eMinutes
Previous eMinutes from April 2008
Bradley Hodges is the
founder of Prothelia, a biotechnology company focused on therapies for muscular
dystrophy, based in Milford, MA.
I received my PhD in 1997, performed my post-doctoral work at Duke University,
and I was a senior scientist at Genzyme for 7 years.
I, my collaborators and advisory board are all experts in the field of muscular
dystrophy.
Our first product is a protein therapy that will treat ~45,000 patients with
Duchenne muscular dystrophy or DMD.
DMD is a lethal disease that affects only boys, and there are no approved
therapies.
Our product should generate 1 to 3 billion in annual sales within 5 years post
approval.
In addition to our protein therapy, we have a pipeline of follow on drugs that
target larger disease populations.
What Prothelia needs are experienced and networked biotech investors who know
how to navigate small molecule and protein therapies to market.
This is an opportunity to save the lives of thousands of kids and make a lot of
money in the process, and I want to share it with the right people.
Bradley Hodges, Founder and President
Prothelia
Therapeutics for Muscular Dystrophy
30 Haven St.
Milford, MA 01757
508-561-9298
bradhodges@prothelia.com
Previous eMinutes from March 2008
MoreBeach.com is
an online beach community that features comprehensive beach information and
social networking as context for online advertising of waterfront area vacation
rentals, real estate, classifieds and local businesses. It’s a $1 billion
annual market.
The main publicity tool is a printed map of local beaches
given away free in prime tourist areas. Map costs are offset by local
advertising. The combination of online content and print maps positions
MoreBeach.com as the leading source of beach and waterfront information and
builds relationships with local businesses.
MoreBeach.com is live. The database of
Previous eMinutes from February 2008
eM-Tech, LLC (eM-TECH)
eM-TECH, LLC is located in
eM-TECH is developing a device that can directly
convert heat into electricity. The device is based on well established
thermoelectric principles. These are solid-state semiconductor devices which are
reliable, with no maintenance, silent in operation, and environmentally
compatible.
As developed, eM-TECH will have 6-7X greater
heat-to-electricity conversion efficiencies than competing devices. They will be
able to produce ‘flexible’ devices unlike the rigid devices the industry is
locked into. They will be able to produce large footprint even ‘continuous’
foil-like ribbon materials vs. the 2”x2”max footprint currently available.
eM-TECH’s devices would harvest waste heat energy
from turbines, engines, or incinerators and even present power plants in
combination with solar collectors.
To accomplish their technical objectives eM-TECH
proposes to make their thermoelectric generator based on ceramic precursor
technology combined with electro spinning and/or printing.
eM-TECH’s devices will be based on SiC nano fiber derived SiC precursor
developed by the founder as part of his graduate work at MIT.
eM-TECH is seeking assistance with finding a
business partner and infrastructure to produce a working prototype.
Paul Czubarow
Founder
eM-TECH, LLC
phone/fax
paul.emtech@hotmail.com
StylePath, Inc.
A picture is worth a thousand words because words do a poor job of describing
visual qualities. That’s why I
invented StylePath. StylePath is a
visual search engine for style products like jewelry, shoes, furniture, and
accessories - anything that is hard to find online using text-based search.
It works by forming a profile of each user’s taste and matching that to
the aesthetic attributes of products.
I’m David Hornstein, a former architect and the founder and CEO of StylePath.
I developed and patented our visual, taste-based personal shopper because
I realized that the vast selection of style products online was making it
harder, not easier, for consumers to find items that matched their taste.
StylePath provides a way to search thousands of websites and only see
products that appeal to you.
The company makes money through PPC (pay per click advertising) and affiliate
commissions from vendors. Every time
a visitor clicks through from StylePath to a vendor site we earn .30; when they
purchase we earn 8% of the purchase price. Our site is live online and attracts
10,000 visitors per month, who can choose from 100,000 products from over 3,000
vendors. The market for style
products online was $55 billion in 2007.
The company has been self-funded to date, we are seeking $500,000 to ramp up
marketing and scale the business.
David Hornstein
GameBrix.com
GameBrix brings a unique paradigm that enables the creation of customized casual games specially made for each and every individual on the planet. GameBrix is a web-based collaborative game creation and sharing application suite that is platform-independent and needs no downloads, installs, or upgrades. GameBrix allows anyone ONLINE to Build, Share and customize Games and Animations without writing a single line of code.
Vibrant online communities exist
for music, video and photos, yet there are none for creating games. GameBrix
fills this void by providing people with a powerful online medium for
self-expression to create any kind of casual games.
The casual games market is expected to grow from $2.25 billion in 2007 to reach $4.4 billion by 2010. GameBrix suite of disruptive technologies makes building games easy for everyone, including kids, teens, and people with no programming skills. Our unique proposition is to enable the creation of millions of customized games that may be played less that a dozen times each. GameBrix is presently in an open beta testing period and will launch advertising and subscription-based services for enterprises and consumers.
GameBrix is privately funded by angel investors and the angel round has been
extended to raise additional $500,000 for the company. These funds will help
round out our marketing team and facilitate customer acquisition. Please visit
our beta site GameBrix.com and provide feedback.
Previous eMinutes from January 2008
SentryPort Technologies™
SentryPort Technologies™ has developed privacy protection software and designed business models around it that will maximize ROI for our customers. We are much further along than the typical start-up. With patents filed, beta installations and products nearing completion, the company is now ready for commercial launch.
Funded to date by the founders, initial outside capitalization will launch the company to significant revenue in the next 90 days.
Our products protect security data from loss or compromise, integrate physical, IT and infrastructure security systems. Our business model provides a simple way for an enterprise to transport, track, store, and audit its customers' critical data.
The company currently has three products: SentryPort SAFE™ which meets the need for secure communication, storage, and auditing of sensitive information; SentryPort SENTINEL™ which is targeted at the convergence of physical and logical security, a market that is expected to grow rapidly during the next five years; and Security Resource Management™ (SRM), our patent pending solution to deliver "predictability" to the "reactive" security market.
Using this capability, we have identified three vertical markets to target first. Each of these verticals has the greatest revenue potential with the least cost of sales. These verticals are:
Higher Education Privacy
Life Sciences
Health Care
SentryPort is much further along than the typical start-up. With patents files, beta installations and products nearing completion, the company is now ready to hit the market. Capitalization will launch the company to significant revenue in the next 90 days.
The company is seeking $1M in seed capital.
Steve O'Leary
President
SentryPort Technologies
(866) 774-1774 Ext. 330 Main
(603) 320-0836 Cell
Skype name: sentryport or soleary630
Precisive, LLC.
Precisive, located in Stoneham, MA, designs and manufactures sensors to measure chemical composition in gases, liquids and solids. Our innovative, optics based instruments enable real-time, in-situ measurement and monitoring, replacing the traditional "thief sampling" laboratory measurement which is cumbersome, slow and expensive.
In the next four months, we will be performing installations and pilot testing at five customer sites. Shell in Texas is interested in testing our product to monitor the purity of olefin gases they are delivering in various lines, measuring various impurities such as water, ammonia, arsine and carbon monoxide. FuelCell Energy, a manufacturer of fuel cell power plants in Connecticut, has given us a PO to test our device in monitoring sulfur compounds in the natural gas lines. Other target markets include pharmaceutical, specialty chemical, food & beverage, and semiconductor industries. The addressable market is growing fast. It is projected to be $400M by 2012.
Relative to competitor products, ours enable real-time measurement of multiple compounds at high sensitivity, while delivering much more rugged and lower cost solutions.
We are seeking $500,000 to establish a small production facility, perform additional marketing and "convert" our provisional patent application into regular patents.
Presenter:
Vidi Saptari
vsaptari@precivise-instrument.com
(857) 205-8319
TextTelevision
TextTelevision is a web media company that generates, stores, and distributes a new way to read.
Our patent-pending tool allows a user to type or paste any English-language text and then read, save, or share it as an animation. We leverage the communicative power of electric light to float and flow text in short, scan-able phrases that relieve the reader from scrolling, or even navigating a text with their eyes. The
effect of our flows is a game-like engagement that is calming, hypnotic, and deeply involving.
We see applications for our tool in education: in teaching people to read, in teaching people with reading dysfunction, and in teaching English as a second language.
But even more generally, we see TextTelevision as a new form of consumer publishing that is particularly appropriate for the exploding market of hand-held computers: the Iphone, the Ipod, Kindle, the Blackberry, and other G3 and G4 devices.
We are seeking $1 million dollars in seed funding to implement our technology and develop our audience and market. Our goal is to achieve 5 million users within the first year.
Dennis Downey
TextTelevision
311 Main Street (Rear)
Falmouth, MA 02540
508-540-8408
Cover4Me
Cover4me creates a communication infrastructure to reduce absenteeism and turnover in hourly jobs. The product was designed to reflect the ubiquitous use of web and cell phone technologies amongst the teenage population and reflects the belief that the social use of these technologies is now driving sweeping and fundamental changes in the work environment.
29 million 16- 24 year olds hold hourly jobs and represent a significant portion of the 75.6 million of all US hourly workers. Based on numerous focus groups and market research, Cover4me believes that the work habits and attitudes of this younger generation are responsible for the growing annual costs in absenteeism and turnover.
US teenagers spend $170 billion annually (5% of all consumer spending) and hourly jobs subsidize this spending. 31-40% of all jobs in foodservice, retail & hospitality are staffed by 16- 24 year olds and workers in these jobs are convenience driven. These workers are perfectly comfortable simply not showing up for work -- a common and costly occurrence for employers.
Technology tools shaped this generations' identities and behaviors. Only by utilizing these same technologies can employers hope to reverse rising absenteeism and turnover rates.
Cover4me's communication infrastructure enables quick and easy shift rescheduling via IM, SMS and email. By providing an infrastructure to enable convenient re-scheduling for workers, managers gain optimal staffing via an inexpensive, web-based scheduling tool that enables flexible, yet controlled re-scheduling.
In January 2008, Cover4me will be beta testing its subscription-based application and launching a Facebook-based free service.
Cover4me has a committed term sheet from two angel investors and is seeking $216K to fill out that round.
Laila Partridge
CEO & Founder
Cover4me
781-856-5338
Fluxgen
My name is Steve Grovo, Sales & Marketing VP for Fluxgen Lighting Systems located in Nashua NH. Fluxgen is a "greentech" company involved in producing cutting edge lighting systems using High Power LED's that replace HID street lighting.
The management team, Ben Richardson and I, have prior experience with High Power LED illumination technology in a previous startup company. Our lights last 2- 4 times longer than HID lights, contain no mercury, save 50-80% in energy costs, and eliminate light trespass and glare, addressing customer pain with a product designed specifically for them. We've performed extensive Front End marketing along with product development to directly address the biggest customer complaints. The Total Addressable Market for streetlights exceeds $1,000,000,000.
We're very excited to be working directly with PSNH on a pilot study for municipal lighting. They're co-developers who are influencing the final configuration of the streetlight. They are also a wholly owned subsidiary of Northeast Utilities, the largest utility provider in New England with 2 million customers. We've also just received agreements for another pilot study from Boston Public Works.
We are currently seeking an investment of approximately $500,000. This will enable us to obtain 3rd party testing, apply for a patent, begin a sales/marketing campaign, purchase dies and inventory, and establish a small production facility to produce the lights.
Steve Grovo
Sales & Marketing VP
Fluxgen Lighting Systems
Cell: (978) 394-4112
Email: <mailto:steve@fluxgen.net steve@fluxgen.net
Ben Richardson
President
Fluxgen Lighting Systems
Cell: (603) 801-6767
Email: <mailto:ben@fluxgen.net ben@fluxgen.net
eMinutes from November 2007
Ed Berliner, Speeding Bullet
Speeding Bullet Media Group has offices in both Massachusetts and Florida, locally in Quincy MA. Ed Berliner has over 25 years as a media veteran in TV,radio,Internet and production. The management team has over 100 years combined experience in all phases of media production and syndication.
Target market is regional/national/global, producing the world's first web site dedicated the news/sports coverage utilizing video and audio only. www.speedingbulletnetwork.com feeds the growing desire for multi-media programming available via the Internet. Regional coverage with correspondents is not available on any other site. Varied reports/original programming/viewer interaction is not available on any other site. Research indicates increasing sponsorship dollars on Internet programming with falling numbers on traditional TV and radio.
The only challenge at this point is marketing. Our plan involves guerilla marketing with links provided by other established web sites, using YouTube and MySpace popularity to our advantage and at no cost. Investor funds will be used for staff, technical (Internet) delivery, webmaster, hiring of national sales staff (commission basis) and limited marketing dollars. Web site is already produced and prepared to launch with limited content October 8th. Negotiations already underway with ad sales firms. There are already agreements in place for marketing with other sites, negotiations with additional sites continues. SBMG seeks first stage investment of no more than $500,000 in small incremental stages. Entire investment number may never be reached. Sales and marketing backgrounds/firms would be helpful but not immediate. Investor/partnership ownership shares to be negotiated.
Meeta Aggarwal, founder of LimeAll
LimeAll is a website aimed at helping its users refresh their relationships, friendships and letting them stay fresh and warm through its unique and innovative services.
LimeAll is aimed at helping people solve the problem of staying in touch, giving a personal feel to their communications conveniently, taking them into a new era of greetings, reminders, invitations and
photos sharing . Our services are extremely unique, innovative and include blended versions of calls, music, videos and photos. Our suite of services would allow users to dedicate and play self recorded message followed by a song on friend's phone, create and share musical photo album that can be played with a personalized message and song in the background, receive birthday reminders on their phones, preset call and video greetings that would be sent automatically on friend's birthday, send personalized invitation by uploading a video or a photo album with a personalized message and song playing in the background. Response of our beta users has been extremely overwhelming. . We have planned several upgrades to all the existing services as well as new services like greetings on TV and mobile phones.
While conceptualizing LimeAll we have taken special care of providing only value adding services. We have already obtained provisional patents for these services. We have already developed a prototype, you can visit www.LimeAll.com.
Our most likely exit strategy is to be acquired by one of the large business software companies like Google, Yahoo, Microsoft etc. We are seeking $500,000 of funding to continue development, enhance infrastructure, payment of legal fees, publicity and promotion.
Meeta Aggarwal
Founder of LimeAll
17 Newcastle Drive
Nashua NH 03060
Phone: 6034388479
Paul Martin, CEO of software startup SpaceMAX based in Newton, Massachusetts.
Designed to help planners maximize the value and use of space SpaceMAX solves the problem of lost productivity suffered by both client and AEC professional that result from unclear conveyance of requirements and expectations. When the goal is to reconfigure current space to accommodate changing needs, to maximize workflow and throughput, to reduce 'internal commuting' of personnel within a campus or to track and manage assets across diverse spaces SpaceMAX provides the solution.
SpaceMAX gives users an easy and clear way to specify needed space and any special needs of how spaces should interact before AEC or CAD specialists get involved. Many AEC professionals "specialize" in particular industries because of the need to "understand" their clients' business. SpaceMAX helps these professionals by facilitating a more direct planning phase and helping ensure a more profitable project.
SpaceMAX allows the user to optimize workflow, space-use cost effectiveness, to evaluate changes and what-if scenarios in a framework of quick-collaboration and helps organizations manage physical assets by location.
SpaceMAX has recently been used in two medical center layout planning projects and in a small commercial property management setting. The recent story about the group of unofficial residents in Providence Place Mall illuminate just one case where information about space and who is using it and for what purpose can sometimes get lost.
We are looking for customers and approximately $500,000 in angel financing to bolster operations, sales and marketing. We are found at www.spacemaxlogic.com.
DataPacT Systems, LLC
Presented by: John Lai, Founder - slide
I am John Lai, founder of DataPacT Systems, a software
solution company based in Southern NH. Our management advisor Remi Depommier is
based in Haverhill.
Our software based compression products target the multi-billion dollar global
market in medical image data storage and communications.
Our products create savings 11~100 times the existing cost by reducing the
amount of data storage. By compressing the data, the transmission time will be
11~100 times faster.
Our initial products are integrated compression suites based on patent pending
technologies which comply with DICOM standards.
Our products will alter the way the healthcare industry deals with its image
data storage buildup and budgeting, and maximize the value of the existing
communications’ infrastructure.
Our management advisory team has deep knowledge of sales and marketing in the
medical imaging industry. They have experience with successful technology
startups.
DataPacT Systems requires a 3.5 million dollar financial investment to push our
products to the market. For further information about our products and our
company, please contact us.
John Lai, Founder
10 Wheeler Street
Milford, New Hampshire 03055
Phone: 603.672.8748
Cell: 603.321.0156
Email:
john.lai@datapactsystems.com
IdentiCert, Inc.
Presented by: Jorge Calzada, VP of Sales - slide
IdentiCert, Inc.
Good evening, I’m Jorge Calzada, VP of Sales for IdentiCert Inc. of Cambridge,
Massachusetts. IdentiCert was started by three graduates of the MIT Sloan School
of Management in January 2006. Our business stems from three clear
socio-demographic trends: 1. democratization of commerce (thanks to e-commerce
and auction websites), in turn responsible for the explosion in postal parcel
volumes, 2. increasing urbanization, decreasing household sizes, and faster pace
of life, and 3. consumer preference for automation in menial tasks (think ATMs
or airport check-in kiosks, for example).
IdentiCert’s business is to provide personal logistics services (i.e. those
annoying things you might have to do on Saturday instead of playing golf) though
an automated kiosk, called easyQube. IdentiCert deploys easyQube in apartment
lobbies, corporate and academic campuses, and retail locations. Things you can
do with easyQube: ship and receive packages, trade items locally (we provide
both logistics and payment clearing), manage your dry-cleaning pick-up and
deliveries, access other value-added services. All services are provisioned by
partners. We install and manage the kiosks and take care of customer service.
We have a pilot running in Boston since January. IdentiCert has signed
agreements locally with Optima Worldwide, the Hamilton Company, and the Dolben
Company. The first kiosks will begin rolling-out in the first quarter of 2008.
We are seeking landlords interested in hosting easyQube for their dwellers and
equity funding of $5 million to complete our solution and deploy enough units to
validate our metrics and be able to lever up and/or franchise out our solution.
Jorge Calzada
VP, Sales
IdentiCert Inc.
jorge.calzada@identicert.com
(888) 557-3349 x 702
www.easyqube.com
www.identicert.com
Kinsale Mobile Inc.
Presented
by: David Traynor, Kinsale Mobile Inc. based in Marblehead Mass.
We are a brandable Mobile Virtual Network Operator - what this means is that we are a mobile phone company but we have not had to invest in wireless spectrum. Instead of owning spectrum, we make use of US GSM providers like T-Mobile and AT&T (Cingular). We have all the network infrastructure, provisioning, billing, and customer care to combine the best of prepay and postpay services for voice, SMS and data.
An example value proposition is for the international traveler arriving in the US: if they use their home network when they visit the US they pay $2.50 per minute* to make or receive calls (*using Vodafone). Just by placing our call4care SIM in the back of their GSM phone they can use our services and reduce their cost to just 15c per minute.
We are looking for funding to develop channel and brand partnerships and also to develop value-added-applications for our SIM cards. Our service is in retail trials at international airports and we are looking for brand partners who want to offer their own branded mobile services. On the development side, our SIMs have an embedded call routing application preinstalled that connects international calls via low cost VOIP connections, without requiring the customers to dial any access codes or PINs. We are looking to extend our applications to include midlets for promotion, payment and loyalty, and to provide global roaming services at local rates.
We have a communications background at FairMarket (now eBay), Firefox, FTP, HeliOss and UngermannBass. You may also know our Tom Cheatham – the President of the North Shore Technology Council.
David Traynor
david.traynor@kinsalemobile.com
+1 781 820 4424
ModelSheet
Software, LLC
Hello.
My name is Dick Petti, president of ModelSheet Software, LLC.
We
are developing web-based software for building spreadsheet models. ModelSheet
automates cell-level operations to improve spreadsheet reliability, modeler
productivity, and management of complexity. ModelSheet enhances spreadsheet
modeling, while preserving the best aspects of spreadsheets.
Our
market sweet spot is people in dynamic organizations who build complex
spreadsheets models. These people work either in financial service firms or
operating companies in many industries. We are planning a buzz marketing
campaign to drive people to our website that will have web videos and free
web-based services.
My
name is Howard Cannon, chairman and CTO of ModelSheet Software, LLC.
Since
January we have developed prototype software that includes an authoring
interface, a modeling engine, and software that generates web displays and
spreadsheets. For example, we developed our financial plan, with three scenarios
and over 120 formulas, using ModelSheet. With the push of a button, ModelSheet
generates a complete, interactive, formatted Excel workbook with thousands of
cells. We plan to offer our first web services this winter.
Our
most likely exit strategy is to be acquired by one of the large business
software companies whose products are contiguous to ModelSheet: Microsoft, SAP,
Oracle, Google’s office software venture, and business intelligence vendors.
We believe ModelSheet will be the next big advance in spreadsheet modeling.
We are seeking $500,000 of funding to continue development, apply for a patent, and launch the product. We are also searching for consulting clients and partners with whom we can develop complex spreadsheet models.
Richard Petti, President
ModelSheet Software, LLC
146 Gray Street
Arlington, MA 02476
tel: 781-648-7856
cell: 617-694-0164
email: rjpetti@modelsheetsoft.com
Howard Cannon, Chairman
and CTO
ModelSheet Software, LLC
146 Gray Street
Arlington, MA 02476
tel: 978-443-0152
cell: 978-314-4005
email: hicannon@modelsheetsoft.com
WiPacs
My name is Jamie Hoberg, and I am a Founder of WiPacs.
WiPacs is a patient controlled, secure, web-enabled, database of patient medical images. We have created a business that will not only make it easier for physicians to practice image-based medicine, but also save the healthcare industry billions of dollars per year.
Often times in the case of an emergency, hospitalization, or routine physician visit a patient receives inadequate health care because there is a lack of resources that allow physicians and patients on-demand access to the radiology image history. This situation is further exacerbated when the patient must undergo an unnecessary repeat imaging center that exposes them to needless and potentially harmful extra radiation. In fact, studies have demonstrated that 10-15% of the over 500 million diagnostic radiological images performed in the United States per year are unnecessary repeat images that end-up costing the healthcare system over $16 billion annually. In partners hip with imaging centers and hospitals, the patient pays a fee for lifetime storage at WiPacs.com.
The extraordinary large market for radiological images coupled with the low cost of renting server space allows for significant opportunity for revenue generation. For example, X-rays are the most prevalent image (294 million per year) and also the smallest image size at 5 MB. The cost of renting server space is only $500/ terabyte, which allows storing 200,000 X-rays at a cost of only $0.0025 cents per image. At a fee of $20 per image this calculates to a gross profit of $4 million dollars for every $500 dollars spent on storage.
We are seeking $50,000 to $100,000 of seed capital to bring our exciting business solution to practice.
Jamie Hober
WiPacs, Inc
Jamaica Plain, MA
617-378-2200
eMinutes from June, 2007
Tanya Martinez, First
Nation Wood Pellets LLC
My name is Tanya Martinez, I am the vice president and energy engineer for
First Nation Wood Pellets LLC located in Central Massachusetts. We all
know that energy prices are not going anywhere anytime soon. We are
beginning to see the effects of global warming and there is currently an
underutilized energy resource here in Mass. That is, wood energy.
My company’s goal is to manufacture wood pellets; pellets are used in
residential space heating stoves. One major advantage of burning pellets is
that it is environmentally friendly. Soaring home heating prices and
pressure to reduce greenhouse gas emissions have created a prime market.
Did you know that we are located in the largest market for wood pellets? One
advantage of our company is location. Local retailers are responsible for
paying transportation costs and this cost is transferred to the customer.
This high cost will be diminished substantially by my company. Another
“one-up” of a startup is the opportunity to optimize the entire process.
Equipment selected will minimize the demand for the most costly components
for the plant: energy for drying, cooling and electricity.
Another asset is our team. The President for the company has been in
business for 17 years and we have two consultants: an engineer for a wood
pellet manufacturing facility with 20 years of experience and the President
for Webster First Federal Credit Union.
The company is looking for capital: $4.7M that will cover startup costs,
equipment, building and land. This will enable the company to begin shipping
in August 2008.
Tanya Martinez, Vice President, First Nation Wood Pellets LLC
Cell: 617-686-1138
tmartinez@7genenergy.com
Hugh Greville, CogniScent
Good evening, my name is Hugh Greville the CEO of CogniScent Inc. located in Grafton MA. CogniScent was founded by two professors of neuroscience at Tufts University. John Kauer and Joel White. Its core platform technology (ScenTraK™) provides real time detection of volatile airborne compounds with extensive practical applications at significantly lower cost than competitive technologies.
The ScenTraK™ technology is able to identify, quantify and discriminate target odors, gives rapid response, performs repeated trials and has point of source capability. These attributes lead to different assumptions, new and more efficient practices, improved decision making and better economics in every application in which it is used.
CogniScent is developing products for applications within the following vertical markets.
Indoor Air Quality - Specifically, the detection of Mold, Formaldehyde & other VOC’s
Environmental Monitoring - Detection of toxic chemicals and other environmental hazards.
Security & Law enforcement – Low cost detection of explosives and narcotics
Industrial Process –Process and quality control, leak detection etc.
It is currently testing production prototypes for the detection of mold and toxic industrial chemicals. In order to facilitate rapid expansion, maximize market penetration and service fragmented markets, CogniScent intends to partner with established market leaders with existing sales and marketing infrastructure. CogniScent has an experienced management team covering all technical and business skills necessary to build the business. This team includes the founders and inventors of the technology.
CogniScent requires $4 million of equity financing over two years to finish product development and accelerate market development.
For further information please contact:
Hugh Greville, President & CEO
CogniScent Inc.
200 Westboro Road, Building 21
North Grafton, MA 01536
(O) 508 839 8796 (C) 978 395 1695
hugh.greville@cogniscentinc.com
www.cogniscentinc.com
Jason Rines, CEO, MediaHeights
“Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Jason Rines. I am the CEO of MediaHeights located in Dover, New Hampshire. Our company was founded in 2001 as a data product supplier for the direct mail and email marketing industry. In 2004 our company began to specialize in offering Consumer Healthcare data for Pharmacueticals, OTC and Health clientele. Our space we operate in one-to-one, Direct To Consumer marketing, is a $5.5B dollar industry.
There are two market problems our target segments have and that our company can directly address. The first problem is supply and demand. Pharmacueticals and Health companies require quality data for direct marketing efforts, but little quality data inventory exists outside of MediaHeights. Our company has the largest database of consumers with common ailments that marketers can access in the USA.
The second problem we can address and create opportunity is consumer privacy in relationship to health data. We have built a process that fields PR and consumer concerns, engaging the public, something that is sorely lacking in the Direct To Consumer advertising space. Let me throw out some statistics about RX Pharmacuetical companies. According to the American Journal of Medicine, Pharmacueticals are projected to grow only 4%-6% annually over the next three years. The research behind the problem is two-fold. One, generic drug companies have entered the space. This actually works in our favor for many reasons. The second problem is consumer privacy in relation to health data. Without the correct process for the Direct To Consumer market to address this problem, RX Pharmacueticals have been shy about accelerating sales. The good news for us is that the same research says that marketing by RX Pharmacueticals will increase by 10% over the next three years, further accelerating demand for our health data products. As an early stage company, we are here seeking a first round of funding of $750,000 to accelerate growth. A second round of $1.5 M is required in 2008.
Jason Rines
Chief Executive Officer
jrines@mediaheights.com
MediaHeights, LLC | 340 Central Avenue | Suite #302, Dover, NH 03820
Phone: 800-379-6147 x107
eMinutes from May, 2007
Alan Ezzati, Captive Lead
My name is Alan Ezzati and I am President of Captive Lead. We provide online sales solutions to the Automotive Retail industry. Our
products and services are centered around an integrated suite of web applications, including content management, Search Engine
Optimization, and inventory management, all of which can be linked with clients’ legacy systems and advertising infrastructure. Captive
Lead’s solutions are built on the premise that, because online traffic generates the majority share of auto retailers’ revenue, our
customers deserve the most innovative and effective products in the industry, and, with minimal resources, we have successfully
developed and marketed a truly best-in-class software package that is more advanced than any other competing product on the
market. In fact, our clients report that between 50 and 90 percent of their total sales have been generated by our systems.
Considering that some of our clients have total annual revenue in excess of $100M/yr, these businesses have become dependent upon
our products and services. During the course of the last two years we have established ourselves as the qualitative leader in our
industry and, in doing so, we have earned the business of some of the most well-known names in the New England Auto Retail Industry
while increasing our top-line growth by over 100% year-on-year. Currently, we are seeking funding to expand our sales efforts to
other national markets as well as to improve our innovative product mix in order to continue our growth. We are also seeking
partnerships with other individuals or entities who would be able to contribute in a technical and/or sales capacity.
Alan Ezzati, President, Captive Lead
Cell: 508.904.2933
alan@captivelead.com
Gregory Raiz, Raizlabs
My name is Gregory Raiz and my company, Raizlabs, is focused on building the world’s best photo sharing platform. I started my
company in 2001 after leaving Microsoft where I was a program manager on Windows XP.
My company is building a photo application that allows people to easily share 1000’s of photos.
Our approach to photo sharing is different from competitors because we are building technology that can handle a lifetime of photos.
Many of the existing tools focus on the web experience, this limits the quality and quantity of photos that can be shared. Instead we
focus on the economic potential of sharing 100,000’s of high quality photos.
What makes us really different is our focus on user interface design. We’re passionate about creating easy to use software. Our
product is a rich-client application that simplifies the process of sharing photos. The application uses a unique patent pending 3D
interface that allows users to see, manage and share much larger collections of data then is possible with today’s software. Our
product has been designed to optimize bandwidth eliminating the need for traditional uploading. Our approach also provides for
extensibility by third-party websites and tool developers.
We currently have a functional product that is in private testing built on a scalable storage platform to allow for fast growth. We are
looking for capital of $750k-$1.2M to help launch our product and staff the development of our second version.
Raizlabs is based in Brookline, MA.
Gregory Raiz
graiz@raizlabs.com
617-820-5206
www.raizlabs.com
Bob Chiozzi, Identity Cops Inc.
The FTC reports that Identity theft is the most reported and fastest growing crime in the US. Victims often don’t discover a theft until
they’ve suffered extensive financial damage. The only way to prevent Identity theft is to prevent criminals from acquiring and trading
personal information crucial for stealing an identity.
In real time, ID Cops’ web-based technology, Privacy ProBot™, searches hundreds-of-thousands of public and private electronic
databases and seamlessly scours the internet underground finding and preventing personal information violations from being used for
identity theft. ID Cops platform technology allows subscribers to take back control of their personal financial, medical, insurance, and
family information.
As well, corporate mass data theft is rampant and often not discovered until a businesses customers report Identity thefts. Identity
Cops technology helps protect companies from data breach losses (and regulatory violations) by finding the specific hacked or stolen
information in real time, identifying its source, and taking recuperative actions to “lock down” the information before it’s used by
criminals.
Identity Cops technology is real-time, self-learning, fully scalable, patent pending, and the only proactive personal information
management, identity theft prevention, and mass data theft protection technology available.
Our core technology has been tested and functions as intended. We seek funding in two traunches: 1.) $500,000 to complete
development and test a seamless branding interface for financial institutions to distribute under their own name (4 to 8 months).
2.) $6 million for a complete product rollout (8 to 24 months). We welcome your interest in technology or marketing partnerships.
Robert S. Chiozzi
Vice President of Corporate Development and Finance
Identity Cops Inc.
www.identitycops.com
bob@idcops.com
Direct number: (207) 415-6619
eMinutes from March, 2007
David Durand, CEO, Tizra
Good evening. My
name is David Durand. I am the CEO and one of four founders of Tizra, a Rhode
Island-based startup.
We are here because we are in private beta, and are looking to complete a $750K
seed funding round to finish our interface and go to market. We expect to raise
venture funding by the end of this year in order to move from survival to growth.
To that end, we are looking to fill out our team with an experienced startup
hand as CEO.
Our hosted service, AgilePublisher, lets publishers successfully sell and distribute long content like books online, taking PDF and turning it into usable, branded web sites to sell targeted information. We make readers lives easier by delivering single pages that work just like regular HTML rather than the long slow downloads of pure PDF.
Our customers can create an online sales channel to repackage existing content -- breaking the boundaries of PDF chunks. Self- service site administration and online sign-up empower smaller publishers to create effective online products themselves -- without expensive and time-consuming software development or data conversion. Our transaction based business model reduces risk for our clients, and brings us a recurring revenue stream, as we charge for resources consumed and a percentage of online transactions.
Our first target market is publishers of books for professionals. Their readers are satisfying information needs, not seeking a reading experience for a whole book. While we're starting in traditional publishing we are not going to stop there. As the web continues to grow, everyone is becoming a publisher, and our marketplace is any organization that delivers PDF or other printed content, and needs to sell it or improve access to it online.
David G. Durand
CEO, Tizra
Email: david.durand@tizra.com
Phone: +1 401 935-5317
Web: http://www.tizra.com/
Brian O'Grady, MyCubicleSpace.com.
Hello, my name is Brian O'Grady and I have designed a platform called MyCubicleSpace.com. It will revolutionize how entrepreneur’s markets their business online. Wasted advertising revenue and the challenges of pay-per-click are a thing of the past.
I've integrated two successful web concepts, the search engine and the user generated myspace.com style in a business community. With our backgrounds in sales and web development at the start-up level, we understand the need to promote small business.
Members create profiles with their chosen keywords and applicable regions for positioning in our community. Small businesses get keyword-based search engine exposure without any click fraud pitfalls of regular search engine pay-per-click advertising.
Local search is the strength of MyCubicleSpace.com, although it has a national reach, its business-specific search has the goal to be better than generalists like Google or Yahoo! Our full service classifieds offer press release distribution, tradeshows, blogs, employment opportunities and more. Mycubiclespace.com offers the next generation in business search.
Although our basic platform is free, our multi-prong approach is to generate revenue with targeted banner advertising and premium member features.MyCubicleSpace.com has been launched for a short time and with a zero marketing budget has been able to attract small businesses from around the world with targeted emails.
To promote MyCubicleSpace.com to the business market and strengthen our infrastructure for the next level, we are seeking investors who can provide $3 million in funding, which will lead the way to profitability.
Brian O'Grady
www.mycubiclespace.com
617-512-9172
ogradybc@cs.com
eMinute from February, 2007
David Hammond, Middle Pond Productions
Besides working and sleeping, what’s the one activity you spend more time doing than anything else?
Answer? Watching TV.
We’re addicted to the visual experience; we can’t get it out of our blood – we’re a video-centric culture. Nearly 70% of all Internet users are now actively watching video on the web. And this isn’t a simple trend or a quick fad. Web video is here to stay.
But while many VCs and investors are pumping money into the technology that makes it possible for us all to watch stuff on the Internet, what’s lagging behind? To paraphrase “41,” it’s the content, stupid.
My background is in technology marketing. My partner and I are putting our experience into developing web video content. When today’s video-addicted Internet users visit websites, they don’t want to read pages and pages of boring copy. They want to watch. Tiresome executive bios? Boring product overviews? Obnoxious, me-too mission statements? That was the 90’s. If your company still has a website that’s based on a 10-year old format, people are going to ignore it. And worse, if they can’t visit your site and watch something – anything – they’re going to write you off as “old school.”
I’m looking for $200,000 in start-up/seed money. I firmly believe, and have supporting evidence, that web video is going to explode in every business sector.
Target market: any business with a website that hasn’t developed video content yet – revenue is derived from consulting, creative development and production fees.
David Hammond,
Middle Pond Productions
5 Grace Drive, Medfield, MA
dave@middle-pond.com
(508) 359-4991 (Call anytime.)
Lewis Cohen, Preisdent, VideogeniX
My name is Lewis Cohen, I’m president of VideogeniX, a video security technology company focusing on security camera manufacturers, systems integrators and representatives selling to commercial and government markets. We provide flexible and unique alternatives to traditional CCTV systems.
Our key product monitors the communication of electronic devices such as network cameras.
I’m sure you’ve all experienced your computer locking up, requiring you to reboot.
Well, network security cameras have the exact same problem. When they lock up, our device detects it and automatically resets the camera, with no need for human intervention!
iPulse installs in minutes on most security cameras. There are four versions: standard, POE, Photo reading tape (for LEDs) and timed auto reboot. iPulse also works on switches, modems, routers and DVRs. We have 90+ patents currently pending and are in discussion with the top camera manufacturers about licensing our technologies.
In addition to iPulse, we developed a mobile wireless digital video system. Through the fully integrated touch screen, you can view, zoom, pan and tilt four cameras up to a quarter mile or more away. This rugged and portable system records on motion, stores video for weeks and is currently used by police, security companies, large enterprises, the Department of Defense and Secret Service.
To speed up our success and get to all possible markets, we are currently looking for $750,000 to institute a marketing program, develop a sales team and increase our engineering staff. With the money, I believe VideogeniX has the opportunity for a home run.
For further information or questions, please contact me at lcohen@videogenix.com or check out our web site at www.videogenix.com. You can call me at 617-731-5550.
eMinute from January 2007
Brian Smith, CEO, WAAV, www.waav.com
WAAV brings broadband Internet connections to vehicles. We make a cellular router called the AirBox that turns any vehicle into its own Wi-Fi hotspot. With GPS options, fleets owners can have not only have broadband communication with their drivers, but they can track the vehicle locations remotely as well.
WAAV serves business fleets, government vehicles, and high-end consumers, a $13B market today. Our segments for consumer include salespeople, real-estate agents, and high-end family vehicles. Business fleets include repair vans, trucks, taxis, limousines, delivery vehicles, etc. Government vehicles, ambulances, and police cars can have secure broadband capabilities for fast access to their internal databases while headquarters track vehicle locations.
WAAV is seeking $700k in further angel funding for a sales & marketing push, as well as to buy inventory to fulfill initial customer orders. This will also enable us to continue our current R&D on our next-generation products. A full business plan is available upon request. WAAV's team has 64 years combined experience in wireless, telecom, software, and networking. We are also looking for motivated engineers and sales people desiring a startup opportunity, especially those with connections to fleets or the automotive industry.
Brian J. Smith
WAAV, Inc.
One Canal Park
Cambridge, MA 02141
888-GET-WAAV ext 84
December 2006
eMinutes from November 2006:
Bob Light, CEO, MouseToMouse.net
Helping to transform a website visitor into your customer is what we do. We do this by putting a human being (ie-you) behind your advertisement. We are MouseToMouse.net and we are entering the "Customer Relationship Management" (CRM) market... visible to the world as those little “chat-with-me" icons you see on websites. Yes, this is a market filled with all sorts of well funded players. It is also true that these players have built huge systems on top of 10 year old web technology and have thus created a market opportunity for a new entrant. MouseToMouse has built their system using the latest open-source messaging protocols and web tools such as the Google Web Toolkit (GWT). Our patent-pending technologies have produced the slickest user-experience in the CRM market today. You can check us out at www.MouseToMouse.net where you can try a demo and easily sign up to enable your website for MouseToMouse's chat-with-me service. Our current market is eBay and Overstock.com store owners and brochure-ware websites. With the next version, we will be able to serve large customer-service organizations at e-tail websites (the major market). We are seeking seed funding of $500,000 as well as marketing and sales team members to transform MouseToMouse from a technological success to a business success. Contact Bob Light at 1-877-MOUSE-123 or email: light@MouseToMouse.net
Jesse Nahan, CEO, MyActiveMind
MyActiveMind teaches college students how to learn more effectively with a highly personalized, patent-pending online support system. More than half of students who enter college fail to graduate. One- third never even make it to sophomore year. We focus on 21st century learning and communication skills to give new power to the $27 billion higher education sector to boost retention rates and grades. We’re not a publisher. We don’t teach content. We’re not a simple, one-size-fits-all program. Students build a personalized library of skills in MyActiveMind that grows with them and is available throughout their college years. Our Connect Learning To Life mission provides the context to relate student’s studies to their long-term goals. We offer engaging tools for all students to become more effective, confident learners. Colleges face increasing costs and competition to attract students. MyActiveMind will help colleges retain more of the students they spent so much money to recruit. I have managed technology and operations for 23 years, specializing in publishing and interactive development. My partner, Marion Rogers, is an educator and has had her own business teaching study skills and test-prep for 14 years. We have done extensive research, built proof- of-concept demos and planned an organization to bring MyActiveMind to market. We are seeking $300,000, ideally from investors with experience in education, to fund further technical development, market testing and a high quality demo to attract strategic partnerships. We are also seeking advisory board members with expertise in Internet technology and the business of education. Jesse Nahan, CEO MyActiveMind 229 Harvard Street, Cambridge, MA 02139 617-395-8446 http://www.myactivemind.com
eMinutes from October 2006:
Ted Bowman, My No Commission Real Estate, www.myncre.com
Hello, my Name is Ted Bowman, Chief Knowledge Officer of My No Commission Real Estate based in Marshfield, Massachusetts. MyNCRE was created with one goal in mind: to make home sellers and buyers experts in the real estate market. This vision was created by Phil Ganz, the CEO of the MyNCRE who has a background in the mortgage business. He realized that most people do not have any idea what their homes are worth. Because of this MyNCRE was born. We provide users with an electronic evaluation price very close to the value a mortgage banker would give you to borrow against your home. My No Commission Real Estates listing service is available to both home sellers and buyers whether they are home owners looking to sell their own or real estate professionals looking to gain extra exposure for their properties. To enhance the realtors experience even further we created Landbrokr, a free online web site and blog creation tool. This tool was created to give realtors another reason to use MyNCRE. The vision behind Landbrokr is to create a realtor community where users can come and write about work or pleasure. No where else on the Internet does such a community exist. In an age of Google Pagerank and adwords, this tool is a necessity for any realtor looking to gain the edge in an ever evolving technological world. Our goal from presenting this e-minute is raise capital in order to do more regional and national advertising for our product.
Ted Bowman
Chief Knowledge Officer
TBowman@myncre.com
203.415.1051
Zahir Adil- Areosynthesis - www.areosynthesis.com
Aerosynthesis LLC is an Energy Enhancement company. Utilizing a process to deliver an oxygen rich stream of air to a combustion chamber, we have devised a first product that increases fuel mileage in several gasoline vehicles, and increases available power. Patents, filed through Fish & Richardson, have been granted on several key elements of the process. On-road independent tests at Sensors Inc. of Saline, Michigan, have shown a dramatic decrease in the exhaust gases from the vehicle tested. Initial tests on a Diesel car have been very promising. The technology is inexpensive to adapt and does not require re-tooling. We are following a two pronged marketing approach, one which addresses after-market needs, but more importantly, we are working towards creating enough technical value to lead towards licensing deals, essentially an “Aerosynthesis Inside” type of approach! Our initial seed money of about 150,000 was used for legal and testing costs. We are seeking a second round of financing to jump-start the after-market, as well as to continue development which will allow us to re-create the on-road results on a dynamometer, and continue on to verification of the hypothesis. The founders are Mohammed Moktader and Zahir Adil, and have a marketing team working with us. Aerosynthesis technology is available now, and is timed for quick acceptance and greater than average returns. Aerosynthesis is based in West Springfield and the web site is www.aerosynthesis.com. We will be happy to answer any questions.
Zahir Adil
(978)670-2405
zahir_adil@yahoo.com
eMinutes from September 2006:
Dan Hermes, Dan Hermes Fine Art
Dan Hermes Fine Art provides moving digital paintings to meet the growing demand for art content on flat screen televisions. Combining video, computer graphics, and traditional fine arts techniques, and music, we develop abstract and representational artworks designed for use in the home. With the expansive growth of the in-home A/V market and DVD sales having outstripped theatre sales, consumers have exercised their decision that entertainment and culture should occur primarily in the home. The phasing-out of large CRT televisions as they are replaced by flat-screen alternatives, LCDs and plasmas, is creating a commonplace display device which more closely resembles a canvas, altering consumer perception for its potential use. These trends toward in-home culture, audiovisual technology growth, and the increasing ubiquity of canvas-like flat screen televisions, are creating an unprecedented niche for artwork which fully utilizes the medium of motion and sound. Our works have exhibited internationally, at art fairs and conferences, such as the Hospitality Design Expo 2006 in Las Vegas. This summer we signed a distribution contract with a company called Evolving Art, a hardware manufacturer with a product line called Digital Canvas, which is a museum-quality framed flat screen designed exclusively for display of artwork. We seek strategic partners and business advisors to augment our board.
Dan Hermes President,
Dan Hermes Fine Art
www.danhermes.com
dan@hermesorchestra.com
Jon Monsarrat – Activity Central
Microsoft partnered with my first company, Turbine Entertainment Software, which is now the largest computer games company in New England, and employs 250 people. Now I am starting a new company from the following question. What if I could increase circulation of one of The Boston Globe's sections 20 times? What if I could increase sales leads 100 times? This is possible through Web scraping, where information spread broadly across thousands of websites is collected into one central database. Since computers can't read English, only humans can read Web sites, so Web scraping on this scale has been impossible -- until now, with our patent-pending technology. Activity Central has a first distribution deal and interest from potential customers including The Boston Globe and the Weekly Dig. Based in Cambridge, the company has filled half our first seed round of $100,000, and plans another seed round in October in preparation for a product launch in December. You'll be boasting about my company for the rest of your life. This is Web 2.0, the machine-readable Web, the next Internet boom.
My name is Jon Monsarrat, and the company is Activity Central at activitycentral.org.
eMinutes from June 2006:
Ray Deck, President, Element55, www.element55.com
Based in Cambridge,
Element55 was founded to provide software that automatically captures the time
professionals spend on the computer, emails, phone calls and meetings, so that
time does not slip through the cracks. This software is resident on the professional's
desktop, laptop, and handheld, silently capturing time to a private timesheet
that can be reviewed at his or her convenience.
We have enjoyed great success by closing business with an initial set of major
law firms across the United States. Our clients include Edwards, Angell, Palmer
with 550 lawyers and 10 offices and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati --
a 650 person firm based in Palo Alto.
In evaluative processes our clients have found that time capture system adds
an additional six billable hours per timekeeper per month which can translate
to 15,000 in gained revenue if only 10 attorneys are signed up at the average
billing rate of 250/hour. Clients also see a return on investment very quickly
upon implementation -- sometimes as early as one month into using it.
Ray Deck, the founder and CEO, has seven year's experience as an entrepreneur.
Element55 is his fourth business, and was born from his own challenges running
a consulting practice and getting his associates to bill completely and with
sufficient detail. Legal55 evolved as a result of Ray Deck's strong entrepreneurial
vision and consulting practice. He has proven that he is able to execute his
vision, having brought the product to market and realized profitability as a
result of the strategic recurring revenue model he developed and an acute attention
to cost control.
We are ramping up our marketing and sales in the legal arena, and we are investigating
adjacent markets in which Legal55 can make sense. We are on the hunt for strategic
partners who are involved in legal and professional service markets who offer
complementary propositions which can create "1+1=3" joint opportunities.
We are also investigating raising equity investment in the range of $500k-$1mm
so that this winning technology can be brought to additional markets more rapidly.
Ray Deck, President, ray@element55.com.