By Scott Meacham We are in unprecedented times. Seemingly overnight, the world has changed, possibly forever. We are dealing with a pandemic disease that has no vaccine or cure. The stock market has lost a third of its value. People are being furloughed and laid off. Many hourly workers can’t pay for their groceries, rentRead more
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By Scott Meacham Growing a successful startup company is all about growing sales. And growing sales is an expertise that Brian Bomar, CEO of Whiteboard Technology knows very well. Bomar took everything he learned from 15 years in the mortgage industry, and before that several years more working for a local technology startup to createRead more
By Scott Meacham i2E’s connection to MaxQ Research, a Stillwater company that creates validated packaging systems for blood and other biologics, actually began with the 2012 Governor’s Cup, now the Love’s Entrepreneur’s Cup, Oklahoma’s statewide collegiate business plan competition sponsored by Love’s Travel Stops and Country Stores. MaxQ was one of the competing business plans.Read more
By Scott Meacham Successful startups are all about vision and passion and great ideas. They are also about attaining metrics that lead to positive cashflow and attract investment. When it comes to metrics, the customer growth story from SendaRide, a young Oklahoma company that provides customized, concierge, non-emergency medical transportation, packs a punch. SendaRide servesRead more
By Scott Meacham As i2E has been closing our latest round of new investments over the last few weeks, I am reminded of how in the startup world and the venture industry, investment events attract attention. I don’t usually write about investment events. The celebratory milestones have already occurred over the weeks, months, and yearsRead more
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By Dale Denwalt Copyright 2020, The Oklahoman The evolutionary defenses of a fungus could help humans deal with another defense mechanism, the noxious odor of skunk spray. Robert H. Cichewicz and his Natural Products Discovery Group were hunting for a chemical to help treat breast cancer when they found a surprising molecule made byRead more
By Scott Meacham It is hard to start a business — very, very hard. This is true on Main Street, for information technology businesses and in biotech. For all entrepreneurs, building a company is a race against time, a race in which every milestone of success increases the pressure on the business plan. The biggestRead more
By Scott Meacham It’s a good thing when state leaders recognize the strategic importance of innovation in job and wealth creation. It’s also a good thing when a state considers legislation to help address capital gaps. Oklahoma’s Technology Business Finance Program (TBFP) Seed Fund is a nationally recognized best practices example of legislated early stageRead more
By Jim Stafford STILLWATER – Don’t look for a sign in downtown Stillwater advertising the presence of HostBridge Technology, which has maintained its headquarters just off Main Street for two decades. There isn’t one. Founded by Russell Teubner in 2000, HostBridge Technology occupies a historic building along E. 7th Street, just off Main Street. TheRead more
PR Newswire February 11, 2020 Pill to restore natural hearing moves one step closer to market OKLAHOMA CITY, Feb. 11, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — Hough Ear Institute (HEI), a nonprofit based in Oklahoma City, is proud to announce that its pharmaceutical partner, Auditus LLC (Auditus), a wholly owned subsidiary of Otologic Pharmaceutics Inc. (OPI), hasRead more
February 10, 2020 Contact: Sarah Seagraves, Senior VP for Marketing (405) 813-2403 sseagraves@i2E.org OKLAHOMA CITY – Oklahoma college students competing in the 2020 Love’s Entrepreneur’s Cup turned to a group of national investors for insight and direction into their concepts during the recent Interview portion of the business plan competition. Love’s Travel Stops & CountryRead more
By Scott Meacham My mantra of investing, as any regular reader of this column knows, is capital begets capital. That’s why Oklahoma’s unique, pre-seed capital fund, Technology Business Finance Program (TBFP), is so critical to Oklahoma’s innovation economy. TBFP deploys state funding to provide equity-free capital for startups at such an early stage that thereRead more
By Scott Meacham Recently, I received a phone call about a friend who was raising a fund specifically to invest in women-led companies. Considering the track record of venture capital invested in women-led firms, it’s easy to understand her focus. In the United States, about 2.5 to 3 percent of all venture funding goes toRead more
By Scott Meacham Mentoring is one of the most valuable venture services i2E provides to Oklahoma’s innovators and entrepreneurs. Our mentoring covers a wide range of topics and situations based on the leadership team’s experience, the stage of the startup, and the market the company is working to serve. We are focused when we mentor.Read more
January 23, 2020 Contact: Sarah Seagraves, Senior VP for Marketing (405) 813-2403 sseagraves@i2E.org Genio Technologies, Inc. has acquired exclusive rights to the MasSpec Pen System, a revolutionary technology from the University of Texas at Austin that is proven to accurately identify the difference between cancerous and normal tissue during surgery. OKLAHOMA CITY — i2E ManagementRead more
By Scott Meacham Millennials (those born between about 1982 and 1996) have overtaken Baby Boomers as the largest generation in the U.S. labor force—that’s one-in-three of workers or people looking for work. With limitations on immigration and Baby Boomers retiring at an accelerating pace, businesses large and small are increasingly dependent on the Millennial segmentRead more
By Scott Meacham January is a time for new goals and resolutions, and, for corporations that provide employee healthcare, new plans and challenges as healthcare expenses continue to increase year over year. The traditional approach has been to put employees on higher deductibles so that they have more skin in the game to be betterRead more
By PAULA BURKES COPYRIGHT © 2020, The Oklahoman Laura Fleet hatched the idea for her startup tech company — a customized, concierge door-to-door transportation service for the health care industry — at one of her lowest times ever. Flat on her back for weeks following surgery, Fleet relied on family and friends to drive herRead more
By Scott Meacham From cars to refrigerators to doorbells, the machines we use every day are getting smarter every year. McKinsey reports that the Internet of Things (IoT)— the network of interconnected devices that collect and exchange data—is one of the three most impactful technological advancements we will see before 2030. IoT devices, embedded withRead more
