List of Ithaca Startups, 2013 Edition

In preparation for this week's Entrepreneurship Celebration at Cornell, here is my 2013 list of startups based/near in Ithaca, NY:

ActionXL
Adenios
Adispell
Aerofarms
AIBC
BeetNPath
BinOptics
Biophyzica
BitePal
cheribundi
Collegetown Cab
Comet Action Sports
ComposerHQ
DataDesk
DataPoint Labs
DNANO
e2e Materials
Emmy's Organics
Empire Robotics
Flicstart
Incandescent Software
GiveGab
Gene Network Sciences
Glycobia
Hybrid Silica Technologies
Illuminaria
International Climbing Machines
iFyber
Impact Energies
KettleShell
MADathletic
Marshfillows
Mezmeriz
MicroGen
MiTeGen
Nanomedik
NOHMS
MouseCare
North Sea Resins
Nova Speech
Novasterilis
Novomer
Odyssey Molecular
Ontology2
Optigen
Orthogonal
Party Headphones
PiXL
Primet
Rosie
Red Tail Hawk
ReMarkable Paint
Rheonix
Sanmita
Seraph Robotics
Singlebrook
Sound Reading
Snabb
Snappy Screen
Spider Holster
Splat
Sunnlight
Swidjit
Synairco
TaggPic
Tech S2
Terrenew
Tetragenetics
ThinkWorks
ThinkPlay
Traffio
Vybion
WavElectric
Wearever
Weaver Wind Energy
Widetronix
Yorango
Zuma BioSciences

Ithaca's New Congressman

New York's congressional districts were redrawn for the most recent election. This resulted in Ithaca having a new congressman. Recently Congressman Tom Reed visited Ithaca to meet with members of the Tompkins Country Chamber of Commerce.


Welcome to Ithaca
Regardless of social politics, politicians want to find ways to encourage business and create jobs. Ithaca's liberal politics certainly leans away from Congressman Reed's Republican platform, so I applaud him for not ignoring this part of his constituency. Driving end to end in his district would take 5 hours, so he have a broad variety of interests to represent.

Different members of the business community spoke about specific challenges they were having with advancing their businesses, and how government could help. This ranged from health care mandates, to immigration reform, to the national debt. It was a productive conversation and both sides came away learning something new.

Mezmeriz Unveils Pico Projector Prototype at CES 2013

This past week was a busy and exciting one for our startup, Mezmeriz. For the first time ever, we publicly showed our pico projector prototypes! We did so at our booth at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. We had a lot of interest, and our area of the show floor was constantly crowded with potential partners, investors, industry analysts, press, and all sorts of curiosity seekers.

At the heart of our projector is a unique MEMS technology. As the newest member of the MEMS Technology Group, this was a bit of a coming out party for us on a number of levels. Here's an interview I did where I talk a little about the MEMS and the application in a mobile device:



It was a great show. It was a shining moment for the Mezmeriz engineering team, who built awesome prototype units that operated flawlessly.

Thanks to everyone who came by to visit, and for all the kind words we heard about the demo!

Call Me, Splat

My friend Tom Schryver, Cornell's Entrepreneur In Residence, sent me this picture from an entrepreneurial student team's presentation:

You had me at Connections with Mentors
I'm flattered, but I'm really not that hard to reach. I try to make myself accessible to aspiring entrepreneurs because I benefited so much early my career from experienced entrepreneurs who were willing to share their story over a cup of coffee. I try to do the same now - both ways. I work to share with entrepreneurs who seek my advice, but I also still seek to tap the experience of those who I aspire to learn from. It's a nice form of paying it forward that our fraternity of entrepreneurs understand and love to do.

So Splat, call me. Or email. Or Twitter, Facebook, snail-mail, ...whatever works.

Weaver Wind Energy

A few years ago I introduced Art Weaver to Alex Hagen. Art is a brilliant scientist and inventor who has some amazing ideas on how to revolutionize the way we harness the power of the wind to create electricity. He needed an entrepreneurially minded business person to help him make that vision a reality, and Alex is just that guy. The result is Weaver Wind Energy. Check out this awesome video profiling the company:

Coffee Connector Retired

At the first Mezmeriz office, we had a nice coffee maker. It was the center of our caffeinated motivation. Coffee became a facilitator of entrepreneurial conversations.


The one of the left is for you
Over a cup of ground Gimme! beans, we'd share tales of challenges and obstacles with starting our companies. Sometimes it'd be about a proposal that hit a brick wall. Sometimes it'd be about a pitch the rocked. Regardless of the what, it was good to know that we had allies and commiserators.

Mezmeriz has now moved on to a modern workplace. We have a high-tech lab. We have professional offices. We have a conference room where you can write big ideas directly on the wall. We have people saying "this place is cool. I want to work here". We evan have a coffee maker that can not only make drip, but cappuccino!

Alas, we don't have the community coffee maker any more. While we'll miss the collegiate atmosphere of our launching labs, we are also ready for the next level. As coffee becomes cappuccino when it grows up, so do we.

Pop Right In

Recently I was invited to speak to an informal group of active and aspiring entrepreneurs at Cornell's latest startup workspace, the PopShop. The PopShop is an informal workspace located just off campus that is designed to foster the creative process of business formation. Bright colors, inspirational messages, whiteboards-as-tables, fast internet, and an always-open mentality all come together to create a unique and fun experience.

Pop Up

On this particular day, I was asked to talk about how entrepreneurs perceive risk differently then other people. It was less lecture, and more discussion. We flipped up one of the whiteboard/tables, and different people were drawing pictures and diagrams to help define and refine the concept. It was a fun mini-example of how an interactive discussion leads to a better outcome - and it's how they get things done there.

There is no requirement to be affiliated with Cornell, so if you're in Ithaca and you have a creative idea for a new business and want to connect with some other like-minded individuals, then pop right in to the PopShop at 206B Dryden Road. They're always open!