Building security officers shouldn’t feel trapped behind a desk, according to William F. Peel III, CEO of Datawatch Systems. The Bethesda-based company specializes in remote security monitoring for commercial buildings.
Peel’s work with high-rise buildings in New York City recently drew the attention of the New York Times, which featured him in its “The 30-Minute Interview“ series.
Check back for Q&A profiles on all the competition finalists.
Find MD BIZ News’ profile on Sickweather from March 2012.
The first-ever InvestMaryland Challenge is down to its final round with just 33 companies competing for more than $300,000 in grants and business services. The final winners will be announced during the Governor’s Cup Awards Ceremony on April 15.
One of the companies, selected out of more than 250 applicants, is Baltimore-based Sickweather, founded in 2012. To find out a little more about this innovative company, we spoke with co-founder and CEO Graham Dodge.
Q. What does Sickweather do, and how would you explain it to the average person?
A. We’re like a Doppler radar for sickness. We’re able to track illness with real-time data that we gather from social networks. We then generate these weather maps related to illness. We can show you now for the first time ever where the flu is going around, where pink eye is going around, or other various viruses.
Advanced Concepts Research Group offers secure mouses and keyboards.
Check back for Q&A profiles on all the competition finalists.
The first-ever InvestMaryland Challenge is down to its final round with just 33 companies competing for more than $300,000 in grants and business services. The final winners will be announced during the Governor’s Cup Awards Ceremony on April 15.
One of the companies, selected out of more than 250 applicants, is Advanced Concepts Research Group, based in Gainesville,Virginia and Aberdeen, Maryland, founded in 2010. To find out a little more about this high-tech company, we spoke with President and CEO Yasuko Carr and Executive Vice President and CIO Chadd Carr, who also describe themselves as a “dynamic husband and wife duo.”
Q. What does Advanced Concepts Research Group do, and how would you explain it to the average person?
Yasuko: We are a certified minority and woman-owned small business. ACRG offers expertise in information technology research and development and formal test and evaluation of information and intelligence-based systems. Our goal is to provide a broader range and more robust set of cyber threat intelligence tools essential for building a more secure cyberspace. ACRG’s Security Sciences Laboratory seeks to reduce future cyber security issues through the research of root causes of modern cyber security deficiencies, fostering open collaboration and integration of emerging knowledge, and expediting time-to-market of technologies, standards, and requirements.
Maryland has 27 business incubators.
Looking for a supportive environment for your startup—a low cost space with easy access to educational resources and exposure to investors?
You might consider setting up shop in one of Maryland’s 27 business incubators, designed to support early-stage entrepreneurial companies in fields ranging from medical research to clean energy.
Incubators exist across the state in the following regions:
Find contact and admission information for Maryland incubators here through the Maryland Department of Business & Economic Development.
Do you have a question related to Maryland business? Tell us in the comments.
Find previous DBED Answers posts here.
Maryland workers will benefit from workforce training grants promoted by Gov. Martin O’Malley.
MSNBC’s JJ Ramberg is planning to present a free lecture in Baltimore on April 9.
Looking to transform your small business? JJ Ramberg, the longtime host of MSNBC’s “Your Business,” may offer some ideas.
On April 9, at 500 West Baltimore St. in Baltimore, the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law is sponsoring a free book signing and lecture featuring Ramberg. Starting at 4:30 p.m., she plans to sign copies of her bestselling book, ”It’s Your Business: 183 Essential Tips That Will Transform Your Small Business.” The lecture, ”An Evening of Entrepreneurship with JJ Ramberg,” is scheduled to begin at 5:30 p.m.
CarFare Compare is an InvestMaryland Challenge finalist.
Check back for Q&A profiles on all the competition finalists.
The first-ever InvestMaryland Challenge is down to its final round with just 33 companies competing for more than $300,000 in grants and business services. The final winners will be announced during the Governor’s Cup Awards Ceremony on April 15.
One of the companies, selected out of more than 250 applicants, is Annapolis-based CarFare Compare. To find out a little more about this new company, we spoke with president and founder Alan Stapleton.
Q. What does CarFare Compare do, and how would you explain it to the average person?
A. We have a smart phone app that people can download and use to order a chauffeured service to come pick them up, either immediately or a month from now, whether you’re planning a wedding or going out of town or something else like that.
Technically Baltimore breaks the news today of an ambitious project to turn disused and dilapidated buildings and lots in East Baltimore along the tracks that carry Amtrak trains into the city into an innovative “Food Hub.”
This entirely new food-oriented campus — The Baltimore Food Hub — would feature farming, production, training and business incubation.
The Food Hub is the sort of community redevelopment project that embraces “localism” as its keystone: encouraging economic development and growth by ensuring that there are opportunities for residents to spend their money inside the neighborhoods in which they live. (In Buffalo, a former Rust Belt city like Baltimore, this approach has been embraced by nonprofit Buffalo First.) It’s also another initiative that city government is backing as part of its goal of bringing healthy food into city “food deserts.”
To that end, a host of major partners—among them the American Communities Trust, Humanim,East Baltimore Development Inc., Big City Farms, Historic East Baltimore Community Action Coalition Inc., Woodberry Kitchen and Johns Hopkins—are collaborating on both key components of the whole Food Hub, according to the presentation [PDF] from Heller, who helped launch a similar effort in Philadelphia
and is now working with consulting firm Econsult…
Startup Maryland (www.startupmd.org), a state-wide initiative for Entrepreneurs … by Entrepreneurs, will be recognized today during a White House briefing that corresponds with the two-year anniversary of the Startup America Partnership, a national entrepreneurship initiative in which Startup Maryland is a leading region.
Startup Maryland co-chairs Julie Lenzer Kirk and Michael Binko will join officials from Startup America, entrepreneurs from other high-performing regions, as well as Region Champions from three startups that represent the rich diversity of Maryland’s innovation economy:
The Startup Maryland team was invited to share how their efforts have developed over the past year, as well as to highlight the group’s themes and areas of concentration for the future – looking decades ahead.
News Release:
Governor Martin O’Malley and Peter Greenleaf, chairman of the Maryland Venture Fund Authority (MVFA), announced that New Atlantic Ventures and Kinetic Ventures have been selected to receive funds through the State’s $84 million InvestMaryland program. New Atlantic will receive $8 million and Kinetic will receive $5 million to invest in innovative early-stage businesses in the State. As part of the agreement, the firms, if successful with investments, will return 100 percent of the principal and 80 percent of the profits to the State’s general fund.
Created by Governor O’Malley and passed by the Maryland General Assembly in 2011, InvestMaryland is an historic initiative to fuel Maryland’s Innovation Economy, support entrepreneurs and stimulate the economy and job creation.
“We are excited to bring New Atlantic and Kinetic on board as partners in InvestMaryland,” said Governor O’Malley. “This critical program leverages the capital and expertise of the private sector to ensure that our early-stage companies get the funding they need to further discoveries that feed, fuel and heal our world.”
The Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development (DBED) and Startup Maryland recently hosted a webinar on the State’s InvestMaryland initiative as a national best practice for other states to model. The webinar provided information on the creation and implementation of the $84 million program that is fueling Maryland’s Innovation Economy by investing in start-up companies. Outgoing DBED Secretary Christian S. Johansson and Startup Maryland Co-Chair Mike Binko led the webinar targeted at entrepreneurs and startup communities nationwide.
The webinar is embedded, in full, below.
“Startup America created the Ideas Center as a place where our Region Champions can share the most promising practices being employed to build strong and sustainable startup communities around the United States,” said Donna Harris, Managing Director for the Startup America Partnership. “The recent InvestMaryland/Maryland Venture Fund initiative has become widely recognized as one of the most successful and creative public-private venture capital programs in recent years. We are delighted to have Startup Maryland and Maryland DBED discuss in detail just how the effort was accomplished.”
TEDx Baltimore is less than a day away — tomorrow — and a few tickets are still available (with a $10 discount if you use the code COMMUNITY2013 at checkout).
One of the speakers we’ll be sure to catch is Shaquille Brooks. From the TEDx Baltimore speaker’s bios:
Shaquille Brooks is a Baltimore City student at Digital Harbor High School. He serves as the Secretary for the Student Government at Digital Harbor, as well as being a member of the Associated Student Congress of Baltimore City. He has also been an advisor for the Baltimore City Mayor’s Office of Employment Development. Shaquille is actively involved with the Digital Harbor Foundation, where he continues to develop his technical skills.
If you’re thinking of going, time’s running out. TEDx Baltimore is tomorrow. (And, full disclosure, DBED is a sponsor)
