Blogs

Taken from my blog at http://blog.innovatearkansas.org  



Techpreneurship, with Jeff Amerine

(Jeff Amerine is an IA advisor, entrepreneurship educator, and officer with the University of Arkansas Technology Licensing Office. Each Thursday, his Techpreneurship blog will appear in INOV8. Drop him a line in comments.)

Yesterday was a great day for the state of Techpreneurship in Arkansas…

Through countless unwanted emails, shameless promotion in this very blog, personal pleas, and numerous pestering posts on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, we were actually able to attract a crowd of nearly 50 investors, researchers, and Techpreneurs to yesterday’s Technology Venture Showcase!  The event was held at the University of Arkansas Genesis Incubator Center in Fayetteville.

The promise of a free lunch may have helped.  Talk about your economic stimulus….

Seriously though, thanks very much to all of you who attended.  The presentations were great and the interaction was the best I’ve seen thus far at one of these events.  The event ran officially from 11:30 to 1, but we had investors and Techpreneurs engaged until nearly 3 p.m.!  That’s the point of the exercise, and it was great to witness.

So by now you may be wondering which Techpreneur companies presented.  Here’s a quick recap:

• Educational Platforms, Inc. : They have a very slick social media/productivity solution aimed initially at automating music education.  Chris Purifoy did an outstanding job presenting his company.
• NanoMech : NanoMech has a variety of nanoscale material science solutions that can make a great many products across several industries more reliable, safer, and more durable.  We were able to hear from Keith Blakely the new CEO, who is a serial techpreneur with several successful nano ventures under his belt.
• SmartPouch: This solution can change the way the world views microwave prepared meals.  Their unique microwave delivery solution delivers fine restaurant quality single serving meals at very affordable prices.  Sterling Tucker is a long time food industry pro, and his partner Kay Wright could readily be described as the “Paula Dean of healthy microwave cooking.”

All of these companies are raising capital to expand their operations.  If you want to learn more about any of these companies, contact me at jeff@innovatearkansas.org.

Here is a really poor picture that was taken of some of yesterday’s crowd as the meeting broke up.  So was this picture taken with an iPhone, Droid, or Blackberry 9700?  Was the poor picture quality operator error or poor technology? I report, you decide….

Time to start the next round of shameless promotion, pestering and coercing… The next IA Technology Venture Showcase will be in Little Rock at the Winrock HQ on March 17th from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.  If you are angel-like and would like to attend, or want more information about becoming an IA client, contact Vicki Malpass at vmalpass@winrock.org and check out our site at www.innovatearkansas.org.