The week begins with a DaVinci Intitute event discussing Board Composition. Tuesday brings a Denver meeting of New Tech Meetup which as usual will offer five presenters, but in this edition attendees will help to tackle the problem of at least one of the presenters. Wednesday sees a CORE Sustainability Breakfast providing a tour of the Goodwill Industries Plant while Thursday provides a Beers with Brad event at the Twisted Pine Brewery benefiting KGNU. Next Monday Entrepreneurs Unplugged returns featuring Krista Marks, CEO and co-founder of Kerpoof.
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The Boulder edition of New Tech Meetup got off to an entertaining start featuring a fireside discussion between Robert Reich and Jason Calacanis who was in town for the first Boulder Open Angel Forum. Calacanis started the Open Angel Forum in response to Angel groups that charge companies to present, a practice he is strongly against (see his blog post here).
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Tuesday provides a Rockies Venture Club event focusing on Filtrbox as a case study from startup to exit. Wednesday offers the 8th edition of always popular and entertaining Ignite Boulder hosted at the Boulder Theater. For the clean tech enthusiasts, Thursday sees a Green Tech Meetup at CU Boulder.
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Red Door Interactive convened its first panel of 2010 to discuss the use of social media to accelerate the customer lifecycle. Moderator Scott Esmond of Red Door prompted the panel to discuss the impact of social media at each stage of the customer lifecycle: acquisition, conversion, and retention/loyalty.
The panelists at the event were:
- Tony Felice: Red Door Interactive : Data Insights Strategist
- Brian England: Western Union : Marketing Manager, Social Media Strategist
- Beth Leleck: ExactTarget : Email Marketing Manager
- Joe Rogel: Gaiam : Social Media Strategist
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The Founder Institute, a incubator program started by Adeo Ressi of The Funded, announced it is coming to Denver this spring with a four-month program beginning in April. Like many startup incubators, the Founder Institute offers a variety or programming including structured training classes and access to experienced mentors to support new entrepreneurs. A unique feature of the program is that all of the program stakeholders – including the participating founders and the mentors – share in the equity upside of all the newly formed companies. The Denver program is currently accepting applications with a February 15 deadline for early admission (response by February 22) and a general deadline of February 28. The Founder Institute will also be offering new programs in Singapore, Paris and Los Angeles this spring.
The Colorado Institute for Drug, Device and Diagnostic Development (CID4) announced its official launch yesterday. The goal of CID4, a not-for-profit entity formed in 2009, is to bridge the gap between basic research, which is usually grant funded, and product commercialization in the life science industry. CID4 was formed through a collaboration of much of Colorado’s bioscience community including CU, CSU, the Colorado Bioscience Association, and the Fitzsimons Redevelopment Authority. The institute is currently soliciting proposals from Colorado based life science companies in need of funding and active management. The institute hopes to support three to four companies each year. First round proposals are due February 15.
The week begins with a DaVinci event discussion the Future of Television and Telephony. Tuesday brings a Red Door Interactive panel discussing the use of social media to accelerate the customer lifecycle in the morning in Denver, while Tuesday evening offers a New Tech Meetup in Boulder. Wednesday and Thursday provide a workshop on SBIR/STTR grant writing for the life science crowd. Wednesday also bring a Silicon Flatirons’ Crash Course on IP presented by Jason Haislmaier of HRO at CU Boulder.
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CBSA held its second annual day at the Capitol, which featured brief remarks from several state legislators affirming their support for the industry along with a presentation from Patrick Kelly of BIO and a panel discussion on state legislative priorities.
Kelly rehashed some points from last year’s presentation on the key state attributes to create a strong bioscience industry and then focused on the possibilities for healthcare reform. Kelly first focused on some key factors that were included in the reform bill likely to be passed up until the election of Senator Brown from Massachusetts. Among the points that were generally favorable to the bioscience industry were the establishment of an approval path for follow-on biologics following a 12 year exclusivity period, Medicare Part D donut hole coverage, and a tax credit for small companies that brought a human therapeutic to market. Other key measures included an excise tax of drug manufacturers, a “sunshine provision” for information transparency, and comparative effectiveness provisions. To the final point, Kelly noted concern that this type of regulation could turn into cost-effectiveness analysis.
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AmideBio, LLC announced that it has closed a round of seed funding. The source and the amount of funding were not disclosed by the company. The proceeds of the round will be used to complete initial product optimization using its recombinant hydrid manufacturing technology. AmideBio has an exclusive license, announced two week ago, with CU to commercialize a method to manufacture recombinant proteins and peptides developed by Associate Professor Michael Stowell, who also serves as the Chief Scientific Officer for AmideBio. The new manufacturing technique has the potential both to reduce costs and to make it feasible to manufacture drugs that were difficult to produce with conventional methods. AmideBio is based in Boulder, Colorado.
The week begins with an Entrepreneurs Unplugged at CU Boulder featuring the leadership team from Rally Software. Tuesday brings a workshop on Term Sheets from the RVC and a Colorado Cleantech Initiative. Wednesday sees CBSA’s Colorado Bioscience Day at the Capitol in the morning and the first meeting of the Denver/Boulder Chapter of Girls in Tech in the evening.
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