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| MATR Newsletter - Tue Mar 30, 2010 |
"We start with the customer and we work backward. We learn whatever skills we need to service the customer. We build whatever technology we need to service the customer." Jeff Bezos - Founder of Amazon http://matr.net/articl ... .html
"THE BEST PLACE PROJECT - Missoula, Montana's Five-Year Economic Development Strategy" http://www.matr.net/ar ... .html --- "Funds available for Montana small business employee training" http://www.matr.net/ar ... .html
Everlog™ Systems
Montana SBA
- The Logless Log Home - EverLog Systems of Missoula, Montana
EverLog homes have quickly won adherents in the homebuilding world. “It looks good, there’s no shifting or movement of the logs, no need to chink and re-chink. The downside of real logs is gone... It would take a flame-thrower to start this place on fire.”
The Best Place Project
- SBA Recovery Lending Extended Through April 30
President Barack Obama signed on Friday legislation extending through April the U.S. Small Business Administration’s ability to provide enhancements in its two largest small business loan programs.
- SBA Warns Small Businesses of Fraudulent Attempts Offering to Help Them Secure SBA Loans
SBA and SBA’s Office of the Inspector General (SBA OIG) have received several complaints from small businesses about abusive marketing practices, scams, and exorbitant fees charged by firms offering to help them obtain a loan, grant, or other federal funds, from SBA.
Bill Payne
- THE BEST PLACE PROJECT - Missoula, Montana's Five-Year Economic Development Strategy
The Best Place Project is a proposed new approach to economic development that will stimulate desirable growth that complements our unique assets and livability, increase community wealth and ensure good job and career opportunities for current and future generations.
Highway 12 Ventures
- What are Preferred Shares?
Seasoned angel investors favor funding seed and startup companies by purchasing preferred shares, rather than simply owning common (ordinary) shares or convertible debt.
Montana's "Big Sky Blue" Supercomputer
- Goomzee of Missoula, Montana Secures Series A Financing Led by Highway 12 Ventures
“We are completely impressed with what Mike and his team have accomplished with limited resources” said Glenn Michael, General Partner of Highway 12 Ventures who has joined Goomzee's board of directors in conjuction with the financing.
Come Home Montana
- EDITORIAL: Supercomputer is valuable asset for Montana
"We can take on problems people struggle with that are numerically intensive, data intensive, pixel intensive."
Developing a more Entrepreneurial Montana
- Montana Career Opportunity - Systems Supervisor - Glacier Bancorp, Inc.
IT Systems Supervisor Located in Missoula, MT. Exciting opportunity with growing regional banking corporation. Requires IT supervisory experience.
- Great Falls, Montana - A great place to live
Business Week named Great Falls the best place in Montana to raise kids in 2009, which tells a lot about the offerings the city has.
- Laurel, Montana shaking off its bedroom community image with run of new businesses
The return of movies is just one development among many for the city 10 miles west of Billings.
Montana Business
- The Kauffman Foundation will provide scholarships to 1,000 Michigan residents to enroll in its FastTrac for Entrepreneurs program
“We intend to foster a culture of entrepreneurism.”
Montana Economic Development
- Green and clean: Innovators hope to build plant in Montana to turn trees, shoes into fuel. Bioroot Energy
“This is our chance to prove sustainability in our own backyards with resources that we have that nobody wants.”
- Montana poplar tree project takes aim at waste, power - Bioroot Energy
"We need to start saying, ‘Let's start looking at our waste as an unused resource. Let's see how we can make our waste into energy,' "
- NsideTrack of Missoula Launches Laptop Tracking Software That Provides Remote Access to Stolen Laptops
NsideTrack not only tracks the location of a stolen laptop, it also allows the owner to access the stolen laptop remotely to encrypt or delete sensitive files. Now, users can even retrieve important files before deleting them from the stolen laptop.
- Montana’s work-comp rates highest in nation
“No matter how you slice and dice the rate data … we are among the highest in the country and we are the highest in the West,” said Dan Gengler, the Montana State Fund’s internal actuary.
Developing Funding Opportunities in Montana
- Funds available for Montana small business employee training
In order to qualify for the matching funds, a business must be registered with the Secretary of State and have been in operation for more than one year.
- Deadline to Confirm Your Spot: March 30, 2010 - Montana World Trade Center and Lt. Governor John Bohlinger to lead International Business Development Mission to Israel May 31-June 3, 2010
The mission will help Montana companies develop relationships with new clients through prearranged one-on-one meetings.
Funding and Building your Business
- Angel investor credit passes Legislature..... in Minnesota
Through it, angel investors can receive a 25 percent tax credit or 25 cents for every dollar they invest in a certified small business. The minimum investment that an individual investor has to make to receive the tax credit is $10,000 and for a pooled fund it is $30,000.
Montana Education Excellence
- Cowboys Like Us: Investor Nick Hanauer on How to Think About Breakthroughs in Business and Society
It was vintage Hanauer—talking in depth about not conforming to societal expectations and how to think creatively about new ideas and metaphors, reflecting on why venture capital doesn’t work as a sector, quoting famous philosophers, and discussing the one area in which he would seek omniscient advice if he could.
- Reputations at stake, companies try to alter word of mouth online - Yelp.com
What appears at first to be a spin-free, grass-roots marketplace of opinions and recommendations is rapidly turning into a hotly contested battleground where public relations firms and a new breed of imagemakers help businesses counter negative online comments and manage their online reputations -- even giving people free products in hopes of generating positive comments.
Regional Business
- Guest opinion: Invest in Montana’s kids by investing in our great outdoors
“Let’s move!” Working together, we can successfully invest our time and resources in a healthier future for Montana’s children, and our great outdoors." Peggy Beltrone
- Montana State University - Great Falls College of Technology dean tells how his school is changing lives, achieving dreams
Two-year programs are increasingly viewed as an affordable and good quality educational option in Montana.
- Volunteers make optimistic pitch for Billings schools
“We’ve gotten in the habit of not supporting our schools.” “We want to change the mindset. We want people to think about what we need to accomplish.” “We have to consider the global economy. We need to prepare our kids to compete for jobs, but not just in Billings.”
- Stimulus will let Montana State University upgrade Cooley Lab for $17 million
Cooley's labs do research and teaching on microbiology, cell biology and neuroscience, bioinformatics, genomics and proteomics. Graduate students, undergrads and medical students in the WWAMI doctor-training program also learn there.
University TechTransfer
- Small banks say they can't win in small-business lending
"The bank-examination climate today is perhaps the most severe in two generations at least. It's like a reign of terror, particularly on the community banks."
Developing an Angel Network in Montana
- No Time for the Academic Entrepreneur
Academic scientists must in fact be entrepreneurial minded in order to maintain the funding they need to not only survive, but thrive in academia.
- The Entrepreneurial University -- Revving Up Innovation on Our Nation's Campuses
With over 250 billion dollars in endowment and intellectual firepower unrivaled anywhere in the world, this country's research universities are the crown jewels of our society.
Idaho Business
- Just say no to Section 926 of the comprehensive financial reform bill outlined by Senate Banking Committee Chairman Senator Dodd
Litan says the provisions "are both unnecessary and unhelpful at a time when policymakers should be looking for ways to make it easier to finance new businesses, especially the potentially high-growth, job-creating companies capable of attracting outside investors."
- New Finance Law Could Slow Angel Investment
Hidden in the recently proposed Restoring American Financial Stability Act of 2010 are a few provisions that would make it slower and tougher for entrepreneurs to connect with angel investors.
- Angels sing: ‘frankly ridiculous’ restrictions might ‘destroy Silicon Valley’
First, Dodd’s bill would require startups raising funding to register with the Securities and Exchange Commission, and then wait 120 days for the SEC to review their filing. A second provision raises the wealth requirements for an “accredited investor” who can invest in startups — if the bill passes, investors would need assets of more than $2.3 million (up from $1 million) or income of more than $450,000 (up from $250,000). The third restriction removes the federal pre-emption allowing angel and venture financing in the United States to follow federal regulations, rather than face different rules between states.
- Yes Angels, Congress Is Listening
Sounds to me like something that got put into the bill without any input from the other side. Now that VCs are loudly raising objections, I wouldn’t be surprised if such changes are stripped — or at least scaled back — in the bill’s final version.
Education
- US Department of Commerce Awards $2.4MM for Rural Idaho Counties Broadband Project
The project intends to directly connect 42 anchor institutions, including healthcare facilities, emergency response agencies, libraries, and government offices, as well as institutions serving the Nez Perce Tribe.
- Integrated Ideas and Technologies continues to reap the benefits of moving to a business-friendly state.
"It is such a nice place to live," he said. "I met some southern California defense contractors who have heard about the area. They are very interested."
- RFinity of Idaho Falls, Idaho Nominated for Contactless Intelligence’s Monkey Award for Trailblazing and Innovation
The award recognizes exemplary companies worldwide that further the boundaries of contactless technology through product introduction or pilot programs.
- M2M Communications of Boise proves Idaho's future lies in efficient energy technology
Idaho firm's gear saves water, energy, money
Community
- Choice Bus shows students two sides of education
"I think if we reduce the dropout rate and raise the level of education, it would immediately reduce crime, poverty and hatred."
Connectivity & Communications
- Eight New Grant Opportunities
- THREE New Grant Opportunities
The US Department of Labor has posted an online suite of resources designed to help prospective grant applicants – in particular, smaller entities such as community-based and faith-based groups, as well as organizations that have not previously applied for Federal funding.
Energy and Climate Change
- Broadband boom washes over Utah Broadband wave washes over Utah Customers' growing high-speed demands pit variety of companies in a race to be the state's top provider.
"People are hungry for faster connections."
- 1,100 Local Governments Contend for Google Broadband
For weeks, local governments have tried to outwit and outplay each other to win ultra high-speed Internet connections as part of the popular "Google Fiber" project.
Miscellaneous Ramblings
- Montana Among First Six States Adopting the 2009 International Energy Conservation Code
The International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) mandates that all new houses in Montana meet minimum requirements of the code, including amendments specific to Montana. "This progressive approach allows our citizens to capture benefits of the energy-saving standards which result in continued returns", said Labor Commissioner Keith Kelly.
- Laser Guidance Adds Power to Wind Turbines
“This is what they call disruptive technology,” said William Fetzer, vice president of business development for Catch the Wind. “There are roughly 80,000 to 90,000 wind turbines out in the world, and they don’t have this technology.”
- New 'smart' meters for electrical utilities have security holes
Industry representatives say utilities are doing rigorous security testing that will make new power grids more secure than the patchwork system we have now, which is already under hacking attacks from adversaries believed to be working overseas.
- From Biomass to Chemicals in One Step
A startup's catalytic process converts biomass directly into components of gasoline.
- Stealing Electricity from Algae
Why bother producing power when we can simply take it?
- 'Clean coal' disputed by new film, "Dirty Business" - Montana Governor Schweitzer ties frozen funds to local support for Otter Creek coal leases
It's one of the first major public media projects to explain and demystify the hype behind "clean coal", which it concludes may be completely unnecessary and uneconomical in light of increased energy efficiency and renewable energy sources.
- Pine beetles create ecological opportunities in Rocky Mountain forests
While it may seem intuitive that dead trees will lead to more fires, there is little scientific evidence to support the contention that beetle-killed trees substantially increase risk of large blazes. In fact, there is evidence to suggest otherwise.
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