BusinessWorks Inc.- A dotcom in making

The poll results are out! 11 votes were casted. 2 were in favor of Nanotechnology, 1 in favor of Biotechnology and 8 in favor of RFID based solutions! Apart from poll results, RFID solutions seems to offer better prospect. Shorter development times, easier venture capital financing, good talent availability are all positives in case of RFID based solutions. Our Technology of choice will be RFID based solutions I will be announcing the RFID solution, that Businessworks Inc. will develop, in tomorrow's post. Our next major upcoming task is preparation of a Business plan, which will lay a foundation and prepare a path for the business in next five years. To learn more about business plans, visit Small Business Administration link.

We have 8 votes so far with six of them in favor of RFID. I will keep this poll active one more day. Meanwhile, I will talk about the business structure that I have already selected and why did I select it. The site that helped me decide is Dane Carlson's Business Opportunities Weblog . Read this post about deciding business structure. Why is it so important to decide the structure? A little extra effort in deciding the right structure goes a long way for your business. There are five main structures a business can go for in US, namely C-corporations, S-corporations, limited liability companies, sole proprietorships, and partnerships. Each has it own merits and demerits, which you can find on Dane's blog. I have selected my business structure as C-corporation. My reasons for selecting a C-corporation structure are as follows: Keep personal and business entities, hence liabilities separate. Easier structure when I have to raise capital Provides a much better image to con...

BioTech NanoTech RFID Idea Viability Almost all ideas controversial as it involves modifying nature Great Ideas, but long development times Many potential ideas with shorter development times Talent Availability Abundance of Talent, but retaining that talent can be an issue Shortage of talent and lots of turnover Reasonable availability of talent and shorter development times eliminate fear of turnover Funding Opportunities Venture Capital is hard to come, due to long product development times Being a glamorous technology, Funding is easier to get, inspite of longer product development time Two-thirds of funding coming to IT area suggests funding is relatively easy to find Federal Regulation Strict Regulations and lots of them Still in infancy stage. Company has chance to formulate them in co-operation with Government Here is our final summary of three technologies. I will keep the poll up for my readers to vote, for couple of days. Then based upon the comparison given here and...

Firstly, I would like to acknowledge receipt of ideas from two of my readers. Coincidently both ideas deal with RFID based solutions. I will briefly outline the ideas here and then discuss Socio-economic factors with those ideas in perspective: Idea 1: This one is to convince state governments to embed RFID Tags in License Plates, given for the vehicles when property taxes are paid. Next step is to install RFID readers (which are GPS capable), at strategic locations for tracking the vehicles. Usage by various government agencies to track vehicles. Idea 2: Providing tracking facilities to transportation industry using combination of RFID tags, WI-FI and GPS capable readers which will help companies to track efficiency of drivers, optimization of routes and improving delivery times. There are many social factors in implementing RFID solutions. Let us consider first idea, which involves embedding RFID tags in vehicle license plates, will be a big privacy concern. Although idea ...

For a Customer, who is RFID hardware and software consumer, bulk of the return will come from intelligent use of the RFID-generated data and that will happen with the use of middleware. This will equate to excellent return for middleware solution provider company. Next, let us consider areas where middleware will be essential. This will help define streams which will provide good returns to us as a business. Ideally RFID hardware consists of Readers and RFID chips. Middleware can help coordination of these two components by configuring, monitor, implement and issue commands directly to readers. Middleware can achieve filtering and smoothing of Data which is very essential to separate redundant and duplicate data. What good is the data if it cannot be integrated with enterprise resource planning (ERP) or supply chain management (SCM) or customer Relationship management (CRM) systems? Middleware makes this integration possible. Middleware makes Monitoring and Triggering...

RFID, besides being a very exciting technology, unfortunately can also be a very privacy invading technology. Every time a company decides to start-up a RFID based company, privacy concerns are raised. However good news is around the corner, Federal Trade Commission has laid out the blueprints of agency's dominion over RFID and will soon establish guidelines on RFID usage. Some very essential steps will be taken to monitor usage of item-level tagging after studying the consequences on consumers and address privacy concerns. Item-level tagging can happen when a RFID tag is attached to an item instead of whole pallet in a warehouse. If item is tagged, leaves the warehouse and reaches home of a consumer and consumer is unaware of it, then it becomes a privacy concern. If we decide to go with this technology, we will respect the privacy of consumers and will develop software solution around RFID, which will be used in areas where privacy is not violated. Next we will discus...

In spite of privacy concerns, RFID technology is darling of Venture capitalists. In recent months, US experienced growth in quarterly capital funding over previous quarters, for the first time in three years. Combined with short project times, ready availability of technology, rising interest and demand from retail and other industries, has made RFID based startups very attractive for Venture capitalists. Nearly two-thirds of the VC funding out of 450 deals went to IT companies. Funding is relatively easy in RFID based solutions compared to other technologies, but it still comes with a price. In my previous posts, I had mentioned about alternate methods of funding. One such method is Federal government's SBIR funding. In very general terms, SBIR funding works as follows. Various Federal agencies release specifications of the technology to be developed and divide the complete project in three phases, which are proof of concept, prototype development and commercialization of t...

As discussed in my earlier posts, if we decide for RFID, we will not manufacture RFID chips but instead, we will develop solutions around RFID chips, using "middleware" software. Big names like IBM, Microsoft, Sun, SAS, SAP are either in process of providing development environment or out-of-the-box solutions for RFID. I want to concentrate on the niche market of bringing all the tools together and providing complete solutions that are most profitable for the industry. I always had concerns about long term commitments from the employees. RFID reduces that concern, as RFID solution development cycle are in reasonable time frame. Shorter development times, coupled with good bit of talent is an encouraging enough to get involved with this technology. Another bit of news that gives me comfort is about Walmart. The Information Systems Division of Walmart plans to manage the work from programming to process reengineering, relying very little on commercial software and not at...

We are onto the last technology in our comparison. Here we will be discussing R adio F requency ID entification based solutions - Idea viability. As in computers, Hardware is becoming cheaper every day, whereas custom software that make these computers useful, remains premium cost component of complete computer solution. RFID solutions seems to be following the same path. RFID chips are racing to 10 cent price tag, whereas the software (also called middleware) is one of the major cost component of the RFID solution. So is the idea viable? With big names like WalMart and Albertsons entering the race to "RFID-ize" their warehouses and stores, other big retailers will soon join in. Timing seems just right to latch on to this idea and be ready to provide RFID solutions to retailers. However, we will try not to restrict ourselves to just retailers. The scope of RFID solutions extend beyond retailers. After we evaluate RFID solutions completely and if we decide to go for this t...

BioTech NanoTech RFID Idea Viability Almost all ideas controversial as it involves modifying nature Great Ideas, but long development times Coming Soon Talent Availability Abundance of Talent, but retaining that talent can be an issue Shortage of talent and lots of turnover Coming Soon Funding Opportunities Venture Capital is hard to come, due to long product development times Being a glamourous technology, Funding is easier to get, inspite of longer product development time Coming Soon Federal Regulation Strict Regulations and lots of them Still in infancy stage. Company has chance to formulate them in co-operation with Government Summary of Biotechnology and Nanotechnology factors: Coming Soon Return v/s Effort Great returns (50%) but longer product development times (up to 10 years) Potential of great returns but much longer product development times (up to 15 years) Coming Soon Socio- Economic Factors Social, Economic and Political Factor...

Socio-Economic effects of Nanotechnology range widely from extremes of science fiction to reality. Nanotechnology has potential to dramatically increase the life expectancy of human beings through diagnostic or treatment nano-machines, improved drugs, or DNA repair. Although this is a positive outcome, it may give rise to some interesting science fiction scenarios, like capacity-exhausted cities or controlling new births. Nanotechnology, due to its microscopic size, easy dispersal, self-replication, and potential to inflict massive harm on persons, machines, or the environment, makes a tempting terrorist weapon. After September 11, 2001, there is a heightened concern about the conversion of useful machines into potential weapons. Economic effects may be positive when there are new spin-off technologies and can be negative with economic dislocations, job shifts or population explosion. In my earlier post, I had mentioned about political factors. In the case of Nanotechnology, pol...

Before we discuss Nanotechnology's Return vs Effort, let me take you to the Golden days of Dotcom, when Hype was the king! Any and every internet related idea was a money maker. If you were a smart investor in Dotcom companies and cashed out before the Dotcom bubble burst, you were lucky, otherwise you lost your shirt. There are distinct lessons learnt from Dotcom bust, by venture capitalists, entrepreneurs, stock market investors and government. However we have a short memory, and we tend to forget these lessons. Nanotech has that potential of becoming that "Hype-monger". As I mentioned in my earlier post, venture capital funding in nanotechnology is on the borderline of being "casually optimistic". When experts predict Nanotechnology will be a household name by 2020, what kind of returns can we expect? I have no doubts about the potential of Nanotechnology in generating phenomenal returns, but I am certainly worried about the time frame in which I can re...

Nanotechnology is a fledgling technology waiting to take off. Federal regulations do exist in certain areas but some areas are practically bereft of them. When you deal with almost invisible atoms and molecules and especially when you are modifying them, results can be unstable and/or unpredictable. Given this uncertainty and lack of regulations, it is important that companies working with nano-sized materials step up and begin developing strategies for defining the potential risks associated with the technology, devising the means to mitigate these risks and, most importantly, effectively communicating this information to government agencies and the public. If we select Nanotechnology, we will have to explore ways to maximize the potential of the technology, while minimizing risks to workers, the environment and our bottom line. This task has its own pros and cons. While formulating regulations with Government can be exciting, it can be a big headache in this country of highest law...

Nanotechnology, which is still many years away from becoming a useful usable technology, surprisingly has attracted Venture capitalists like a magnet. One-tenth of 650+ companies in USA are receiving some kind of venture financing. According to National Science Foundation, amount of Venture Capital invested in Nanotechnology is expected to reach phenomenal one trillion dollars in next decade! Such a proposition is very attractive for entrepreneurs to start companies to develop nanotechnology products. So what is the catch? Why Merrill Lynch's "Nanotech Index" is 25% down? Why Nanosys Inc, a startup nanotechnology firm, supported by major venture capital firms, backed out from $100 million+ IPO? These are the questions that make you think, is world ready for nanotechnology OR is nanotechnology ready for this world? Next, we will discuss Federal regulations for Nanotechnology.

"Science is not done in a vacuum. Lots of support employees are needed in high-tech industries - from project managers to attorneys and marketing specialists" - Levine Nanotechnology is a very glamorous technology, so are the jobs related to it. Now add the lure from funds rich large companies, federal institutions and universities. You get a market with a shortage of Nanotechnologists! About two years ago, Jason M. Finkelstein, partner of New-York based Glocap Tech LLC underscored the talent shortage in an interview , and that situation has not changed much so far. As I said in my earlier post, for a start-up technology company, reliable employees with strong long term commitment are essential. Of course there are ways of retaining employees like stock options and other retainers. Fear of losing employees maybe considered as a part of day-to-day issues in a normal established company, but we are trying to build a Technology startup company where we cannot afford to lo...

After Biotech, it is Nanotech's turn to be evaluated. I will try to make a case for idea viability. Richard Feynman , K.Eric Drexler and Richard Smalley , the three biggies of Nanotechnology have struggled to bring us to a level we are at, in the field of Nanotech. However Bill Joy's article " Why the Future doesn't need us ", in the Wired magazine in year 2000, shocked Nanotech world. It is an amazing example of what a writer's "pen" can do! Feynman's vision of nanomachines(nanoscale assembly robots) building at atomic level and molecular manufacturing proposed by Drexler, or virus killers in your blood cells, takes you in exciting world of sci-fi, but controlling atomic interactions in real world have problems of their own. The much-hyped advantages of nanotechnology have led to inflated expectations, which will almost certainly lead to disappointment and disillusionment. However things appear promising for future. If I was doing this bl...

BioTech NanoTech RFID Idea Viability Almost all ideas controversial as it involves modifying nature Coming Soon Coming Soon Talent Availability Abundance of Talent, but retaining that talent can be an issue Coming Soon Coming Soon Funding Opportunities Venture Capital is hard to come, due to long product development times Coming Soon Coming Soon Federal Regulation Strict Regulations and lots of them Coming Soon Here are my highly biased and amateur assessment-cum-summary. Feel free to comment to oppose or agree with me. Coming Soon Return v/s Effort Great returns (50%) but longer product development times (up to 10 years) Coming Soon Coming Soon Socio- Economic Factors Social, Economic and Political Factors can adversely affect profitability especially in Biotech Coming Soon Coming Soon

Christopher Reeves, a spinal cord research advocate died on October 10, 2004. He was also known as "Superman", for his role in the movie of same name. Superman, if he existed in real world, would be an ultimate marvel of Biotechnology! Reeves work, in lobbying for stem cell research is a well publicized fact. It brings us to an interesting addition of politics to socio-economics. It wouldn't be inappropriate to use "socio-political-economic factors affecting Biotechnology" as our title for today's discussion. Maintaining balance in these three factors can be quite a task! Privacy issues related with RFID are child's play when compared to social, economic and political factors associated with Biotech. Consider one case of biotech company working on Cancer cure, announces some success in curing cancer in rats. What is the impact? Stock rises astronomically in matter of hours and drops to ground on same day! Millions of dollars are gained and lost....

Lack of team is the number one company killer, inadequate cash is the second.- John Shoch Let us think like a Venture Capitalist (VC) for a moment. In a way, a Venture Capitalist and a entrepreneur are risk takers. One provides financing and other in his/her entrepreneurial spirit, provides 100% dedication to the venture. For a biotechnology startup, what kind of returns can we expect? VC will always conduct "due diligence" on a target company, its proprietary science, its industry, and its management. In general, there are three kinds of risks that VCs try to minimize: technology, management, and market. The questions they consider range from "Does this company's product(s) achieve a technological breakthrough?" to "Are these the right people to execute the business plan?" to "How big is the potential market for this product, and is the market growing?" For Biotech industry, waiting period, before a VC can get any return on his/her...

Enshrine your principles in constitutions, codify your common sense in laws, and leave the rest to regulation - Nicholos Garden In absence of Regulations, laws and rules, one can easily create monster very hard to manage and our government does a good job in creating and implementing them. It is another matter that sometimes those laws sound monstrous themselves. Biotechnology is no exception. When it comes to regulations, biotech has lots of them and we do need them. When you are in business of modifying nature and its rules, you most certainly need regulations to ensure safety. Concerns are always raised as to whether products resulting from the recently developed techniques would pose greater risks than those achieved through traditional techniques. For example, what might be the possible environmental consequences of the many anticipated agricultural and environmental applications that will take place outside the physical constraints of a contained facility? Read further . ...

"Only a fool tests the depth of water with both feet" - African Proverb A simple search on Google for Venture Capital Funding reveals tonnes of Fund providers ready to provide you Billions of Dollars! So what are the pros and cons of financing this way? Let me provide you a scenario first. Pre-financing : You own 100% of the company and you are the President of the company. You can pursue whatever stream of biotechnology you have decided, but you are running short on funds. You had to worry for each and every department of the company. Post-Financing : You now own less than 50% of your company and maybe you are not the President of the company. You can continue pursuing the stream of biotechnology you have decided but with a little "focus shift". However you no longer have tensions of fund availability. Your staff hiring, managing PR activities and legal issues are handled by the Venture Capital firm. It is not as gloomy as you may think. You get to do, w...

Before we begin, my heartiest congratulations to Irwin A. "Ernie" Rose for co-winning Nobel prize in Chemistry along with 2 Israeli scientists. They demonstrated how human body cells are capable of marking protein for elimination, which is important for cell division and fixing DNA. Back to our discussion of Talent availability in Biotechnology area. I researched various job sites and career related sites specific to Biotechnology. A wide variety of jobs are available and so is the talent. A typical Biotechnology company would need Biologists, Biostatisticians, Chemists, Clinical Data Manager, Clinical Programmers, Clinical Research Associates, Drug Safety Specialists, Clinical Supply Manager, Medical Writers, Medical Director, Microbiologists, Pathologists, Process Engineers, Toxicologists, Quality Assurance & Control Analysts, Validation Engineers and Regulatory Affairs Specialists. I wont try to describe each job here, but it is lot of talent we are talking about...

"And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth." (Genesis 1:26) "Human beings are themselves part of nature, creatures within creation. Human discovery and invention can be thought of as resulting from the exercise of God-given powers of mind and reason." (Church of England Board) With these two quotes on back of our mind, let us talk about Biotechnology with respect to each of our factors. Here we will be considering each of the factors in the order of importance. 1. Idea viability : There is no dearth of ideas in this field, but almost every idea involves changing how nature works. A biotech company can become controversial from day one, if it gets involved in stem cell research. However if the company takes up the task of cancer research, stocks of t...

I would like to take this opportunity to thank two individuals, who were kind enough to review my blog site and provide me encouragement by including my link on their respective websites. 1. Future Paradigm - Alexander manages this website where "visitors meets visionaries". This website has always been my source to read interesting news, which I never get to read in any newspaper. I would compare this site to Slashdot in terms of unique content it carries. Thanks Alex for great job. 2. Business Opportunities Weblog - When our dotcom company, Businessworks Inc. is up and running, I will be looking up to this website for providing unlimited resources that will help the company with tax tips and fresh ideas. Let me say this, my weblog will present the day-to-day working of the business and issues faced and Dane's website will provide solutions to many of those issues. Keep it up Dane!

As promised, we will discuss pros and cons for each technology discussed in my previous posts. Before we being, it is essential to list various factors (not necessarily in the order of importance) that will play a part in considering pros and cons. Talent availability Funding opportunities Idea viability Socio-economic factors Returns v/s effort Government regulations Tomorrow we will evaluate Biotechnology, which is easily most controversial of three technologies under consideration. This technology has a potential to give human beings a chance to play the role of Supreme being! Stem Cells research, genetic engineering, cryogenics are the areas where controversies are brewing a not so silent storm.

I received first serious comment today about RFID discussion. This person was concerned about privacy issues related with RFID. I understand his/her concern, but whether we go for RFID based business or not, RFIDs will be everywhere pretty soon. Please read the comments under RFID discussion. Biotechnology in today's world has increasingly important role to play due to imbalance of populations in various countries of the world. Biotechnology (or Biotech) is a research and implementation effort that is generating new knowledge of plant and animal genomics and advancing development of agricultural and agriculture based products. If you wish to check out a sample research in Biotech, knock yourself out by reading about Agrobacterium Tumefaciens . Two major roadblocks in starting a Biotech startup are finding a Venture capitalist to fund it and increasing competition from Public sector in terms of research. Next we will compare pros and cons of all three technologies we have ...