Source: Boston Business Journal

Boston and New York may be equals when it comes to fielding strong athletic teams, but their economies are worlds apart. Boston's economic output is valued at roughly $300 billion — good enough to rank ninth overall in the United States. But tops on that list is New York City, the only U.S. metropolitan area with a trillion-dollar economy, according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. The New York City area's gross metropolitan product (GMP) was $1.26 trillion last year — four times that of Boston's. GMP measures the total output of the annual goods and services within a given metropolitan area. Other Massachusetts metros to make the list included Worcester ($28.4 billion) and Springfield ($22.3 billion).(More)

Source: Mass High Tech

Drug developer Momenta Pharmaceuticals Inc. said it plans to raise $40.6 million by selling roughly 4 million shares of common stock.

Boston-based investment bank Leerink Swann & Co. will manage the offering. Momenta has granted Leerink Swann a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 600,000 shares of the company’s common stock to cover an oversubscription to the offering. The stock sale is expected to close on Sept. 28. The offering will not include any newly registered shares, Momenta said. Momenta’s (Nasdaq:MNTA) stock dropped more than 5 percent to $10.97 a share in late trading on Wednesday.
Analysts have had high hopes for Momenta, especially since the U.S. Congress recently advanced legislation to create a legal pathway for generic biologic drugs, known as biosimilars, or follow-on biologics. Based in Cambridge, Momenta seeks to develop generic forms of biosimilars. But the company has been burning through cash at a rapid pace. (More)

Source: Mass High Tech

Source: R&D Magazine

Members of a House Small Business Subcommittee examined how federal labs partner with small businesses to spur technological breakthroughs, bring new products to market and support local economic growth. Rep. Glenn Nye (D-VA), the Chairman of the House Committee on Small Business' Subcommittee on Contracting and Technology chaired the hearing, which featured Hampton Roads area entrepreneurs who work with NASA at the agency's Langley Research Center and Wallops Flight Facility. 

"American innovations in technology aren't just found in Silicon Valley, they are being pioneered by cutting edge small businesses around the country," Chairman Nye said. "Entrepreneurs perform valuable work that advances our government's research goals in everything from energy to agriculture to space exploration." To read more, click here.

Source: Mass High Tech

Are entrepreneurs born for it, or are they made? Are some people simply wired for innovation, born to be risk-takers, or can you teach the willing how to be successful at growing and building a startup? To answer those questions, we sought out Ken Morse, the former head of MIT's Entrepreneurship Center who recently stepped down and is writing a book on global entrepreneurship, and Paul Sagan, president and CEO of Akamai Technologies, which has its roots at MIT. Sagan is no stranger to Q&A interviews: He is a three-time Emmy Award winner for broadcast journalism.
To read more, click here.

Source: MAss High Tech

Revenue shot up at two of the top three New England medical device firms in 2008, mainly because the year's sales didn't reflect the full effects of the recession. The same three New England medical device firms - Philips Healthcare, Covidien PLC and Boston Scientific Corp. - top this year's list of the highest revenue generators in the sector.

Philips remained at the top of the list with sales shooting to $11.1 billion in 2008 from $8.9 billion in 2007. The year's sales numbers may seem flush, but the Royal Philips Electronics NV division also cut 1,600 employees, including 100 employees from its Andover headquarters in 2008.

To read more, click here.

Source: Mass High Tech

The recession has been rough on Kika Medical Inc., even though its sales have been strong. Getting funded has been the problem.

After closing on $4 million in Series C venture funding earlier this year, Kika, which makes a software-as-a-service clinical research platform, planned to take on $3 million in venture debt - until the New York-based venture debt firm Kika was working with fell victim to the recession and shut down.

"So we never got the additional $3 million," said Kika CEO Linda Beneze.

As a result, Kika couldn't execute its full strategy, according to Beneze. The 12-year-old clinical trials software company is profitable, and it launched a new software platform in June of last year that it is showing to pharmaceutical companies, biotechs and large contract research organizations.

To read more, click here.

Source: Mass High Tech]

Venture capital investors are notorious for investing in a startup, then replacing its founder with a more-seasoned CEO from their network. But that's not always the case. We spoke with four CEOs who have taken their tech company from zero to fast-paced growth as a first-timer in the corner office - and are still at the helm.

Stephen Randall
Company: LocaModa Inc.
Location: Cambridge
Web: http://locamoda.com/
Business: Mobile-to-mass-media communication software
Traction: Founded 2005; hopes to have screens in 50,000 public locations by year's end

What have you personally found difficult as CEO?
In the U.S., there's much more of a can-do attitude. And if the CEO says something, it's taken as an order. Sometimes I say something as a devil's advocate, expecting people to defend their position. Sometimes I say, ‘I'm the CEO, but in this meeting, I am a colleague and I want you to challenge me.' In that respect, the CEO is a more lonely post that it might be in Europe.

To read more, click here.

Source: Mass High Tech

We asked tech company executives and entrepreneurs "Myth or Fact: Tough times are the best time to hire good people cheap." We were surprised at what we heard back: Hiring on the cheap may be possible, but is it a good growth strategy? Most of those we spoke with were more interested in being fair than in taking advantage of tough times to get ahead. 

While it is true that it's easier to find good people in a down economy, we found that the salaries we paid are equivalent to those paid in an up economy. The benefit of recruiting this summer was that we did have more folks willing to work for a riskier startup than we expected. Another benefit: Recruiting costs were lower than in the past.

To read more, click here.

Source: Mass High Tech

The Great Recession may have put a damper on startups' ability to raise capital and grow, but the lousy economy hasn't seemed to stem the flow of technology companies getting started.

Officials at several incubators say the downturn has boosted interest in their small, shared space offerings: Recent graduates and laid-off engineers are looking to break out on their own rather than search for work. The combination of inexpensive lab space, connections with companies or universities and the opportunity to take on student interns makes starting a company on a shoestring slightly less daunting when you have a project ready to go.
To read more, click here.

Source:Mass High Tech

Amoskeag Business Incubator
33 South Commercial St,
Manchester, NH 03101
603-629-9511
www.abi-nh.com
Contact: Ed French, Chairman
Companies being
incubated: 16
Specialty: Mixed-use
Services: Business plan review and recommendations, quarterly goal setting and monitoring, counseling, resource referrals, internship coordination, access to Business Support Committee, free seminars and workshops, regular CEO business meetings, networking events, wifi, access to Southern NH University's library, newsletter publication, service provider and group purchase discounts, free notary services, complementary press releases
Facility Description: Conference rooms, kitchenette, office equipment room, copy machine, Fax machine, LCD projector

BioSquare Discovery and Innovation Center
650 Albany St, Boston, MA  02118
617-358-5024
www.biosquare.org
Contact: Jack Cohan, Manager
Companies being
incubated: 12
Specialty: Life sciences
Services: Access to value-added biomedical and operational core services, allowing tenants the convenience of utilizing specialized services and facilities without incurring considerable expense.
Partners: Boston University and Boston Medical Center
Size: 20,000 sq. ft.

For a complete list, click here.

Source: Mass High Tech

 GSI Group Inc., a developer of laser-based technologies, has received a delisting notice from the Nasdaq Stock Market, this time for failing to maintain the exchange's minimum stock-price threshold of $1 per share for 30 consecutive business days. The notice was GSI's third delisting notice this year.

In August, Bedford-based GSI (Nasdaq: GSI) said it received a second non-compliance notice from the Nasdaq over its delayed financial filings for the quarter ended July 3. The company was issued another delisting notice earlier in the year stemming from the delayed filing of annual and quarterly financial reports, as well as GSI's ongoing probe into revenue booked between 2004 and 2008.
To read more, click here.

Source: Mass High Tech

The National Venture Capital Association has released its report on VCs' impact on the U.S. economy. The report says in 2008, VC-backed companies generated about $3 trillion in revenue and employed about 12 million people in the United States. The report also says VC backed companies have out-performed non-VC-backed companies, and that VCs create whole industries more or less out of thin air.

That all sounds good, but Vivek Wadhwa, a researcher at Harvard, Duke and UC-Berkeley (a hat trick I would have thought to be physically impossible) calls B.S. at TechCrunch, saying the NVCA is trying to justify tax breaks and bailout dough for VCs:

How'd they come up with these numbers? They added up all the revenue generated in 2008 by any company a venture capitalist ever invested a dime in. So if John Doerr bought Bill a lunch in 1985, they'd count Microsoft as part of their empire. Maybe I'm exaggerating a bit. But seriously, the NVCA numbers aren't even remotely credible. To read more, click here.

Source: Boston Business Journal

Some of the largest hospital groups in Massachusetts improved their financial performance in the fiscal third quarter, a positive sign for an industry caught flat-footed last year when the global credit crisis roiled endowments and funding plans.

But with heavy investment losses happening in every corner of the economy, hospital executives said fewer major gifts of more than $10 million have materialized during the current fiscal year. That has hurt a key source of revenue across the board.

At Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Inc., for example, total fundraising contributions fell 27 percent to $95.4 million during the nine months that ended June 30. And the hospital’s expenses for raising money increased to 13 percent of total fundraising contributions. That was up 2 percentage points from a year ago, according to financial statements.(more)

Source: New England Tech Wire

U.S. video game sales slid for the sixth month in a row in August, down 16% from a year ago to $909 million, and are now down 14% year-to-date, according to sales data compiled by market research firm NPD Group. Hardware sales fell 25% to $298 million, with Nintendo again leading with sales of 244,400 Wii consoles and 552,900 DS handhelds. Microsoft's Xbox 360 sold 215,400 units, while a cheaper PlayStation 3 pushed sales up to 210,000 for the month, up 72% from July. "The price cuts implemented on the PS3 and 360 hardware already made an impact on unit sales, despite having been executed fairly late in the month. It will be interesting to see the full impact of the new price points on September sales," said NPD analyst Anita Frazier. Electronic Arts' "Madden NFL 10" was predictably the top-selling game in August, with sales of nearly 1.9 million units across all platforms.

Source: New England Tech Wire

A public-private partnership on Thursday launched a new web site, designed to serve as the central element of the "Massachusetts: It's All Here" marketing campaign. State officials are calling the site, massitsallhere.com, a one-stop portal to public, private and academic partners, with a focus on retaining existing employers and attracting new jobs, businesses and creative talent to Massachusetts. "The [site] will provide an innovative, collaborative and sustainable platform for telling the Massachusetts story," said Greg Bialecki, the state's secretary of housing and economic development, calling it a "critical resource in our ongoing efforts to promote the state's global strengths." The site was designed by Boston-based marketing agency 451 Marketing, in conjunction with the Department of Business Development, MassEcon, MassDevelopment and the Massachusetts International Trade Council. To know more, click here.

Source: LFW

Hard X Ray free-electron laser is major milestone for researchers, p.33. Scientist now have access to the world's most brilliant source of hard x-rays at the Linac Coherent Light Source.

OCT aims for industrial application, p.41-45. The speed, precision, and cost benefits of optical coherence tomography are beginning to attract the interest ofindustrial end users. For detailed subsurface imaging of small, semiopaque 2-D surface areas or 3-D structures, OCT is just the thing.

Source: Mass High Tech

Cliff Robinson has stepped down from his position as director of the Boston University Business Incubator Program, but he will remain a consultant to the university.

Robinson told Mass High Tech he left BU two weeks ago "on good terms" through an early retirement program and was asked to be an advisor to the program and to vice president of research Andrei Ruckenstein.

A BU spokesman said director of new ventures Al Hawkins took over day-to-day operations of the incubator, which is housed in the BU Photonics Center and home to a dozen early-stage life science, IT and clean technology companies. A permanent replacement has not been named.

Source: Xconomy

The pace of everything in Massachusetts seems to slow in August, and startup financings were not an exception this year. But despite the tail off from July’s big deal-making surge, investments in Bay State startups looked pretty good last month. All told, VCs pumped $179.2 million into 21 deals, according to data provided to Xconomy by ChubbyBrain, a New York-based information services company developing tools for investors, startups, and aspiring entrepreneurs. And while the August tally was below the $215 million and 25 deals seen in July, it was nicely above June’s total of $139.5 million invested in 15 deals—and has to be seen as more evidence that the economy is on the rebound. The biggest venture deal of the month was a $29 million Series D round for Gloucester Pharmaceuticals. The money came at a great time for the cancer drug developer and its investors: in early September, just a few weeks after the round closed, Gloucester’s drug for cutaneous T-cell lymphoma, romidepsin, was recommended for approval by the FDA’s cancer drug panel.

(more)

Source: Bay Area Tech Wire

In a bid to increase collaboration between Irish tech entrepreneurs and Silicon Valley, the Campbell-based Irish Technology Leadership Group (ITLG) said on Thursday that it will launch a $100 million venture capital fund, focusing on high-potential Irish startups. The group, working in connection with the Irish Innovation Alliance of Trinity College Dublin (TCD) and University College Dublin, also plans to open an Irish Tech Center in San Jose this January, and engage in several other related projects. The San Jose-based fund, to be known as Irish Technology Capital (ITC), will be co-led by ITLG Chairman John Hartnett and Silicon Valley venture capitalist Richard Moran. "Connecting into Silicon Valley, the heart of innovation and venture capital, for both graduate training and business investment is a breakthrough for Ireland," said John Hegarty, the provost of TCD.

To read more, click here.

Source: MHT

The clean energy economy is on its way, thanks in part to federal stimulus funding, and Massachusetts is ready to leverage those dollars for enduring leadership in the industry.

Since taking office, Gov. Deval Patrick has focused on the economic potential of clean energy. He saw, before most people, that the volatility of fossil-fuel prices and the threat of climate change were going to force the world toward a future of clean, renewable energy ­- and that developing and commercializing the technologies that make clean energy a reality would be an opportunity for Massachusetts.

"If we get this right, the world will be our customer," the governor often states.

For more information, click here.

Source: Mass High Tech

Venture capitalist David Wells has been investing in clean tech with the renowned firm Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield and Byers since 2006, after spending two years mapping out a landscape of cleantech opportunities and technology. Wells will be a panelist at Mass High Tech's Finance Forum on Sept. 24. He spoke with reporter Galen Moore.

MHT: What do cleantech companies need from VCs?
Wells: At Kleiner, we see venture investing really as a service business. We're here to help our entrepreneurs build great companies that change the world. When you look at it that way, cleantech companies don't really need anything different from a VC investor than anybody else does. The one added bit is that cleantech is a vast landscape. I think one of the things that's challenging for entrepreneurs is to have perspective across that landscape. If I were to point to one thing that maybe is a little different, it is that we're able to help bring landscape perspective to entrepreneurs more than in some other sectors.

To read more, click here.

Source: optics.org

Laser Lines announce that they are now partnering with KM Labs on the supply of ultra high performance oscillators, regen and multipass amplifiers.

Source: OPN September 2009

Global Investments in Scientific R&D, p.12-13: click here.

Liquid Mirrors in Engineering, p.14-17:Liquid deformable mirrors are a young but promising technology. They offer engineers a lower-cost alternative to their solid counterparts as well as the ability to generate extremely large deformations. click here.

Invitation to a Conversation with John Sadowsky, distinguished professor at Grenoble Graduate School of Management and entrepreneurial expert, on

"The Changing Face of Leadership"
on Monday September 14th, 7:45 am - 9:30 am
at swissnex Boston, Consulate of Switzerland,
420 Broadway
Cambridge, MA 02138
The Consulate of Switzerland/swissnex Boston invites you to join us for an informal discussion with John. Breakfast will be served.

John Sadowsky has over 20 years experience working on 5 continents. His roles have included entrepreneur, CEO, professor, consultant, and leadership coach. John holds an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and a doctorate in Business Administration from Newcastle University. Currently  istinguished professor of leadership at the Grenoble Graduate School of Business in France, John also lectures in marketing and intercultural management. John's research focuses on leadership development and the process of learning to communicate as a leader.

As consultant and coach, John has worked with a wide range of companies and individuals-from entrepreneurs such as Nick Heys at Emailvision to the General Electric European Women's Network-in the areas of leadership, team building and  effective communication. In the last five years, he has worked with 25 companies in 15 countries.

AMONG HIS TOPICS:

Entrepreneur to leader: Why are the skills of the entrepreneur and the leader so different, and how can entrepreneurs become effective business leaders as their enterprises grow?

Entrepreneurs learn to tell your story: Whether making a presentation to sell an idea to potential investors, motivating employees, or, for that matter, convincing any of the enterprise's stakeholders, an entrepreneur must learn to tell stories of identity for himself and his business stories that inspire those around him. This critical skill can be learned and practiced.

Myths and realities of leadership: In my 15 years of working with leaders, I have found that society still has a somewhat stereotypical view of what constitutes effective leadership and how it actually happens. In brief, we tend to cling to the image that leaders are blessed with a divine "gift", or born with charisma, or forged by some extraordinary experience that prepared them for a leadership role.The reality of leadership is quite different. Whether we talk famous "heroes" like Gandhi, business managers, or youth basketball coaches, effective leadership happens when ordinary people make the decision to lead. I can give my perspective, and lead a discussion, about why the myths exist and about what it takes to be effective.

More information about John's work can be found on his website

For more information and to RSVP, please contact kati@swissnexboston.org

Source: Mass High Tech

Wind, solar and tidal power, batteries and hybrid cars have all attracted entrepreneurs who become advocates for a core technology. But those entrepreneurs often watch what else is happening in cleantech as a whole. So we asked a star chamber of cleantech providers, venture capitalists and entrepreneurs in which industry (not their own) would they invest their own hard-earned dollars — and which technologies would they steer clear from.

Steve Kaufman, CEO of Alteris Renewables Inc., summarized the criteria as “solutions that provide strong financial return, can be implemented quickly and provide real environmental benefits.

Cleantech draws comparison to the dot-com bubble, but clean technology simmers rather than boils. “Four guys in a garage can create a software startup, but (an energy startup) takes tens of millions of dollars in the world’s slowest-moving business: electricity,” said F. William Capp, president and CEO of flywheel energy-storage company Beacon Power Corp. in Tyngsboro. “If you want to create an idea and see it go viral, you don’t do that connected with the energy grid.”

Ultimately, the economics must make sense.

“Solar (is successful) in Germany because they have a feed-in tariff of 40 cents per kilowatt, which spawned the solar industry because people could sell power into the grid,” observes William “Wilbur” James, a managing general partner of Boston-based Rockport Capital Partners.

Similar economics favor wind in Scandinavia. (more)

Source: Tech Shout

Scientists at IBM seemed to have paved a novel path for the exploration of using molecules and atoms at the smallest possible scale. (more)

Source: OptoIQ

A low-cost, imaging-based force-feedback device has been created that allows users to perceive real Brownian motion and viscosity when using optical tweezers; in effect, the user can "feel the force" exerted as objects are manipulated by a trapped bead.¹ The device is the result of a collaborative effort by researchers from the Université Pierre et Marie Curie (Paris, France), CEA Laboratoire Interfaces Sensorielles (Fontenay-aux-Roses, France), the University of Glasgow (Glasgow, Scotland), and the University of Bristol (Bristol, England).

Optical tweezers are in widespread use for the micromanipulation of objects in cell biology, nanotechnology, and microengineering applications. Unfortunately, use of a mouse or standard joystick does not let the operator know what force is being exerted, and more-sophisticated force-feedback methods such as haptic guidance-using an artificial force field-are in their infancy. Recognizing that optical tweezers can also be used for force measurements, the research team seized on the opportunity to use the actual forces acting on a bead (measuring the magnitudes of the forces by analyzing images from a high-speed video camera), and coupled those force measurements to a low-cost commercial haptic interface-the Falcon by Novint (Albuquerque, NM). To read more, click here.