See you, September: It’s the midpoint of another busy workweek, dear readers, as October beckons and September clings on for dear life.
Regardless of the calendar, we remain focused on the task at hand: relentless socioeconomic innovation. Let’s do this thing!
Cool beans: Wednesday is National Coffee Day. Friday is International Coffee Day. In between is Thursday, which is just Thursday. Celebrate it with coffee.
Finishing strong: Today is Sept. 29, the fifth (and obviously last) Wednesday in September – meaning it’s National Women’s Health & Fitness Day, self-billed as the largest U.S. event promoting women’s wellbeing.
This will perk you up: September 29 is also National Coffee Day (as if you need the excuse).
For the record, Friday is International Coffee Day (as if you need the excuse).
VFW post: You know who liked coffee? Spanish-American War vet James Putnam. (Actually, we don’t know that … but we do know Putnam founded the nonprofit Veterans of Foreign Wars on this date in 1899, to service servicemen and women who toiled on foreign soil, or in hostile waters.)
No static at all: Not quite … but inventor Thomas Edison, noting “harsh, unpleasant scratchy sounds” accompanying most early recordings, patented an “Improvement to Phonograph-Records” 107 years ago today.
Other U.S. patents issued on this date include a “Spur Attachment For Leggings,” which made it easier to attach and remove riding spurs from pants legs and kicked in for inventor and U.S. Army Capt. William Brown on Sept. 29, 1903.
FM: Not quite … but the first transcontinental and intercontinental radio transmissions were made on this date in 1915, when a radiotelephone call was connected between U.S. Navy stations in Virginia and California, then relayed to Honolulu.
A piece of the Rock: Oil magnate John D. Rockefeller is the wealthiest American of all time.
The rich get richer: John Davison Rockefeller became the world’s first billionaire on Sept. 29, 1916, when share prices of his Standard Oil Co. spiked. (For those keeping score, his net worth at the time was an adjusted $340 billion, in 2021 dollars.)
Political science: And with a dual mandate to unite the post-war world and ramp up global scientific research, CERN – the European Organization for Nuclear Research – was founded on Sept. 29, 1954.
CERN now operates the world’s largest particle-physics laboratory, located on the French-Swiss border near Geneva.
The pope physicist: Speaking of nuclear research, Nobel Prize-winning Italian-American physicist Enrico Fermi (1901-1954) – a chief architect of the nuclear age and director of the first manmade nuclear-fission chain reaction – would be 120 years old today.
Dignity and grace: Gillard, leading by example.
Also born on Sept. 29 were Spanish author Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616), who dreamt big with “Don Quixote”; heroic British naval officer Horatio Nelson (1758-1805), who stymied Napoleon at Trafalgar (but paid for it); American parapsychologist Joseph Rhine (1895-1980), who founded the field of parapsychology and coined the phrase “ESP”; American surgeon John Gibbon Jr. (1903-1973), who was the “father of the heart-lung machine” but didn’t brag about it; and American aeronautical engineer Paul MacCready (1925-2007), who invented the first human-powered flying machines.
First Sheila: And take a bow, Julia Eileen Gillard! The only woman to serve as Australian prime minister (from 2010 to 2013) – a progressive liberal who reformed Australia’s education system, revamped national healthcare, earned the country a spot on the United National Security Council and led the Land Down Under out of the ruins of the 2007-2008 global financial crisis – turns 60 today.
Wish the lawyer, professor and Aussie trendsetter – also the only woman to lead Australia’s powerful Labor Party – a g’day at editor@innovateli.com, where news tips are dardy and you’re a right cobber when you send along calendar events. Good on ya, mate!
About our sponsor: Farrell Fritz, a full-service law firm with 15 practice groups, advises startups on entity formation, founder and shareholder agreements, funding, executive compensation and benefits, licensing and technology transfer, mergers and acquisitions and other strategic transactions. The firm’s blog, New York Venture Hub, discusses legal and business issues facing entrepreneurs and investors.
BUT FIRST, THIS
Kids’ stuff: Suffolk County Community College has landed a highly competitive federal grant to assist with programming at the Kids Cottage, an on-campus childcare program for SCCC students who are also parents.
The four-year, $443,600 Child Care Access Means Parents in School grant from the U.S. Department of Education helps answer “the need for high-quality and reliable childcare,” which is “one of the basic needs that can potentially block parents from accessing college,” according to Suffolk County Community College President Edward Bonahue. Located on the Michael J. Grant Campus in Brentwood, Kids Cottage is one of two SCCC Children’s Learning Centers – Campus Kids is based on the Ammerman Campus in Selden – licensed by the New York State Department of Social Services and open to children of SCCC students, faculty and staff, as well as the children of Suffolk County employees and community residents.
Kids’ Cottage Director Vickie Calderon, an early-education expert who’s earned rave reviews from QUALITYstarsNY, New York State’s premier early-childhood rating system, said the program – which employs carefully vetted staff and offers flexible scheduling options – would benefit greatly from the federal stipend. “We have a high-quality program that goes beyond childcare,” Calderon added.
Hely Duarte: Dare to dream.
Half-a-billion reasons: A decade-old Metropolitan Transportation Authority program designed to counsel minority- and women-owned businesses has surpassed a major milestone.
With a $2 million contract awarded to Staten Island-based Alliance Tri-State Construction, the MTA Small Business Mentoring Program – launched in 2010 – has now helped participating companies win more than $500 million in MTA contracts. The Alliance Tri-State contract was the 485th deal awarded to participants of the mentoring program, which has “worked relentlessly to grow the share of contracts we award” to MWBE businesses, according to MTA Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer Michael Garner.
Among the statewide companies earning MTA contracts through the program was Hempstead-based Zion Contracting, which specializes in concrete, roofing and other general-contracting jobs. “We started in the program back in 2011 – a small painting company with dreams to become a general contractor,” noted Zion Contracting President Hely Duarte. “We received our first MTA contract three months after we joined the program … and at the end of the year we were doing four times our previous year’s revenue. All with the help of the Small Business Mentoring Program.”
POD PEOPLE
Episode 1: Michael Dowling, Northwell Health honcho.
Corporate captains, energetic educators, ingenious inventors … the trailblazers of the Long Island innovation economy impart wisdom and share secrets on Spark: The Innovate Long Island Podcast. Season 2 coming in October – catch up with Season 1 right now!
TOP OF THE SITE
Holding that thought: A Nevada-based holding company thinks highly of Stony Brook-based EV pioneer Unique Electric Solutions, as shown by a multimillion-dollar buy-in.
Association donation: A generous gift from a board member and his family has placed the Family and Children’s Association in a new, high-tech Garden City headquarters.
Box spring: Outside-the-box innovation, inside your inbox three times a week – subscriptions to Innovate Long Island’s bouncy, brilliant newsletters are always easy, always free.
VOICES
Noting an inexorable link between climate change and public health, Voices healthcare anchor Terry Lynam – former senior vice president/chief public relations officer for Northwell Health – applauds local and federal measures addressing both crises.
STUFF WE’RE READING
Central strategy: Genius leadership is swell – but the heart of innovation comes from middle management. Sifted centers itself.
Creative catalyst: Corporate venture building is now essential for rapid innovation. Forbes speeds up.
Networking knowhow: Harvard scientists have cracked the science of successful small-talk. CNBC makes connections.
RECENT FUNDINGS
+ Owl’s Brew, a Connecticut-based leader in tea-based beverages, secured $9 million in Series A funding led by Formidable Asset Management, Cambridge SPG, Connecticut Innovations, Tidal River and Wheelhouse.
+ Garuda Therapeutics, a Massachusetts-based biotech focused on blood stem-cell therapies, raised $72 million in Series A financing led by Aisling Capital, Northpond Ventures and Orbimed, with participation from Cormorant Asset Management, Ridgeback Capital Investments, Monashee Investment Management and Mass General Brigham Ventures.
+ Pass It Down, a Louisiana-based digital storytelling company, raised nearly $2 million in funding led by VentureSouth, with participation from Cultivation Capital, Techstars, Red Stick Angels and Acadian Capital Ventures.
+ Advanced Farm Technologies, a California-based developer of robotic farming technology, completed a $25 million Series B funding round led by Catapult Ventures, with participation from Kubota Corp., Yamaha Motor Corp. and Impact Ventures.
+ NOCD, an Illinois-based provider of obsessive compulsive-disorder treatments, closed a $33 million Series B funding round led by F-Prime Capital, Eight Roads Ventures, Kaiser Permanente Ventures, 7wireVentures, Health Enterprise Partners and Chicago Ventures.
+ 6K, a Massachusetts-based energy company focused on sustainable energy-storage materials and additive-manufacturing powders, raised $51 million in Series C funding led by Volta Energy Technologies, Catalus Capital, S Cap/Prithvi Ventures, Anzu Partners, Launch Capital, Material Impact and RKS Ventures.
BELOW THE FOLD (Place Your Bets Edition)
Dark clouds gathering: Analysts say Republicans will cripple the U.S. economy to score 2022 midterm-election talking points.
Risking it all: With a federal default – and a major recession – on the table, the GOP is gambling with the U.S. economy to win political points.
Good bet: Why Morgan Stanley is doubling down on bitcoin.
The smart money: Innovative ways to pay for college.
All in: Don’t take chances with your corporate governance – legal eagle Farrell Fritz, one of the amazing firms that support Innovate Long Island, holds all the right cards. Check them out.
