Corrosion control.
The safe storage of energy.
Sustainably produced sunglasses and ski goggles.
Four-legged military robots whose motion replicates the efficient gait of animals.
Those were just a few of the presentation topics the evening of Thursday, Jan. 8, at the Majestic Theatre in downtown Corvallis as the Oregon State University Advantage Accelerator held its first Demo Day.
The event’s aim was to bring together current and future clients for a night of networking and getting the word out regarding their technologies and business operations to an audience that included state Sen. Lee Beyer and various members of the OSU College of Business, including Dean Ilene Kleinsorge.
Beyer, a Democrat from Springfield who represents District 6, led the $3.75 million funding effort in 2013 that created the South Willamette Valley Regional Accelerator Network, known as RAIN, which has locations in Corvallis and Eugene; those cities, along with Albany and Springfield, are partners in the network as well.
OSU Advantage Accelerator co-directors Mark Lieberman and John Turner hosted the event, at which each member of the fall 2014 Accelerator cohort was asked to give a seven-minute presentation about his product, the technology behind it, the status of the business, and projections about short- and long-term growth and profitability.
The fall cohort includes Agility Robotics, Baker Seed, Bosky Optics, KW Associates, NRGindependence and TAPs, a stainless steel surface modification technology business whose motto is “Solving the World’s Corrosion Problem One Piece of Metal at a Time.”
After the presentations, Lieberman and Turner presented four awards. The Archimedes Award went to Accelerator intern Brady Finkenauer, a wealth management MBA student; the Chasing the Bone Award went to Alex Cruft and Matthew Miner of Bosky Optics; the Pounding the Pavement Award went to Stan and Glenda Baker of Baker Seed, whose product is grass seed coated in nutrients for optimum germination and health; and the Entrepreneur of the Year Award went to Paul King of KW Associates, which aims to solve safety and efficiency problems in the specialty metals and industrial microwave industries.
After the fall 2014 cohort presentations, members of the winter 2015 cohort spoke for a minute or two each outlining the technologies they’d be bringing to Accelerator for commercialization assistance. They’ll get a chance for longer presentations at the next Demo Day, a date for which has not yet been set.
