3 guys, 44 days, 11 countries, 18 flights, 38 thousand miles, an exploding volcano, 2 cameras and almost a terabyte of footage… all to turn 3 ambitious linear concepts based on movement, learning and food ….into 3 beautiful and hopefully compelling short films…..
= a trip of a lifetime.

move, eat, learn

Rick Mereki : Director, producer, additional camera and editing
Tim White : DOP, producer, primary editing, sound
Andrew Lees : Actor, mover, groover

Join us 19 July 2011, 11:00am EDT for a Webinar on ZetrOZ.

Register here for the webinar: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/812392706

ZetrOZ™ is revolutionizing the ultrasound industry by introducing proprietary generator technology that is more efficient, more portable, and more economically viable than any ultrasound generator presently available. ZetrOZ’s first product is the world’s smallest ultrasound pain therapy device. This device (currently in clinical trials) addresses the demand for non-pharmaceutical alternatives to current pain treatments in the approximately $50 billion global pain management market.

ZetrOZ Management Team

The technology pioneered by ZetrOZ represents the single largest advance in ultrasound generation technology in the past three decades. It has implications in nearly every current ultrasound application and opens up entirely new possibilities for ultrasound use. For example, because of its portability, the ZetrOZ system can apply ultrasound therapy anywhere, not just in a physician’s office, and can apply that therapy more frequently and for longer periods of time because it is not dependent on office-bound equipment.

Read the ZetrOZ ultrasound TechPak here: http://www.yet2.com/app/list/techpak?id=63992&sid=20&abc=0

Register here for the webinar: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/812392706

A few key learnings?:

1. There is a lot less money chasing fewer consumer product start ups.  The West Coast VC bubble has not hit Philly yet
2. The VC’s have a high regard for sector knowledge/Rolodex, and basic ‘blocking and tackling’
3. Entrepreneurs are still not taking advantage of the Open Innovation offices in most major companies (these are your internal evangelists)

Here is a edited summary:

In total, we had executives from 3 Continents, with a large group from Japan.  Some of the companies  participating included; Canon, P&G, Agfa, AirProducts, Applied Materials, AveryDennison, Baxter, Bayer, Clorox, Colgate,  DuPont, Ecolab, GSK, Kimberly-Clark, J&J, Kisco, Mellon, Nissan, Panasonic, Parker Hannifin, P&G, Ricoh, Sony, DSM, Invista and NASA!   Add to this, we had 2 dozen selected small companies, with breakthrough technologies.

     I liked the robust Q&A after each presentation.  When Canon’s CTO, Dr. Ikoma-san, presented, 4 other CTOs asked questions.  You cant beat that.  Some themes that emerged

1. Be ready for disruptive innovation from the bottom of the pyramid
2. Regional R&D, with Global Sourcing
3. Squash the immune response – accept ‘fuzzy data’
4. Enable personal risk taking
5. Engage ‘Renewal Searches’ – at the middle and the end of R&D

We spent a lot of time discussing how to optimize deals between large and small companies.  This has been a reoccurring theme are our events.  Even when there is a great technology fit, deals take more time than both parties would like.

We also spend alot of time talking about a new Open Innovation tool – capital.  We got to hear how several large companies are employing clever strategies to create a ‘farm team’ of technology partners.  I also got to talk about how yet2ventures is growingrapidly in this area (we have 41 portfolio companies).

Panel on Deal-Making w/ P&G, Colgate, Monteco, & Newell Rubbermaid

One of my favorite presentations was a joint talk between Mike Londo, head of OI for MeadWestvaco, and John Lettow, CEO of Vorbeck.  Vorbeck is a yet2ventures portfolio company and is the global leader in graphene.  They co-presented an interesting deal, that is common through yet2.com – a Fortune 1,000 firm, with a start-up, working together to commercialize a new consumer packaging technology.  Some key learnings from their presentation:

1. Send time on the ‘want’.  This keeps interest aligned and focused.
2. Be reliable and prepared to partner
3. Spend time on ‘how the dominoes will likely fall’, be ready for scale up.

We had a lot of informal conversations.

Introducing Canon with Mobeam

Lobster

I spent some time poking around the Delaware Division of Corporations website.  What I did not expect to find is leading indicators of economic recovery in the Annual Report.  LLC filings are up to 82,000, from 70,000 in ’09 and 81,923 in ’08.  This has good to be good news for economic recovery?

LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman presented his vision today for “Web 3.0” at the South by Southwest Interactive conference in Austin.

Hoffman, who is now a partner at Greylock Partners, sounded dismissive of most of the buzzwords that have been tied to Web 3.0 — bandwidth, “appification”, video, location, real-time, and mobile. (He said mobile is probably the most significant trend of the bunch, but it’s “kind of boring”.) Instead, he said that the next big trend in the evolution of the Web, and the next big opportunity for entrepreneurs, is data.

Specifically, he said that if Web 1.0 involved “go search, get data” and some limited interactivity; and if Web 2.0 involves “real identities” and “real relationships”, then Web 3.0 will be “real identities generating massive amounts of data.”

Of course, there are risks associated with you sharing data tied to your personal identity. (Two of the conference’s keynote speakers, 4chan founder Christopher Poole and Web video star Felicia Day, both made arguments for the benefits of anonymity.) But Hoffman said startups should just follow two important rules about data. First, “never ambush your users.” Second, “not all data is created equal.” A lot of the data that people provide online isn’t harmful, he said — what companies and users need to be really careful about is “data that is essentially equivalent to a password,” which includes things like credit card numbers.

Hoffman offered several examples of companies that are already doing interesting and useful things with social data: LinkedIn offers a new feature called Skills, where users can find people, companies, and jobs related to each skill. There’s Waze, a mobile application that uses data about your location and speed during your commute to deliver traffic advice. And there’s Redfin, an online real estate broker (which Greylock invested in) that gives homebuyers more information about their prospective homes and the housing market.

In what Hoffman acknowledged was a rather self-referential move, he proposed collecting social data about the interesting apps that can be built with social data — audience members are supposed to post their ideas on Twitter with the hashtag #web3, and his team will try to create an infographic showing off the ideas.

The first thing to understand is that large companies rarely act with one voice.  While they try to, they don’t.  They are a collection of individuals each with motivations and fears.   Most of employees of these firms have 3 questions in mind, 1) How can I represent my company well? 2) Will this help get me promoted? 3) Will this minimize the chance for me to get fired?

Usually, it’s in the best interest of the LargeCo to delay and do more diligence or testing.  Unless they are about to lose the opportunity, they have every motivation to ‘do one more test’.  More testing and diligence helps prevent the decision-makers from getting fired.  In this sense, Large companies may be price agnostic, meaning they would much rather pay $200 million for a technology they know works, than $5 million for one that ‘needs fixing’.  This is how to get promoted, and not fired.

To get a deal done, a small company needs to plausably say ‘the train is leaving the station’.  To make this happen; 1) the small company needs many interested large companies buyer/partners and 2) they need to understand the decision making process in large companies.  #1 requires the discipline to keep looking for competitive offers.  #2 is harder, and it’s usually what separates a successful exit from an unsuccessful one.  The problem is large companies are full of decision-makers, each with a different perspective.   Further Large Companies frequently don’t know what their own decision making process is.

Here are the 4 key types of decision makers, and some advice on how to work with them:

BUSINESS CHAMPION – This is usually the business leader with P&L responsibility.  He or she, will be the ultimate decision-maker.  It’s critical to listen to this person, and address their issues.   This person will have to manage implementation post deal, so they will be juggling alot of moving parts to make sure a deal with you is a good his company.  Can the current sales channel benefit from your technology/product?  Is there a business fit? etc.  Be respectful of their time, build a strong relationship and don’t over sell.

TECHNICAL CHAMPION – This is the key guy to get on board, but he is rarely the decision-maker.  He can derail a technical decision with the simple comment “we really should test this once more under different conditions”.  Technical champions dont have much to lose by a longer evaluation process.  “One more test” could take 6 months and kill a deal.   Make sure they have detail they need, and keep them to a schedule.  Watch for the ‘one more test’ syndrome.

STAFF FUNCTION (Legal, IP, Admin) – In my view, small companies frequently make the mistake of ignoring these guys.  Don’t.  While they are not the decision-makers, if they dont like the deal, they can derail it in ways most sellers cant imagine.  Treat them like their views matter.  They do.

CORPORATE OFFICER (CEO, CTO, CIO, etc) – In my view, small companies over value these guys.  While it is invaluable to get to know them, and to build trust, they will unlikely be the decision maker.  For them, personal relationships are key.  Can they trust you?  Are you a good long term partner?   These are the questions he/she is thinking through.

Large companies are sitting on record amounts of cash.  They also generally have dry pipelines of new technologies/products to bring to market.  This is a great time for successful start-ups to sell or partner.  Watch out for the ‘one more test’ syndrome.  Finally, have fun.  Some may consider this odd advice, but it’s good advice.  Large company managers want to do deals with people who are fun to be around.  Be polite and fun to be around, and a favorable deal is more likely.

Good luck.

PS  Send me a copy of the press release on your deal.

Don’t underestimated Japan’s capability and resolve. The below picture is a good example. The left is the state of a highway right after the earthquake. The right is the same highway four days later.  Message?  The Japanese economy and people will rebound from this crisis, and be stronger and better then ever.

By Anil Das of International Business Times

Search engine behemoth Google has been working long and hard on a ‘secret’ project towards making cars that can drive themselves. At this week’s TED conference, Google presented extremely rare demos of its much-awaited self-driving cars and the videos of the demos have hit the internet.

“Our automated cars use video cameras, radar sensors and a laser range finder to “see” other traffic, as well as detailed maps (which we collect using manually driven vehicles) to navigate the road ahead. This is all made possible by Google’s data centers, which can process the enormous amounts of information gathered by our cars when mapping their terrain,” Google had said in an earlier blog post.

The automated cars, manned by trained operators, just drove from our Mountain View campus to our Santa Monica office and on to Hollywood Boulevard. They’ve driven down Lombard Street, crossed the Golden Gate bridge, navigated the Pacific Coast Highway, and even made it all the way around Lake Tahoe. All in all, our self-driving cars have logged over 140,000 miles, it added.

The internet gaint stressed safety has been the first priority in this project and the cars are never unmanned. The company has a trained software operator in the passenger seat to monitor the software. Any test begins by sending out a driver in a conventionally driven car to map the route and road conditions. By mapping features like lane markers and traffic signs, the software in the car becomes familiar with the environment and its characteristics in advance.

The company informed, citing the World Health Organization (WHO), more than 1.2 million lives are lost every year in road traffic accidents and technology of this kind has the potential to cut the accident rate by half.

Furthermore, this technology is expexted to reduce the time of commuting and make it time efficient. The U.S. Department of Transportation estimates people spend an average 52 minutes everyday commuting to the office.

Search Engine Land has posted a video of one of Google’s self-driving cars racing around a closed course. Take a look at the video to catch a brief glimpse of the future:

Read more: http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/118741/20110304/google-self-drive-cars-search-engine-land.htm#ixzz1FdujrVBi