EARLIER THIS YEAR, SIRNA THERAPEUTICS ANNOUNCED it was moving its corporate headquarters from Boulder, Colo., to San Francisco — one more in the long line of biotechnology firms to put down roots in the region. From a real-estate perspective, homegrown and transplanted companies together have transformed the fabled Bay area into the largest biotech community in the country, occupying 16 million square feet. And demand for laboratory space, from San Francisco to Palo Alto, shows no sign of slowing, as the proximity of Genentech and first-rate universities beckons other research firms.
Daily Archives: July 10, 2005
Venture Capital in Wisconsin/Milwaukee
John Schmid takes a look at a proposed Venture Capital Fund for inner city Milwaukee.
Venture capitalists, a clique of financiers obsessed with risk and exponential growth, incubated the Internet, seeded the bioengineering boom and propelled the likes of Google, eBay, Microsoft, FedEx and Starbucks out of their infancy. Now, for the first time, they intend to apply the same approach to Milwaukee’s inner city.
VC in Wisconsin is very much a chicken and egg problem. My view is that Wisconsin lacks a risk taking, entrepreneurial environment, which is ironic because it used to exist here, in the days when manufacturing was the rage. We see evidence of this everywhere, from The Madison School District’s annual “same service” approach to budgeting in an era of constant change to our very slow adoption of the critical assets for the next generation of entrepreneurs: broadband (wifi and fiber networks to the home). Wisconsin is not a player politically in these initiatives, unlike other areas.
The truth, in my view, is that there’s plenty of money in Wisconsin. We’re simply lacking the will, and perhaps people – though I wonder about this, to apply it to new businesses.
Finally, any VC discussion must include internet entrepreneur Paul Graham’s essay: A Unified Theory of VC Suckage. (I know some venture capitalists and believe they can play an important role. The idea and execution, however are critical).
Finally, why not look at results? Madison’s fast growing (now – started in 1978) Epic Systems never took venture capital, while Berbee did (started in 1994). Judy Faulkner has run Epic from the beginning while Berbee founder Jim Berbee hasn’t run the company for years, and recently left. Foodusa, hypercosm, guild.com (apparently 40+M, including over 2m of local funds) and sonic foundry all took venture capital. A number of local biotech firms are also vc financed.
In Vitro Meat
a nonprofit research organization working to develop new meat substitutes, including cultured meat — meat produced in vitro, in a cell culture, rather than from an animal.
Because meat substitutes are produced under controlled conditions impossible to maintain in traditional animal farms, they can be safer, more nutritious, less polluting, and more humane than conventional meat.
Jean Feraca’s Here on Earth on Podcasting
Wisconsin Public Radio’s Jean Feraca hosts a weekly program called Here on Earth. Driving around between events Saturday, I heard a bit of her program on Podcasting. A list of participants can be found here. However and unfortunately, WPR’s podcasts, like our dear Airport’s WiFi, is non-existent.
I did chuckle a bit as both Jean and the BBC’s Peter Day speculated about their job security as a result of Podcasting’s growth. Times are changing. I would agree that some radio stations have reasons to be concerned. Advertising overkill and the same old same old playlists have pushed more and more listeners away – to ipod’s attached to their car radios or ipods and short distance fm transmitters. Wikipedia on podcasting.