Please Read

(MBAGN Note: This is the first enewsletter for 2012.   Happy Leap Day!  Please respond to rob@mbaglobalnet.com with your resume and brief email about the opportunity you’re interested in exploring, and feel free to forward this link if you think a co-worker or friend might be interested in any of the below opportunities.  Thanks! -Rob)

OPPORTUNITIES – BRING YOUR EXPERTISE

1) Big Data Software Biz Development – integrate unstructured data from multiple databases

The company has been in business for over 10 years, has signature clients, but is now actively looking to expand into new industries and take advantage of the push of big data in many markets –and the reluctance to fund big data warehouse projects.

We already have provided this firm with several introductions and have conducted a number of demos with potential clients.  One of them, a Fortune 2000 company, seeks to consolidate multiple customer lists from a myriad of recent acquisitions whose data currently sits on multiple databases that do not talk to each other.   The client company’s software is designed to suck-in known data from any source and build one large searchable database –with many ways to mine the data –without requiring the need to build a data warehouse.   Endeca.com  is a competitor in a number of ways.

We will have a demo phone call in the next two weeks.  Please contact rsteir@mindforceconsulting.com if interested to learn more and join our licensing team we will be forming –as we have a business development agreement with the company.

2) Social Media Communications Platform Product – re-purpose from education product

We are working with an education company that has figured out a dynamic two-way messaging channel for engaging with today’s media- and social networking-savvy students.   It allows professors (the one) to interact with students (the many) on Facebook/Twitter (among others) without having to join their social networking sites as friends, and most important, their friends/connections on these sites also do not see these interactions.    Thus, it allows a group to attain one to many privacy, yet these communications take place where people interact daily.   Thus, the user can easily send messages via email, text or Web to an entire community or specific interest group.

We will have an hour phone call with their both their CEO and Business Development Director to learn about their software solution, and explore new markets beyond education.    For example, could this platform be used for stock analysts communicating with their followers? How about corporate education departments for training announcements?  Non-profits and doners? Event planners?  Alumni groups?   Obviously, we need to find a big “pain” problem that needs to be solved.

The company has agreed to work with MindForce and our team in going after one or more of these market opportunities — for revenue sharing — including the potential of creating a new company, if so warranted.   They are clearly focused on education.  We can focus on new markets with them.

We would form one of our Venture Teams and make a proposal back to them about the opportunity(s) we would explore and the necessary changes to their software they would need to make.

Please send your resume to rsteir@mindforceconsulting.com if interested in being on this call.

3) Education Syllabus Product – re-purpose for business world

If you have experience in the corporate training world, we’d like to hear from you.  This potential MindForce client has software designed for multiple professors within a school to write their class syllabus into a central system for student viewing and administration features.   This could be transitioned to corporate training, with some tweaks.   Is there a need within the corporate training world?  We’ll have a call with their CEO and explore what’s possible.

4) Email Security Product – new way to keep email and attached content secure and private

What if you received an email, with a wrapper attached, that only allowed you to view the email and any document attached –within an enterprise (employee to employee) and externally from an employee.   Confidential documents would not have an after-shelf life.   We’re looking for people who want to explore ways to help this India-based company (we met the CEO recently) launch vertical market opportunities in the US — think Law Firms, Financial Industry.    We will be setting up a call with the CEO to explore what’s possible.

5) Newspaper Industry experts for Groupon-like (yet tailored to newspapers) concept

Briefly, we are looking to test our business concept with people who have worked in the newspaper industry.  We have connected with a group with completed software that would allow us to communicate with local retailers and consumers –and have figured out a way, we think, to attract newspapers to work with us, and capture more local commerce.    You’ll need to sign a NDA.  We’d like to hear from you.

HELP MINDFORCE WITH CURRENT VENTURES – EXPERTISE NEEDED

Sports Industry (Baseball, Football) expert for interactive social media game.    Plus, people with access to advertisers who work with major sports leagues.

MF submitted a provisional patent for a predictive sports game at the end of last year.  I have teamed with two others to build out the technology specs.  We’d like to expand the team to include sports industry people, especially those of you in the advertising and social media world.  Please forward to any of your friends, too.  You’ll need to sign a NDA.  Thanks.

EXCLUSIVES

1)  Be A Mentor For New Jersey individuals starting their businesses  (Paid $400)  — Please go to  http://www.mbaglobalnet.com/mentoring.pdf for more information.

2)  Join Oneleap.to – be a recognized expert, get people to contribute to a charity of your choice when they contact you by email.   Sign up for free:   https://oneleap.to/signup/mbaglobalnet   — this is a start-up based in London. We are working with the two founders (who we’ve met in NY) who are turning upside down the paradigm of “high-qualified experts” being contacted by strangers.   They have come to MBA GlobalNet to add highly-qualified business people, and are extended an invitation for all of you to join for free.

Here’s how it works:  Using OneLeap.to, a person reads your profile and wants to contact you, you agree to respond back to the person’s request in exchange for a small fee, which goes to a charity of your choice.   For example, your fee is $20.  Person X will pay this amount to reach out to talk with you.   The $20 goes to charity, less Oneleap’s 20% (a portion of which goes to us).  Importantly, the fee signals that this person really wants to talk with you and won’t waste your time, and your charity benefits! Please take advantage of this exclusive offer, join, and add your profile.    If possible, I’d appreciate your sending this invite to a few of your highly-qualified peers.

3)  Phone Event With Victor Huang, author of “Rainforests, The Secret to Building the Next Silicon Valley”   Monday March 12^th at 12 noon- 1 pm EST.  Free.

http://www.amazon.com/Rainforest-Secret-Building-Silicon-Valley/dp/0615586724/ref=sr_1_sc_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1330526022&sr=8-1-spell

PLEASE RSVP TO ROB@MBAGLOBALNET.COM to receive the call-in number.  Limited availability.   Put: Phone Event in subject title, please.

Victor is a partner in the VC firm, T2Capital.  He and his business partner, Greg Horowitt, propose a radical new theory to explain the nature of innovation ecosystems: why certain human networks generate extraordinary creativity and output.  He will discuss what makes places like Silicon Valley tick and how do you foster innovation in your own networks.  Hear him talk about the book and answer your questions.

MEMBER WITH KICKSTARTER CAMPAIGN – FOR BICYCLE RIDERS

Matt Chalek has been an involved member with MBAGN for many years, participating as a NSF mentor and IFEL mentor.  He developed a “wrist-view mirror” product for bike riders and is looking for funding – in exchange for providing you with the product.  Please take a look, and pass it to your friends who are bike riders.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mattchalek/cyfy-wristview-mirror-a-wearable-wrist-mirror-for

 

 

Opportunities eNewsletter 10-19-2011

Hi MBAGN Members,

We have had a very active summer at MBA Globalnet, putting together numerous venture and licensing teams for MindForce and sending out Pinpoint Emails when appropriate.   As we are in the process of revamping MBAGN, we will be sending out enewsletters only when we have specific opportunities (like those below) to promote.  To express interest in any of these opportunities, please send an email referencing the opportunity and including your resume to: ROB@MBAGLOBALNET.COM

I look forward to hearing from you.  -Rob Steir

—————————————————————-

 1) BE A VIRTUAL MENTOR FOR NEW JERSEY NEW ENTREPRENEURS ($400 STIPEND)

MindForce/MBAGN has partnered with a non-profit organization in NJ (www.ifelnj.org) to provide up to 200 mentors to help new entrepreneurs over a six month period.  Each mentor will be assigned an entrepreneur and be expected to spend a total of about 8-10 hours.  You should expect to spend about one-hour per month on the phone, plus a final 1 hour phone call session, and several hours allocated during the six months to answer questions by email and by phone.   The entrepreneurs are currently unemployed people looking to start a business, and they are part of a NJ State program.    Each entrepreneur’s company will have already first participated in an intensive six week business planning program.  Your mission, should you choose to accept it, will be to help them get their first customers and revise/target their audience correctly.   After the program is over, you are free to work with them in any capacity and under whatever terms you both might find agreeable.

We currently have 4 mentors helping 12 companies in our first group that started two weeks ago.  I’m working with 4 entrepreneur-mentees, myself, to help catalyze the process.  After our first calls, I can already tell you that this will be a very rewarding personal experience for me – by giving back to help a person who has the passion and guts to start his or her own business.

IFEL’s next class of 20 people graduates at the end of this week.  Please view the opportunities at http://www.mbaglobalnet.com/ifel1.pdf — If interested in participating, please send resume to  rob@mbaglobalnet.com and your top 3 picks of people to help.    Lastly, non-US mentors probably won’t work due to logistics for phone calls.

2) JOIN A LICENSING TEAM

A) JOIN A MINDFORCE LICENSING TEAM FOR A BIG-DATA SOLUTION SOFTWARE COMPANY.

The company has been in business for over 10 years, has signature clients, but is now actively looking to expand into new industries and take advantage of the push of big data in many markets –and the reluctance to fund big data warehouse projects.

We already have provided this firm with several introductions and have conducted 3 demos with potential clients.  One of them, a Fortune 2000 company, seeks to consolidate multiple customer lists from a myriad of recent acquisitions whose data currently sits on multiple databases that do not talk to each other.   The client company’s software is designed to suck-in known data from any source and build one large searchable database –with many ways to mine the data –without requiring the need to build a data warehouse.   Endeca.com  is a competitor in a number of ways.

We are looking for

–         Data/information experts who know of data consolidation opportunities in their industry

–         Potential system integrators or companies who would benefit from licensing the software – either to resell to 3^rd parties, or for their own data consolidation/reporting purposes.

–         Entrepreneurs who might be interested in participating in our own spin-off company based around our client’s technology applied to publicly available data.  An example would be data developed by New York City or California health records.  Our client already sells one product it has developed that  incorporates 5 health insurance payment databases and includes 63 million records in over 50 fields.

We will be creating a Licensing Team to look at all types of industry opportunities, sort through the possibilities, and recommend which ones are best suited for out-licensing or for a startup.  We already have a sales deal with our client to bring them qualified leads, so if your company (or one you know of) might need this software, please contact us.

B) JOIN LICENSING TEAM FOR A NEW CONTEXTUAL ADVERTISING PLATFORM TECHNOLOGY

If you know about ad networks, demand generation, search engine optimization and anything else related to online advertising, we have a client who wants to work with us to find a buyer of their patent(s) pending technology.  According to our client, the system is a superior method of differentiating context in submitted information, allowing more relevance in ad placement.    The purchasing organization would incorporate the technology into their existing systems to improve ad targeting.

We will have a call with their CEO to demo the product, and can share confidential information before then to those who will be on the call.   Upon our internal review, we realize that we do not know enough about the advertising industry or technology serving it.  Client is willing to share in the upside of a sale with us for our assistance.

3) JOIN A VENTURE TEAM

HELP FIND FINANCING FOR EXECS TO BUYOUT INVESTORS IN FDA-QUALITY AFRICAN PHARMA DRUG MANUFACTURING COMPANY

We were approached by a member whose relative was one of the founders of this company in Africa.   New investment recently occurred that provided needed cash flow to complete the facility, but also raised investor equity into the majority and new management has been brought in.   This triggered a small window of opportunity for the founders to raise funds to buyout the investor –who had also previously put money into the venture.   Approximately $12M is required to buyout this current investor.

They are looking for pharmaceutical companies who need drug distribution and manufacturing capability in Africa –at the manufacturing quality levels required by the U.S. FDA.    The client does not yet have an FDA US license to manufacture at their facility and then distribute in the US, but it can be accomplished within a year with appropriate funding and effort.

4) BIZ DEV REFERRAL FEE OPPORTUNITIES

MBAGN has referral fee relationships with these two firms:

A) MAKE A REFERRAL: AN ALTERNATIVE ENERGY SOLUTIONS COMPANY SEEKING COMPANIES INTERESTED IN REDUCING THE COST OF THEIR ENERGY USAGE THROUGH ENERGY EFFICIENCY STRATEGIES, RENEWABLE TECHNOLOGIES AND FINANCIAL SUBSIDIES/ARBITRAGE

Our client provides energy solutions to its commercial, industrial and institutional (university, municipal gov’t) clients through the deployment of renewable energy systems, energy efficiency initiatives and energy purchase programs.   They work with its clients to identify issues (electricity price inflation, high demand, power-factor correction charges, desire to lessen carbon footprint) and implement solutions with its engineering, construction and vendor partners incorporating renewables, higher efficiency technologies, and/or competitive procurement of power supply.  Renewable and energy efficiency projects are typically structured through Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs, a long-term contract with the host to purchase power produced and/or share savings) and/or equipment leasing programs, eliminating the capital investment, implementation and operational risks of the hosts (ie, they finance the projects internally and with their capital partners, freeing up the host’s capital to focus on its core operations).  The pricing of the PPA reflects government and utility incentives and would provide them with an effective electricity rate that is  (a) predictable and/or (b) represents savings relative to their current electricity rates (Note: final savings can be dependent on availability of incentives).

If you work with a suitable candidate, please let us know and we’ll connect you to one of their principals.

B)  MAKE A REFERRAL: DO YOU KNOW DECISION MAKERS IN LARGE FIRMS THAT ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR NEGOTIATING MICROSOFT/ORACLE SITE LICENSES?

If you are the negotiator of site licenses or know the negotiator for your company for Oracle or Microsoft products and it’s bigger than 1000 site licenses, please let us know.  The company we’re representing has the track record to reduce the cost of these licenses and share in the savings.  It’s much like what consulting firms did with negotiating with suppliers to lower a company’s purchasing costs.

5) ATTEND A CONFERENCE CALL DISCUSSION

This is a trial concept.   These URLs are owned by me.   I have distinct ideas for each of them, but recognize that others may have better ideas.  The goal would be to create a MindForce Venture Team for each URL (with appropriate sweat-equity ownership upsides) and see what results.  If you are interested in exploring, please send your resume when you respond and list the URL in subject line, and we’ll organize a 1-hour call with whoever responds.   NDAs will be required.

A)  TalentPools.com  — a URL for finding passive job seekers interested in working for a company

B)   NeighborlyRewards.com – an out-of-the-box  twist on Groupon Daily Deals

C) CurrentInsights.com – for book authors, subject-matter experts around current topics of the day

D) VideoTopix.com – for the online video world.

E) 247Tourist.com – for the tourist who is 24/7 and wants to meet other tourists in travel destinations

6) EDUCATION INDUSTRY  SUBJECT MATTER EXPERTS WANTED FOR MINDFORCE

MindForce has a number of clients in the education space and we’re looking for SMEs interested in serving on our Educational Teams and Panels to:

• Vet future opportunities
• Explore a new educational products portal concept
• Participate in licensing efforts on behalf of existing and new clients

We currently have clients with products focused on:

• Improving the vocabulary gap of urban kids (an online software product)
• Improving reading comprehension for 4^th and 5^th graders (print product)
• Online math games
• Online interactive classroom platform
• A revolutionary portal/service designed to facilitate development, refinement, and evaluation of new educational products and services.

7.   FORM TEAM TO DISCUSS AUTHOR DAVID BRIN’S PATENT ON A NEW WAY TO PRESENT CHAT

Last night in NYC, I attended a Meetup with noted sci-fi author David Brin (www.davidbrin.com).   Turns out he has a patent, secured in 2006, based on changing the way a chat session is experienced — almost as if you’re in a big room at a party and can go from person to person and eavesdrop on conversations.    He told me about the patent after the event.      If you are interested in reading the patent, and getting on a call both internally to first discuss (and later on hopefully with him if there’s enough interest on our end and we see commercial potential), please contact me at rob@mbaglobalnet.com and let’s see if we can figure out some use cases and approach him about teaming up.    At the least, it’s about 30 minutes to read/skim the 40 page patent and an hour for the internal call.   At the best, we’ll engage him and see where this can go.