Category: Technology

At our March lunch, Venture Connectors was pleased to host Ian McClure, University of Kentucky’s Associate Vice President for Research, Innovation and Economic Impact and leader of UK Innovate, who presented “The Case for Kentucky: Why Today’s Sputnik Moment is the Commonwealth’s Calling Card.”

When the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1 into space in the 1950s, the United States was prompted to increase its investment in defense, research and education to bridge the perceived technological gap between our country and the U.S.S.R. This ultimately led to the creation of NASA. McClure says today’s Sputnik Moment has building for the past two decades, gaining significant momentum in the past five years.

“A Sputnik Moment is finally culminating in decisions on Capitol Hill and in the federal government right now as they look at the next investment, in fact, the largest investment in innovation infrastructure in this country since the Sputnik Moment basically in the 1950s,” he said.

In June 2021, the Senate passed the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act (USICA), a nearly $250 billion bill that is intended to boost technology and research, and help the United States compete with China. During his talk, McClure shared why funding from that bill could be game-changing for Kentucky. Read more on KY Inno here.

At UK, McClure leads efforts to translate the university’s discoveries for the public good, seek equitable returns on its intellectual property, develop innovative approaches to develop, fund and support opportunities for near-stage research, seek grant funding to enhance UK’s investments in innovation, and expand industry and other collaborative research programs.

Previously, McClure served as Executive Director of the UK Office of Technology Commercialization, where he oversaw a team of staff managing the university’s innovation, intellectual property and startup portfolios. In addition, he is an advisory board member for the Oak Ridge Institute, Chair of IPwe’s Advisory Committee for University Technology Transfer, Launch Blue Advisory Board member, a PI on two NIH grants, and is a co-founder of Kentucky Commercialization Ventures, a state-funded program to provide IP and tech transfer services to all other universities in the state that do not currently have dedicated IP and tech transfer resources.

He began his career as a mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and intellectual property (IP) transactions attorney. Following private practice, he helped build IPXI, a startup company in Chicago and the world’s first financial exchange for IP and technology rights, which he led through product development, capital raise, proof of concept and growth to 30-plus full-time employees and two offices.

At our first lunch of 2022, Venture Connectors was pleased to feature Louisville-based Climavision’s founder and CEO, Chris Goode, who shared how his weather services and intelligence platform recently raised $100 million in equity funding. He talked about what the process was like, and how the company kept it “under the radar.” He also shared why he believes the Louisville region is undervalued by investors, and how his company is providing cutting-edge weather data and forecasting tools that fill in the “observation gaps” to better prepare communities for major weather events. 

For almost 30 years, Goode has pioneered technology that merges big data with meteorology and remote sensing — a lifelong passion culminating in the launch of Climavision, a gamechanger in ClimateTech. After decades in weather tech, Chris knew intimately the value and the limitations of weather data networks. Climavision addresses this problem, expanding access to high-integrity weather information. Through strategic partnerships and a $100 million strategic investment from TPG’s The Rise Fund, his team is alleviating the burden of expensive weather infrastructure and rolling out a proprietary network of radio-occultation satellite and ground-based sensors to help mitigate the risks of increasingly volatile weather.

Before Climavision, Goode leveraged weather data to serve industries such as aviation, energy, media, insurance, defense and international governments. As the CEO for the world’s leading manufacturer of weather sensors and software, and a former vice president at weather heavyweights AirDat, The Weather Channel and WSI (now IBM), Goode helped craft national remote sensing networks for more than 90 countries and led the development of innovative software and data solutions that has changed the way the world sees weather data today. Some of these innovations include smoke detection, commercial dual-polarization, bird-tracking and volcanic ash detection.

A U.S. Air Force veteran, Goode holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Montana.

Venture Connectors’ November lunch featured Sean O’Leary, a prolific Louisville-based entrepreneur and founder of multiple data companies that offer proprietary content to both B2B and consumer markets. He shared an inside look at the merger of EdjSports LLC, an advanced analytics firm for the sports industry that enables smarter decision making and performance, and Champion Gaming Inc., a holding company that will soon become publicly traded on the TSX Venture Exchange.

O’Leary co-founded the sports-centric EdjAnalytics spin-out with Frank Frigo, and now serves as president of Champion Gaming, the premier sports intelligence destination for sports teams, bettors, players and fans. Prior to that, he served as co-founder and CEO of Genscape Inc., an organization that offers proprietary data to the global energy markets.

O’Leary has been recognized as an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year, which honors entrepreneurial excellence in vision, innovation and leadership in building and growing successful businesses. He holds a bachelor’s degree in finance and economics from the University of Michigan and is a graduate of the University of Louisville’s first MBA in Entrepreneurship class. In 2016, O’Leary was recognized as an Endeavor Entrepreneur.

When our regularly scheduled speaker, SparkToro’s Rand Fishkin, had a last-minute scheduling conflict, Demetrius Gray, Co-founder & CEO of WeatherCheck, stepped up to share his incredible entrepreneurial journey. He talked about his own approach to acquiring funding, as well as obstacles his company faced and exciting successes along the way.

A third-generation entrepreneur and Kentucky native, Gray started WeatherCheck after experience in the finance, roofing and disaster restoration industries helped him realize that key processes were ripe for disruption and automation. Today, WeatherCheck monitors over 4 million properties for hail damage for some of the biggest names in insurance around the world. 

WeatherCheck was named 2019 Resiliency Innovation Company of the Year by the Insurance Information Institute and was the first Kentucky company admitted into the prestigious Y Combinator, an accelerator that helped build companies like Airbnb and Dropbox.

At our August lunch, Carla Dearing, founding CEO of Sum180 and head of product for FlexWage Solutions LLC, shared how she won big by getting the small details right. Her talk focused on how and why she launched financial technology (FinTech) startup with the express goal of attracting a strategic acquirer. Click here to read all about her talk in Business First.

At SUM180 and FlexWage, Dearing leads a team of financial experts, marketers and technologists who are making financial advice and better solutions available for the average person. She started her career at Morgan Stanley & Co. in financial analysis and new product development at the company’s New York, London and Geneva offices. She then co-founded a financial advisory and fund administration firm that was acquired by a Boston bank now owned by State Street Bank.

Dearing was the founding CEO of Community Foundations of America, Inc., involving 115 community foundations nationwide. She also served as a senior administrator in the university health care industry, focusing on strategy development and execution. She previously served as CEO of IMC, SUM180’s major investor.

Carla holds a bachelor of arts degree in economics and political science from the University of Michigan and an MBA from the University of Chicago.

In January, Venture Connectors was pleased to host a panel of tech-focused innovators who took advantage of the federal Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program’s matching funds to relocate their early-stage companies to Kentucky and have stayed to grow their businesses. The panel included: Dr. Jane Hermes, President of Turbo Wheelchair Co. Inc., Dr. Angelique Johnson, CEO/Founder of MEMStim LLC and Dr. Trey Riddle, CEO of Sunstrand. They shared why they chose Louisville over other locations in Kentucky, some of the benefits of doing business here, and what support or resources the local entrepreneurial community was lacking when they first arrived as startups.

The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program is a highly competitive grant program that encourages small businesses to engage in research and development that has the potential for commercial use. To be eligible for matching funds, businesses must contribute to Kentucky’s general economic development and further the mission of the Cabinet for Economic Development’s Office of Entrepreneurship to support technology commercialization, improve innovation and accelerate the number of innovation-driven startups in the state. Companies must commit to locating in Kentucky for three years.

Dr. Hermes received her BS in Psychology from New York University and worked as an IT professional for IBM in the 1970s. She later received her Doctor of Chiropractic degree from Life University in Marietta, Ga., where she operated a chiropractic practice for 14 years. Dr. Hermes also holds a Diplomate in Orthopedics from Los Angeles Chiropractic University. In 1992, she founded Turbo Wheelchair Co., where she helped design the first all-synthetic resin lightweight manual wheelchair and developed the Merlexi Craft series of colorful, lightweight, plastic chairs. Merlexi Craft later expanded to include tamper-proof wheelchairs that are used in federal correctional facilities and VA hospitals across the country.

Dr. Johnson received her Doctorate in Electrical Engineering from the University of Michigan. She is CEO/Founder of MEMStim LLC, which produces implantable electronics to treat neurological disorders. Her work on microfabricated electrode arrays has resulted in several national and international patents, funding from the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health, and a feature on the cover of Hearing Research magazine. Dr. Johnson is an expert in lean startup methodology and an authority on innovation and entrepreneurship. She has delivered a congressional briefing on Capitol Hill, served as a speaker for the eighth district of the Federal Reserve, appeared in both local and national media, and given international talks. She is also CEO/Founder of Vissionaireum, an organization that promotes, trains and equips underrepresented minority and women entrepreneurs.

Dr. Riddle received his BS and PhD in mechanical engineering from Montana State University and a Master’s from Cornell University. He started his career in composites, performing accelerated static and fatigue structural testing on wind turbine blades. He went on to develop novel probabilistic methods to evaluate variations in mechanical properties of composite structures that contain defects. He previously started Gradient Engineering, an engineering services firm focused on polymer composite applications. He is now the CEO of Sunstrand, a leading supplier of biomaterials for composite, technical nonwoven and plastic applications.