Kickstand, May 10

Kickstand. You missed a good one.

The meeting’s program centered on “pitch” presentations by several of the finalists from the “Speed Dating” competition at Kickstart. However, there were also some announcements, at least one of which I cannot share (but watch the print version of IBR).

#1: Joan Cloonan had been telling me of her latest venture, RBC Polycomposites (don’t make me type that again). Her RBC colleagues, Bill Reetz, Vernon Banks & Bob Crawford, announced that they scored the coup of finally getting Boise Cascade to sell them an enormous amount of machinery for circa $50K. They will now be able to do some incredible recycling. Boise is starting to be a ?ɬ¢?¢‚Äö¬¨?ã?ìhot spot’ for green tech (Banner Bank Building, etc.) For more on RBC: jcloonan@mindspring.com

#2: A repeat of the news of Ron Oberleitner getting a $1 million SBIR Phase II for his work on addressing autism. I’ve seen ‘under the hood’ & it’s a most promising approach to an important problem. (Idaho is doing in assistive tech, too…) For more: Ron’s at admin@talkautism.org

Speed Dating Redux:

Emcee Chris Volk had four local entrepreneurs share with us their “3-minute pitches” from Kickstart (3 minutes? LOL - and I thought I was talkative!) But nobody left - these were four great business propositions.

First up was Jerome Eberharter [Moxie Java/White Cloud] who is launching Lifefoods - coffee infused with herbs and medicinals. Not New Agey claptrap - Jerome has partnered with a top expert. For example, I’m trying out his “Clear Mind Blend” coffee which adds things like ginkgo and ginseng. For more: Jerome@whitecloudcoffee.com and www.lifefoods.com .

Jeff from Lucky Bums was next - a broad, growing product line of items that make it easier for parents to ski with their kids. (I’m guessing it will have considerable value for disabled skiers too.) Check out www.luckybums.com - you will be amazed at what they’ve already achieved.

Seth from Ming Solar (seth@mingsolar.com) has developed a solar-powered LED street light whose solar “panel” is the entire skin of the lightpole. Seth told me it’s no more than $5K per, higher than the normal streetlight but the LED gives much lower maintenance costs and greater longevity - and saves serious energy costs! His light should pay for itself in a few years. (And people wonder why VCs are hot for cleantech??)

Finally, Donn Wilson, Idaho’s premiere expert on franchising and currently the eminence grise at Pay By Touch, offered his latest franchising venture: Miwok Air. Miwok is an air taxi service that will offer a reasonably standardized way to provide more convenient business travel between city pairs that lack affordable, good service. (Looks less carbon-intensive too…) For more: donn.wilson@paybytouch.com .

Donn, Seth, Jeff & Jerome are great guys too. I love this town.

An excellent meeting - and a harbinger of even better things to come?

Norris

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