Summer job: Welcome to Wednesday, dear readers, and welcome back to Innovate Long Island – back on the beat after our brief holiday respite and excited to carry you straight into Summer 2025.
Summer, of course, unofficially began with Monday’s Memorial Day observation – but there’s no Summer vacation for the ever-evolving innovation economy, so let’s get cracking.
Sweating with the oldies: Let’s get physical on National Senior Health & Fitness Day.
What’s rights is right: Today is May 28 and we’re kicking things off with a nod to Amnesty International Day, an annual reminder that fantastical, quasi-racist claims of nonexistent genocides shouldn’t distract from actual human-rights crises in progress around the globe.
Here in the States, the spotlight is on our parents and grandparents – stars of the show on National Senior Health & Fitness Day, the 32nd annual last-Wednesday-in-May salute to elderly exercise.
Carnivore’s delight: People of all ages had better work in a workout today, with all the red meat on the menu – for starters, it’s National Brisket Day, digging into relatively inexpensive (but undeniably delicious) cuts of beef or veal.
And it’s National Hamburger Day, holding the cheese every May 28.
Protected: Switching from grassfed to grassroots, we note the founding of the Sierra Club – now the nation’s most influential environmental lobbying organization – on this date in 1892.
Processed: More on the chemically industrialized side of things, we find brothers André and Edouard Michelin incorporating the Michelin Tire Company on May 28, 1889.
Purchased: There may have been some Michelin tires rolling around 97 years ago today, when automobile magnate Walter Chrysler purchased Dodge Brothers Inc. for $170 million – forming the once-mighty Chrysler Dodge Corp. (they’re separate brands now, under the Fiat Chrysler umbrella) and marking, at the time, history’s biggest business transaction.
Open gate: Traffic was light when the Golden Gate Bridge first opened to vehicles in 1937.
Bridged: There were definitely Michelin tires – and probably a few Chryslers – in the mix on this date in 1937, when the Golden Gate Bridge opened to vehicular traffic. (For those keeping score, it opened to pedestrians a day earlier, with 200,000 walkers crossing the span (for 25 cents apiece).
Birthed: And it was May 28, 2003, when the first cloned horse was born in Cremona, Italy.
Following the birth of a cloned mule earlier that year in Idaho, Promotea – named after Prometheus, the mythological Greek Titan who stole fire from the gods and gave it to humans – was actually a clone of her birth mother (kind of a long story).
Quick and painless: French physician, politician and freemason Joseph-Ignace Guillotin (1738-1814) – who was trying to be nice when he designed his eponymous beheading machine – would be 287 years old today.
And the world laughs with you: Embracing his own inner turmoil, the real Patch Adams has spent a lifetime alleviating other people’s traumas.
Also born on May 28 were Native American athlete Jim Thorpe (1887-1953), a child of the Potawatomi and Sac and Fox nations (with some French and Irish mixed in), All-American high school footballer, professional baseball and football star and two-time Olympic gold medalist (both revoked on a technicality and later reinstated); American blues musician, composer, songwriter and bandleader Aaron Thibeaux “T-Bone” Walker (1910-1975), a revered musical innovator credited with inventing the “jump blues” and “electric blues” styles; American astrophysicist and astrobiologist Frank Drake (1930-2022), a calculating pioneer in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence; American nurse, educator and civil rights activist Betty Shabazz (born Betty Dean Sanders, 1934-1997), the wife and widow of Malcom X; and American singer and actress Gladys Knight (born 1944), a seven-time Grammy Award-winner and the reigning “Empress of Soul.”
Patch work: And take a bow, Hunter “Patch” Adams! The real-life medical doctor, professional clown, author and social activist – who overcame a difficult childhood and bipolar disorder to bring humor to orphans and patients around the world, advocate for major changes to American healthcare and inspire the famous biopic starring the late Robin Williams – turns 80 today.
Give the inspirational innovator your best at editor@innovateli.com, where we don’t clown around with your news tips – and your calendar events are always the best medicine.
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BUT FIRST, THIS
Innovation investment: Doubling down on entrepreneurial leadership, the New York Institute of Technology has opened the doors of a new “innovation academy” and launched an ambitious seven-digit venture fund.
The Old Westbury-based university has welcomed its Innovation and Entrepreneurship Academy, which leverages expert mentorships and state-of-the-art resources to inspire and equip the next generation of professional changemakers. New York Tech has also flipped the switch on the $5 million NYIT Venture Fund, a financial resource for startups created by students, faculty, alumni and “other qualified entrepreneurs,” according to the school.
While they’ll support entrepreneurially minded faculty members and others, the venture fund and the academy – including Startup Tech Central, a Long Island-based facility offering maker spaces and startup training – are largely about emboldening students across the Long Island and New York City campuses, according to New York Institute of Technology President Henry Foley. “We believe in the power of innovation and the entrepreneurial drive of our students,” Foley noted. “Now, we’re taking that belief even further with … a transformative initiative that is part of our vision of inclusive excellence and gives students the tools and support to turn bold ideas into real-world impact.”
Saving it for a rainy day: Solar power and other clean-energy sources are useless without grid-scale energy-storage technologies.
Storage wars: Without efficient storage technologies, clean-energy alternatives are all for naught – so Albany is throwing millions toward efforts to harness and distribute juice generated by solar and offshore-wind sources.
The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority has announced a $5 million-plus fund earmarked for the development and demonstration of scalable long-duration energy storage and advanced battery energy-storage solutions. As Long Island waters fill with offshore wind farms and solar-power efforts proliferate around the state, the goal is to integrate next-generation energy resources into the state power grid, helping it cost-effectively meet energy demand during peak times and further reduce the state’s reliance on fossil fuels.
The competitive solicitation, offered through NYSERDA’s Power Generation and Storage Innovation Program, seeks qualified proposals to develop and field-test electric, chemical, mechanical and thermal-electric long-duration or advanced-battery energy-storage solutions, with complementary technologies that can decrease total hardware requirements or installation costs also earning consideration. “This critical funding will help cultivate the most promising technologies to help reduce our reliance on fossil fuels, improve air quality and manage energy costs,” noted NYSERDA President and CEO Doreen Harris.
TOP OF THE SITE
Falling forward: A “clinical multisensory assessment tool” developed by a Renaissance School of Medicine professor to predict and prevent falls by seniors is soaring in a national startup competition.
Yes, you can: New episodes of “Spark: The Innovate Long Island Podcast” return next week! Before you listen to the new stuff, catch up with the old stuff – dozens of enlightening and entertaining conversations are “in the can.”
VOICES
Your weekly intel straight from the innovation economy’s front lines, presented by experts in law, media, healthcare, technology, social services and other sectors critical to your business success and personal growth. That’s Innovate Long Island’s exclusive Voices column, appearing every Friday in a brainstem near you – and this is the amazing Voices Library, where countless lessons await.
Something to say? Welcome to The Entrepreneur’s Edge, Innovate Long Island’s new promoted-content news feature platform – a direct link from you to our innovation-focused audience. Progressive product to promote? Singular service to sell? Sociopolitical position to push? Shine a bright light on the big picture, the little details and everything in between with The Entrepreneur’s Edge. Living on the edge.
STUFF WE’RE READING
Eyes up: Science may soon restore sight for millions of vision-impaired people. Popular Mechanics looks around.
Now hear this: Actually, “second sound” is more about touching than hearing. Earth.com feels around.
Do you smell something? From cat pee to gunpowder, outer space is filled with odd odors. The BCC sniffs around.
RECENT FUNDINGS
+ Toca Football, a California-based soccer training and entertainment innovator, raised an additional $35 million in funding from J.P. Morgan Commercial Banking.
+ Skriber, a Utah-based medical AI scribe service, raised $1.3 million in Pre-Seed funding led by SeedtoBe and Morgan Creek.
+ Fore Biotherapeutics, a Pensylvania-based biotech creating a pipeline of precision oncology treatments, raised $38 million in Series D-2 financing. Backers included R One, Medicxi and OrbiMed.
+ Clair, a New York City-based fintech focused on earned-wage access, raised $23 million-plus in Series B funding, led by Upfront Ventures.
+ SparkCharge, a Massachusetts-based EV fleet-charging innovator, raised $30.5 million in Series A-1 funding led by Monte’s Fam and Horizon Technology Finance Corp.
+ Acrisure, a Michigan-based financial technology and insurance solutions provider, raised $2.1 billion in funding led by Bain Capital.
Like this newsletter? Innovate Long Island newsletter, website and podcast sponsorships are a prime opportunity to reach the inventors, investors, entrepreneurs and executives you need to know (just ask Brandtelling). Gregory Zeller can tell you more.
BELOW THE FOLD (Summer Bummer Edition)
Three-hundred-thousand’s a crowd: It’s hot, there are no holidays for two full months … and oh, yeah, the beaches are packed.
Cold open: Why Summer is the most overrated season.
Hot ticket: The FERC predicts higher energy prices this Summer.
Iced out: With costs soaring, more than half of all Americans will skip Summer vacations this year.
Warm tingly: Please continue supporting the amazing agencies that support Innovate Long Island, including Brandtelling, which specializes in crafting feel-good stories that embolden your brand. Check them out.
