AxoGen: First Human Nerve Graft Implant

AxoGen, a recent neighbor from GTEC and a company Inflexion came very close to funding, recently announced a significant milestone: the first human nerve graft implant (not autograft, taken from another part of the body). I'll leave the teaser quotes to their press release, but congrats to Jamie, John and the rest of the AxoGen team. Congrats also to GTEC for incubating and graduating another exciting company that can help so many people!

Related images: nerve graft

Will I See You at NextMiami?

I know it's late notice, but I am now confirmed for the NextMiami shindig tomorrow night. Jason Baptiste, Nathaniel McNamara and a bunch of other smart folks are getting together Wednesday, July 25, 7:30-11:30pm at 510 Ocean Drive, Miami, FL. You can check the Facebook event page or the NextMiami Ning for more details.

Miami's startup network is buzzing and gets me excited every time I visit. I look forward to seeing some new faces and old friends...

Coming Full Circle to Apple?

My technology love affair really bloomed when my parents brought home an Apple II and the empowerment of its BASIC interpreter.

I progressed to an Apple II+, Apple IIc and got through college with an Apple IIGS and its color ribbon printer.

Then IBM hired me and I did more with computers and programming than I'd ever done before -- all on a PC. Since that time I have stuck with PCs because I'm an application addict -- downloading freeware by the buckets and generally hosing my system every couple years.

Now comes my next decision point and many of the applications I play with come through the browser. A Mac with an Internet Operating System and web applications galore could be a nice combination, right? Is this the point at which I come home to Apple?

How many of you have made the switch either way, and why?

UPDATE: Jason provided a nice summary of why he's Apple all the way now -- it's surprising how the proprietary hooks between iPods/Macs/iPhones can have such a profound impact on folks who typically rally behind non-proprietary, Open platforms. Go figure...

GUT II - Even Bigger than Last Time

If you thought GUT I was big, wait until you see GUT II.

Gainesville Underground Technology II is bulging this Thursday, July 26th, 5-8pm. Location is UF, CSE E221.

I am keynoting with a short bit on launching fundable companies, but more importantly, the panel lineup looks great:

• Monetizing a Web 2.0 Company
• Best Practices in Web Application Development
• Advertising 2.0: Consumer Generated Advertising

If you're anywhere within a couple hours of Gainesville (hello Orlando, Tampa and Jax), make the trip to see what GUT is all about!


Related links: GUT I, Gainesville Underground

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Well, it was a successful Harry Potter midnight run...accompanied by my little Griffindorables!

Related images: harry potter, deathly hallows, harry potter and the deathly hallows, ginny weasley, hermione granger

Search the Gator Nation or The ChompRoll

My Google Custom Search experiment focused on solving an ongoing problem I've had following the Gators. When the Gator's stomped the Buckeyes in football, I wanted to read about it over and over again. When the Best TEAM Ever was deciding about the NBA, I was scrambling for every possible angle. When Billy D broke my heart and then stitched it back together, I needed up to the minute updates.

I wanted something more intimate and personal than ESPN or CNN. Each time I jumped from Google, to Technorati, to Bloglines, to Digg and everything in between. What a waste of time.

The Gator Nation can do better, so I created the Gator Search Engine you see below. It includes official Gator sites, unofficial Gator sites, blogs about the Gators and blogs written by Gators.

Search the Gator Nation

In creating the Gator Search Engine, I also compiled The ChompRoll -- a Gator blogroll of all the sites included in the search engine. I know I missed some good Gator sites so please recommend others in the comments to this post and I'll add them. I'm looking for sites that cover the Gators or are written by Gators. It doesn't have to be sports-related -- for example, some of the sites I've included stem from UF's growing startup and venture network.

The ChompRoll
http://www.floridaventureblog.com/
http://www.abovethecrowd.com/
http://alacloud.net/
http://www.everydayshouldbesaturday.com/
http://fedsocuf.blogspot.com/
http://florida.rivals.com/
http://florida.scout.com/
http://www.gainesville.com/
http://www.gainesvilleunderground.com/
http://www.gatorbait.net/
http://www.gatorcountry.com/
http://www.gatorsports.com/
http://www.gatorsportsforum.com/forums/index.php
http://www.gatorzone.com/
http://www.grooveshark.com/blog/
http://www.howtosplitanatom.com/
http://www.jou.ufl.edu/news/
http://journalistopia.com/
http://www.megantaylor.org/
http://news.ufl.edu/
http://nutupgators.com/
http://blog.podbop.org/
http://sauriansagacity.blogspot.com/
http://www.swampball.com/
http://blogs.tampabay.com/gators/
http://www.tbo.com/sports/gators/
http://thegatorblog.blogspot.com/
http://thegatorboard.com/bb/index.php
http://uf.freeculture.org/

Whether you're a Gator nut or not, I hope you find something of interest via the Gator Search Engine and ChompRoll. Help me make them better...

Related images: gators, gator football, gator basketball, gator baseball, billy donovan, urban meyer, uf, university of florida

Search Engines: It's the Economics, Stupid

I've been meaning to play around with Google's custom search for awhile and a recent prod to try Lijit Search was enough to push me over the top. I've also been using Swicki at FVB for some time. Each of the services have their pros and cons, and none of them have everything I want, yet.

Instead of a full rundown of pros and cons for each, I'll just summarize what type of person might be best served by each.

Swicki: Best if you treasure customization of look and feel, including pre-populated tag clouds, open-ended color options and voting on search results.

Lijit: Best if you like the focus of social media search, across your various properties and social networks.



Google Custom Search: Best if you like standardizing with a player most likely to include all bells and whistles over time, including the best site-based results prioritization and labelling.

Google ties in AdSense from the start -- sharing revenue produced from sponsored results alongside your search results. Swicki hints about future sponsored search potential. I haven't seen a direct sponsored search claim from Lijit, but any business in the search space will ultimately have to offer sponsor revshares.

I think this last part is the most important for any new search entrants. The reason Google is so powerful in web search is not because they have the best technology. It's because they have the best distribution and the economics that distribution partners cannot walk away from for a "better" search engine. As such, Google only has to be "good enough" in search to keep their distribution.

However, blogs offer a growing distribution channel that isn't already addicted to Google rev shares. The new entrant that gets blogs addicted to a revenue stream stands the greatest chance of challenging Google in web search.

Is that crazy talk? What are your experiences? What new search engines should I be watching?

Economic Gardening: Grow Your Own

I just completed reading Alison Trinidad's coverage of Jacksonville's "Economic Gardening" in the Florida Times-Union. Although the topic is second nature for venture hotspots, the call to "grow your own" is getting louder across the rest of the country. This is from the article:

"It's called economic gardening. The philosophy centers on growing existing business within a region through planting entrepreneurship seeds, nurturing them and waiting for them to grow."

Pretty simple concept, but hard for many to prioritize above business attraction -- particularly for elected officials who benefit from the sound bites and ribbon cuttings of a newly recruited manufacturing or distribution center.

My town, Gainesville, understands the long-term investment; and it sounds like the Jacksonville Chamber is at least saying the right things:

"We can create as much economic impact by growing existing business as [by] hunting for new ones," said Bob Baldwin, senior vice president of the Jacksonville Regional Chamber of Commerce. "[Small] business is the largest developer of net jobs and less likely to leave a community. ... Hunting tends to get more publicity because we [gardeners] are creating jobs one at a time vs. 1,000 jobs in one shot."

The article described the components of Economic Gardening as Communication, Infrastructure and Network. I think Economic Gardening requires what all gardening does:

• Seeds: creative ideas and commercializable research
• Food: entrepreneurs, management and technologists to feed the seeds
• Water: a networked venture ecosystem of talent, accountants, attorneys, incubators and space
• Sunlight: funding sources to deliver fuel/energy/guidance to budding sprouts

What about your city? Are they talking about growing businesses or attracting them?

Enjoy Your Avalon This 4th of July

Avalon is my favorite film of all time. It covers topics ranging from childhood, to early immigrants, to technology, to entrepreneurship, to family. I've been lucky enough the last few years to host a July 4th extended family cookout and I always sneak Avalon on the TV so, at the least, its themes/lessons will be reinforced subconsciously.

Although I am a huge champion of technology, Avalon really makes me think about some of the societal changes brought about by cars, TVs and other advances -- changes that were good and bad. Most importantly, it makes me think about the importance of family and how it's worth the effort today to capture the multi-generational connectedness that existed by default in past decades.

Whether you've seen Avalon before or not, it's worth another view for you and your family around this 4th of July. I've embedded the opening below. Enjoy the movie and your holiday...

Related images: Avalon Movie, Aidan Quinn, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Barry Levinson, Elijah Wood, Joan Plowright