Running start: It’s Wednesday already, intrepid innovators, as we hurdle the hump and hustle through another busy week of socioeconomic invention.
It’s a very warm Feb. 23 out there, with spring – and innovation – in the air. Let’s rock!
Real treat: Man’s best friend’s best friend.
Sweet ride: Hit the gas and peel out – it’s National Banana Bread Day.
And let’s not forget Rover, who will surely sit and stay for National Dog Biscuit Appreciation Day.
Excuses, excuses: If neither of those works for you, you probably have your reasons – wouldn’t shock us on National Rationalization Day, justifying the unjustifiable this and every Feb. 23.
Beantown birthday: They obviously had their reasons for waiting, but Boston – originally founded in 1630 by Puritan colonists – officially incorporated as a city on this date in 1822. (Biological birthdays below.)
Mein motor: German genius Rudolf Diesel couldn’t wait to patent his still-roaring internal-combustion engine – which he did 129 years ago today, challenging both steam-powered engines and horse-drawn carriages.
Chew on this: Speaking of long-lasting innovations, Austrian immigrant Leo Hishfield introduced the Tootsie Roll – the first “penny candy” and a weatherproof wartime ration, according to the story – on Feb. 23, 1896.
Moment to shine: “Pinocchio” was a real winner (no lie).
No strings attached: Other built-to-last creations associated with this date include the Disney classic “Pinocchio,” which premiered in 1940 en route to earning a magical $121.8 million in worldwide box office receipts.
For those keeping score, that’s a whopping $2.4 billion in adjusted 2022 dollars.
Radioactive man: And University of California, Berkeley nuclear chemist Glenn Seaborg – a Nobel Prize-winner who identified 10 total elements, including seaborgium – discovered plutonium on Feb. 23, 1941.
It was no accident.
WEB 1: American sociologist, historian, civil rights activist, pan-Africanist and author William Edward Burghardt “W.E.B.” Du Bois (1868-1963) – the first African American to earn a Harvard University PhD and a co-founder of the NAACP, among other accomplishments – would be 154 years old today.
Number One: Including voice work, Barrett-Roddenberry performed in more than 600 “Star Trek” television episodes and movies.
Also born on Feb. 23 were German-British composer George Frideric Handel (1685-1759), whose “Messiah” still soars high; British plant anatomist and morphologist Agnes Arber (1879-1960), the first woman botanist (and just the third woman) elected a Royal Society fellow; American film director, cinematographer and producer Victor Fleming (1889-1949), who helmed “The Wizard of Oz,” “Gone With the Wind” and other Hollywood epics; American actress and producer Majel Barrett-Roddenberry (1932-2008), the eternal “First Lady of Star Trek”; and Canadian politician and former astronaut Joseph Jean-Pierre Marc Garneau (born 1949), the first Canadian in space.
Tanjōbiomedetō: And take a bow, Naruhito! Or maybe we bow to him? Either way, the 126th Emperor of Japan – born Hironomiya Naruhito – turns 62 today.
Wish his majesty well at editor@innovateli.com, where your news tips and calendar events always get a royal reception.
About our sponsor: The Long Island Business Development Council has helped build the regional economy for 53 years by bringing together government-economic development officials, developers, financial experts and others for education, debate and networking.
BUT FIRST, THIS
Blueprint for success: One of Long Island’s oldest and most familiar home-improvement businesses has been acquired by an ambitious investment-management company.
Boston- and San Francisco-based Audax Private Equity has acquired East Meadow-based Alure Home Improvements, a preeminent provider of residential kitchen repairs, bathroom makeovers and other full-service home-improvement projects with 75 years of satisfied Long Island customers. Terms of the deal – which saw Ronkonkoma-based M&A advisory Protegrity Advisors counseling Alure President and CEO Sal Ferro and his team – were not disclosed.
Audax, which boasts an $8 billion middle-market investment portfolio, plans to combine Alure with two other regional home-improvement leaders to form the new direct-to-consumer Renovo Home Partners brand. “Given the long-term success of the three brands, we saw significant potential in combining the businesses under one umbrella,” Audax Private Equity Managing Director John Dupey noted Tuesday, adding the ultimate goal of creating “one of the nation’s leading DTC home-repair and -remodel [companies].”
Kimberly Hill: Power to the people with disabilities.
Ready and able: New York State’s new Office of the Chief Disability Officer will help qualified people with disabilities secure well-earned job opportunities.
First-ever Chief Disability Officer Kimberly Hill will advocate on behalf of this diverse population, with Gov. Kathy Hochul authorizing state agencies to designate up to 1,200 positions to be filled by persons with disabilities, including 500 positions for qualified war veterans with disabilities. Announcing the new office this month, Hochul lamented that only 35 percent of 18- to 64-year-old New Yorkers with disabilities are employed, ranking New York 38th out of 50 states – “not a statistic that I’m real proud of,” the governor said.
Enter the new office, which picks up where now-defunct Albany panels like the circa-1983 State Office of the Advocate for the Disabled left off, pursuing a more diverse and equitable statewide workforce. “The appointment of a chief disability officer … is a most welcome step toward meeting the vital goal of ensuring fairness, inclusivity and accessibility for New Yorkers with special needs,” noted Office of Mental Health Commissioner Ann Sullivan. “This is an opportunity for New York State to increase awareness about disabilities and change perceptions.”
POD PEOPLE
Episode 22: Paul Schwartz, lifting ThermoLift.
Breakthrough cleantech, famous scientists, major-league industry/government collaboration – ThermoLift has it all, propelled by a brilliant mix of R&D funding, laboratory experimentation and business networking.
Co-founder Paul Schwartz joins Spark: The Innovate Long Island Podcast to share the backstory of Spark’s Season 2 sponsor – and to celebrate a carbon-neutral engineering masterwork that’s poised to change the world.
TOP OF THE SITE
Monument moment: With its mysterious, misunderstood Animal Disease Center moving out, conservationists want largely undeveloped Plum Island preserved as a national monument.
Tax break in Aisle One: An abandoned West Hempstead supermarket will be replaced by a $71.5 million, 150-unit apartment building, with a coupon from the local IDA.
The inbox crowd: Thanks for forwarding this engaging and informative newsletter to your innovation team, and for recommending their own easy and free subscriptions.
VOICES
False rhetoric is contributing directly to a public health crisis and the truth must be told, according to Voices nonprofits anchor Jeffrey Reynolds, who calls out duplicitous critics of President Biden’s national drug-addiction strategy.
STUFF WE’RE READING
All change: Recognizing the indicators of change is essential to successful innovation. Forbes spots the signs.
You bet your life: Top VC firms are betting big on health-tech and life-science startups. GeekWire checks the odds.
Please don’t go: How “empathy-driven innovation” can overcome the Great Resignation. Fortune delivers the feels.
RECENT FUNDINGS
+ Kiwibot, a Florida-based robotic-sidewalk delivery startup, raised $7.5 million in pre-Series A funding. Backers included Headline, House of Lithium and Sodexo.
+ Chronicled, a California-based, Web3-powered life sciences network, raised $8.3 million in funding led by True Global Ventures, with participation from a Fortune 50 global technology company and other private investors.
+ Trading.TV, a New York City-based social livestream and immersive chat platform for traders and financial-content creators, raised $8 million in funding led by Lightspeed Venture Partners.
+ Eyrus, a Washington-based jobsite intelligence platform for the construction, oil and gas industries, closed a $12 million Series A funding led by Spring Mountain Capital, Autodesk, Motley Fool Ventures and Fuel Venture Capital.
+ Epitel, a Utah-based digital-health company developing wearable, wireless EEG monitors for seizure detection, closed a $12.5 million Series A financing led by Catalyst Health Ventures, Genoa Ventures, Dexcom and Wavemaker 360, among others.
+ Nth Cycle, a Massachusetts-based tech firm focused on metal processing and recycling, raised $12.5 million in Series A funding led by Frankstahl and VoLo Earth, with participation from Mercuria, MassMutual, MM Catalyst Fund and Clean Energy Ventures.
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 the LIBDC). Marlene McDonnell can tell you more.
BELOW THE FOLD (The Wish You Wish Edition)
It’s full of stars: Actually, it’s just one star, and the James Webb Space Telescope had its reasons.
Starlight: Nobody seems to know what Coke’s new flavor is all about.
Star blight: Earth junk is trashing outer space, and nobody seems to care.
First star I see tonight: Why NASA’s new space telescope photographed its first star from 18 different angles.
They wish they might: Please continue supporting the amazing organizations that support Innovate Long Island, including the Long Island Business Development Council, which wishes nothing but the best for the regional innovation economy. Check them out.
