We had a completely different post planned for today, but in light of the events of the past three days, we decided to take a different tactic.
With a large part of our team based in Orlando, we’ve been through the wringer in the past month. And yet the devastation keeps on coming in our country. Like many small companies, we feel challenged to soldier on when feeling so very helpless to “fix” things.
But we’ve come to a conclusion based on a few conversations with each other, friends and clients that what we can do, is to keep doing what we are doing. Yes, we can post to social media our frustrations about lives that matter and laws that seem to fail at protecting those lives. Yes we can join organizations or contribute money. Yes, we can even use our skills and network–having been able to help connect a victim from the Orlando shooting to PR resources who are helping her navigate the media and find financial resources to help minimize the devastating impact her medical bills will have.
We have to keep doing WHAT WE DO EVERY DAY for two reasons. (1) The cliche’d reason of if we don’t carry on, the bad guys win. (2) Because what we do has impact because of WHO WE DO IT FOR!
You see we are instrumental in helping companies who are literally changing the world by using technology in a new way. We find these companies via important programs like NSF I-Corps, Florida Venture Forum, The Kaufman Foundations’ 1 Million Cups and other organizations committed to promoting start-up technology. We might not create the nano-particle that delivers bio-actives to give burn victims relief, but we help the company that does garner customers and sales. We may not develop the laser technology that gives stand-off detection of chemical weapons, but we help build the case to the commercial world as to why they need to implement that tech. We may not develop the software that will launch next-generation security designed to keep you safer, but we provide the strategic marketing direction and content to help that company find partners and users from the first day they launch.
So, to honor that “keep doing it” drive–when really, we kinda of want to curl up in a ball and cry, or hit something, or drink way too many martinis–here are some of the teams we’re proud to support and a quick summary of how their technology makes the world a better place.
Prempoint: Prempoint is advancing next-generation security through a new approach to social networking. Using a combination of premise and proximity combined with a private, secure communications network, Prempoint allows property & site management professionals better serve the security needs of their clients. We are jazzed every time we hang up from a call with this dynamic team who came out of IBM with their caps set to change the world of security!
Burnout Game Ventures: Did you know game technology impacts not just entertainment, but training for our military and medical advancements in surgery? Burnout Game Ventures is a company who helps developing gamers take their skills out of the coding room and into the commercial sector, helping to grow this industry that has a $102 Billion (yes, with a “B”) future.
IROH: We met IROH via our mentoring I-Corps student groups. We see a big future for this team! They’re approaching prosthetics in a new way that uses 3D printing for a more custom fit for prosthetics, enables less expensive development which will allow kids with growing needs to change their prosthetic more often as they grow and generally allows for customization never before attainable.
Sensatek: Another I-Corps graduate and first place winners at MegaWatt Ventures clean energy competition, Sensatek is developing sensors designed to withstand extraordinarily harsh environments in combustion applications. This means longer lasting safety-components in critical places like airplane engines. This impoves the safety of those monitoring the equipment, reduces downtime issues resulting in dramatic cost savings and, of course, reliability in places where reliability is mission, asset and life-critical!
And one to watch…Alula Aero: We met the Alula team at Florida Venture Forum and know they are poised to change the aviation industry. Limitations of today’s black box technology mean greater threats to aviation. For example, in the recent Egyptair crash, the ability for authorities to determine mechanical mishap versus a terrorist attack was still in question 12 hours post-event. Using Alula’s real-time telemetry, the ability to garner intelligence regarding potential threats still in-air flights after an event would provide critical information for other planes still in the sky. And gaining much forensic evidence would no longer take a recovery of the black box.
So we’re going to “keep on doing what we do” — by supporting these teams and other technologies that WILL change the world — because that is how we heal, how we help and how we keep our belief in hope!