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| | [Actually 12/09/2009]: The May Report: 12/09/2009: Here at TMR when we (I) goof, at least we (I) admit it and reveal it -- so mea culpa on missing the story of Groupon getting $30MM from Accel (and NEA)
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| | December 9, 2009
The May Report: 12/09/2009: Here at TMR when we (I) goof, at least we (I) admit it and reveal it -- so mea culpa on missing the story of Groupon getting $30MM from Accel (and NEA)
Editor and publisher: ron@themayreport.com, ronaldmay@aol.com, www.themayreport.com, 773-525-3944.
If you missed an article, go here: http://www.tmronline.com/A55951/tmrarticles.nsf/vwFullNewsletter
______________________________________
**********************************
The Midwest Entrepreneurs' Forum Wednesday December 9th 2009
Networking Event
Date: Wednesday December 9th, 2009
Time: 5:30 - 9:00 PM
Location: Union League Club - 2nd Floor Lounge 65 West Jackson Chicago, IL.
Cost Online Registration with Credit Card will be $30 for MEF Members and
$40 for Non-Members.
Admission at the Door will be $30 for MEF Members and $40 for Non-Members.
For Online Registration, Please go to:
www.MidwestEntrepreneursForum.Org AND CLICK ON CALENDAR OF EVENTS AND SELECT
NETWORKING EVENT
Reservation fees are non-refundable! By registering on line you agree that
you have read this and that you agree.
*************************************************
_____________________________________
TABLE OF CONTENTS
The Scoop section:
-- Andrew Taylor: Ron, you missed a big story -- the $30MM in funding from Accel for Groupon.com
-- Angela Hardin: Argonne goes to Copenhagen to talk Smart Grid, PHEVs
[May here. Angela, you are doing a good job with PR for Argonne, but just so that you know, traveling has one "l" not two.]
-- The Tech Crunch story on Groupon and the $30MM plus comments
-- Tuesday, December 15: MIT-EF holiday party
-- Ned Heizer was early but by no means the first
-- QuesTek Wins Three SBIR Phase I Awards to Design and Develop Alloys
________________________________
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_______________________________________
The Scoop section:
________________________
Andrew Taylor: Ron, you missed a big story -- the $30MM in funding from Accel for Groupon.com
From: Andrew Taylor andrewjtaylor@yahoo.com
Subject: Re: The May Report: 12/04/2009: Hyde Park Angels and SoftTech VC invest $1MM in ReTel, a firm that was in the New Venture Challenge in 2008; At least Bill Merchantz has a sense of humor, but for Fred, Terry and Ron, we are now in a declared state of war
Date: Tue, 8 Dec 2009 07:16:28 -0800 (PST)
To: The May Report ron@themayreport.com
Ron,
You spent so much energy focusing on vendettas with the ITA and others that you utterly missed the largest early-stage tech story in years in Chicago. The growth of GroupOn, and the resulting $30 million investment from NEA and Accel is a wonderful story that developed right under your nose. You failed to bring it to your readers in favor of rants against those who you perceive have crossed you.
Sorry Ron, but you missed this one.
Best,
Andrew
-------------
The message is short because the keys are small.
On Dec 4, 2009, at 3:17 PM, "The May Report" <ron@themayreport.com>wrote:
_____________________________________
May here. Andrew, thanks for the heads up. I did miss that and yes, I have been distracted, no doubt about it. Being banned from events is a serious matter, especially if you sre supposed to be a reporter. Groupon is not an ITA member and next April, they'll probably miss out on nominating them as they did on FeedBurner. But at that point, why would they or anyone else even care? And Andrew, I don't sit on big stories for several months without revealing them unless there is good reason to do so.
__________________________________
Angela Hardin: Argonne goes to Copenhagen to talk Smart Grid, PHEVs
[May here. Angela, you are doing a good job with PR for Argonne, but just so that you know, traveling has one "l" not two.]
From: Angela Hardin ahardin@anl.gov
Subject: Argonne goes to Copenhagen to talk Smart Grid, PHEVs
Date: Tue, 08 Dec 2009 08:30:33 -0500
To: ron@themayreport.com
I wanted to let you know that two Argonne researchers will be travelling to Copenhagen Thursday to participate in this weekend's Bright Green Expo during the highly anticipated United Nations Climate Change Conference. While world leaders and policymakers address how to confront climate change, some of the globe's leading business and research organizations, including Argonne, will show off their cutting-edge technologies to help mitigate and prevent further climate change. Argonne's Ted Bohn and Keith Hardy will be on hand to discuss how plug-in hybrid electric vehicles fit in with Smart Grid technology and can be used to help slow climate change. Please give me a call if you are interested in speaking with Ted or Keith.
Best regards,
Angela Y. Hardin
Media Relations Specialist
Argonne National Laboratory
9700 S. Cass Avenue
Argonne, IL 60439
Phone: (630) 252-5501
Fax: (630) 252-5274
E-mail: ahardin@anl.gov
www.anl.gov
Follow Argonne on Twitter, Flickr and YouTube
Find an Argonne Expert: https://blogs.anl.gov/expertsguide/
______________________________________
The Tech Crunch story on Groupon and the $30MM plus comments
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/12/02/groupon-gets-a-hefty-30-million-from-accel-for-local-offers-service/
Groupon Gets A Hefty $30 Million From Accel For Local Offers Service
62 Comments
443 retweet Share68by Michael Arrington on December 2, 2009
Chicago based Groupon, which was formerly known as ThePoint, has raised a hefty Series B financing - $30 million - from new investor Accel Partners and existing investor New Enterprise Associates. Accel's Kevin Efrusy joins Groupon's board of directors.
The company is going gangbusters. They offer users deep discounts on local deals - spas, sky diving lessons, hotels, restaurants, golf, whtaever. Discounts range from 40%-90% of the normal price. If enough people buy into the offer, everyone gets the deal. If there aren't enough people, no one gets the deal. Groupon collects payment and passes it on, minus their fee, to the business.
Example - 1,600 people in one day bought skydiving lessons in Chicago, says the company, getting a 44% discount on the $229 price. And the company making the offer normally sells just 6,000 lessons per year. They sacrificed some profit, but gos lots of new customers.
What makes the service so compelling is that people have an incentive to get their friends involved to make sure the minimum is hit. And Groupon makes it easy to spread the word about offers via Facebook and Twitter. Their user acquisition costs? zero.
Groupon generally takes 30% - 50% of the total price paid for the service, and they are on track, they say, to do $100 million in gross merchandise sales in 2010. They reached profitability in June 2009, just six months after launching the service.
Chicago launched first but the site now covers 26 cities and is adding a new one every week. They have 126 employees, more than half of which are sales staff finding new deals for users. The company has now raised about $35 million in aggregate, including an early angel round.
Think they deserve a Crunchie for best application or best new product in 2009? Vote for them here.
get widgetminimize
CrunchBase Information
Groupon
Website: groupon.com
Location: Chicago, Illinois, United States
Founded: November 11, 2008
Funding: $35.8M
Groupon (www.groupon.com) features a daily deal on the best stuff to do, see, eat, and buy in cities across the United States. By promising businesses a minimum number of customers, we can offer deals that aren't available elsewhere.
Groupon... Learn More
Accel Partners
Website: accel.com
Location: Palo Alto, California, United States
Investments: Seeking Alpha, Genius.com, Groupon, NextG Networks, XConnect, VeriVue, YuMe, Sun Run Generation, and more
Accel Partners is a global venture capital firm with offices located in Silicon Valley, London, and India. They typically make multi-stage investments in internet technology companies.
Founded in 1983, Accel Partners has a long history of... Learn More
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Groupon Gets A Hefty $30 Million From Accel For Local Offers Service
62 Comments
443 retweet Share68by Michael Arrington on December 2, 2009
Chicago based Groupon, which was formerly known as ThePoint, has raised a hefty Series B financing - $30 million - from new investor Accel Partners and existing investor New Enterprise Associates. Accel's Kevin Efrusy joins Groupon's board of directors.
The company is going gangbusters. They offer users deep discounts on local deals - spas, sky diving lessons, hotels, restaurants, golf, whtaever. Discounts range from 40%-90% of the normal price. If enough people buy into the offer, everyone gets the deal. If there aren't enough people, no one gets the deal. Groupon collects payment and passes it on, minus their fee, to the business.
Example - 1,600 people in one day bought skydiving lessons in Chicago, says the company, getting a 44% discount on the $229 price. And the company making the offer normally sells just 6,000 lessons per year. They sacrificed some profit, but gos lots of new customers.
What makes the service so compelling is that people have an incentive to get their friends involved to make sure the minimum is hit. And Groupon makes it easy to spread the word about offers via Facebook and Twitter. Their user acquisition costs? zero.
Groupon generally takes 30% - 50% of the total price paid for the service, and they are on track, they say, to do $100 million in gross merchandise sales in 2010. They reached profitability in June 2009, just six months after launching the service.
Chicago launched first but the site now covers 26 cities and is adding a new one every week. They have 126 employees, more than half of which are sales staff finding new deals for users. The company has now raised about $35 million in aggregate, including an early angel round.
Think they deserve a Crunchie for best application or best new product in 2009? Vote for them here.
get widgetminimize
CrunchBase Information
Groupon
Website: groupon.com
Location: Chicago, Illinois, United States
Founded: November 11, 2008
Funding: $35.8M
Groupon (www.groupon.com) features a daily deal on the best stuff to do, see, eat, and buy in cities across the United States. By promising businesses a minimum number of customers, we can offer deals that aren't available elsewhere.
Groupon... Learn More
Accel Partners
Website: accel.com
Location: Palo Alto, California, United States
Investments: Seeking Alpha, Genius.com, Groupon, NextG Networks, XConnect, VeriVue, YuMe, Sun Run Generation, and more
Accel Partners is a global venture capital firm with offices located in Silicon Valley, London, and India. They typically make multi-stage investments in internet technology companies.
Founded in 1983, Accel Partners has a long history of... Learn More
Information provided by CrunchBase
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Comments
Eric (@InterviewBooks) - December 2nd, 2009 at 12:08 am PST
That is a clear business model, final a startup with real profit potential
reply
Heather - December 2nd, 2009 at 7:09 pm PST
Have you heard of BuyWithMe.com? Similar idea but better deals and better website layout too. Based in Boston.
reply
Sam Bensalem (@sambensalem) - December 2nd, 2009 at 12:08 am PST
This is a massive opportunity for others to jump into this space. Groupon can't scale this product that well since it's very B&M.
Seems like a huge market.
reply
George (@jippidy) - December 2nd, 2009 at 1:41 pm PST
$30 Million will help. I'm sure they can ramp investment if needed as well.
reply
Nikolay Kolev (@nikolay) - December 2nd, 2009 at 12:23 am PST
So, back to the Skydiving lessons: 44% discount + 30-50% price cut for Groupon from the end price (56% of the original) = 60.8-72%. How many merchants can give such crazy discounts, i.e. sell their services/products at 28-39.2% of their original price?
reply
Michael Arrington (@arrington) - December 2nd, 2009 at 12:30 am PST
customer acquisition is awesome, and this is a lot cheaper than most ways of advertising.
reply
Nikolay Kolev (@nikolay) - December 2nd, 2009 at 12:40 am PST
"Customers" (loyal group bringing repeat business) or "deal junkies" (a group with totally slutty behavior)?
reply
James Law (@james_law) - December 2nd, 2009 at 1:27 am PST
Not sure how many people "deal junky" Sky Diving?
Doesn't seem like the same sort of purchase impulse as a 40″ flat screen?
If you've got a tight niche like adrenalin junkies sounds like a great way to acquire outside of advertising.
reply
ivoice247 - December 2nd, 2009 at 3:43 am PST
hi arrington,
Gosh!! i have been thinking of this idea for about a couple of months now. Never knew some one had started it. This will be a killer app for facebook. I recommend this for facebook.
Facebook has very good local ads and service delivery due to its large concentration of local users. Lets say facebook has 4 million new york users, imagine getting a flight deal with a particular airline offering 30-50% discounts if it can get up to 100,000 of its new-york users to buy air tickets this season.
Imagine facebook now duplicating this offer for an airline connecting 1,000 cities and destinations. This will be awesome!!! Then facebook can scale this up to offer other new /launching products to multiple cities simultaneously. They can offer every product available direct from manufacturer to end users using courier companies deliver goods. They'll just need to have a database of all members' credit card info to ensure the cards are well funded for the product
They can offer electronic deals, automobile deals, home and office deals, ebooks etc etc If facebook doesnt buy this idea, i wouldn't mind collab with a developer. This is really a simple service with UNLIMITED POTENTIALS!!!
reply
Michael Jung (@michaeljung) - December 2nd, 2009 at 10:10 am PST
+1 MA
PS: I nominated already 2 days ago. See here: http://michaelj...companies-for-a
reply
Prudhvi Dhulipalla - December 2nd, 2009 at 12:36 am PST
Also the deal may not be at such a huge discount,merchants can still offer at whatever they can afford
reply
Tweet in 81 different languages (@twitlan) - December 2nd, 2009 at 12:25 am PST
I would say this idea is most probably out of box..
They are sure to succeed
reply
Prudhvi Dhulipalla - December 2nd, 2009 at 12:35 am PST
Awesome idea ... love it..
reply
Yannick (@yanroux) - December 2nd, 2009 at 12:42 am PST
Any hint on their expansion plans once they are in every US city @arrington?
reply
Nikolay Kolev (@nikolay) - December 2nd, 2009 at 1:17 am PST
They need to lower their fee to 10-15% in order to become mass market (there's roughly 3% in credit card processing fees). 30-50% will keep them niche.
reply
jd - December 2nd, 2009 at 12:55 am PST
Demand aggregation was always a good idea but MobShop and Mercata weren't clever enough.
reply
Divyang (@goospoos) - December 2nd, 2009 at 12:58 am PST
Question of scalability.
reply
Sammy - December 2nd, 2009 at 1:29 am PST
Have been a Groupon user for a few months. Love it. And there are subtleties to it:
a. As MA says, customer acquisition (bucket this into marketing expenses) is a huge thing for most small businesses. SMBs will happily pay the upfront cost.
b. Hidden profit margins: At a typical restaurant where I buy I Groupon, I spend more than the Groupon amount. And that more than helps the merchant make up. A recent Luna Park groupon for $25 off $50 had us spend $90 above and beyond the initial $25.
c. Non-redemptions: A certain percentage of groupons will not be used. This goes straight to the merchant's bottom line.
Many other subtleties to the model, I am sure. Though not sure why they had to go the VC route - sounds like a great cash business in itself.
reply
capital - December 2nd, 2009 at 11:24 am PST
Capital allows faster expansion and provides the avenue to scale to prevent entrants coming in with a lot of money to flush them out. Another reason is to open the company up for the possibility of an acquisition ... ebay, amazon, and the likes would have an interest to expand their e-commerce offerrings.
reply
Aniq Rahman (@anrahman) - December 2nd, 2009 at 2:02 am PST
Amazing. Congrats!
reply
Aniq Rahman (@anrahman) - December 2nd, 2009 at 2:03 am PST
Btw - I think this is exactly how foursquare should proceed.
reply
cease - December 2nd, 2009 at 2:12 am PST
this is a really awesome idea.. the local aspect and woot like limitability make it really unique.
reply
Fabio (@fabiodebe) - December 2nd, 2009 at 2:21 am PST
Like others here I was a bit shocked too in reading that they keep 30-50% of the price paid by the user. Surely the idea is interesting and has potential. There's a huge potential for a massive number of copycats and the real competition will be played by a small number of big companies I believe. Regional availability, variety of the offer and price being the 3 main key drivers for the users and fees + reach those relevant for service providers.
Woot should probably give this business a go too! Moving from products to services shouldn't be too difficult and they definitely already have reach and sales people.
reply
David Evans (@daveevans) - December 2nd, 2009 at 5:45 am PST
I don't think regional makes a difference, as long as the sales team is decent, lots of companies are calling Groupon, no the other way around. We now have several copycats in Boston, all poor imitations competing based on taking less of a %.
reply
Oflife (@Oflife) - December 2nd, 2009 at 2:36 am PST
There was a similar service like this a long time ago from one of the Microsoft founders. I always thought it a great idea, but it didn't take off. Perhaps they were ahead of their time?
Groupon seems like it has arrived on time thanks to the advent of web 2.0 functionality that wasn't 'in' a decade or so ago limiting the concept's scaleability.
reply
Tim Kilroy (@timkilroy) - December 2nd, 2009 at 2:46 am PST
Groupon is a great service. I became a customer of a store because of Groupon...saved $50 on my initial purchase...but have spent 3x the savings in the first 2 months. A similar service is Buy With Me...they have partnerships with local news sites (like Boston.com). The difference between these sites and Mercata is that these sites are focused on either niche products or local services rather than mainstream products (like TVs, etc). These are truly great services that help me discover unique services. Since they are local, they help me become more involved with local businesses...which is a great thing.
reply
Alex Trup (@AlexTrup) - December 2nd, 2009 at 3:13 am PST
This is a business model/idea that has operated successfully in China for a number of year where it's called "Group Buying" ("Tuángòu" / "团è´"). Wikipedia has an intro to it - http://en.wikip...rg/wiki/Tuangou
reply
The Online Backup Guru (@backupguru) - December 2nd, 2009 at 3:46 am PST
A new way to save big $$$, this is great idea, allows consumers to purchase and get bulk rates. Grab you friends.
reply
Chris Savage (@csavage) - December 2nd, 2009 at 4:57 am PST
Mike, another company to check out in this space is buywithme.com . They have a similar approach and model.
They started in Boston and have had many great deals. You should check them out!
reply
My Locator ® - December 2nd, 2009 at 5:18 am PST
40%-90% discounts minus 30%-50% total price paid for service. whats left. 30m for what? how hard would it be for any major social network to create a feature plugin to give the same offers? Facepon? Twitpon? Mypon?
reply
Brad - December 2nd, 2009 at 5:40 am PST
You, my sir, are an idiot. Will you save everyone the hassle of reading your nonsense hating on each and every product or service that is written about? Is 'My Locator' bringing in $30 mill in revenue this year?
How many successful website owners do you see spamming/hating on every Techcrunch post? I would imagine many feel the same as me, I'll never even bother looking at your site/services because you come off as such a tool. Daily.
Hope this helps.
reply
Dave - December 2nd, 2009 at 10:28 am PST
+1 for Brad
Even if the My Locator family of crap was actually worth using, I'd never use something that was run by someone who devotes so much time to hating on other peoples' ideas.
reply
Ivailo - December 3rd, 2009 at 6:46 am PST
+1
reply
kevin - December 2nd, 2009 at 5:19 am PST
i wonder if this is sustainable beyond first time novelty users, and if their first mover advantage is enough to keep out the competition, because the idea is utterly trivial to copy. this is the local version of mobshop (or whatever it was called) which was equally awesome but flamed out.
reply
Justyn (@justyn) - December 2nd, 2009 at 8:32 am PST
The success of this company is all about execution. The "idea" might be easy to copy, but the tipping point which Groupon has achieved requires a good deal of effort/timing/marketing. Hundreds of companies have copied Twitter, none of them have worked. There's also 100+ employees, a ton of revenue and a big sales staff. That in itself is a huge barrier to entry.
reply
Be careful with Groupon - December 2nd, 2009 at 5:28 am PST
.Um, this thing is started by a guy Barron's called a "huckster" in 2007. His name's Eric P. Lefkofsky, and according to Barron's, he has "left a trail of burned investors and fraud allegations" at his companies. Barron's even had an email from Lefkofsky in which he encouraged his team to "be WILDLY positive in our forecasts."
Check out the article yourself. Search for "Barron's Lefkofsky." You can even read his response to the article. Then, you can decide for yourself if you want to give him your credit card info.
reply
Marty Tibbitts - December 2nd, 2009 at 6:14 am PST
I like this idea, but as others have pointed out, it can only work (as is) with businesses that have ridiculously high profits margins, or where add-on purchases or full-profit repeat business are a significant part of the profit model.
So for businesses looking for ignition marketing, it could be a winner, but otherwise? We'll see...
reply
Morgan Warstler (@morganwarstler) - December 2nd, 2009 at 6:19 am PST
The thing is damn genius. It's like crack. As somebody new to Austin, it has made finding new things to do, infinitely easier. Definitely more fun.
reply
Blue Sail Creative (@madebybluesail) - December 2nd, 2009 at 6:55 am PST
I think its smart in the short term but I dont know how the market doesn't automatically correct this. Eventually people will realize that the mob price IS the price, and that they should drive the price even lower.
It would be devastating to the supply side economy and it would become more of a consumer driven economy where people work harder/longer for less and less.
reply
Ryan Graves (@ryangraves) - December 2nd, 2009 at 7:16 am PST
we interviewed Andrew Masonwhen he was about 1 month into the point...
http://actionst...on-thepointcom/
wow, and congrats on his huge successes.
reply
Matt Hunter (@matthunter) - December 2nd, 2009 at 8:31 am PST
"whtaever"
reply
AndreaF - December 2nd, 2009 at 9:01 am PST
Great service. When are they coming to Europe?
reply
soiebrute - December 2nd, 2009 at 9:46 am PST
Thanks for the article, but there are so many typos...doesn't TechCrunch employ proofreaders?
reply
Kim (@pigsareflying) - December 2nd, 2009 at 10:21 am PST
I live in NYC and have found that GroupOn deals can be a little touristy (ie Botanical Gardens) - it's apparent they don't live here. There's a similar model here called Scoop St. that features deals I actually use.
http://www.scoopst.com/
reply
Lindsey (@theschwalb) - December 2nd, 2009 at 1:12 pm PST
I'm in Washington DC and a good amount of our deals are "touristy" too. If they look like something I'd enjoy doing with out-of-town visitors, I typically buy them anyway (as long as they don't have a looming expiration date). It's always nice to be able to do something a little different with the tourists, plus it's something I probably wouldn't have tried otherwise so it's fun exposure for me too.
reply
Juvaly - December 2nd, 2009 at 11:51 am PST
"Their user acquisition costs? zero."
Not accurate - they do offer a $10 referral fee. A fair share of the fee they collect for the average offers.
Still a great business!
reply
Brian - December 5th, 2009 at 2:24 pm PST
Agreed.
Groupon is spending a TON of money on online ads.
reply
Dan - December 2nd, 2009 at 4:12 pm PST
Really interesting space - starting to transform local business advertising and turning it upside down.
I'm in Los Angeles, and a friend just passed along a seemingly similar site: http//www.SwoopOff.com
reply
Brent Harrison (@smokejumper) - December 3rd, 2009 at 11:53 am PST
Thanks Mike for the coverage.
Here is my blog post on a small merchant's perspective on Groupon: http://bit.ly/6q5O2O
Cheers,
Brent
reply
Joseph (@jos3ph) - December 3rd, 2009 at 3:55 pm PST
Great post, Brent. Nice to hear from an actual business user's perspective rather than the typical TC prognosticator.
reply
scott - December 3rd, 2009 at 1:55 pm PST
does anyone know what commission they charge businesses?
reply
Joseph (@jos3ph) - December 3rd, 2009 at 3:52 pm PST
Y'all remember when we found out Etsy made a billion dollars a year, but the customer base was 99% women so we had no idea?
In my experience, Groupon's demographic is quite similar. My fiance is totally hooked and buys and shares a painful percentage of the daily deals emailed to her here in Austin to the point that I've considered secretly unsubscribing her from their mailing list. It's crazy.
reply
yeahno - December 3rd, 2009 at 5:49 pm PST
Yeah, Etsy doesn't make a billion dollars a year.
reply
Michael Imbleau - December 4th, 2009 at 7:53 pm PST
At first glance this concept looks brilliant. But I wonder if it actually only works from a consumer standpoint. Does this work from a merchant perspective? Yes a store wants to sell volumes of inventory...but do they want to hold back. By waiting for group purchases, do they just delay sales (and potentially lose customers)?
reply
Josh - December 5th, 2009 at 3:44 pm PST
Another one from Chicago! Everybody I know uses Groupon, maybe some of you Valley guys should spending some more time out in the mid-west.
reply
hhh - December 6th, 2009 at 2:56 pm PST
Ridiculous. This is years old. This company also started in 2008? That is the thing with people. People are not creative and just copy the people who had the creativity and action to reach for their dreams asap. Usually just get in the way - by diluting the originators effect and temporarily distracting but fortunately short lived most of the time. Not everyone is an ENTREPRENEUR. Once the masses start doing it, time to move on and create another innovation.
reply
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When
Tuesday December 15
6:00-9:00 pm
Where
Catalyst Ranch (Polka Room)
656 W. Randolph, Suite 3W
Chicago, IL 60661
www.catalystranch.com
Cost
Free to members; $30 advance payment for non-members/guest; $40 for non-member/guest after Dec. 14
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Ned Heizer was early but by no means the first
From: HARVEYT820@aol.com
Subject: Re: The May Report: 12/08/2009: The father of venture capital in Chicago and maybe even the whole country is dead at 80; Too many events coming up; ITA board meeting Wednesday morning
Date: Tue, 8 Dec 2009 19:07:05 EST
To: ron@themayreport.com
re ned heizer. he was an early venture guy (and a difficult one) but he was by no means the first. i would name draper, gaither and anderson, of palo alto, ca as one of the evry early ones. i believe they strated up in the 1950"s
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QuesTek Wins Three SBIR Phase I Awards to Design and Develop Alloys
From: Rich Kooy rkooy@questek.com
Subject: News Release - QuesTek Wins Three SBIR Phase I Awards to Design and Develop Alloys
Date: Tue, 8 Dec 2009 18:36:37 -0600
To: ron@themayreport.com
Hi Ron,
This news was released today by QuesTek, and may interest you or your readers.
Regards,
Rich
Rich Kooy, P.E.
Director of Sales and Marketing
QuesTek Innovations LLC
1820 Ridge Avenue, Evanston, IL USA 60201
Office Tel 847-425-8213 | Cell 847-528-5016
rkooy@questek.com | www.questek.com
QUESTEK WINS THREE SBIR PHASE I AWARDS TO DESIGN AND DEVELOP ALLOYS
QuesTek will Design and Develop Three New Alloys to
Address Compelling Energy, Aerospace, Environmental and Operational Needs
EVANSTON, IL, Dec. 8, 2009 - QuesTek Innovations LLC was recently awarded three Phase I Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) projects to design and develop new alloys for the U.S. Department of Energy and the Office of Naval Research. The awards expand QuesTek's on-going record of innovation for governmental and commercial entities. The three recent project awards are:
1. "Computational Design of Oxidation- and Creep-Resistant Niobium Superalloys for High Temperature Turbine Applications" awarded by the U.S. Department of Energy. QuesTek will design and develop oxidation- and creep-resistant niobium-based superalloys to enable high temperature turbines to operate with metal temperatures of 1,300°C (2,372°F) and above. Land-based turbines operating at these high temperatures could achieve far higher efficiencies and lower CO2 emissions than current equipment, and could further the development of Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) hydrogen-fueled, very-low-emission gas turbines and ultra-high-temperature steam turbines. Commercial and military aerospace turbine engines using these superalloys could also achieve significant gains in efficiency and performance output at these high operating temperatures. This is a nine-month, $99,967 SBIR program.
2. "Computational Design of Cost-Effective, Oxidation- and Creep-Resistant Alloys for Coal-Fired Power Plants" awarded by the U.S. Department of Energy. QuesTek will design and develop novel, cost-effective alloys for advanced ultra-supercritical power plants with steam temperatures of 760°C (1,400°F). QuesTek will investigate and assess three novel new microstructural concepts by: using robust, proprietary computational models to design novel new compositions; manufacturing prototype ingots of select materials at an intermediate scale; and performing physical tests to demonstrate the ability of the new materials to address creep strength, thermal fatigue, oxidation resistance and other properties. Increasing the steam temperature of advanced ultra-supercritical boilers can raise the operating efficiency of next-generation coal-fired power plants and address compelling environmental issues. This is a nine-month, $99,936 SBIR program.
3. "Computational Design of High-Strength, Anodize-Free Stainless Aluminum Alloys for Aerospace Applications" awarded by the U.S. Office of Naval Research and solicited by the Office of the Secretary of Defense. QuesTek will design and develop a new high-strength, anodize-free stainless aluminum alloy that will have intrinsic corrosion behavior similar to anodized 7xxx alloys and mechanical properties equivalent to non-anodized 7075-T6 alloy. Most aerospace aluminum alloys are anodized in order to enhance corrosion resistance, but anodization can reduce fatigue strength by as much as 40% and typically generates a hazardous waste stream. QuesTek will use its state-of-the-art computational design tools, custom thermodynamic and kinetic databases, microstructural evolution models, physics-based strength models, solidification process simulations, and stress-corrosion cracking models. Naval aerospace, commercial aviation, marine structures and other applications are expected to benefit from this new alloy. This is a six-month, $99,995 SBIR program.
Charlie Kuehmann, President and CEO of QuesTek, commented: "We appreciate these awards from the DOE, the ONR and the OSD to design and develop next-generation, high-performance materials. These projects build upon our record of material design successes for energy, aerospace and other industries, such as our Ferrium® C61™ and Ferrium C64™ alloys for applications such as high-power-density, high-durability power transmission and our Ferrium S53® ultra-high-strength, corrosion-resistant alloy for applications such as aircraft landing gear."
ABOUT QUESTEK
QuesTek Innovations LLC (www.questek.com) is a global leader in computational materials design. QuesTek uses its proprietary Materials by Design® expertise to quickly develop new materials that reduce capital, processing, operating or maintenance costs, or improve environmental protection, competitive supply or competitive advantage. QuesTek has been highlighted in many leading business and technical publications, and has more than 30 patents awarded or pending worldwide. For more information, contact Rich Kooy at 1-847-425-8213 or rkooy@questek.com.
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