He’s got game

Winning support – and a big chunk of cash – from an Internet giant is a dream come true for founder of online game company

So the idea of free money from a tech giant, showing its confidence in your fledgling business, would seem the stuff of fantasy.

But Rob Balahura knows otherwise. The 37-year-old founder of J2Play in Waterloo, Ont., had spent two years building what he terms a “social wrapper” for online games – a way of allowing makers of PC, Web and cellphone games to distribute them on social networking websites such as Facebook or MySpace.

The technology offers game makers a compelling proposition. Instead of hawking their wares on Web portals such as Big Fish Games or Real Arcade, which keep as much as 80 per cent of the revenue, “we enable developers to republish their games on a new channel: the social Web, ” Mr. Balahura says.

SBIR Training in Georgia   

February 4, 5 and 11

Warner Robin, Savannah and Athens with a possible addition of an Augusta event

http://www.sbirga.com/

So, you’ve heard about SBIR and STTR but still a little fuzzy about how it works or if you qualify. Maybe you know about it, but have never actually submitted a proposal because it seems so daunting.  Maybe you’ve submitted a proposal but were unsuccessful and don’t understand why you didn’t receive an award.  Maybe we can help.
 
The SBIR Assistance Program for the State of Georgia will present this short workshop which will first give an overview of how the SBIR and STTR programs work and will help you decide if this is something you should get involved with. This includes who qualifies, what the participating federal agencies are looking for, what the intellectual property issues are, what the funding limits are, and what the timeline is.

The workshop then goes into what is involved in a preparing a competitive proposal for SBIR and STTR funding. How you approach the proposal, what points need to be addressed, how you construct the budget, examples of good and bad proposals and sources of assistance are covered. 

Attend one of the following SBIR/STTR Workshops in Georgia:

• February 4th        Warner Robins
• February 5th        Savannah
• February 11th      Athens
• An event in Augusta is also being planned

Startup Riot

Wednesday, February 18

Atlanta

http://www.startupriot.com

Attendance Policies

Who can attend?

Startup Riot is open to all investors (institutional and corporate VCs and angels), entrepreneurs, individuals looking for startup jobs, and large companies looking for partnerships and/or M&A opportunities.

Who can’t attend?

If you provide services to startups (attorneys, benefits, legal, etc.) you are NOT premitted to attend unless you are a part of a Startup Riot sponsoring organization. Individuals who have started service firms are included in this group of disallowed attendees. Finally, individuals who run pay-to-pitch organizations are absolutely NOT permitted to attend.

We are also not allowing anyone who works in a service industry but claims to be coming “on their own”. We had a bad experience last time and we aren’t doing that again.

Oh also, if you snuck into the event and either didn’t pay (and still refuse to pay) the registration fee or if you paid less than you should have (by way of deceit), you will be refused access from here on out. You know who you are.

StartupLounge

February 25, 2009

Atlanta

http://www.startuplounge.com/

Director’s Note:  In the interest of full disclosure, I think you should know that I am a shadow partner of StartupLounge.  I have been a part of this crew almost since the beginning.  I try to stay out of the limelight because Scott and Mike are huge divas.  It’s just easier to let them be “the talent”.  I wield my power under the cover of darkness.

Each quarter, StartupLounge.com hosts a private networking event for early-stage entrepreneurs and investors here in the Southeast. Formerly called “Capital Connections”, CapitalLounge is held in Atlanta, Georgia, and is attended by fast-growth entrepreneurs based in the Southeast U.S., as well as venture capital and angel investors from around the country.

The format is simple: cash bar, free gourmet food spread, lots of networking, several hundred vetted attendees, and no fees at the door.

Our goals behind the event are simple:

• to provide an environment where early stage entrepreneurs can make connections with other like-minded entrepreneurs
• to provide the opportunity for early-stage investors to meet and mingle with early-stage entrepreneurs
• to provide an environment that is free of service-providers, brokers, consultants, job-seekers, and other such solicitations
• to play a role in boosting the entrepreneurial/startup footprint of the southeast
• to provide a centrally-located venue for attendees in the Atlanta area (perimeter, rather than downtown)
• to facilitate this event at no cost to the participants

Who may attend?

If you fall into any of the following professional categories, you may be eligible to attend the CapitalLounge event. You will still need to apply online, however, in order to be considered.

For a more in-depth look at the deal selection process, click here.

• An early-stage (fast growth) entrepreneur located within the Southeastern United States (Georgia, the Carolinas, Florida, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky). Note: this is not the same as a “small business entrepreneur.” We want people who are swinging for the fences, not starting a sandwich shop (nothing wrong with the latter, mind you, that just isn’t our focus.) Bootstrappers and holders of idea-napkins are welcome to apply as well!
• A later-stage entrepreneur seeking expansion capital or new network contacts (again, must be based in the S.E.)
• An accredited venture capitalist
• An accredited angel investor (as defined by the SEC: someone who earns over $200,000 a year for three years or for two years if they have a reasonable expectation of earning more than $200,000 in the current year or someone who has net worth in excess of $1 million.)
• An observer (e.g. media, professor, etc.)
• Some combination of the above (e.g. a successful entrepreneur looking to make an angel investment)

Please note that we define a “fast-growth” venture as one that will eventually employ between 20 and 500 people, have sales growth of at least 20 percent projected each year for four straight years, and target five-year revenue projections between $10 and $50 million. Typical industries would include (but are not limited to) information technology, healthcare, life sciences/biotech, pharmaceutical, energy/cleantech, and new media.

Who is not targeted for this event?

As the focus is on connecting entrepreneurs with other like-minded entrepreneurs and risk-focused investors, service providers, including, but not limited to, business brokers, attorneys, accountants, staffing companies, offshore service providers, marketers, IT services companies, and consultants, will not be allowed to attend. This is also not an event for job-seekers!

All investor attendees must clearly demonstrate a substantial risk component within their model (i.e. traditional venture capital, angel investing, etc.) As such, fee-based capital brokers, “pay-to-pitch” entities, debt providers (including banks), and other such organizations will not be permitted to attend.

Southeast Venture Conference

March 11-12. 2009

Atlanta

http://www.seventure.org/index.html

The third annual Southeast Venture Conference (SEVC) showcases the most promising emerging technology firms in the southeast region and provides these companies with unmatched exposure to the region’s top venture capitalists and private equity investors.

The SEVC strives to support entrepreneurial activity, innovation, and the resultant economic development of the Southeast, while understanding the importance of investment capital to those goals.

Presented by TechJournal South, the business publication of the southeast’s technology community, the SEVC promotes networking and interaction among the leaders of tomorrow’s economy.

Scientists are trained to do many wonderful things in the course of their careers, but talking to people who don’t “do” science is not one of them.  In fact The Oligarchy, the great all-seeing board of super scientists that govern everything, frowns upon such fraternization.  Historically, they funded a blue ribbon committee of some highly verbal emeritus professors with an avuncular air to go out among the unwashed to talk to them.  The neophytes had to remain prostrate upon the altar of science and never betray their allegiance to all things scientific.

Closer to the reality is that many members of the Old Guard of Science gave up years ago trying to talk to anyone in a non-science field, with the exception of the spouse and kids.  It does not make any sense to them why the young folk would want to socialize with people who are not fundamentally driven by a deep need for scientific inquiry.

When I was an undergraduate at UGA, we did not have such blurry degrees like psychosocial botany and anthropological photochemistry.  We had chemistry, biology and engineering – and that was plenty.  Anyone who had any leanings to pursuing multiple fields was considered a dilettante and was not to be trusted.  Even biochemistry got the hairy eyeball by the crusty old-timers, but was finally accepted because each field was equally nerdy and dysfunctional.  Botany was for pansies.

Blended scientific degrees have become more the norm these days and the Old Guard no longer feels threatened by such pursuits.  However, science is blending with other fields now and some of us are not ready for it.  Science is becoming inextricably linked with intellectual property law and business.  The only way to avoid this blending is to spend your life in pursuit of government based grants that are purely for research with little interest in commercialization.   Purely focusing on scientific knowledge alone now carries with it a great risk of endangering your career.  The highly complex system of patent law provides scientists with the opportunity to prevent others from making, using and selling their inventions.  However, if one is not conversant in intellectual property law, one can make some dreadful mistakes that can make legal protection impossible.  With this year being the 20^th anniversary of the Baye-Dole Act, commercialization is becoming commonplace.  Commercialization without proper patent protection makes the pursuit extremely difficult if not downright impossible.

Unless you plan a life solely devoted to research in pure science or the noble task of teaching, you are putting your future in grave danger by not reaching out beyond the hallowed halls of science and greeting the more mercenary fields of law and business.  This is especially true if you plan to commercialize your technology one day.

Commercializing a technology means that you are going to have to talk to lawyers, investors, corporate types, customers and, yes, even marketing people.   These people are generally very smart and some of them may enjoy talking about science with you.  They just don’t want to talk about science with you all night. 

This is where we broach the ugly words of networking and chit-chat.  

Chit chat is not just for the shiny set over the newest martini.  Chit chat is an intuitive and primal way of vetting other people before making advances towards a relationship.  If you have plans to commercialize a technology, you are going to be talking to people in a social setting who can help you get funded.  They want to know how you are going to behave in a professional environment.  They want to know how you are going to hold up under stress.  Will you thrive under pressure? Lose your temper? Crack? Use crack?  Flee? Flee with money?  Without dragging out my transactional psychology handbook to find the proper words – chit chat is a very subjective and preliminary way of determining whether or not you will fit in with the tribe.

If you plan to live in the world of commercialization, you need to know how to “do” networking.  That means going to meetings and talking to people – about things that are not related to science.  There are some very talented people who work in the commercialization arena that don’t know a great deal about science.  You still have to talk to them.  You can’t just go to a meeting, ferret out the investors, stuff them in a corner and wow them with the depth of your intellect.  Sometimes you need to get the non-science types to introduce you to the investors.  Some of these non-science folks have these things called “professional networks” that are chock full of people that can help you in your entrepreneurial pursuits.  If you talk to these non-science people like they are equivalent human beings, they may put you in contact with those people who can help you – and allow you take another step toward gaining entry into the tribe.

Next week, I will send a post that gives you some tips about how to make your next networking event with non-science people more of a success.

As I introduce myself as the new Director, I usually get this funny look from people that consists of knitting their brows and turning their heads to one side.  Then they ask me, “Now, what exactly is the Center of Innovation again?”  Some feel bad for not knowing.  One or two roll their eyes in having to understand yet another policy wonk’s raison d’être and why it’s worth investment of taxpayer dollars.  However, most think this position holds a lot of potential for the life science industry in GA.  Oddly enough, very few people seem to not care.  People are interested in the Centers of Innovation and why they exist.  Communicating why I have the coolest job in Georgia effectively and broadly to the maximum number of people has been the current challenge.

While I am taking on the campaign of advocating prosperity (http://coilsdirector.wordpress.com/), I think it would be helpful that people actually understand what it is that I do.  The Centers of Innovation is a network created by Governor Sonny Perdue in 2003 to advance our strategic industries in the state.  There are six Centers of Innovation spread across the state and are located in the heart of where the industry is most prominent.   We have Logistics down in Savannah, Aerospace in Eastman, Agriculture in Tifton, Energy in Atlanta, Manufacturing in Gainesville and finally Life Science in Augusta.   Each one of these centers is hosted at a Georgia university.  The COIs provide emerging and growth companies with connections to university and technical college research, commercialization resources, technology connections, matching grant funds, potential investor networks and government organization. Client companies are connected with industry-specific experts who are on the leading edge of technology and new ideas. A common goal across all of the centers is to cut red tape, streamline connections and seek technology solutions for members of their industries.   Within this framework the Centers create a pro-growth, innovative business environment for industries critical to Georgia’s expansion.  The COIs work together to help all Georgia companies become more successful. 

One of the questions you may have is:  What if I am an agriculture company and not in the health related field, but Stacy is the only COI director that I know.  The answer to the question is to contact Stacy at swilliams2@georgia.org or 706-829-4271 and I can introduce you to Bill Boone, our very wonderful Director of the COI for Agriculture – and if I have any other connections that would be useful to you, I would send to you to them as well.  The COIs exist to advance entrepreneurship and innovation in Georgia.  The fact that I focus on health related innovation does not mean that I would not apply my connections or knowledge base to assist a company outside of my area.

The Centers are undergoing a great deal of change this year.  For the first time, the Centers are being brought under auspices of the Georgia Department of Economic Development (listen to Commissioner Ken Stewart’s interview on www.startuplounge.com).  The Centers are starting to work more as a state-wide network instead of local centers, and thus it becomes more imperative that I reach out to the industry and get their perspectives.

Since Governor Perdue has asked us to reduce our spending by a healthy chunk, it seems irresponsible to spend hotel and gas money to go and visit all the people on my Listening Tour.  While I believe that we as an industry should start to prepare for an economic turnaround, I would not be a good steward of my budget if I did not look for other ways to reach out to our industry and communicate – thus, the blog.

Over the next few weeks, I will be posting blogs on the who, what, where and why of the Center of Innovation for Life Science.  That way the next time you furrow your brow and turn your head to the side and ask yourself, “Now, what exactly is the Center of Innovation again?” – you’ll have a place to go to find out.   Alternatively you can contact Jonathan Goolsby (our awesome Marketing Outreach Director) and me http://lifesciences.georgiainnovation.org/staff if you have any immediate questions. 

MIT Enterprise Forum of Atlanta

Run It By The Pros – A Member’s Only Event :

MIT Enterprise Forum Members are invited to attend our upcoming “Run It By The Pros” workshop to be held January 7, 2009. At this event 3 new companies will present their business plans to a panel of experts. Hosted by Sutherland LLP, 999 Peachtree Street NW; 3:30 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. Seating is limited.  http://www.mitforum-atlanta.org/events/2009/01_07_09.php

The MIT Enterprise Forum of Atlanta is a volunteer, non-profit organization whose mission is to provide educational programs and services that promote and strengthen innovation and entrepreneurship at the intersection of business and technology in the Southeast.

_________________________________________________

GeorgiaBio – Emerging Company Committee

Aggressive Strategies in the Current Market

 http://www.gabio.org/event_details.aspx?refid=1&id=147

January 6, 2009 4-6 pm

GTRI Conference Center

250 14th Street, NW Atlanta, GA 30318

Contact: GaBio Business Office at 404-221-0617

admin@gabio.org

Description: This panel will focus on the impact that the current global economic climate is having and possibly will have on the life science industry.  Specifically there will be a focus on the way that the industry is adapting to changing market conditions. Leading global industry consultants will offer a view on the industry as a whole and the current financial land and Georgia companies will discuss some of the creative ways that their business have progressed.  Panel to be followed by wine and cheese networking reception.

Panelists

Hector G. Calzada, Jr., Director, Deloitte Financial Advisory Services LLP

Jim Heitner, Partner, Georgia Venture Partners

Rebecca J Kaufman (Becky), Partner, King and Spalding, LLC.

Bill Luallen, Partner, PricewaterhouseCoopers

Nina Sawczuk, MS, MBA – Co-Founder and CEO, Zygogen, LLC.

Since becoming the Director of the Center of Innovation for Life Sciences  (COI-LS) for the State of Georgia, I have had the privilege of mentoring several companies at various stages of development.  I have seen a wide variety of elevator pitches and feel that I may need to broker the peace between the science and non-science sectors.  This is less of a lecture on the virtues of the elevator pitch, but more an effort to explain to both sides why some elevator pitches go so horribly wrong.  I am taking this opportunity to translate between our peoples so that more prosperity can abound.

As a recovering scientist and entrepreneur, I have suffered from all of the pitch maladies that I have encountered over the past months.  I also have been working on my own elevator pitch as the first full time Director of the COI-LS.   I am just now getting to where I can pronounce my title without stuttering or gasping for air.  As the Centers are moving to a more state-wide focus, our roles and duties are changing – thus affecting the elevator pitch.   This job is fun but it’s not easy.

I know quite a few convivial scientists; in fact I married one.   However, the stereotype that scientists are dull and difficult to talk to was not born out of hyperbole.  I know a lot of brilliant scientists that are a little…well…boring.  Scientists of the more jocular phenotype accept our less colorful brethren as occupational hazards and have learned to cohabitate with them in our natural habitat.  It’s when the quiet types follow us into the wild that the trouble begins.

The fact that Ph.D. level chemists, biologist and engineers are not traditionally the sparkling extroverts that one would find in sales and marketing is both good and bad.  Science is not for the silly and garrulous.  Real advances in technology require serious study and dedication by people who spend decades in their craft.  Unfortunately, all those years of being exacting, precise, accurate and reliable does not hone a personality that lends itself to chit-chat.  Taking a technology out of the lab and putting it into or onto a mammal involves dealing with a lot of people who can’t tell the difference between a lipid and a protein (and you know who you are).  Scientists have historically been very bad at talking to these types of people. 

This is not to say that all the non-science people a life science entrepreneur encounters are math and science phobic, but the non-science types generally don’t “get” science for the most part.  They need short, easy sentences that quickly paint a crisp picture in their minds before they can get interested in what you are talking about.  Scientists have historically been very bad at using these types of sentences. 

Some scientists are emotionally attached to explaining their technology clearly, accurately and fully.  If it takes two hours, so be it.  Even fellow Ph.D. types have trouble following technologies outside of their expertise, but only a few will admit it.  However, when that fellow Ph.D. works for an investment firm and your business plan quickly paints a vivid picture in his head about your smashing technology, where do you think your plan will go on his pile of requests for money?

I am oversimplifying the investment process, but this is the first step of getting a company financed.  The person with the money needs to “get” the “special sauce” of a company before she bothers to look further.  It is not laziness that creates this hurdle; it is the sheer amount of work and study that the investor has to do in order to make a wise investment decision.  When a company fails to make its business case effectively, the company is standing in the way of its own success.  Asking an investor or customer to do a lot of extra work before making a decision to buy creates a hurdle that cannot be overcome by Powerpoints with photos of handsome people smiling up into the sunshine.

You need several types of elevator pitches to address different audiences, but the first one you want to write is for your grandmother.  You need 30-35 words that when spoken in their proper order make your grandmother tilt her head back, look at the ceiling for a couple of seconds, and then nod vigorously and go “Hmmm!” (see – a 34 word elevator pitch about the elevator pitch).   This genre of elevator pitch is also useful at cocktail parties when you don’t want the cute guy to tuck his tail under and run away.  Once you have this basic pitch, you can spiff it up to make yourself sound smarter.

I have decided to become an advocate for our future prosperity.  It probably sounds silly now while chunks of sky are falling around us, but I think it’s time to address the issue.

I attended a life science investor conference recently and had the opportunity to see some excellent pitches by some up and coming companies.  I also had the opportunity to hear some perspectives from the investment side of our industry.  I was regaled with grim projections of dwindling investment strategies and dire predictions for the future of the industry itself.  I was dismayed that so many influential and successful players in our industry could only suggest that we hunker down, hold on and wait for all of the terribleness to go away.  Except for a couple of statistical outliers hinting that things may get better eventually, no one spoke of how we can use this time to prepare for better days. 

I hope my investor friends will forgive me for chiding them.  After all, this is not a great time to be an investor.   Investors are charged with being good stewards of their funds.  They finance a world of murky exit strategies and ever shifting regulatory landscapes.  Biotech investors come from sturdy stock.  You don’t hear biotech investors screaming for a bailout when a company goes under.

Additionally, the life science industry encounters some daunting challenges that are not seen in other industries. 

1)  It takes a very long time to get a drug or a device approved by the FDA, which leads to longer investment commitments than you would see in the high tech space.  2)  It takes a special multi-talented management team to pull a life science technology off the benchtop and push it into a commercialized product.  3)  We can’t adjust the human body to fit our drugs and devices. 

Given that this is the reality of the technology field we have chosen for ourselves, I kept asking myself “When is someone going say something positive and forward thinking?”  I muddled and muttered and tried to think of someone who could do this.  Then it finally dawned on me that I, the Director of the Center of Innovation for Life Sciences for the State of Georgia, was probably the just the person to do that.

There is very little that I can do about the current situation now, but I can start asking the question, “What do we want the Georgia life science industry to look like when the economy turns around?”  Let’s say that we know the exact moment when the economy is going to turn the other direction.  For the sake of my oversimplified illustration, let’s make the day September 14^th, 2009 at 11:52 am.  At this point the pundits will still be predicting future grimness, consumers will still lack confidence and Ali Velshi will still be on his book tour.  However, by 11:53 am the economy will have stopped shrinking, employers will just be ready to hire more people than they lay off, the final major factory will have closed…and then there will be an imperceptible moment of peace…followed by the sound of a tiny churn forward.  No one will hear it, but it will be there.

What if we were able to hear that tiny churn forward?  What would we want in place to ride the upturned wave as far as possible?  What kind of people, places and things do we want here in Georgia to take our world class supply of research and innovation and use them to fuel our life science industry forward when things finally turn around? I’m asking you – and would like your input.  I don’t have the answer.  I do, however, want to use the Center of Innovation for Life Sciences as a conduit to make this possibility a reality.  One clear opportunity that I have right now is a chance to explain to the Georgia Life Science industry just how truly competitive it is.  We have six research universities that are pumping out more innovation than they can handle.  We have a vast network of technical colleges that work every day to create career opportunities in the life science industry for Georgia students.  We have over two dozen business incubators spread across the state ready to help companies grow and expand in Georgia.  Between Atlanta, Athens and Augusta, our hospital networks run thousands of clinical trials a year.  Georgia is home to the CDC, the American Cancer Society and the Arthritis Foundation.  Atlanta is #1 in growth in the people ages 25-34 and 7^th for degrees in the biomedical industries.  Atlanta will be host of the BIO convention in May 2009, when the global biotech world comes to visit us for a change. 

If there were ever a ticking time bomb for success, this would be it.  Who’s ready?

Philanthropy Gift Cards, With a Twist – Sold at H-E-B