Perpetual Innovation

Category: incubator

  • To Incubate or not to Incubate

    Marshall Goodman: Ex-administrator For USF Helping Collier County | TheLedger.com:

    This answers the age-old questions: To Incubate or NOT to incubate?

    A: Incubators definitely have advantages for cluster development and rapid business startup.

    But, that doesn’t assure that it is a great investment for that governments to jump into.

    Where do old business incubator guys go when they get old?

    A: They go to Collier County, of course. Think Naples and Big Cypress National Preserve.

    Here’s a longer version of the story by Maria Perez in the Maples Daily News (and TBO.com).

    During that time about 2010, we were trying to meet with Goodman to springboard off of the wild success he was having with 3 incubators. No success, for us on a meeting. All three incubators were rumored to be full and hugely successful. In Highlands County, we were aiming to advance the inventions from USF that were better commercialized in the heartland of Florida, not the cities.

    Well let’s see how far $3.8M goes in Collier county. With an assurance of 10 to 15 companies within 6 months, how can they possibly go wrong?

    Can’t wait to see where this one goes.

    Keywords: Business Incubator, Economic Development
    ‘via Blog this’

  • Ceres Monthly Newsletter – Flaring of Gas/NatGas

    See this blog over at SustainZine: http://sustainzine.blogspot.com/2013/08/smaller-cities-get-startup-style.html

    Ceres Monthly Newsletter:

    This report starts to document the amount of gas (nat gas) that is flared in the production of oil/gas.

    In the US we can’t get the nat gas to market, so it is imply flared in many cases. The oil (wet particulates) are much more valuable so that is shipped by pipe if possible, but by truck or train if not.

    One statement from a CEO in the oil patch has commented that half of the nat gas produces in the US is being flared. Safety, of course is critical. But this is a humongous waste of energy and environmental waste as well.

    Check out the article and then look at the report here: http://www.ceres.org/resources/reports/flaring-up-north-dakota-natural-gas-flaring-more-than-doubles-in-two-years/view

    Basic economics is one approach to this issue. If NatGas were more valuable, then there would be very little flaring. Right now it is about $3.50 (per … unit) in the USA. So Nat gas is a byproduct of the production of oil unless it can be readily distributed to market (pipeline).  But for the world markets, NatGas is very valuable, let’s say $10. If we can bridge the gap from domestic only to world, then the price would jump and the flaring would, well, burn out. 🙂

    The key is liquefied natural gas (LNG). Not coincidentally, LNG is the trading symbol of Chaniere Energy, one the the leading players in infrastructure for exporting LNG.

  • Smaller cities get startup-style sustainability incubator | GreenBiz.com

    Smaller cities get startup-style sustainability incubator | GreenBiz.com:

    Sustainable Green Incubators sounds very cool.  (July 23, 2013 article).

    There area all kinds of cool things that can be done — especially energy efficiency-wise — that will have huge saving (and great environmental reductions as well). !:-)

    Here’s the incoming incubators (or accelerators).
    The inaugural 2013-14 accelerator class includes these cities:

    • Waco, Texas
    • Wichita, Kan.
    • Portland, Maine
    • Louisville, Ky.
    • Tucson, Ariz.
    • Sacramento Council of Governments and member cities Elk Grove and Rancho Cordova, Calif.