June 2007

Is Boise too Reliant on Micron?

Posted Thu, 06/28/2007 - 11:56pm by Tac

Micron reports $225 Million in quarterly losses. Eddie at the IBR has a good discussion going on over on their site.
Micron is a big ship that has been moving in one direction for a very long time. I know they are trying to change things over there. I hope they can. The sad part is that, either way, the end result could be the same for Boise.
I'm also afraid that years of placing all our eggs in one basket could backfire on us.

Boise's CheckaBiz Featured in Business Week

Posted Mon, 06/25/2007 - 1:51pm by Tac

J. Glerum's company, Boise Based CheckaBiz was recently featured in Business Week.

J. Glerum wrote his final law school paper on music-sharing Web site Kazaa, spent a few months working at law firms, and then in 2005 left the legal world behind to start his own dot-com: Boise-based Check a Biz. Consumers can use the site to comment on local businesses, and businesses will be able to buy monthly subscriptions to find out when those comments are particularly good or bad.

TechBoise Q&A Event w/ INL

Posted Fri, 06/22/2007 - 5:00pm by Tac

Now that Bill has managed to stir up a little discussion over our last post we have pulled some strings at the Idaho National Laboratory and got John Lindsey to come out and speak to us next Tuesday. I have asked that John speak specifically about their licensing deals and opportunities, but I'm sure that he will be open to any questions.

Actually John will be here as part anyway but while he was here Krissa did manage to get him booked for us on Tuesday the 26th at Louise Downtown.

No positronic annihilation, but $5 million for Idaho Ec Dev

Posted Fri, 06/22/2007 - 12:54pm by author

not even gamma rays, AFAIK.

Idaho had a major 'hit' on the US Dept of Labor's WIRED grant program (Workforce Innovation in Regional Econ Devel) thanks to Joe Herring & his crew down in Twin Falls. I saw his proposal this first time (2+ years ago) and it deserved to be submitted; this time it was submitted and they got it!

A terrific proposal that wastes not a penny and really pulls together some good partnering.

Implications for Tech? We need technicians even more than we need engineers - the market-driven workforce development (WFD) model is exactly what other tech centers have.

Big Sky Venture Capital Conference - 23/24 August

Posted Tue, 06/19/2007 - 1:13pm by author

Dave Bayless alerted me to this up in my old stompin' grounds - thanks, Dave!
fyi,
Norris

Big Sky Venture Capital Conference

Gary Bloomer at TechRanch is looking for companies to present at the upcoming Big Sky Venture Capital Conference on August 23rd and 24th:
http://www.bigskyventurecapital.com/

...registration is now open for venture capitalists, accredited angel investors, and entrepreneurs chosen to present at the Conference.

Lessons from INL

Posted Tue, 06/19/2007 - 10:15am by Tac

There are two things that I learned from my trip to INL:

1 - Gamma rays can be used to produce positronic annihilation which creates micro-structural changes in materials which can be both good and bad.

Really I just wanted to use positronic annihilation (best potential band name ever) in a sentence.

2 - INL can teach the Treasure Valley a lot about creating technology clusters.

Hola de Madrid!

Posted Mon, 06/18/2007 - 5:48am by author

I'm now* at the Babson entrepreneurship research conference in Madrid (warmer than Lapland, LOL).

The best

The Water Cooler Gains Steam

Posted Tue, 06/12/2007 - 5:03pm by Tac

By now many of you have (hopefully) heard about The Water Cooler. It has been well documented in the media that Mark Rivers is leading the charge start a downtown incubator. The Water Cooler is the evolution of those plans. The Water cooler won't so much be a typical business incubator as it will be an innovation center. The idea is to bring the right kind of businesses and more importantly the right kind of people together in the right environment to facilitate great things happening.

Does anyone remember their chemistry?

Posted Mon, 06/11/2007 - 3:25pm by author

Not really. This was a question that was asked a group of area business owners last week during the semi-annual INL sponsored tour. Wednesday and Thursday, the group, including legislators and economic development professionals, spent time learning more about the Lab and the types (breadth and depth) of research performed.

I'll be honest. Most of the information was over my head. I've participated in the tour for several years, so some of it has become more familiar. While most of the work is foreign to my areas of expertise, I admire their passion.

Results from Boise Idea Market

Posted Sat, 06/09/2007 - 7:43pm by author

I have posted up some of the results from the Boise Idea Market on the LGM blog:

http://www3.lgmllc.com/2007/06/09/results-from-the-boise-idea-market/

There, you can see the wisdom of the crowd on the following topics "Best business advice you ever got," and "what is your personal mantra."

Feel free to link to it if you have a posting from the idea market, and get over there and comment if you want to take credit for your advice!

Growing Entrepreneurship in Rural Areas? (part 1)

Posted Mon, 06/04/2007 - 10:53am by author

I'm sitting in a place that is considered rural, in the northern part of the country, in an area making the painful transition from extractive/ag economy to a scary, Brave New World. It does have an intriguing nascent ICT cluster (despite a shortage of programmers). The area is good at creating small businesses but sadly weak at creating high-growth entrepreneurial firms. Anyway, here I am in

Idea Market Update

Posted Fri, 06/01/2007 - 2:14pm by Tac

We've got a very exciting group coming so far but the Renkoo invite method was too confusing so we have moved the meeting invite over to Planyp.us, which I understand is another local startup (I'll have to find out more about this [UPDATE: not a local startup ,see comments]).

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