Today, the Montgomery County Council is hosting a special session with leaders of the innovation economy. Brad Burnham, a venture capitalist who helped launch Twitter, Foursquare, Tumblr and more will share his thoughts on the new economy. Also on-hand will be key figures from Google, Sonatype and Green Strategies. See the event announcement below:
Shaping Our Future: Adapting to Change // Montgomery County and the New Economy
Showing posts with label startups. Show all posts
Showing posts with label startups. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Monday, December 12, 2011
New Report: 28% of Marylanders Have Started a Small Business, Majority Have Participated in Start-Ups
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| Where is the bailout for small business owners? |
According to DBED: "The report, On Entrepreneurism: A Statewide Survey of Business Owners explores the business start-up by industry and examines the role government and advocacy groups can play to support entrepreneurs. Key findings indicate that 56% of Marylanders have personal experience with business start-ups as a creator, participant or supporter and 47% have been directly involved in a business start-up as a creator or participant. Complete results."
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Alternative Energy Startup Company Quietly Leaves Montgomery for Howard County // While You Were Sleeping....
We need vision, not more kooky trickle-down corporate welfare
As Maryland and local government policymakers turn to old ways of propping up flagging, large industries, we are increasingly missing opportunities to harness the potential of our small businesses, start-ups, tech jobs and other growth sectors. I would suspect that in many instances, economic development dollars spent on small and local businesses would lead to greater local tax revenues and jobs activity than the same dollars spent on large multinational corporations. Indeed, Maryland Juice's first real guest post came from a recent graduate of Montgomery County public schools, who asked State and County leaders to place greater emphasis on startups and encouraging a local innovation economy.
The latest evidence of our lopsided priorities: while everyone was concerned about Maryland's large defense contractors leaving the area, one of Montgomery County's most interesting startups quietly left for neighboring Howard County. You can see a video demo of their MotionPower technology on their website, and news coverage of their solar window tech below:
I first found out about New Energy Technologies through a 2010 Gazette article: "Burtonsville firm finds new ways to utilize Mother Nature, Technology focuses on sun, motion to gather power." The piece noted:
In the meantime, Tim Hwang's column also elicited this comment from former candidate for D18 Delegate Dana Beyer:
As Maryland and local government policymakers turn to old ways of propping up flagging, large industries, we are increasingly missing opportunities to harness the potential of our small businesses, start-ups, tech jobs and other growth sectors. I would suspect that in many instances, economic development dollars spent on small and local businesses would lead to greater local tax revenues and jobs activity than the same dollars spent on large multinational corporations. Indeed, Maryland Juice's first real guest post came from a recent graduate of Montgomery County public schools, who asked State and County leaders to place greater emphasis on startups and encouraging a local innovation economy.
The latest evidence of our lopsided priorities: while everyone was concerned about Maryland's large defense contractors leaving the area, one of Montgomery County's most interesting startups quietly left for neighboring Howard County. You can see a video demo of their MotionPower technology on their website, and news coverage of their solar window tech below:
I first found out about New Energy Technologies through a 2010 Gazette article: "Burtonsville firm finds new ways to utilize Mother Nature, Technology focuses on sun, motion to gather power." The piece noted:
New Energy Technologies Inc., a Burtonsville-based company, formed last year and is developing new alternative-energy products. The company grew out of Octillion Corp., another alternative energy developer that was founded in 1998, and has research sites in New Jersey, Florida and Massachusetts.Tim Hwang's guest column sparked my memory about the Gazette's article on New Energy Technologies, so I was going to check in on them. But I unfortunately discovered that last year they moved to Columbia, Maryland in nearby Howard County -- which lately is winning accolades as an "innovation county" under County Executive Ken Ulman. Well played, HoCo. Well played.....
"I consider this the next generation of realistic alternative energy," said John Conklin, product and business development manager.
New Energy Technologies is working on two new products: MotionPower, a device laid on top of roads to generate electricity from the cars that drive over it, and SolarWindow, a clear liquid filled with tiny solar cells that can be sprayed onto window surfaces to gather energy.
Both are still in development stages, but the company's goal is to eventually make them commercially available.
In the meantime, Tim Hwang's column also elicited this comment from former candidate for D18 Delegate Dana Beyer:
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