May 19-20, 2003 - Radisson UofM

Hosted by

U.S. Senator
Norm Coleman

Governor Tim Pawlenty

Cong. Mark Kennedy

Cong. Gil Gutknecht

and

Sponsored by

GOLD

GOLD

SILVER

SILVER

BRONZE

BRONZE
BRONZE
BRONZE
Minnesota Technology Inc
BRONZE
BRONZE
BRONZE

 

Dear Visitor,

Our confirmed start-up companies are listed below.

Matt Noah, Conference Chairman, matt@mnvcc.com

Start-Ups Selected to Present

Kevin Mayo, CSO

3701 Shoreline Drive, Suite 202-C

Wayzata, MN  55391

952-471-3336

actipep@aol.com

ActiPep Biotechnology, Inc. is an early stage drug discovery company focused on developing novel cancer and anti-bacterial therapeutics . We have licensed a family of small peptide based tumor targeting agents, a family of potent broad-spectrum anti-bacterial agents, two EGFR/erbB-related protein drug candidates known to kill cancer cells in tissue cultures.  One of the tumor targeting agents (AngiNEXTM) is ready for phase I trials in Europe, two clinical sites have been chosen and protocol written.  The anit-bacterial agent ProSEPTM has successfully passed the in-vitro stage and is ready for pre-clinical testing as soon as sufficient funding is received.  The EGFR/erbB related peptides are ready for in-vitro testing against various cancer cell lines.   In addition, we have arranged to license a novel peptide that mimics anti-EGFR monoclonal antibody (“MAb”) and plan pre-clinical studies of this entity. Finally, we are in discussions with a small Dutch combinatorial chemistry company to license a technology platform that enables us to design new types of therapeutic peptides – which we call Proteands. We envision Proteands as the next generation of cancer chemotherapy agents, offering advantages over current protein therapies, mostly MAbs. Proteands may offer greater safety and specificity and much-reduced manufacturing costs. Ultimately, we envision ActiPep as a robust drug discovery company with a substantial portfolio of disease targets and drug development collaborations. Our success in realizing this vision will establish a steady stream of revenue and profits to reward our shareholders.

James V. Adam, CEO

2550 University Ave. West, Suite 341N

St. Paul, MN 55114

651-646-0164

jadam@blizzardgenomics.com

Blizzard Genomics is an instrumentation company developing proprietary microarray instruments, software and consumables for discovery, characterization and analysis of genes and proteins.  Blizzard’s first product, the I-ScanÔ Imager, is designed for individual researchers and clinicians whose needs can no longer be met with expensive, inconveniently centralized and difficult to use instruments.  These researchers are part of a rapidly emerging group of scientists who understand the importance microarray techniques bring to their research, but for a variety of reasons have underutilized their capabilities.  The microarray scanner market is already large and getting larger.  The experts suggest market growth at 44% annually over the next 5 years growing to $1.6 billion within 4 years.  Blizzard’s I-Scan™ Imager is a revolutionary new design specifically targeted at the next wave of 48,000 small academic labs housing about 350,000 researchers.  These researchers currently do not use microarray techniques at all, or access imaging and analysis instrumentation from a central or contract core facility.  As experimentation into new fields of use expands, these researchers will require an on-site, lower cost, more reliable imaging method – I-Scan.  Blizzard expects to commercially introduce I-Scan through a distributor network in the third quarter of this year.  To support the launch, Blizzard is raising $2 million in a private placement, Preferred A financing.

Kevin L. Nickels, CEO

6570 Edenvale Boulevard

Eden Prairie, MN  55346

952-974-0490

knickels@celleration.com

Celleration, Inc. is a proprietary ultrasound based development stage medical device company that is clinically validating a novel therapeutic treatment of chronic wounds by proactively conducting a large pivotal clinical trial.  Celleration’s core technology is a patented non-imaging, non-contact ultrasound system called Mist Therapy System (“MIST™”).  The Company has demonstrated the technology’s ability to accelerate the healing of chronic wounds through stimulating healthy cells during all three phases of the healing process, including management of bacteria.  Due to these mechanisms of action, the Company believes that a broader market application for the technology exists beyond chronic wound management.

Jon Brodd, CEO

2045 Wooddale Drive

Woodbury, MN  55125

651-251-1451

jbrodd@cimananotech.com

Cima NanoTech, Inc. is an early growth advanced materials company specializing in the development and commercialization of nano-metal based products for use in electronics and biotechnology applications. Headquartered in St. Paul, MN, Cima's researchers have developed two different patent-protected processes that produce a wide range of nanometals and metal alloys. These nanometals and metal alloys form the innovative technology platform which serves as a basis for Cima's product development.


Winners of the UofM Business Plan Competition

Paul Sustman, CEO
1200 Main Street
Hopkins, MN  55343

952-933-2331

pas@constantdata.com

Constant Data delivers scalable, high availability storage management software focused on enterprise data protection and distribution. We develop real-time hybrid data replication and failover solutions for

heterogeneous server and operating environments.

Steven J. Healy, CEO
9600 West 76 Street, Suite T
Eden Prairie, MN  55344
952-345-2961
shealy@discdyn.com
Disc Dynamics, Inc. (DDI), founded in August 2000, is a privately held orthopedic spine company based in Minnesota. The mission of DDI is to address the unmet clinical needs of back pain patients and their surgeons by developing and marketing innovative, standard-setting, high-value, minimally invasive devices for the safe and effective restoration of spine function and a measurably improved quality of life.

John Haaland, Ph.D., CEO

614 McKinley Place NE

Minneapolis, MN  55413

612-656-4484

johnh@discoverygenomics.net

Discovery Genomics discovers what genes do and delivers them for therapy.  We generate revenues from contracts, licenses and product sales.  We provide products for safe, long-lasting gene therapy and discover therapeutics and drug targets. Our primary interest is diseases related to blood vessel integrity. We have discovered and filed patents for six potential drug targets and therapeutics in this field. We offer services to pharmaceutical and biotech companies in areas outside of our focus. Our proprietary Morphant® Technology is the foundation of our discovery work. Our Sleeping Beauty Transposon™ System is our delivery platform for human gene therapy.

Erich C. Steinbergs, VP
1650 West 82nd Street
Minneapolis, MN  55431
952-884-7337
EnviroScrub Technologies Corporation licenses a commercially-ready multi-pollutant control technology that cleans or "scrubs" the emissions of fossil fuel-fired power plants and other industrial facilities.  Our technology removes almost 100% of the gaseous oxides of sulfur (SOx) and nitrogen (NOx) that create acid rain and smog and contribute to ground-level ozone.  Our process also removes 60-70% of vapor phase mercury (Hg) and over 99% of particulate Hg.  EnviroScrub has a "tail-pipe" or post-combustion technology that provides a solution for all fossil-fuel/carbon-based power generation (e.g., coal, natural gas, fuel oil, biomass, waste-to-energy).  In fact, the technology can be applied to any industrial process that generates gaseous emissions of SOx, NOx, or Hg (e.g., power generation plants, oil refineries, pet coke plants, met coke plants, pulp & paper mills, steel mills, metals smelters).  Our technology is much more effective than wet Flue Gas Desulfurization (FGD) and Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR).  Our technology costs substantially less to own and operate than wet FGD and SCR.  Our technology uses a proprietary mineral sorbent to capture the pollutants.  The sorbent is regenerable on-site without loss or degradation, meaning that it can be used repeatedly.  The sorbent is not a consumable, therefore eliminating the disposal problems associated with FGD.  All of the sulfur and nitrogen captured by our process is transformed into useful industrial chemicals and fertilizers.  When our process is applied to coal-fired or waste-to-energy plants, there is a small waste stream of mercury, which can easily be contained and safely stored.  EnviroScrub has filed more than 40 US patent applications.  The US Patent Office has sent to EnviroScrub two Notices of Allowances, accepting a combined total of 105 claims from our first two patent applications.  EnviroScrub is looking for $10-15 million to complete a commercial-scale unit, which can be operational in early 2004.

Mark J. Rice, MD, President

1509 Bull Lea Drive, Suite 300

Lexington, KY  40511

859-255-2606 x222

MarkBRM@aol.com

Fovioptics, based in Lexington, Kentucky, is developing the Retinal Blood Analyzer (RBA), a non-invasive blood diagnostic system.  The RBA uses the Company’s patent-protected data analysis processes, combined with existing retinal camera technology, to measure important blood components and other critical care metrics using the human body’s natural window to the blood: the eye.  This breakthrough technology platform solves the inherent problems that have plagued competing non-invasive diagnostic efforts and offers significant advantages over traditional needle-based systems, including cost, patient comfort, repeatability, and infection control. The RBA has the potential to provide immediate, real-time measurements for a variety of applications previously attainable only through blood sampling or other invasive means, including:

·        Glucose (diabetes)

·        Hemoglobin (anemia)

·        Bilirubin  (infant jaundice)

·        Intracranial pressure (ICP) (head trauma)

Fovioptics presents a unique venture capital opportunity in the medical diagnotic arena: a broad, proprietary technology platform, large and diverse market opportunities, strong initial clinical data, and an experienced development team.

Stephen C. Roberts, M.D., CEO
1650 West 82nd Street, Suite 1040
Bloomington, Minnesota  55431
952-881-4105
sroberts@gelstat.com
Migraine is a severe and debilitating disease affecting 28 million Americans and costing the U.S. economy over $20 billion annually in direct medical expenses and lost productivity.  GelStat Corp. has developed a non-prescription product, “GelStat Migraine” that relieves migraine headaches without side effects. Clinical trials demonstrate the efficacy and safety of this product, which will soon be launched at retail nationwide. Company founders have extensive experience in new product introductions, having previously brought to market products such as “Cold-Eeze”, which attained retail sales of $140 million within 18 months of launch. Furthermore, the Company intends to leverage the unique delivery system of GelStat Migraine to develop a broad line of effective OTC products.  “GelStat Sleep”, for the treatment of insomnia, is the Company’s other initial product.  This product, which will also be launched at retail within several months, addresses the needs of 70 million Americans with occasional insomnia. Thus both GelStat Migraine and GelStat Sleep are unique, effective, high margin products addressing multi-billion dollar markets.  Their anticipated success will allow the Company first to establish and then to expand its foothold in the lucrative and growing OTC health market.

Ron Schmitz, CEO

2119 Viburnum Trail

Eagan, MN  55122
612-819-7273

schmitz67@msn.com

Grand Avenue Software is a start-up helping medical products companies reduce costs and shorten their time-to-market through a collaborative suite of compliance and quality management solutions. The company's collaborative compliance solutions turn customer's information, data and processes into business intelligence. The result: enhanced regulatory compliance with improved business process efficiency.

Byron Gilman, CEO
6466 City West Parkway
Eden Prarie, MN 55344
952-943-1683
bgilman@harbingermedical.com

Harbinger Medical markets a non-invasive cardiac diagnostic tool that helps physicians more accurately assess a patient's risk of life threatening arrhythmias. Harbinger aids the physician's decision regarding treatment options, which range from lifestyle changes to anti-arrhythmic medication to the implantation of a defibrillator. Their first target market includes 350,000 people each year who suffer a heart attack. This market represents a potential of over 1 million diagnoses a year. Additional uses now being studied include periodic monitoring of CHF and heart attack patients that can increase the potential diagnoses per year to over 9 million a year.  Harbinger has developed, patented and obtained FDA approval of this new analytic tool, with a total investment of $2 million dollars. Over the last nine years the company has fine tuned the technique and tested it on over 300 patients in collaboration with leading cardiologists in the US and Europe.  The Harbinger product fills a void in the diagnostic pathway a patient travels on their way to a determination of appropriate treatment. Today, cardiac treatment for the post-heart attack patient is a $1 billion market. Harbinger has put itself in the position to beneficially impact over 1 million diagnoses a year.

Wally Danielson, CEO

5251 W. 73rd Street, Suite J

Edina, MN  55439
952-842-9322
wally@impresmed.com

Impres Medical is developing a new treatment called Elate™ to address a large unmet clinical need in gynecology. Over 16 million women in the US alone have abnormal uterine bleeding (AUB), and have few effective treatment alternatives other than major surgery.  Elate™ is a catheter delivered technology that can easily be performed in the physician’s office, and uses a new mechanism of action discovered by Impres called Deactivation.   Elate™, which is being designed to completely stop monthly bleeding, should be a well reimbursed first line therapy alternative to hysterectomy.  The Company has completed a 20 patient human trial confirming proof of concept for the Elate™ procedure.  Impres Medical has captured a strong IP position, attracted an experienced management team, recruited a talented and active Board, and developed an impressive investor base.  The Company has successful completed a $2.3 million Series A financing and is beginning an $8-10 million Series B raise.

Ken Rosenblum, CEO

5620 Smetana Drive, Suite 300
Minnetonka, MN  55343

952-548-94000 ext. 202

krosenblum@instymeds.com

Mendota Healthcare, an early revenue stage company, is the creator of the InstyMeds prescription dispensing system, the first ATM-like dispenser of prescription medications.  The InstyMeds system addresses the need of hospital pharmacists to dispense 24 hours/day, 7 days/week.  InstyMeds dispensing will decrease hospital staffing costs, minimize dispensing errors, apply barcode technology to outpatient dispensing and decrease patient waiting time for prescriptions.  While Mendota is marketing first to hospital ER’s, the InstyMeds technology will also be useful to the 55,000 US retail pharmacies.  InstyMeds systems can reduce pharmacy costs and increase in-store foot traffic by offering convenient, round the clock prescription services.

Gary Doan, CEO
5666 Lincoln Drive, #205
Edina, MN 55436
952-936-7733
gdoan@intradyn.com
IntraDyn™ Inc. is a startup company that has completed product development, testing and customer trials. IntraDyn™ is currently preparing to launch it's first product in May 2003. More information will be available then at the company's web site ( www.intradyn.com ).

Bill Drake, CEO
1853 Buerkle Road

St. Paul, MN  55110

651-779-6859 x110

bdrake@islet.com

Islet Technology is a cell therapy company initially focused on diabetes.  Our mission is to make islet transplantation - a breakthrough cure - a reality for millions of people with diabetes.  Positioned to be the leading supplier of insulin-producing islets for transplantation, Islet Technology has innovative and proprietary isolation and microencapsulation technologies used in the processing of islets.  Building on these technologies, we have designed a two-phase business strategy: 1) establish U.S and European islet cell-processing facilities to supply islets to transplant centers worldwide ($1 billion annual revenue), and 2) add Islet Technology's proprietary microencapsulation technology to the cell processing ($30 billion annual revenue), eliminating the need for expensive and often risky anti-rejection drugs that are otherwise required for life with an islet transplant.

Toby Dayton, COO/CFO
4301 Highway 7, Suite 155
St. Louis Park, MN  55416
952.929.5627
toby@linkup.com

JobDig is an employment related media company that helps businesses of all sizes more effectively and efficiently meet their hiring and recruiting needs. We do this through classified advertising and integrated, multimedia solutions involving print, the web, radio, and television. We publish a weekly employment newspaper titled 'JobDig' as well as an online jobs website 'JobDig.com.’ In addition, we deliver radio-powered classifieds, and are producing programming for television and radio. We currently serve the upper Midwest with unique publications in 6 markets that will grow to 10 by year-end. The highly scalable business model benefits from very low 'per-market' overhead through the centralization of both our telemarketing sales force and production. The 5-year plan projects a total U.S. coverage of over 65 individual markets and revenue of $86 million. The company’s CEO, G.L. Hoffman, possesses a very successful entrepreneurial track record having founded and grown two companies, Varitronic Systems and Insignia Systems (NASDAQ:ISIG), that both went public. We are currently raising our third round of financing, of which more than half has been raised to date.

Modular Computing & Communications

John Colby, CEO
2141 Kenwood Drive East

Maplewood, MN 55117
651-776-3565

jecolby@thecolbygroup.com

Modular Computing & Communication (MC2), a Delaware corporation, was formed to develop and market a computing and communications solution for the non desk-bound user. The company’s first product offering will provide a true advance in portability and wireless connectivity. This will be accomplished through a unique combination of technologies previously developed by IBM, Intel, and Siemens with additional technology being developed by MC2. The main component of MC2's technology design is known as "PAC"TM  (Personal Access Comm or Phone And Computer). Packaged with wireless voice and data services, MC2's "my-PAC"TM phone/computer system will provide users the functionality of a cell phone, the power of a laptop, and the convenience of a PDA, all in one compact device that they can carry effortlessly on their hips. The company will also offer 1) wireless network design and implementation services and 2) voice and data carrier services.

Jerry Mattys, CEO
539 East Lake Street

Wayzata, MN  55391

952-475-8094

jmattys@medisyntech.com

Medisyn Technologies, Inc. is a drug design and optimization company focusing on the discovery and pre-qualification of novel drug candidates (leads.)  Over the past 20 years, the underlying technology of Medisyn has identified 120 lead candidates in 30 different therapeutic classes with in vivo validation for five different therapeutic classes including cancer. Medisyn is initially focusing on identifying effective cancer therapies and has 26 patent pending cancer compounds for license to pharmaceutical and biotechnology partners.  Medisyn's proprietary Forward Engineering in silico prediction platform is capable of designing new or improved molecules from pre-specified properties.  The technology can identify molecules that meet the desired properties and accurately assess their drug safety, efficacy, ADME/Tox , potency, and mechanism of action in novel compounds.  Medisyn's unique methodology and these supporting data have been published in over 100 peer review articles.  Medisyn can solve drug discovery problems for its customers by providing pre-qualified lead candidates for them to take through clinical trials and by providing information to its partners to aid in their decision making on which drugs to invest in.  The company is looking for financing partners to realize its vision.

Kevin Sundquist, CEO

4802 Park Glen Rd.

St Louis Park, MN  55416

612.386.3119

kevin@mrinstruments.com

MR Instruments is improving the quality of people's lives and reducing the cost of medical care through the commercialization of new magnetic resonance imaging products.  These products are from an innovative, patented technology developed over 14 years at 3 major universities by world-class scientists and financially supported by the National Institute of Health.  In the first year, because of an experienced and focused management team, the company has implemented growth strategies that created revenue, attracted top talent and quickly moved to commercialize the first two products.

Lenny Engelhardt, VP, Business Development
12 Eliyahu Hakim Street
Tel Aviv, Israel 69120
011-972-55-330046
lenny@optinetix.com
Optinetix's optical TV messaging utilizes conventional TV advertising to distribute product promotions. Encoded coupon information is broadcast with the TV advertisement and optically captured and decoded by an inexpensive device to create and print a coupon. The consumers may subsequently use the printed coupon for shopping at a retailer. No modifications are required to the existing TV sets or broadcast infrastructure. Optinetix's TV coupons offer viewers a direct cash incentive to watch a TV commercial. There is no mass communication channel available to deliver tangible incentives via TV in general or specifically via commercials. Optinetix's technology enables an improved delivery platform for a large well-established industry. Advertisers spend millions promoting their products in TV ads while viewers often disregard the content, change channels or leave the room during the advertising breaks in the programs. There is no incentive for the viewer to watch a TV ad other than an info add-on to the scheduled programming. The company's technology combines electro-optic detection with advanced digital signal processing and supports data acquisition embedded in the visual portion of a video signal at a relatively high baud rate. The company filed for two patents that cover both the core technology and the associated applications. Optinetix Inc. founded in August 2000, registered in the US (Delaware) with an R&D subsidiary in Israel.

Paul Sullivan, CEO

1125 Nathan Lane North

Plymouth, MN  55441

763-545-8849

psullivan@pumpworks-inc.com

PumpWorks  engineers and manufactures high-technology pumps.  Success has been demonstrated based on our patent protected technology by recent market acceptance and our first profitable year. Revenues in 2002 were $2.5M up from $0.2M the previous year.  A majority of revenue is from leaders in their field such as SEARS and MAYTAG. Our forecasts indicate growing revenues reaching $87M in 2007.  Our competitive advantage is based on the extremely simple design consisting of a single moving part in a pump/motor combination offering a unique set of capabilities found in no other pump. Our high quality pumps can handle both liquid and vapor simultaneously without harm to the pump. The pumps are real-time controllable for precise dosing on demand, highly durable/reliable, hermetically sealed, and small in size compared to similar performing pumps.  Our pumps are physically scalable from the size of a coffee cup down to the size of the tip of a pencil.  The pump, utilizing identical technology, is ideal for multiple industries and applications where a unique set of requirement characteristics are needed in a single small system.  For example, organizations such as GM and NASA have our pumps in evaluation for fuel cell applications. The medical industry has also expressed interest and purchased our pumps.

Lawrence B. Schook, Ph.D., CEO

2201 W. Campbell Park Drive

Chicago, Il. 60612

312-455-0602
schook@pyxisgenomics.com

Pyxis Genomics Inc. is a genomics-based company engaged in the discovery, development and commercialization of products and solutions that enhance animal health and performance. Pyxis Genomics will develop novel products in three sectors of the agribusiness and health industries. First are customer specific DNA-based assays for tracking animals and products from farm to fork. Second is proprietary expression profiling platforms for genetic management of health and production systems. The third area will be the identification of gene targets for nutritional intervention (non-antibiotic feed supplements for livestock and nutraceuticals for pets). This will include development of proprietary novel nutrients and enhancers of health as well as traditional feed supplements.

Michael Peterson, CEO   
416 East Hennepin Ave, Suite 211
Minneapolis, MN 55414
612-435-2145 x81
 
mike@shopclosebuy.com
ShopCloseBuy is changing the way small businesses win new customers. Our method and tools enable restaurants, retailers and service providers to reach out to those people who are most likely to be converted into new regular customers—people who already live, work and shop in their neighborhood. By putting a new twist on the most effective marketing techniques, ShopCloseBuy delivers an easy, effective and inexpensive solution to the most common problem small businesses face - how to attract, acquire and retain new customers. We couple the effectiveness of permission-based marketing with the cost-efficiency of email. Then we employ geo-targeting to leverage the strength of the existing base of consumers in the community. Finally, we wrap it in a 100% managed service model so that it takes no time or effort. The result is more foot traffic to individual shops.

Bob Donaldson, CEO

287 6th Street East

St. Paul, MN 55101

612-805-7457

rdonaldson@synchrono.com

Synchrono, Inc. is a Supply Chain Management (SCM) software company that has developed the first real-time 2nd generation SCM planning and execution technology.  Synchrono is targeting the growing SCM market that AMR Research predicts will increase from $6.4 billion in 2002 to $13.6 billion by 2006 with a 19% annual growth rate.  Over the last decade, major software companies such as i2, Manugistics, SAP, Oracle and Peoplesoft have developed 1st generation SCM solutions based on batch oriented, mathematical models embedded in procedurally rooted technology platforms.  These current solutions have come under severe criticism due to overwhelming complexity, long costly implementations, and less than promised improvements.  Synchrono, Inc. is heralding the arrival of the first real-time 2nd generation SCM solution that provides seamless real-time planning and execution capabilities, designed for rapid implementation, and continuous plant improvement.  Synchrono will be the driving force behind the “Next Big Event” in the SCM industry by breaking the old paradigm and driving the new 2nd generation with proven reductions in order-lead times of 25% - 50% and reductions of inventories of 20% - 40%.  With over 20 plants sold, 4 in Q1 2003, and 13 implemented in less than 90 days each, Synchrono is poised for rapid growth through expanded and improved sales and marketing capabilities.

Andrew Hunkins, CEO

430 First Avenue North, Suite 790
Minneapolis, MN 55401

612-204-3605

ahunkins@unimax.com

Unimax provides a management software framework to keep diverse corporate databases in sync. Our award-winning solution, 2nd Nature, is used to uniformly manage communication systems and enterprise databases at over 7,000 customer locations worldwide. Unimax also counts many of the largest global communications manufacturers as strategic partners, including Cisco, Avaya, Nortel, EADS Telecom - North America (formerly Intecom), and Philips Business Communications Systems

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