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Startups January 8, 2020

After successful seed, Qunnect set for ludicrous speed

By GREGORY ZELLER // Marking another quantum leap for cybersecure long-distance communications, a high-tech Stony Brook University spinoff has completed a key financing round. Qunnect LLC, a 2017 startup launched by a Stony Brook PhD and the head of the university’s Quantum Information Technology Group, has closed its $800,000 seed round, an oversubscribed financing cycle backed by the Accelerate NY Seed Fund, French venture-capital fund Quantonation – the first VC fund dedicated to quantum technologies…

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Startups October 25, 2018

Startup eyes quantum leap in ‘unhackable’ networking

By GREGORY ZELLER // Quantum-memory applications that can prevent hackers from accessing digital-communications networks? At room temperature? Pshaw, you say! Actually, you probably don’t say “pshaw” or make any other dismissive comment, because unless you’re a quantum-information expert with a PhD in nanotechnology – or you’re otherwise familiar with quantum-repeater nodes, single-photon wave packets and other niceties of quantum IT – this likely sounds like so much recycled “Star Trek” gobbledygook. But it’s hardly that….

Startups September 13, 2018

For the Boyz From New York, style is an attitude

By GREGORY ZELLER // “Streetwear” may be rooted in the California surf culture, but the hoodies and hats in the Boyz From New York catalogue represent a decidedly different state of mind. Popularized first by Left Coast surfers and skaters, streetwear encompasses many elements of so-called “hip-hop fashion” (the clotheshorses over at GQ can tell you more). All of those elements – comfort, functionality, attitude – are front-and-center at circa-2018 startup Boyz From New York…

Startups August 22, 2018

Healthier pet treats: All Talk, with lots of bite

By GREGORY ZELLER // It doesn’t exactly figure that a retired caterer and a longtime electrician specializing in concert stage lighting would craft a small-business success story focused on pet treats. But Margaret and Bruce McDonough loved their dog. And when the poor pup passed away too soon, and the culprit was determined to be what Margaret McDonough described as “chicken products from China,” the mission basically presented itself. It was actually Margaret who founded…

Startups August 7, 2018

As 3D printing soars, startup provides the missing ink

By GREGORY ZELLER // With some help from Stony Brook University, a high-tech startup is helping the additive manufacturing industries find their form. Additive manufacturing, a splashy term for manufacturing via 3D printing, is quickly becoming an everyday thing. Everything from machine parts to deadly weapons to entire life-sized buildings is now being “printed” in composite materials – potentially, a redefinition of basic construction and manufacturing principles as we understand them. But a science with…

Startups July 11, 2018

For ‘vehicle-to-grid’ startup, all roads lead to CEBIP

By GREGORY ZELLER // Technological tinkering comes easily to Ryan McIntosh, a do-it-yourself type with a mind for business and a clear affinity for mechanical constructs. Less clear to the self-described inventor and New Jersey City University graduate – he earned a degree in business administration, though “I was born an engineer” – are the finer points of patent law and commercialization. But he’s no dummy in this regard, either. And as McIntosh and his…

Startups June 26, 2018

In the iced tea business, some like it hot

By GREGORY ZELLER // From the When You’re Hot, You’re Hot file comes the PeKANT Tea Co., a sort of Nestea plunge for the hot-pepper set. Cofounders Michael Circosta and Michael Romano, both longtime regional sales reps for Massachusetts-based medical-device titan Boston Scientific, are now about three years into their spicy entrepreneurial adventure, which crosses its teas with molten-hot habaneros – adding a tongue-numbing, surprisingly refreshing kick to the traditional sweet tea. It sounds counterintuitive…