Graeme Thickins on Tech

Reflections & analysis about innovation, technology, startups, investing, healthcare, and more .... with a focus on Minnesota, Land of 10,000 Lakes. Blogging continuously since 2005.

Category: Innovation (Page 2 of 77)

My Live Blog of the 10th Annual Defrag Conference…

November 15, 2016 / / 2 Comments

defragx-logodates

Once again, I live-blogged the Defrag Conference in Denver. This is the tenth year of this great annual tech event, and I’ve attended them all. The original idea was to get together to defrag our brains and stop to think about where technology is headed — what’s coming next. I’ve met and interviewed so many great people at this event over the years: Brad Feld, Seth Levine, Fred Wilson, David Cohen, T.A. McCann, and tons of other tech leaders, investors, authors, and more.  Not to speak of many fellow tech observers, analysts, writers, bloggers, PR people, and notable geeks who’ve come to be frequent collaborators and friends. I’ve also connected with old buddies, like the authors of The Cluetrain Manifesto, and shared some huge laughs. Attending this conference is almost like going to camp each year. I just wouldn’t miss it! (Especially when I was one of only three guys who had perfect 10-year attendance records.) Eric and Kim Norlin and their team do such a great job putting on Defrag.

So, what was on tap for discussion at the 10th annual? Lots of topics: AWS Lambda, microservices, blockchain, APIs, machine learning, AI, insights about developer marketing, bare-metal cloud, and other geeky stuff — presented by an impressive band of speakers… founders, CTOs, rock-star developers, tech evangelists, and other crazy folks. Always a fun event. And what you don’t learn in the big room, well, you can learn in the Tap Room each night till the wee hours. (Oh, and we talk a lot about sports, too!)

I posted my play-by-play updates from Wednesday morning November 16 through Thursday afternoon November 17, 2016 — live, in real-time from the Omni Interlocken Resort, in beautiful (warm and sunny!) Colorado… well, until it snowed in the final hours.

———–

NOTE: Unfortunately, updates to WordPress software since I originally published this post caused the live blog plugin to break. I got no warning. Nice going, WordPress! So, my content appears to be lost forever… 🙁  

I guess you just had to be there! Trust me, it was good.

TreeHouse Health Names Its 13th Portfolio Company

October 3, 2016 / / 0 Comments

The winner of the 2016 Minnesota Cup, the largest business plan competition in the U.S., has been named by healthcare-startup incubator TreeHouse Health in Minneapolis as its latest portfolio company. StemoniX is leading the development and manufacturing of human-induced pluripotent stem cells for pharmaceutical drug-discovery applications, such as biologically accurate, miniaturized organ-like microtissues.TreeHouse-FinalLogo

“We are excited to announce the addition of StemoniX to the TreeHouse Health ecosystem,” said J.D. Blank, managing director, in a prepared statement. “Through their innovative work, they are advancing the field of drug discovery and ultimately helping patients get better treatment more quickly.”

StemoniX’s biotechnology provides scientists with standardized, easy-to-use, cost-effective access to relevant human microtissue for toxicity and efficacy screening. stemonix-logoIncorporated in Minnesota, the company is colocated in Minneapolis and San Diego, California.

TreeHouse Health defines itself as an “innovation center” designed to invest in emerging healthcare companies and help accelerate their growth. It says Stemonix is setting a new standard for stem cell technologies to meet the demands of drug discovery and personalized medicine.

mncup-logo-squareStemoniX earned the Grand Prize and title of “Best Breakthrough Business Idea of 2016” at the 12th annual MN Cup awards, held on September 22, 2016 at the University of Minnesota.

StemoniX says its efforts are revolutionizing stem cell-based research and drug screening and will lead to a new era of drug discovery and personalized medicine. “We’re grateful to become part of TreeHouse Health as a portfolio company,” said Ping Yeh, CEO. “We’re confident our relationship with TreeHouse Health will help us establish a strong presence in Minnesota, as well as generate new opportunities for Minnesota-based financing and collaborative partnerships with TreeHouse Health anchor tenants and other connections.”

TreeHouse Health now has 13 portfolio companies.

TreeHouse Health now has 13 portfolio companies.

Yeh continued: “We are thankful to the MN Cup organizers, sponsors, and community for their support and the opportunities created by our participation in the competition this year, which includes our new relationship with TreeHouse Health.”

Along with providing investment, TreeHouse Health offers its portfolio companies access to its ecosystem consisting of leading healthcare organizations (its “anchor tenants”), professional service providers, and other emerging healthcare companies. To date, TreeHouse Health has invested in thirteen early-stage healthcare companies and has anchor tenant relationships with Hennepin County Medical Center (HCMC), Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota (BCBS), and Accenture.

 

My Live Blog of the 2016 ‘Pioneer Summit’…

September 13, 2016 / / 0 Comments

pioneersummit-ggbridgeskyline

I just wrapped up my live blogging at the Pioneer Summit in Redwood City, CA, covering both days of the conference, September 14 and 15, 2016. More than 1,500 attended. Here’s how the organizers described the conference:

“The agenda is packed with thrilling conversations on the ideas and people who will shape the world. Whether you’re inspired by game-changing entrepreneurs building our robotic future, or determined investors that fuel billion-dollar startups, the Pioneer Summit is bringing the Global Silicon Valley’s best and brightest to Redwood City.”

They weren’t kidding — it was packed with awesomeness!

What follows is my complete live blog, now archived in chronological order.

(Also see a selection of the photos I took at the event in this Flickr Album.)

———–

NOTE: Unfortunately, updates to WordPress software since I originally published this post caused the Live Blog plugin to break. I got no warning. Nice going, WordPress! So, my content appears to be lost forever… 🙁  

I guess you just had to be there! Trust me, it was good.

I’ll Be Live-Blogging the ‘Pioneer Summit’ Again Next Week

September 9, 2016 / / 0 Comments

pioneersummit-logodatesI’m heading out to the Bay Area in a few days to once again cover a great tech conference called the Pioneer Summit, put on by GSV Labs in Redwood City, CA. I loved reporting on it last year — as evidenced by my extensive liveblog. (They moved it up from October to September this year.)

I’m looking forward to the program, which is jam-packed. Is this enough speakers for you? Here’s one my data geek friends would like. And hearing what this Silicon Valley legend has to say will be pretty awesome as well.

What is GSV Labs, you ask? It’s “a campus of innovation” — I like that description! A very cool place indeed. It’s focused on accelerating high-growth, high-impact verticals in the areas of EdTech, Sustainability, Big Data, and Mobility. Utilizingpioneersummit-celebrate GSV Labs’ resources, founders and entrepreneurs join a global network of ecosystem partners, including corporations, international agencies, mentors, universities, investors, thought leaders, and non-profits. From its Silicon Valley campus, GSV Labs houses about 100 startups, provides acceleration programs, and hosts events.

My connection to GSV Labs is through my colleague Mark Moe (who lives here in the Twin Cities) — he’s VP of Global Business Development. Look forward to seeing you there, Mark, and I’m sure some other Minnesotans who’ll be in attendance, as there were last year.

I guess I’d better start getting my live-blogging fingers loosened up — which means not just providing commentary, but shooting a whole lot of iPhone pics to go along with it. This will be fun!

TruScribe Summons Kickstarter to Get You ‘Talking’

April 12, 2016 / / 0 Comments

TruScribe-crowdsourcingThought you’d heard it all on Kickstarter? Well, how many times have you run into a project there that’s about launching a language? You read that right. Get your credit cards out, startup and crowdfunding lovers: here’s your chance to say you were there back in ’16 when history was made.

But here’s the deal: you gotta tell a lot of your friends, because the folks at TruScribe have set a pretty hefty goal for this one: it’s $100k.  Of course, that’s befitting the ginormous implications here — I mean, how often do you get to impact the entire freaking global community, with that single audacious goal to allow everyone on the planet to communicate visually? This is big stuff, people!! What’s a lousy little 100 Grover Clevelands?

TruScribe, as you’ll recall, is a whiteboard video animation company that was cofounded in Minnesota. (I TruGlyph-logowrote about them here on Minnov8.com back in 2014.) A large part of its staff is in Madison WI, but Minneapolis became its headquarters a while back, with great new digs at International Market Square. It was named the 253rd fastest-growing company on the Inc. 5000 list in 2015, which was understandably touted far and wide. (As a point of reference, crazy-fast-growing LeadPages of Minneapolis was #220.) In February 2016, TruScribe announced the first part of its new initiative to transform into a full-fledged software business, with a new iOS app called TruGlyph. (You can download the app here.)

What’s coming next you can see in their new (and very first) Kickstarter project. Here’s an excerpt from that page on what it’s all about: Continue reading

« Older posts Newer posts »

© 2024 Graeme Thickins on Tech

Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑