5G Open Innovation Lab, backed by corporate giants, reveals 16 startups in second cohort

The 5G Open Innovation Lab (5G OI Lab), a startup program funded by T-Mobile, Intel, and NASA, today revealed its second cohort of companies.

The Bellevue, Wash.-based lab debuted in early May and wrapped up its first 12-week program in July. It aims to help entrepreneurs take advantage of 5G technology and build connections with a variety of partners from the public and private sphere.

Unlike many accelerators and incubators, the lab does not take equity stakes in the startups. But the sponsoring companies get early access for potential venture investments and are part of the cohort selection process. They also get a chance to work with early-stage startups that could end up being the next billion-dollar tech giant.

The lab is also a founding member of a Washington state “Innovation Partner Zone,” an alliance developed by the Department of Commerce to help spur collaboration between institutions, government organizations and companies. The Pacific Northwest National Laboratories, Snohomish County, Washington State University (WSU), the University of Washington, T-Mobile, and the City of Bellevue are part of the “5G Open Innovation Zone,” in addition to the lab.

5G is the next generation of wireless service that is expected to pave the way for smarter cities, faster downloads, self-driving cars, and countless other innovations that are hard to predict, just as tech stalwarts such as Uber and Snapchat couldn’t be anticipated until 4G and LTE made their business models possible.

Here are the 16 new companies, with descriptions from the lab:

Bluebox Labs: Bluebox uses Co-pilot to offer an affordable software ecosystem for any car, providing security, convenience, and savings to the user.FreedomFi: FreedomFi uses commodity hardware, open source software and CBRS shared spectrum to build cost efficient private LTE networks and future 5G IoT deployments.GenXComm: GenXComm has developed an advanced technology for 5G deployment which can operate in a variety of bands, including the unlicensed CBRS Band optimizing spectrum usage by allowing communication to transmit and receive simultaneously – on the same frequency.Innov8.ag: Innov8.ag combines on-farm and off-farm data with machine learning to inform grower decisions and maximize resource efficiency.Kubermatic Gmbh: Kubermatic’s platform automates the operations of Kubernetes clusters across multi-cloud, on-premises, and edge environments with a single management UI, addressing the operational challenge of running Kubernetes at scale.Latent AI: Latent AI’s modular software solution automates the resource-intensive tasks of training AI models for constrained devices anywhere on the edge continuum.Mangata Networks: Mangata Networks provides scalable global coverage, with satellite and terrestrial solutions for high capacity and affordable backhaul.MATRIX Labs: MATRIX Labs offers affordable FPGA-driven development boards with sensors, mics, and wireless communication protocols to facilitate IoT app creation.Megh Computing: Megh Computing provides a Real-Time Streaming Analytics Platform with AI+ acceleration using FPGAs for Edge-to-Cloud deployments.mimik Technology, Inc.: mimik provides a hybrid edgeCloud platform to enable any computing device with server capability, increasing data privacy and development speed while lowering the latency and cost of cloud hosting.MixComm: MixComm is the “Antenna to AlgorithmTM” company solving the challenges constraining 5G mmWave performance by extending the link range, reducing power consumption, and reducing system costs with their RFSOI Front End ICs and modules.Moeco IoT: Moeco combines a web platform with low-cost sensors to provide an end-to-end solution for data and sensor management as well as insight generation.Nodle: Nodle is a decentralized wireless network of millions of smartphones and Bluetooth devices connecting people and things privately and securely.PerVices: PerVices delivers a flexible, multi-channel transmit and receive solution using their high-performance software defined radio (SDR) platforms.QuayChain: QuayChain builds digital infrastructure through private LTE/5G for the Supply Chain, creating Smart Industrial Hubs to harvest & democratize data through IoT and AI-driven solutions in large multi-modal locations.Taubyte – Taubyte is The Smart Computing Platform that enables scaling software to the global infrastructure catalyzed by 5G and IoT; being fully automated (i.e. NoOps), it eliminates software development, deployment, and routing complexity at the Edge, allowing (I)IoT developers to focus on product features, while reducing costs and time to market.

View the original article here

from WordPress https://cybersonday689753477.wordpress.com/2020/10/09/5g-open-innovation-lab-backed-by-corporate-giants-reveals-16-startups-in-second-cohort/

Pickin’ Nuggets: We tested a Seattle startup’s plant-based meat vs. the McDonald’s chicken classic

Rebellyous Foods’ original plant-based nuggets on the left, and its new “Kickin’ Nuggets” on the right. (GeekWire Photo / Taylor Soper)

Earlier this summer I came away impressed with Starbucks’ Impossible Breakfast Sandwich, a new menu item with plant-based sausage that’s part of a trend toward meat alternatives.

Next up on the faux-meat testing circuit: “chicken” nuggets from Seattle startup Rebellyous Foods.

The 3-year-old company has concocted a formula that turns a blend of wheat, soy, and other plant products into vegan nuggets.

This past weekend I threw a couple handfuls into my oven, zapped them at 425 degrees for eight minutes, and started munching.

My takeaway: I’m not surprised that Rebellyous is catching on at both grocery stores and cafeteria operations. I enjoyed their nuggets — they had a nice crispness and flavor that felt more like chicken than not. I would definitely eat them again.

I also recruited two friends to do a blind taste test that included McDonald’s classic Chicken McNuggets and a box of white meat nugs I found at Whole Foods from a brand called Kidfresh.

They recognized the McDonald’s taste immediately — there’s something about that batter. And their favorite actually ended up being Kidfresh.

But they also came away impressed with the Rebellyous nuggets. They noted slight dryness and asked for sauce — all nuggets need sauce, fake meat or not — but agreed that it was hard to tell the difference between the plant-based option and the real thing.

I definitely like McDonald’s nuggets. But if I had to pick, I prefer the cholesterol-free Rebellyous option given the nutrition content. It’s also nice knowing no animals were harmed to make the food, and there’s the reported environmental benefit.

The original Rebellyous nuggets have 160 calories, 400mg of sodium (17% of your daily intake), and 14 grams of protein in a 6-piece serving size. The McDonald’s nugs have 250 calories, 500mg of sodium, and 14 grams of protein in the same serving size.

On pricing: A 30-pack of frozen Rebellyous nuggets goes for around $4.99 to $6.99. A 20-pack of McDonald’s nuggets was more than $8 with tax. Kidfresh was $4.49 for about 12 frozen nuggets.

Rebellyous, a GeekWire Awards finalist for Innovation of the Year, is riding interest in meat alternatives buoyed by giants including Impossible and Beyond Meat, which just launched its own direct-to-consumer service.

Data from SPINS released in March show grocery sales of plant-based foods that directly replace animal products growing 29% in the past two years to $5 billion, with the plant-based meat market growing 18% in 2019 to $939 million.

The pandemic is also causing more purchases of fresh alternative-meat products, with sales up 264% in May.

Rebellyous distinguishes itself from others by engineering its manufacturing equipment in-house at a small West Seattle production facility.

Rebellyous employees Kaitlin Karnes (left) and Christina Zeigler inside the company’s production facility. (Rebellyous Photo)

The startup initially aimed to serve the food-service market, including universities, hospitals, sporting arenas, and business cafeterias. But much like other companies in the food industry, its business dried up overnight when COVID-19 began spreading in the U.S.

Fueled by a $6 million investment in April, Rebellyous has pulled off a pandemic pivot, accelerating plans to launch consumer-packaged goods as more people eat at home amid the health crisis.

It quickly created consumer packaging and launched in two Seattle-area stores within two months. Now the company’s products are available in 16 stores across Washington and Oregon and “are performing very well,” according to Kristie Middleton, vice president of business development. There is interest from several major retailers.

Rebellyous also recently created a new product called “Kickin’ Nugget” that was specifically developed for public school lunch programs. The U.S Department of Agriculture’s National School Lunch Program requires strict parameters including protein minimums and affordability.

Rebellyous just delivered its first batch of Kickin’ Nuggets to the San Ramon Valley Unified School District. For now, the nuggets are being sent home to students given remote learning mandates.

I actually enjoyed the Kickin’ Nugget better than the original Rebellyous nugget — the kids should be pretty pleased with their new plant-based food.

Rebellyous also plans to roll out a new chicken tender and a chicken patty made entirely from plant products.

There are more than $40 billion worth of processed chicken products sold in the U.S. annually, according to the company.

Rebellyous Foods CEO Christie Lagally speaks at the 2019 GeekWire Summit. (GeekWire Photo / Dan DeLong)

The startup, previously known as Seattle Food Tech, is the brainchild of founder and CEO Christie Lagally, a former Boeing engineer. Her goal is to produce plant-based meat that outdoes animal meat in affordability as well as taste and nutrition.

Cost is one roadblock for plant-based meat companies; getting larger scale and improving the supply chain and manufacturing/distribution process can help bring down prices, Vox reported this month.

“With current plant-based meat products at two-to-five times the cost per pound of animal-based meat, plant-based meat will only truly become widely available when it can be produced and sold at a low cost,” Rebellyous writes on its website.

The meat industry has been affected by the pandemic as large poultry, pig and cattle processing plants are hit with virus outbreaks. In April there were fears of a meat shortage in grocery stores.

Lagally argues that Rebellyous and other producers of plant-based meat substitutes should become more mainstream as the lessons of the global coronavirus outbreak sink in.

“Bird flu, swine flu, and now COVID-19 demonstrate that keeping large numbers of animals in close contact with one another presents a tremendous risk for global health,” Lagally said in a news release earlier this year. “However, to transition away from our heavy dependence on meat, it’s critical that we make plant-based meat affordable and widely available through innovative production technology.”

Investors in Rebellyous include Clear Current Capital, Fifty Years, Liquid 2 Ventures, Agronomics, Vulcan Capital, and others. Total funding to date is nearly $10 million.

BONUS REVIEW: My 6-month old labrador Ichi wanted to participate in the taste test, too. Here’s his review:

Our latest GeekWire Adventure: Trying out plant-based chicken nuggets from Seattle startup @RebellyousFoods. Got some help from Ichi. He went for the McDonald’s nugs first, but still gives Rebellyous high marks. Full review coming soon @geekwire! pic.twitter.com/FxB80ZBf7l

— Taylor Soper (@Taylor_Soper) August 31, 2020

View the original article here

from WordPress https://cybersonday689753477.wordpress.com/2020/09/29/pickin-nuggets-we-tested-a-seattle-startups-plant-based-meat-vs-the-mcdonalds-chicken-classic/

Microsoft-supported effort to advise female-led software startups reveals new cohort

The first Saas Launch Lab cohort includes two Seattle-area tech leaders: Advocat Tech CEO Pradnya Desh (left), and Automaton CEO M.H. Lines.

SaaS Launch Lab, a new effort to boost female-led enterprise software companies, announced the 12 companies selected to participate in the program, including two from the Seattle area.

SaaS Launch Lab is a joint project of Microsoft’s venture fund, M12, and Project W, a Davis Wright Tremaine initiative to support female founders.

The lab is holding five virtual workshops for the pre-seed companies. The topics covered include refining a proof of concept, finding a product-market fit, building a team, creating a deck for making your VC pitch and a seed round how-to. The workshops wrap up in October with 1-on-1 pitches with M12 investors.

Participating Northwest companies include:

Advocat Technologies, a Bellevue-based platform addressing legal needs by using AI to create documents from attorney conversations. The CEO is Pradnya Desh.Automaton, Seattle software platform that provides automated testing for sales and marketing technology. The co-founder and CEO is M.H. Lines.

The organizers have not decided if this will become an annual event.

M12 will also be a program partner for Project W’s Women Entrepreneurs Boot Camp that’s taking place in early October. The event targets women founders in fintech, cybersecurity/data management, and plant-based protein. Companies need to apply by Sept. 11 to be considered for participation in the virtual boot camp.

View the original article here

from WordPress https://cybersonday689753477.wordpress.com/2020/09/22/microsoft-supported-effort-to-advise-female-led-software-startups-reveals-new-cohort/

Geek of the Week: Microsoft for Startups GM Jeff Ma brings entrepreneurial spirit to role at tech giant

Jeff Ma dining with his son in the San Francisco Bay Area. (Photo courtesy of Jeff Ma)

In 20 years as an entrepreneur and founder, Jeff Ma learned a thing or two about startups. Now he’s learning about how Microsoft can help them.

Ma is the new general manager for Microsoft for Startups, where he helps ensure that companies gain access to the the tech giant’s resources. The tech vet is our latest Geek of the Week.

Ma previously launched four successful companies including CircleLending (sold to Virgin), Citizen Sports (sold to Yahoo), and tenXer (sold to Twitter). He spent 3 1/2 years at Twitter eventually leading all data science and analytics.

 I understand and have deep empathy for the startup journey and what founders need to build a successful business. The opportunity to work with startups to help them grow, with the backdrop of Microsoft, is extremely exciting.

His new role has shed some light on how Microsoft for Startups could have benefited him as a founder.

“My last company, tenXer, was in the analytics/developer productivity space and as we evolved we realized that our value prop resonated most with enterprise customers. We had no idea how to sell to or how to go to market with enterprise,” Ma said. “The opportunities and ‘know how’ that Microsoft for Startups would have given us would have been a game changer. I realize now that they could have connected us with a ton of potential customers through their co-sell and marketplace programs.”

Reconnecting with old friends in the startup world has been invigorating and a “ton of fun” for Ma.

“The most intriguing part is how many people are interested in working on this team,” he said. “I’m definitely excited about recruiting some new types of talent onto the team.”

Beyond his work as a founder, Ma is also a best-selling author and speaker who has applied his deep understanding of analytics to help professional sports teams like the San Francisco 49ers and the Portland Trail Blazers and media companies such as  ESPN and Major League Baseball Advanced Media make better decisions using data.

Ma was the inspiration for the main character in the hit movie “21,” based on the book “Bringing Down the House,” about how he some of his friends from MIT used math and data to win at casinos in Las Vegas.

“During COVID, I’ve taken up online poker with my buddies and when I go to Vegas I usually just play craps because no casinos will let me play blackjack,” Ma said. “Occasionally, some random celebrity friend will want me to play blackjack with them so I’ll try to find some casino that will let me play … but most won’t.”

Learn more about this week’s Geek of the Week, Jeff Ma:

What do you do, and why do you do it? I lead the Microsoft for Startups program, supporting startups in more than 140 companies around the world. I also work closely across the Microsoft ecosystem to ensure that startups have pathways to learn about and leverage the best the company has to offer, including our vast sales apparatus.

As a four-time founder myself, I understand and have deep empathy for the startup journey and what founders need to build a successful business. The opportunity to work with startups to help them grow, with the backdrop of Microsoft, is extremely exciting.

What’s the single most important thing people should know about your field? Technology, with the right cultural mindset, can help anyone innovate and develop unique solutions to help change the world. Microsoft’s mission statement is to empower anyone to do more with technology to harness the power of tech. Microsoft has gone through a fundamental cultural shift under Satya [Nadella]. Before I was even approached about the position, I was speaking with a friend about Microsoft’s resurgence in the past few years. We discussed how under Satya’s leadership the company’s culture has evolved in a meaningful way. By culture, I mean the cumulative effect of what people within the company do and more importantly how they do it.

When I began to meet with people within the company, I was struck by their commitment to diversity and inclusion. The level of investment in supporting traditionally underrepresented communities was something that really resonated with me on a personal level.

Where do you find your inspiration? My father. His personally journey and sacrifice to come to the United States with basically nothing is the classic immigrant American dream story. But as a relatively new father I see things through a different lens. The opportunity he has afforded me and my family with his sacrifices is truly pressure to continue to achieve more in his honor.

What’s the one piece of technology you couldn’t live without, and why? Sadly, it is my phone. Anyone who knows me knows I’m obsessed with my phone and while I do think the obsession has its downsides being constantly connected at such a level is something that I’m not sure I could live without. I enjoy the quick dopamine hits that checking Twitter or Instagram, or email gives me and the amount of content I can consume via my phone is simply amazing. I think the efficiency today’s phones give us gives us time back to do more fun things in the real world.

(Photo courtesy of Jeff Ma)

What’s your workspace like, and why does it work for you? Ha ha … I don’t think I’ve mastered WFH yet as I thoroughly enjoy working in environments that have some background level of activity, like coffee shops and open areas of offices. Since I’m on calls all the time now I just need a place that has some level of privacy.

Your best tip or trick for managing everyday work and life. (Help us out, we need it.) Carve time out during the workday to work out or do something fun. I have started to do some of my less engaging calls walking around the hills of my neighborhood, getting fresh air and exercise in the process. But even more important is grabbing small chunks of time to get a quick run, swim, or workout in. Since COVID, I’ve leveraged WFH to steal moments to see my kids during the day.

Mac, Windows or Linux? Been a Mac guy for a while but being at Microsoft I can honestly say it has been fun to switch to Windows!

Kirk, Picard, or Janeway? I’m much more of a “Game of Thrones” fan … I’m a Jon Snow guy. Honor over everything and no ego — well not totally me but you get the picture!

Transporter, Time Machine or Cloak of Invisibility? These days transporter seems the most relevant as you could travel with little risk of COVID while in flight.

If someone gave me $1 million to launch a startup, I would … Find a young entrepreneur who is having trouble getting funded for whatever reason and give it to them. My days of starting companies are over.

Your role models: Kevin Compton, OG valley VC, now a partner at Radar Partners. Amazing investor but better human being. He always knows what I should do 6-12 months before I realize it.

Greatest game in history: “Catan Universe” because it solves social interaction during the COVID era.

Best gadget ever: My new Roccbox pizza oven. Portable, gas fired, and gets to 900 degrees in like 20 minutes.

First computer: Commodore Vic 20.

Current phone: iPhone 11 Pro Max.

Favorite app: Twitter.

Favorite cause: Right now it’s supporting the economy, specifically small businesses in any way I can. I try to order from restaurants and donate to GoFundMe’s whenever I can. Check out frontlinefoods.org to learn about one of the most brilliant support ideas of the COVID era.

Most important technology of 2020: Video calling.

Most important technology of 2022: 5G.

Final words of advice for your fellow geeks: This is our time!

Website: Microsoft for Startups

Twitter: @jeffma

LinkedIn: Jeffrey Ma

View the original article here

from WordPress https://cybersonday689753477.wordpress.com/2020/07/25/geek-of-the-week-microsoft-for-startups-gm-jeff-ma-brings-entrepreneurial-spirit-to-role-at-tech-giant/