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| MATR Newsletter - Fri Oct 23, 2009 |
"If you're a start-up, why would you incur the gigantic capital cost of renting space in a city when your customers are anywhere at the end of a wire." Elliot Gold http://matr.net/articl ... .html
Montana SBA
Dorsey & Whitney LLP
- MONTANA SBA DISTRICT OFFICE E-NEWS October 2009
In this edition, you’ll be introduced to SBA’s Region VIII Regional Administrator Dan Hannaher, who hails from North Dakota as well as being invited to a great lender training event being held later this month at Chico Hot Springs.
- SBA Nominations for Its 2010 Montana Small Business Week Awards due November 13th
All Montana award winners will compete for both regional and national honors. The national celebration will be held in Washington D.C during spring 2010.
Idaho National Laboratory
- Federal and State Privacy Laws – Compliance Deadlines Fast Approaching
A number of new privacy law compliance deadlines are fast approaching. Failure to comply with privacy laws could trigger U.S. regulator and State Attorney General action as well as monetary penalties. In some cases, there also could be private lawsuits.
Montana World Trade Center
- Idaho National Laboratory and Idaho State University team on nanoparticle production breakthrough
Chemists at Idaho National Laboratory http://www.inl.gov and Idaho State University http://www.isu.edu/ have invented a way to manufacture highly precise, uniform nanoparticles to order.
- Opportunity knocks: Technical career expo targets rural Idaho students
"It seemed like a perfect fit for INL to get behind this event and support it fully," said Ray Barnes, of INL's regional partnerships office. "We're going to need these students in a few years to continue our energy security mission."
Highway 12 Ventures
- How To Secure Financing: Practical Strategies In A Tight Credit Market, 11/19, Missoula
Resources and Tools to Help Montana Businesses Secure Funding
- Montana World Trade Center And Bank Of Montana - Networking Reception, 11/19, Missoula
Please don't miss the opportunity to network with community leaders from around Montana. Appetizers and refreshments will be provided.
Come Home Montana
- Why I’m Back On Facebook
Unfortunately, if there’s one thing I’ve learned from spending the last 15 years with a front row seat to innovation, it’s that if you don’t get on the train it’s going to leave without you and it’s become clear that Facebook is here to stay.
Developing a more Entrepreneurial Montana
- Why I Launched MyTopo.com in Billings, Montana
Ninety-nine percent of our customers are outside of Montana. It's not for our customers, or the needs of our product, that we are based here -- it's definitely the lifestyle. Billings is a great town. Both my family and Kevin's family live in the downtown area; we can both walk or bike the two miles to our office. All our kids are growing up hiking or on skis. This is a great place to live.
- Why Don Kiely Launched Rivertop Renewables in Missoula, Montana
When I started the business in February 2008, I found angel investors, most of them either locals or from outside Missoula, but still in Montana. Missoula is a very livable city, and there is a growing group of networking entrepreneurs here. Most of them have come for the quality of life, but also because in a place like Missoula, where wages have historically been low, folks tend to be entrepreneurial. It definitely attracts people who enjoy the challenge of starting a business.
- Ask the Locals Travel Guide: Greenough & Missoula, Montana
For me, a perfect day in Missoula is a combination of outdoor activity in the mountains or on the rivers that surround us, and enjoyment of our city itself. Some best bets include:
Montana Business
- Towards an Effective Virtual Entrepreneurship Center for Rural Small Business Development
This paper explores the nature of entrepreneurial centers and methods related to rural development in a virtual environment.
- Broadband standard could open doors for rural startups
"If you're a start-up, why would you incur the gigantic capital cost of renting space in a city when your customers are anywhere at the end of a wire."
Montana Economic Development
- Residents Quietly Rejoice Bitterroot Resort Foreclosure
"Nope. I don't feel sorry for him one bit," one longtime resident says when I approach him in the parking lot of a local deli. "We didn't want it and he didn't give a damn. This isn't the perspective of poor folk resenting the wealthy local landowner. It's practicality. We didn't want the traffic, higher property taxes, expensive housing, and all the rich la-di-da yuppies that would have come with it. God bless this recession if it puts an end to that nightmare."
- Rivertop Renewables of Missoula, Montana, Selected to Present at 22nd Industry Growth Forum Sponsored by National Renewable Energy Lab
“Presenting at NREL’s prestigious conference brings Rivertop one step closer to commercializing our scalable and environmentally sound platform technology. We intend to be the first to produce non-toxic, biodegradable and versatile glucaric acid at a low cost and in large volumes,” said Dr. Donald Kiely, Rivertop’s founder and Chief Technical Officer.
Funding and Building your Business
- Top "tax havens" -- no passport required
Montana, with no sales tax, placed third on the list.
- Governor Schweitzer Dedicates Phase 2 of Montana’s Largest Wind Project - Glacier Wind Farm
Glacier Wind Farm created more than 350 construction jobs. It is estimated the Rim Rock project will create more than 500 construction jobs.
- Economic recovery zone label could pay off ($46 million in tax-exempt facility bonds + $31 million economic development bonds) for Missoula County
A "financially capable" company can enter into an agreement with a bank that would purchase the bonds from them, Czorny explained. "We would exit the equation and there would be no liability with respect to the county."
- Montana should embrace clean energy development
Your state is well-positioned by natural resources and high-level education - plus scientific and agricultural know-how - to develop the technologies and renewable energy sources that can lead us toward a low-pollution future, a vibrant economy and energy independence.
- Senator Tester's Forest bill will leave legacy for Montana's outfitters
I've always said our backcountry wilderness areas contain something more valuable than oil, gold, silver or copper. Future generations may be wiser than us and learn to interpret its value better than we can, but after a lifetime of outfitting, I'd like to think that in wilderness we may find the soul of mankind. That is why we need to save it. That is why we need to set aside our differences and support the Forest Jobs and Recreation Act. Thank you, Sen. Tester, for your leadership.
- Montana Growth Through Agriculture Program Update
The Growth Through Agriculture Program will hold only one more application period for this fiscal year which ends June 30, 2010.
- Project 2030 - Montana’s Ageing Population
This report describes how Montana is expected to age in coming decades, and begins the process of analyzing the fiscal impacts by considering expenditures on Medicaid for the elderly, education, and corrections.
Incubators and R&D
- When to Shut Down Your Company
What are the alternatives?
- Know Your Communication Strategy When Raising Money
Breaking news….If you are a startup pursuing funding, you have more in common with a politician or athlete caught behaving badly then you might think.
- Rescue efforts shift to small business - As bailouts of big companies end, the administration redirects its focus
"There are still too many entrepreneurs who can't get the loan they need to open their doors and start hiring," Obama said. Small businesses "fuel our prosperity," he added. "And that is why they must be at the forefront of our recovery."
Montana Education Excellence
- Scientists at Rocky Mountain Laboratories in Hamilton, Montana work to solve flu puzzle
“The labs at RML are state-of-the-art, high-containment labs, and are crucial to the NIH’s efforts to study significant human pathogens safely,” Taubenberger said. “Certain pathogens, especially emerging diseases, must be worked at in high-containment labs. The RML is one of the best facilities for this sort of work.”
- Montana State University study looks at turning manure into revenues
Producers may be able to make money by composting livestock manure while at the same time improving the quality of their soil and protecting the environment.
- ResearchToolkit.org provides one-stop web resource for health researchers
The project team created the site, http://researchtoolkit.org, to enhance the efficiency of research from start to finish, including tools for developing research networks, launching and managing projects, and sharing study results and other products such as data sets, tools, and training resources.
Regional Business
- Regents look at reform of Montana campuses
Its stated mission is to figure out how to get more Montanans to graduate from college, how to make the University System more efficient, and how to make changes without hurting the quality of education.
- University of Montana Grizzly football coach Bobby Hauck ripped on ESPN.com
"Nobody likes a bully, and that's what Hauck has been to an easy target - the student paper at the school," wrote Forde, who continued "Hauck has retaliated at a story in the paper, The Kaimin, about an alleged assault of a student by two football players. He has publicly belittled its reporters, refused to answer questions from the paper and the players have followed suit by declining to comment to Kaimin staffers."
- Bigfork High School shares online classes with home-school students
With VHS, home-school students who enroll in online classes through Bigfork High School can now be counted among its student population.
- University of Montana West Campus thriving despite lack of space
Not only is the college a two-year school that offers associate of applied science and associate of arts degrees, but it’s also the go-to campus for workforce development courses and developmental courses.
Utah Economic Development
- The Uneven Cost of Rural Health Care
The nation is spending vastly more on health care in some rural areas than in others without any indication that the increased spending results in better health.
Washington State Business
- New Website Focuses on State's Clean Tech Industry
By providing a central place for information, opinion, and resources about the industry, the site hopes to energize the industry and help state leaders catch the vision for the potential economic impact of investing in this area.
- Thinking BiG: BIOTECH/BIOMANUFACTurING workforce development to combine with business incubation
One of the first of its kind, the BioInnovations Gateway (BiG) is an incubator for emerging biotech and medical device companies, a high-tech training facility for the next generation of bio-innovators, and a contract research resource for Utah’s life science industry.
Education
- Seattle Biotech Needs More Bars, Less University Red Tape, and the Same Daring Attitude, & Other Highlights from Seattle Life Sciences 2029
“The way Seattle is currently set up, I don’t have a place I go for a coffee or a drink. A place where I run into the people who are ready to try a new idea. That’s an important anchoring ingredient that we’re missing, and should be happening.” (I thought Seattle was the home of Starbucks???)
Connectivity & Communications
- Keep Higher Education Strong with Investment and Local Student Loans
We stand behind our state elected officials and U.S. senators to show courage in advancing the right solutions - investment in higher education and keeping student loans local.
Energy and Climate Change
- First "White Space" Network Launched
Wireless technology that's been touted as the best hope for providing high-speed Internet access to rural communities is about to get its first true test.
Cool Stuff That's Coming
- Australian Smart Meters to Utilize WiMAX to Provide 2-Way Communications Between Power Company and Client
The meters will allow customers to access accurate electricity reads every 30 minutes, which helps to monitor and reduce electricity usage - and save money on power bills.
- The Simulation of Vehicle-to-Home Systems – Using Electric Vehicle Battery Storage to Smooth Domestic Electricity Demand
These modifications to the household demand profile would potentially be environmentally and financially beneficial to the electrical generation sector.
- Shifting the world to 100% clean, renewable energy by 2030 – here are the numbers
Wind, water and solar energy resources are sufficiently available to provide all the world's energy. Converting to electricity and hydrogen powered by these sources would reduce world power demand by 30 percent, thereby avoiding 13,000 coal power plants. Materials and costs are not limitations to these conversions, but politics may be, say Stanford and UC researchers who have mapped out a blueprint for powering the world.
- University of Washington researchers make key step towards turning methane gas into liquid fuel
Researchers at the University of Washington and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have taken an important step in converting methane gas to a liquid, potentially making it more useful as a fuel and as a source for making other chemicals.
Government Technology
- 5 New Technologies That Will Change Everything
3D TV, HTML5, video over Wi-Fi, superfast USB, and mobile "augmented reality" will emerge as breakthrough technologies in the next few years. Here's a preview of what they do and how they work.
Non-Profit News
- Social Media Sites' Handicap Hurdle
As governments turn to Facebook and its ilk, they aren't paying enough attention to the needs of the visually or hearing-impaired.
VIRUS ALERTS
- At age 35, AERO - Montana’s Alternative Energy Resources Organization still fighting for conservation
AERO - which moved from Billings to Helena in the mid-1980s - will celebrate its 35th birthday at the 2009 annual meeting in Livingston, Oct. 23-25. (For more information, phone AERO at (406) 443-2542, visit the website at http://www.aeromt.org or see the Calendar of Events in this issue.) If attendance at recent annual meetings holds true, the crowd will be a healthy mixture of longtime members and newer ones.
- Deceptive SAT/ACT Prep Test Calls Being Made to MT Parents and Students Using 866-569-1215
BBB received a call today from a Laurel, MT teacher who has been receiving information from several students and parents about highly deceptive college prep pitches being made to Montana families of teens. Here’s how the call goes:
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