Incubator 'buzz' may not save Obama proposal

Following up on my story earlier this week about the Nashville Business Incubation Center (NBIC) and vacancies, therein), I spoke this morning with Tracy Kitts, the Athens, Ohio-based COO of the National Business Incubation Association. Kitts noted that the Obama has, probably for the first time in history, put money in the budget expressly to foster a nationwide network of incubators. NBIA is therefore mobilizing at the grassroots to save that item, now that the still-contested budget is being reconciled. NBIA musters some interesting numbers, purporting to show the greater jobs-generating impact of investment in incubators over other forms of infrastructure. We'll keep an eye on this. Welcome your comments. Kitts said he believes the federal, state and local 'buzz' around entrepreneurship, generally, and incubators, in particular, is unprecedented in American history.

DeParle under scrutiny

Tennessee native and Obama Administration "Health reform czar" Nancy-Ann DeParle is reportedly under scrutiny for having served on boards of companies that faced "scores" of whistle-blower claims and regulatory actions, during a lucrative consulting career. The KNS reports. In March, A.C. Kleinheider reported her appointment and her prior work with a VC.

The Lighter Side: Character Impressions

Jamie Meadows, a former UT mascot who portrayed 'Smokey', and his wife have launched Character Impressions in Knoxville. The business provides professional costumed characters for everything from birthday parties to political campaigns. Meadows was originally set on a logistics career. The KNS reports.

SONY-IODA could crowd NVdigital startups

No sooner had the electrons dried on our story about Bandbox and PassAlong Networks, than we discovered today's release about the SONY-IODA alliance to create a new distribution and services network for the "independent label community." This move could create a bigger crowd, sooner than many might have expected. Here's the IODA release. Here's our story about the life-and-death cycle of a couple of local digital music startups, Bandbox and a new venture by former PassAlong CEO Dave Jaworski.

Execs: TN biotech has earned 'right to exist' in niches

Memphis Daily News reports that Memphis BioWorks Foundation chief Steve Bares and Leslie Wisner-Lynch (at left) make the case that, while Tennessee is behind the curve in some bio sectors, we have strengths in others, such as med devices and biologics. The need to strengthen further Tennessee's ecosystem and infrastructure comes into play. Middle Tennessee-based Wisner-Lynch is the co-founder of BioTN LLC (a K-12 science-math initiative), a leader of the Tennessee Biotechnology Association, a member of the board of Tennessee Technology Development Corporation, and co-founder and formerly an executive with Biomimetic Therapeutics. The MDN's story is here.

'Will the real Idleaire please step forward'

Okay, scratch my earlier: It's Knoxville-based Idleaire Inc., created with assets bought at auction from Idleaire Technologies, which is in Chapter 7, that is salivating over ARRA grants awarded 13 states, including Tennessee, where Idleaire hopes to earn a share for its truckstop power, Internet, cooling and other services delivered to truck cabs. The latest KNS story here. Earlier Idleaire reports here. Christina Sanchez's broader story today in The Tennessean mentions Idleaire, also, but the angle is truckstop electrification as an anti-diesel pollution story. The Tennessean's stories are usually not available longer than a week or so, before they go behind the paid-archive wall, so apologies in advance.

Informatics Corp allies with CMS vendor

Nashville-based Informatics Corporation of America (ICA), a Vanderbilt University Medical Center spinout, announced today it will partner with Columbia, S.C.-based Companion Data Services to offer a unified electronic health record. Companion is a major vendor for the Federal Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and provides secure hosting and related services, while ICA provides a large suite of services for integration of clinical data by healthcare networks, health information exchanges and regional health information organizations.

VW means business

KNS reports that Volkswagen will hold a vendor-supplier integration conference this fall, and that Tennessee prime- or sub-contractors will be eligible to bid for business with Volkswagen's 62 facilities worldwide.

TVA: Trouble rising from ashes?

Chattanoogan.com tips us to a sobering assessment of TVA finances and performance, from the IG, here. TVA's apparently having trouble containing its operations and maintenance costs, even before the Ash spill.

ORNL: Desperately seeking talent

Oak Ridge NL needs to hire 500 more scientists and technicians, and doubts it can recruit enough talent to stay on schedule. KNS reports.

This techie's a Memphis booster

This tech executive has become a booster for his hometown, Memphis, saying it's the 'most authentic' place he's ever lived. The CA reports.

Local firm's e-retailing report

Franklin-based IHL Group says in a release this week that in North America consumers will spend more than $1.6 trillion for goods and services paid for via electronic kiosks. To know more, you have to pay nearly $1K for the report.

Nashville Technology Council leadership changes

Andy Flatt, the fellow who this week succeeds Beth Chase (left) as chairman of Nashville Technology Council, says the group will re-examine its strategic plan during an August retreat, and defining its service territory is but one hot issue. Read the full story here.

NV Business hatchery seeks entrepreneurs

The 23-year-old Nashville Business Incubation Center has experience a slump in resident businesses that is unprecedented in recent years. Read more about NBIC here.

Hobbs reincarnates as Mesh Media

Unfettered or controversial, take your pick: Former State GOP Communications Director Bill Hobbs both creates and absorbs his share of lightning. This month, he launched Mesh Media Strategies, to counsel clients on leveraging and defending against social media, which he says have supplanted traditional media. In addition to his GOP and Belmont University communications stints, the Abilene Christian University grad worked three years as a reporter for Nashville Business Journal. Describing himself on his previous website, Hobbs said, in part, that he's "a journalist, a blogger, a web communications strategist, a media relations consultant, a grassroots communicator, a husband, a father, a Christian, a Nashvillian and an American. I work with clients I believe in, and I love to help my clients win."

Health IT leaders see challenges, opportunities

With billions in Stimulus funding in the pipeline for Health IT upgrades nationally, Thursday's NHCC gathering of informatics eagles in Nashville seemed to signal both local players' resolve to play pivotal roles in development and adoption of health IT, as well as the sizeable risk we run that all that spending won't change healthcare...enough. VU Medical Center's informatics guru, Bill Stead, M.D., insisted that the needed innovation won't materialize if executives throughout the healthcare system don't "stop playing defense around a model that's not sustainable." David Brailer, M.D., the like-minded former national Health IT coordinator for the latter Bush Administration, warned that would-be HIT providers must employ deeper understanding of how healthcare actually works, if they're to justify their share of the pie. Addressing the Nashville Health Care Council event, Bredesen F&A Commissioner Dave Goetz said the State of Tennessee should, according to NHCC's post-event release (pdf), 'build the infrastructure and the information sources necessary for the private sector to then use to drive value and innovation'. Stead, Goetz and others put all this in even stronger terms during an event last fall, as reported then by VNC. Brailer said he believes Nashville is one of the nation's few cities prepared to be a leader in HIT. NHCC President Caroline Young agreed, and stressed that NHCC's goal is to "help position our members" for such leadership. A related summit report by NashvillePost.com covered inadequate patient engagement in HIT diffusion, the need for standardization and the importance of demonstrating dramatic improvement in health care outcomes, flowing from IT investment. Further VNC coverage of informatics and related.

Rep. Gordon on Energy bill benefits

U.S. Rep. Bart Gordon (D-Murfreesboro) tells the DNJ of the economic benefits that will flow locally from the Energy bill he recently endorsed. Gordon chairs the House Science Committee. Other Bart Gordon reports here.

UTHSC lays plans for $50MM research center

The University of Tennessee Health Science Center in Memphis is making plans for a $50MM facility for translational research. MBJ reports. It's only been a few days since UTHSC cut the ribbon on a new biocontainment facility.

[Updated] Qualifacts creates California presence

[Updated June 28, 4:18 p.m.] Qualifacts Systems Inc., the 2nd Avenue provider of software and services for the behavioral health and human-services sector, announced today it has hired Geoff Fisher (left) as its first full-time sales and service executive for the West. A Qualifacts spokesperson told VNC Fisher will be based in San Diego, where he currently resides. VNC research this afternoon indicates Fisher was previously in a similar role with Sequest Technologies, a Qualifacts competitor; and, earlier, was with MDVIP and Alteer Corporation. He earned his bachelor's in Biology at Virginia Tech. The announcement of Fisher's hire was attributed to Qualifacts VP-Marketing Chris Bair. Gov. Phil Bredesen owns controlling interest in Qualifacts. David Klements is president and CEO. For VNC's previous coverage of the firm and its progress, please visit our site.

Lawyers help entrepreneurs bone-up on risks

Lots of free legal information is so couched in lawyerly CYA language as to be useless without hiring counsel. Gee, wonder why. But, two recent posts by attorneys with Bone McAllister Norton here in Nashville are both informative and inviting: Paul Kruse alerts owners to another trademark-protection risk-opportunity associated with Facebook...while George Phillips provides a focused and readable set of "steps to success" for any business owner.

e-Autos: Powertrain horserace off-and-running

Tennesseans have great hopes that tech advances at Oak Ridge NL and recent corporate investment announcements will spawn not only electric-vehicle production (thanks! Nissan), but also battery powertrain-related jobs. San Jose's Mercury News reports Tesla Motors is making a $100MM play to build such a facility in the Bay Area, using Stimulus resources. That's a Tesla PR photo of a Tesla roadster.

Ghost River beer venture has head on it

In Memphis, Ghost River Brewing is leveraging its alliance with Bosco's (Nashville and Memphis) and pushing the 'hometown brew' angle to ramp-up consumer preference. The MDN reports.

Locals taking to Hemlock

NewsChannel5 reports '1,400 companies' have expressed interest in selling to or partnering with Hemlock Semiconductors, which is building a plant for producing silicon for solar panels, at Clarksville.

Gestamp Solar?

Sure, you know about Gestamp Corp. bringing $90MM and 230 jobs to Chattanooga to stamp pieces of Volkswagens...but, what about Gestamp Solar? We're on such a roll with Solar, maybe we'll get a piece of that action, too. I know: We're sounding greedy...'k, we're jus' sayin'.

Owen's Bradford joins elite board

On Tuesday, July 1, Vanderbilt University Owen Graduate School of Management Dean James W. Bradford (left) joins the board of the Graduate Management Admission Council, the association of leading graduate business schools worldwide. Here's the VU release.

HGTV's Frontdoor.com builds audience

By partnering with St. Paul-based Internet Broadcasting, Inc., Knoxville-based HGTV's Frontdoor.com says it has built unprecedented audience for residential listings. The release is here.

Coalition applauds TN venture-capital legislation

The Washington, D.C.-based National Coalition for Capital issued a release yesterday applauding the Tennessee General Assembly for passage of the Tennessee Small Business Investment Company Credit Act, passage of which was reported here by VNC. The Coalition's website is incomplete, but its current content suggests it is sponsored by firms such as those that introduced CAPCO legislation here, which eventually was transformed by a bipartisan effort into Tennessee investment company (TNInvestco) legislation.

UT shakes-up tech-transfer leadership

The nearly 75-year-old University of Tennessee Research Foundation has quietly laid plans for the departure of its CEO and the total replacement of members of its board of directors. Read about it here.

Angel Capital Group spreads wings

The Hendersonville-based Angel Capital Group is expanding its presence in Knoxville. Read about it here.

CyberKnife slices into HCA market

Given that Nashville-based Pathfinder Therapeutics' new CEO, Skip Goode (at left), was previously with Sunnyvale-based Accuray Incorporated (Nasdaq: ARAY), a mover in the field of radiosurgery, it is worth noting that Accuray is touting it has just installed its 10th CyberKnife(R) Robotic Radiosurgery System in an HCA facility, in this case Nashville's Sarah Cannon Cancer Center at CentennialMedical Center.

State private-equity guidelines released

Lamar Villere (left), director of private-equity investing for the State's pension system (TCRS), yesterday provided us TCRS guidelines for PE efforts. Based on the scope of the director's job outlined in this document, maybe they'd better invest in biotech, to clone Villere. After all, we're talking about stewardship of at least $800MM. Read about it here.

Kraken commands computing crown

The University of Tennessee's Kraken supercomputer (beauty shot, at left) is officially the world's most powerful academic supercomputer and the sixth-fastest overall. Kraken is a Cray XT5 at Oak Ridge NL. ORNL's Jaguar (also Cray) retained its 2nd Place ranking overall, and is currently the world's most powerful machine for open scientific uses. With both systems set for upgrades in the next few months, the lead could shift to Jaguar. KNS reports the story.

American Sentinel online grads convene

American Sentinel, the Colorado-chartered online-education company with close ties to Vanderbilt University and the Nashville VC community, held its annual in-the-flesh graduation ceremony, recently, with VU Nursing School Dean Colleen Conway-Welch delivering the commencement address. Read our earlier story on founder Rick Oliver and his company.

Hospitalists get more ammo

With the pressure-trifecta of transparency, accountability and outcomes bearing-down on providers, Cogent Healthcare is touting a new study that shows hospitalists' patients have 'profoundly lower' re-admission rates. This is the kind of 'meaningful difference' for which all payers are increasingly scouting. Cogent's release is here. Related Cogent stories, here.

[Updated] Criticism for Nashville on lips of Techie leaving town

[Updated 12:33 p.m. CDST] Whew! Didn't quite see that comin'. The news that Luke Kanies (left) is pulling up his small taproot here in Nashville and moving Reductive LLC to Portland, Ore., struck us as further evidence of how very portable is technology, and the tug of places that were home for our alma maters, etc. But, when we caught Luke on the phone this morning, after being alerted to the move by Geert De Lombaerde's re-post from xconomySeattle, we found ourselves a little mouth-agape at his candor and even a seeming tinge of bitterness, given, as he put it, he "had worked pretty hard to build a network" in Nashville, ultimately finding what he described as only a few geeks he could occasionally have a beer with, as opposed to the tech-event-a-day atmosphere of Portland. Ultimately, he told VNC, Kanies, who turned 34 yesterday, said it was actually Nashville's comparatively meager geek community, and what he termed the "not very liberal" culture of Nashville that "drove us away and drove us toward Portland." It was clear he could have gladly listed other deficiencies he perceives, but he had a meeting to take. [UPDATE: He called back, as promised, and, when asked whether the Digital Nashville intiative, NTC efforts, the Geek Breakfast and other initiatives had not worked for him, he responded with less of an edge, that those things had "made things 'better', right, but there's a difference between 'better' and 'good', and I think the technology community in Nashville is just a ways behind..."] The widely known Unix system administrator turned entrepreneur, author of the Puppet server-admin tool, and configuration-management expert and his wife have sold their home. Spouse Cindy, he said, has a Ph.D. in cancer biology from Vanderbilt University, and they have two 9-month-old twins.

[Updated June 24] TN Auto sector exploding

Carlos Ghosn (left), CEO of Nissan, is all smiles, we suppose, about the company's widely reported decision to locate production of its new electric auto at Smyrna, Tenn. He keeps this up, his name recognition could be huge by 2010. Hmm. Or, given the rumors that GM's Hummer could land in Tennessee, also, maybe that should read, Hummmmm. [Updates - Here's an item on Nissan's partnerships, including comments by CIO Linda Goodspeed, on NashvillePost.com. And, here are the Nissan release and the Obama Administration's release about a $1.6Bn loan to Nissan to upgrade its TN plant for the electric car. Lest they be forgotten, here's the TFP's June 24 story on Volkswagen hiring moving apace.]

Docs de-installing EMRs, says HealthLeaders

In a release this morning, HealthLeaders-Interstudy says, "...while health systems and physician groups in the Phoenix market seem to be ahead of the curve in adopting electronic medical records (EMR), there is a high rate of 'deinstallation', wherein physician groups cancel their EMR contracts as a result of training, functionality or affordability issues." Meanwhile, Gov. Phil Bredesen's office of e-health announced Tennessee is one of the top 5 states in e-prescribing improvement.

Research Park ribbon-cutting in Memphis

The UT-Baptist Research Park in Memphis has now cut the ribbon on its first building, a biocontainment lab. The next building to open will be the UT pharmacy college, in 2010. The CA reports.

LaunchMemphis

The CA reports on Memphis' recent 2nd annual LaunchMemphis Investment Forum. Memphis also recently held Startup Weekend 2.

Church Tweets

The CA reports: New Direction Christian Church in Memphis is streaming sermons, Tweeting during Bible study and using other social media to spread the Good Word. What about when it's time to pass the plate? Offerings online, gladly accepted.

Unum names new CFO in The Noog

Chattanooga-based Unum Group (NYSE:UNM) named Richard McKenney (at left) EVP-CFO, succeeding Robert Greving, who will retire. McKenney was EVP-CFO for Sun Life Financial Inc. Earlier, he served with Genworth Financial, Inc. (formerly, GE Financial Assurance Holdings Inc.) He earned a bachelor's in mech. engineering at Tufts University. He'll report to Unum CEO Thomas Watjen.

Tenn-Hut! Green tech may revive Aladdin

Tennessee State Sen. Bill Ketron (R-Murfreesboro) simply mentioned in passing last Thursday, in comments prior to a key committee vote on Tennessee new Small Business Investment Company Credit Act that someone in his district was about to get maybe thousands of Green jobs, and how it sure would be helpful if the state passed the TNSBICCA, to create new venture capital funds that could only invest in TN companies. Well, a little scurrying about revealed that Aladdin is preparing to lend its name to a new line of energy-conserving street lights, in partnership with Mid-TN manufacturer The Davis Groupe, and a couple of Washington State technology companies. Here's the full story.

Memphis RHIO imperiled

Vanderbilt informatics professor Mark Frisse is a key source in the Kaiser Health News report on the uncertainty facing the MidSouth e-Health Alliance, the RHIO centered on Memphis, which has the past three-plus years had strong support from Gov. Phil Bredesen and deep involvement by Vanderbilt informatics experts.

TN Tax update from Waller Lansden

Waller Lansden Dortch & Davis provides this tight summary of the provisions of the General Assembly's annual "technical corrections" bill, submitted each spring by the governor's commissioner of revenue. FONCE, Streamlined sales tax, and more are here.

Jacobson tribute added

We missed Bill Synder's earlier tribute to retired Vanderbilt vice chancellor-health affairs and entrepreneur Harry Jacobson. A good read, in the VUMC Reporter, right here.

Blue Like Jazz, Green Like Money

Blue Like Jazz Media Partners LLC in Brentwood is looking for $3 million, according to a filing with the SEC, in addition to $200K already raised under an equity offering promoted by Steve Taylor and Erick Goss. A wikipedia entry for Steve Taylor indicates his project may be linked to a filmic version of Donald Miller's book, Blue Like Jazz, which addresses Christian spirituality. The Strategic Financial Alliance, Atlanta, is shown receiving sales compensation.

Lynch updates on BioMimetic Therapeutics

The wheels of the gods grind slowly in the world of orthobiologics. So, The City Paper-NashvillePost update on Sam Lynch's Biomimetic Therapeutics is a timely review of recent developments within arguably mid-TN's most prominent Bio company. Here's our earlier story on the company, as well as our piece on Leslie Wisner-Lynch (at left) and the region's struggling biotech sector.