presentation & links: http://twurl.cc/70n

Now for some suggestions:

Don't start with blogging. It is just too much pressure. Boy is he right there. Rick suggest to start slowly and with one thing at a time. Give yourself time to get the hang of things before moving on to the next step. There is always time to add more as you get more involved.

Step 1: Say it. - Start commenting on other people's/ organizations' blogs such as this one. Or visit news sites such as the Portland Business Journal or The Oregonian

to get your opinions out there. It is still not super social but it is a start.

Step 2: Learn to share. - Start tagging things you like. Try a social bookmarks manager like delicious. Share photos on Flickr.

Or look for and share events on Upcoming. There's much more you can do but you're still getting your feet wet.

Step 3: Be yourself. - Get social and start networking. Join Linkedin, or get a profie on Facebook. You will be surprised who you find and who finds you. There are conversations to be had. Information to be shared and questions to be answered. These are all opportunities for you to get involved and share your expertise as well as learn from other experts.

Step 4: Get involved. - Set up an account on Twitter, a micro blogging site. Start following people and listen to what they say. You can use the search function on twitter to search out topics of interest and you can use Twellow to help you find people to follow. You will find they share interesting bits of news and information that can be very useful to business communication. You can share information about your organization or just interesting articles and information you come across. As your network grows you will find it to be a handy way to interact with customers or colleagues.

Thanks again to Rick Turoczy for sharing his insights. Perhaps you all could take an opportunity to get your feet wet and write a comment on this blog post. All you have to do is log in or set up an account and you're on your way.

The fight to raise money

sarenar — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 17:51:36 GMT

Yesterday at OEN's Venture Northwest we saw 14 companies present their companies before an audience of potential investors. It was a day that Oregon could be proud of because there was a lot of talent in that room. Nonetheless, with the current economic crisis in full swing, it is impossible to overlook at a conference like this that the road will be a tough fight for startups for the forseeable future.

A couple key takeaway's from yesterday's conference were that sustainable ventures will be instrumental in spurring innovation and rebuilding the economy. There is a sense that the election could have significant impact in the scale of the opportunity with governmental policy supporting the expansion of renewable energy investment. The other main takeaway was that start ups will have challenges in raising funds but that it is still possible and that they will have to focus their efforts, conserve their cash and potentially seek alternative funding sources to help them survive the credit void.

We would appreciate hearing your insights. To provide a comment, log in or set up your account.

OEN's Venture Northwest 2008 featured in discussion on OPB's Think Out Loud

sarenar — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 00:15:12 GMT

Visit the OPB to read/add to the discussion. http://action.publicbroadcasting.net/opb/posts/list/1797812.page

Or listen to the show by clicking this link. http://stream1.opb.org:9000/tol/episodes/2008/1030.mp3

OEN Venture NW Update: Session 3 Presenting Companies

klewis — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 21:54:06 GMT

Kicking off Session 3, Prakash Kondepudi with DepotPoint discussed their innovative product offering for the real estate foreclosure market. Their platform streamlines the entire foreclosure process, saving significant time and money for all parties involved (financial institutions, lawyers, brokers and investors). Too bad the timing just isn’t right for such a solution (note sarcastic and ironic tone). Knowing the unfortunate explosive growth in this market, I foresee DepotPoint will not be foreclosing on their office space anytime soon.

Max Risenhoover with M-SIXdemonstrated their 3-D visual collaboration software. The SAS solution provides the building industry with the ability to create, model and collaborate. For example, the average 3-D rendered image would cost $50 instead of $2,000, which is the current industry average. Additionally, the technology enables interaction, commentary and click tracking.

Jeff Allen from Rallypointwas next to bad. Rallypoint is a TV widget service or portal provider, delivering Web-based content and services to Internet-enabled TV sets. The basic business model is advertising revenue, and the market potential is huge: by 2012, all TVs will be fully internet-enabled. The platform overlays content over video (via frame buffer) to layer interactive content. Examples include sports scores and statistics during a football game and social networks accompanying popular programs. It’s always interesting to see how TV and the Web interact, as my senior paper in 1994 was on this very topic, aka The Information Superhighway. Ironically, these concepts are far from new, but behavior is now changed enough to make this a viable business.

For the final presentation of the day, Terri Fiez discussed her venture: Wi-Chi. Wi-Chi designs, manufactures and markets reliable, efficient nano inverters for solar photo-voltaic systems. Essentially, the inverter is more efficient and affordable than current solutions. With the current energy crisis, and a greater reliance on alternative sources, Wi-Chi will provide a key element to making solar a bigger player in the power industry. By providing a powerful solution to the weakest link in the solar power chain, Wi-Chi is well positioned for funding and long-term success.

OEN Venture NW Update: Regional Success Story: Micro Power

klewis — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 21:27:04 GMT

The Regional Success Story #3 is Micro Power, which offers custom solutions in the electronics and controls marketplace. In English, they develop custom battery packs and charger solutions. For example, they designed waterproof battery packs for the Navy Seals, who tend to jump out of perfectly good aircraft into cold and choppy water with guns and battery-powered devices. Secrets to success include keeping customer acquisition costs down, leverage NW region and culture, face brutal facts, don’t delay hard choices, and 2 locations means 4 times the problems. In all, an insightul presentation.

OEN Venture NW Update: Regional Success Story: nLIGHT

klewis — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 19:04:40 GMT

The Regional Success Story #2 is nLIGHT, a leading supplier and innovator of high-power semiconductor lasers and fibers for industrial, medical, defense and consumer applications. Scott Keeney, President & CEO provided insights into the company, which includes a major failure and resulting insights. Key lessons learned: don’t buy industry forecasts from “experts,” be cautious about hot markets and best of all, that our region is a great place to build a company.

OEN Venture NW Update: Session 2 Presenting Companies

klewis — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 18:49:03 GMT

Clive Cook, CEO of RNA Networks, discussed his new venture, which specializes in memory virtualization. While virtualization is popular in the storage market (i.e. VMWare) RNA Networks will focus on the memory level. The net result for large corporations is a killer application for IT acceleration and tremendous cost savings.

Noam Topaz, the CEO of Topaz Bridge, makes enterprise-class HR software linking Microsoft SharePoint and SAP. Fortune 500 companies see a 60 percent savings, or a 3 month payback on investment. Due to the return on investment, expect Topaz to go very far.

Steve August of Revelationcreates cutting edge Web applications for qualitative market research. In a nutshell, Revelation has revolutionized the qualitative market research industry by streamlining and automating the process via the Web. Costs are a fraction of in-home and focus group studies, while extending the reach and expediting the process.

Ray King with AboutUsopened with the following statement: “AboutUs is the 950^th most trafficked site on the Web today.” From personal experience, I can tell you AboutUs is a very powerful wiki resource, providing helpful information about a Web site, similar to a Wikipedia format. AboutUs has a Deluxe Article writing service that is of great interest to search engine marketers, as it creates SEO-friendly content for increased awareness. Based on Ray’s track record, this is one horse that’s a safe bet.

Stuart Cohen with Collaborative Software Initiative discussed his latest venture. CSI offers a comprehensive set of services to take an idea through the application lifecycle and beyond. As the former CEO at Open Source Development Labs, Stuart is well-qualified and connected in the IT space. Based on the level of partnerships and current projects, I’d guess they are well on their way.

OEN Venture NW Update: Session 1 Presenting Companies

klewis — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 17:26:54 GMT

Kent Lewis reporting live from the Downtown Marriott at the first session of OEN Venture Northwest. Michael Wright with Advanced Inquiry Systems, Inc. kicked off the first session. AISI is a full waver at-speed and at-temperature integrated test solution (aka circuit tester). They have a stacked management team, a unique technology and strategic partnerships. I would tell you more about AISI, but the technology is so far over my head, it would be like translating Swahili.

The second presenter was Ben Finklea with END, a sustainable footwear manufacturer. Their unique selling proposition is the combination of a core sustainable culture with ultra high performance products. I personally checked out their sample shoes, and they are good looking, lightweight and affordable. The fact that they are sustainably made, and are performance-oriented is a bonus in my mind. END now has product on REI.com, and will be on Zappos soon. Their marketing strategy involves reaching out to Gen Y via social media, which is a key influencer market as Web and environmentally-savvy consumers.

Michael Berkley with SplashCast next discussed his content syndication network, designed for emerging high-growth media. Essentially, the SplashCast service allows brands to engage with consumers via social media. The SplashCast immersive media (aka mini televisions) are embedded in various social media sites, and can be easily branded and shared. Michael gave a few examples of the impact of the product in Nike's NKE6.0 SplashCast channel generating more views than the Nike site itself. From personal experience, I can tell you SplashCast is going to be a major player in social media, and they are well on their way.

Next up was Stuart DePina with Tamarac, Inc.http://tamaracinc.com/, which is the leading portfolio rebalancing and trading platform. For those of you that are not financial advisors, their Web-based product reduces costs by automating portfolio construction, maintenance and monitoring. DePina and the rest of the executive team is stacked like pancakes, in terms of deep relevant experience.

Paul Lorenzini with NuScale Power anchored the morning session. NuScale Power is commercializing modular, scalable 45 megawatt electric light water reactor nuclear power plants. That’s right, they build small nuke reactor power plants. Before the hippies out there plan your sit ins, you should do a little more reading on the energy crisis and how nuclear power is one of the cleanest opportunities to provide energy for the growing global demand. The modular systems are built at the factor and can be shipped anywhere via truck. The light water power is one of the safest forms of nuclear power available today.

The OEN Regional Success Story was Insitu, Inc. Steve Sliwa, President & CEO, described their product offering, which develops remote aircraft like ScanEagle. Their success has resulted in recognition from a variety of publications like Fast Company and Portland Business Journal. The history of the company is quite interesting, in that the co-founder Ted McGeer built the first unmanned aircraft vehicle (UAV) to successfully cross the Atlantic Ocean. Boeing recently purchased the company in September 2008, but we can't say for how much. Steve finished off his presentation discussing the downside of locating the business in Bingen and White Salmon Washington, which includes limited facilities and recruiting.

OEN Venture NW Update: Opening Keynote

klewis — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 16:39:11 GMT

John Hull, with OVP, kicked off OEN's Venture Northwest with his top 10 reasons to be hopeful in the current economy (aka "the audacity of hope").

1. Think long-term

2. Competitors will get conservative

3. Now is the time to strengthen the team

4. Cash is King

5. Great time to have a product offering that can reduce expenses

6. The race is won in the mountains (hard times)

Sidebar: the following companies were started during an economic downturn: Skype, Cisco Systems, MasterCard and Mentor Graphics

7. Great leaders

8. 14 Great young companies (presenting today)

9. The Pacific Northwest

10. Pessimism will probably fail

OEN's Venture Northwest to be discussed in OPB's Think Out Loud help frame the discussion.

sarenar — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 22:47:57 GMT

OEN's Venture Northwest on Thursday, October 30 at the Portland Marriott Downtown Waterfront Hotel will be host to OPB's Think Out Loud, hosted by Emily Harris.

She will be speaking with Gerry Langeler of OVP Venture Partners along with Emily Mendell, vice president of strategic affairs at the National Venture Capital Association and Arundeep Pradhan, director of technology and research collaborations at OHSU regarding entrepreneurship, innovation, the economy and how the investment future looks for Oregon entrepreneurs.

We would love to have the OEN community help frame the discussion. Visit this link to join the discussion. http://action.publicbroadcasting.net/opb/posts/list/1797812.page

Are tech start-ups the economy's best hope?

sarenar — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 22:53:59 GMT

Are tech start-ups the economy's best hope? Interesting question...the staff at OEN would like to hear your responses.

It has been well documented that things are not exactly looking pretty for the economy right now. With the Stock Market taking a free fall every day and the daily reports of countries around the world having to nationalize banks to maintain solvency, a person could easily freak out and take the money they have left and simply stuff it under a mattress.

Perhaps there is opportunity amongst the gloom. Thanks to technology, it is cheaper than ever to start up a company. This makes it possible for innovation to take hold an help grow and diversify the economy. What do you think will pave the path to finding prosperity.

Leave a comment. We would love to hear your thoughts on the matter.