Tech Focus
Dr. Steven Wolf, US Army
  Institute of Surgical
  Research

As chief of clinical research at the United States Army Institute of Surgical Research at Fort Sam Houston, Wolf is working with injured veterans to test whether ECM can help the body regenerate new tissue, when applied directly to damaged muscle tissue.
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Investor's Beat
$9.2 Million TETF Investment

Gov. Rick Perry announced investments totaling $9.2 million through the Texas Emerging Technology Fund (TETF) in three spin-out companies from InCube Labs. The companies are relocating to San Antonio from California.
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Tech Focus
Dr. Steven Wolf, United States Army Institute of Surgical Research    
   By Analisa Nazareno

At the nexus where one cell joins another lies a mysterious, magical material that encourages new cells to form and stimulates the body’s healing and regenerative abilities. This gelatinous substance is called extracellular matrix, or ECM.

Likewise, at the juncture between military service and civilian academia, between laboratory research and clinical treatment, is Dr. Steven Wolf, a research scientist and trauma surgeon. Wolf is part of a team of physicians and scientists throughout the nation that make up the U.S. Armed Forces Institute of Regenerative Medicine (AFIRM). This team is studying ECM and to what extent this material – nicknamed "pixie dust" – can be used to create new body tissue or organs to replace injured, diseased or missing parts. AFIRM is also studying many other fields of regenerative medicine, including the use of adult stem cells, human tissue transplantation, and tissue bridges to help save damaged limbs and fingers.

As the chief of clinical research at the United States Army Institute of Surgical Research (ISR) at Fort Sam Houston, Wolf is working with injured veterans to test whether ECM can help the body regenerate new tissue, when applied directly to damaged or missing muscle. So far, Wolf said, the evidence strongly supports the idea that ECM prompts the body’s cells to start making new cells.

"A couple of wounded guys agreed to help us see if this would be feasible," Wolf said. "There were no complications with either of them. And the muscle mass grew in both."

One soldier lost half of the muscle tissue in his right thigh in a bomb blast. "According to our latest test, he’s now got normal strength" Wolf said. The Pentagon has invested $250 million and is working with more than 100 investigators throughout the nation to study how the body can be urged to regenerate itself. Wolf believes that the results from this work can be applied in every day medical practice throughout the nation. "We are doing our best to help these guys who have been hurt," Wolf said. "And we recognize that if we help them, we help everybody else along the way."

And because service members were typically healthy and strong before suffering their injuries, their chances for success are going to be better. "If it's going to work, it's going to be with these guys," Wolf said. "They are willing and they are motivated. They’re not afraid of operating in an environment where the outcomes are unknown and have chosen a role where the basic goal is to help others. I'm fortunate to be able to give to these soldiers that have given so much for us." Other researchers throughout the nation, such as Dr. Anthony Atala, of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine, and Dr. Steve Badylak, of the University of Pittsburg, are studying whether ECM can be mixed with organ cells to create new body parts outside of the body, in a controlled environment that mimics a human body. Here in San Antonio, Wolf says he is convinced that for the time being, a live, human body is the best environment for the body to regenerate itself. "We regenerate constantly," Wolf said. "Whatever cells your body had two years ago, aren’t there anymore. They are replaced by new cells, but they have the same characteristics as the old ones. That constant turnover is normal biology and we are finding ways to coax that normal biology into fixing parts that have been damaged." Organ cells produce ECM, which serves as a connective matrix for the individual cells making the whole part. It also seems to signal to surrounding cells – in a process that remains a mystery to scientists – when and at what rate to grow.

Wolf said as research continues to provide more answers about the way ECM and human cells combine and regenerate organs, many more questions come up, giving researchers and commercial investors more opportunities to provide solutions and refine the process. Currently, the most commonly used ECM in the market is derived from pig bladder tissue.

"To refine the process, we have to ask ourselves questions. What if you use human ECM? Or pig muscle instead? What if you used human muscle ECM? What if you combined stem cells? Any one of these may be a way to refine and make it better," Wolf said.

As a scientist and a physician, opportunities develop when you "pay attention" and raise questions, Wolf said. "Always be questioning what you are doing. There are opportunities that present themselves every day in patients that you are seeing. There may be a particular way we treat some condition. Why? Can we make it better? We may, we may not, but you don’t know if you don't ask."

The Startech Foundation provides help to inventors and researchers that have innovative solutions that can be productized and taken to market. In addition to working at the Army ISR, Wolf is a professor and vice chairman for research in the Department of Surgery of the School of Medicine at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, where he holds the Betty and Bob Kelso Distinguished Chair in Burn and Trauma Surgery. In his position at the Health Science Center, Wolf sees opportunities for further research of ECM to answer aging questions through the Barshop Institute for Longevity and Aging Studies. Asked where he sees the most opportunity for Bexar County and San Antonio, Wolf said he sees the region being well-positioned as a national center for trauma research. "Trauma is the fourth-biggest killer of people in the country and we have no Federal institution for trauma research," Wolf said, "San Antonio is very well situated to be that center, because we have the Department of Defense with its worldwide center for injury research here. We have a big trauma center with a great medical school and health care researchers. We have Southwest Research Institute, Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research, and a great engineering college at UTSA. We’ve got the infrastructure. It’s just a matter of collaboration, strategic, purposeful investment, and making it happen."

Investor's Beat
Gov. Perry Announces $9.2 Million in TETF Investments in Three Companies - Fund encourages innovation and investment in Texas
By Jim Poage, President & CEO, Startech & STRCIC

Tuesday, September 28, 2010, San Antonio, Texas: – Gov. Rick Perry today announced investments totaling $9.2 million through the Texas Emerging Technology Fund in three spin-out companies from InCube Labs for the development and commercialization of treatments to help patients afflicted by iron-deficiency anemia, epilepsy and atrial fibrillation. The companies are relocating to San Antonio from California, and are in talks with the Institute for Preclinical Studies at Texas A&M University to develop these treatments.

"Recognizing that there is more than a billion dollars of research conducted in Bexar County each year and more than $160 million invested in Startech startup companies in the past six years alone, one can see that InCube is taking advantage of the rich entrepreneurial talent and intellectual property generators in this area to supercharge their growth,” Startech President Jim Poage said. "The Texas Emerging Technology Fund once again demonstrates best in class results to show that Texas is Wide Open for Business."

Read the entire Press Release on our website at:
http://www.startech1.org/press_events/Articles/img-929095303-0001.pdf

Entrepreneur's Corner
Lean Startups and Outcome-Driven Innovation®(1)
By Bruce Hughes, Project Manager, Startech & STRCIC

Steve Blank(2), Eric Ries(3), and the writing team of Brant Cooper and Patrick Vlaskovits(4) have recently been writing and speaking on the topics of Customer Development and Lean Startups.

In brief, Customer Development is based on the career-long observations of Steve Blank that startup companies, particularly in the areas that are most affected by the risk of not obtaining product-market fit before their money is gone. Most start-ups frequently spend their money and energy on activities that do not enhance their understanding of customers.

While some companies, notably biotechnology companies, face their most significant risk in the development of their products, research validation, and regulatory approval, others face the hurdle of understanding the needs of real customers and fitting their products to meet these needs.

Lean startups use the concept of customer development in concert with the idea of creating a minimally acceptable product and getting it in front of actual paying customers as soon as possible. This facilitates the necessary learning the company must gain before it can create a product that the market will find acceptable or desirable. During this process, large expenditures on promotion, business development, and the creation of a sales team are avoided until the management team of the startup has identified and tested a value proposition that real customers will accept.

Another significant element of the entrepreneur’s toolkit is the Outcome-Driven Innovation methodology created by Anthony W. Ulwick of Strategyn. Ulwick asserts that the conventional method of innovation, in which organizations create lists of “customer needs” and ideas for innovations that can satisfy them through a brainstorming and selection process, approaches the customer’s thinking from the wrong direction. This “ideas-first” practice leads to an inefficient and ineffective innovation process. The key insight is that customers do not have needs in the front of their minds; rather customers have jobs they are trying to accomplish. The job rather than the product must be the unit of analysis. Once the jobs the customer wants to accomplish are understood, each job can be further analyzed using a job map, which categorizes the specific process the customer must accomplish to complete the job. The overall job map categories used for analysis are:

• Define the job;
• Locate the necessary resources;
• Prepare for the execution of the job;
• Confirm the job elements can be performed;
• Execute the job tasks;
• Monitor the results of execution;
• Modify the execution based on monitoring feedback; and
• Conclude the job activities.

Once this job analysis has been performed, the opportunity algorithm can be applied to the customer needs derived to determine where the greatest opportunity lies:

Opportunity = Importance + max(Importance – Satisfaction, 0)

When a prioritized list of unmet needs has been derived from customers, this list can be used to dictate which market entry or growth paths to pursue.

For more information on Outcome-Driven Innovation, see the Strategyn website or Ulrich’s book, What Customers Want(5).

(1)Outcome-Driven Innovation is a registered trademark of Strategyn, Incorporated.
http://www.strategyn.com/
(2) http://www.steveblank.com/
(3) http://www.startuplessonslearned.com
(4) http://www.custdev.com/
(5) http://www.isbn.nu/0071408673

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Sales Tips
Trade Show Booths 101
By David Clark, Director of Investment Services, Startech & STRCIC

Now that you’ve decided to attend a trade show, what about your booth? Too many companies create some complicated signage, order matching shirts, then put out a bowl of candy and a stack of business cards.

An effective trade show booth always starts with a clear understanding of your objectives for the booth. Most want the booth to be a source of sales leads. There may be secondary purposes: announce a new product or service, recruit new employees, gather voice of the customer data on a potential new product, etc. Once you are clear as to the objectives you can start the booth design.

Imagine this: You’re standing proudly in your gorgeous new trade show exhibit, flanked by your boss at the opening of your major industry show. The first attendee approaches, staring at the beautiful edifice you helped create -- only to ask, “So… what is it that you do?”

Ouch! To get your message across and avoid hearing that painful question, ask yourself these questions first

• Do your exhibit graphics say who you are, what you do, and what is your benefit to them? When you state those clearly, you’ll bring in more visitors – and more qualified visitors.
• Are you trying to say too much? Trade show attendees walking down the aisle have time to look only at graphics, not read paragraphs. Go for impact over information. Big, bold images and concise copy rule the show floor.
• Are the words on your exhibit legible? Look out for text that is too small, has low contrast with its background, a type font so “creative” it can’t be read, or is hidden by other exhibit components.
• Are your graphics sharp? The digital graphic file that was sharp enough for your brochure may be too small to create high resolution large format exhibit graphics.
• Does your exhibit look like it represents the same company as your other customer touch points – such as your web site, direct mail, or magazine ads? Integrated marketing communications are more memorable than completely different looks in different mediums.

Consider the use of a test monkey. Before you take your booth to a trade show, get someone to come by, stand in front of your booth for 30 seconds, then tell you what your company is all about. This will tell you if you are communicating efficiently.

Once the design is in place think also about:

• Booth location – near entrances, restrooms, and concessions are always good.
• Lead capture – there needs to be some way to systematically capture information – not just collect business cards
• What about giveaways – something they will remember you by not consumables
• Staff – the right people, not just the junior people
• Booth attire – standardized and logo’d is useful
• How to measure results?

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SA Tech Community Spotlight
Technology Connexus Association
By John Hill, TechSage Solutions

Technology Connexus Association (TCA) is a local nonprofit with support from a broad base of local technologists, technology companies, and business leaders. TCA’s purpose is to educate people about developing technologies and to foster the exchange of ideas between people in different disciplines and serve the educational and scientific communities. For the last several years, TCA has been holding a series of quarterly Technology Networking and Educational events to encourage interchange and cross-fertilization among technology and business in the area. In 2011 TCA will be launching an expanded set of programs and events. To get involved in TCA, and to find the date of their next Technology Networking and Educational event, visit their website at www.techconnexus.org.

If you would like to have your tech organization featured, please contact marketing@startech1.org

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No Kidding?
7 Things You Didn’t Know about Hurricanes
By Jocelyn Rice, Discover Magazine

It’s been a busy Hurricane season – and it’s not over yet. Hurricane activity will peak this month when ocean-surface waters are warmest.

1. Our word for these storms comes from Hurakan, a one-legged Mayan deity who summoned the Great Flood from his perch in the windy mists.
2. In North America we call them hurricanes, but in the western Pacific the same storms are known as typhoons. To avoid a tedious argument, meteorologists call them all tropical cyclones.
3. Due to the earth’s rotation, hurricanes spin counterclockwise north of the equator and clockwise south of it.
4. And once and for all: No, flushing your toilet does not do the same thing.
5. We’re going to need a bigger windmill: A typical hurricane releases some 600 trillion watts of heat energy, equivalent to 200 times the world’s total electrical generating capacity.
6. The largest tropical cyclone was 1979’s typhoon Tip, which stretched 1.400 miles across the northwestern Pacific – the distance from Dallas to Washington D.C.
7. Want a storm to call your own? Bad news: the National Hurricane Center already has "a rather large file folder of nominated names."

See the full list of "20 Things You Didn’t Know about Hurricanes" at: http://discovermagazine.com/2009/sep/20-things-you-didn.t-know-about-hurricanes

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From the Tech startup Desk
Small Business Technology Toolkit
Edited by Brett Nelson

Interesting and useful technology information for a small business from the experts at Forbes Magazine.

Forbes Small Business Technology Toolkit.

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