Winners of the 2013 Maryland Small Business Week Awards include a wide range of business savvy Marylanders.
Stephen D. Umberger, district director of the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Baltimore District Office, announced the winners Friday morning. Each will be honored during the 29th Annual MD Small Business Week Awards Luncheon on April 19 at Martin’s West in Woodlawn.
Winners include the following:
Cerecor is an InvestMaryland Challenge finalist.
Check back for Q&A profiles on all the competition finalists.
The first-ever InvestMaryland Challenge is down to its final round with just 33 companies competing for more than $300,000 in grants and business services. The final winners will be announced during the Governor’s Cup Awards Ceremony on April 15.
One of the companies, selected out of more than 250 applicants, is Baltimore-based Cerecor. To find out a little more about this innovative pharmaceutical company, we spoke with co-founder and CEO Blake M Paterson, MD.
Q. What does Cerecor do, and how would you explain it to the average person?
A. We develop drugs that work in the human nervous system. There are many different diseases where doing something to the human nervous system can bring about positive therapeutic benefits, and it doesn’t even have to be a neurological disease. For example, cough, cancer, irritable bowel syndrome—those are all diseases where getting a drug into the nervous system can have a major impact on the illness.
Disadvantaged businesses could benefit from an online cash flow management tool.
The U.S. Small Business Association is launching an online cash flow management tool for disadvantaged American businesses, the SBA announced Wednesday.
BusinessIQ Express was formed through a partnership between the SBA and Experian, a leading global information services provider.
The program assists small business owners with the following tasks:
In order to qualify to use the tool, businesses must be small disadvantaged firms in SBA’s 8(a) Business Development program or certified in SBA’s Historically Underutilized Business Zone program. These businesses are generally owned by women, minorities, those with disabilities, or are located in designated geographic areas.
A webinar on using BusinessIQ Express is planned between 2 pm and 3 pm on April 2. Find registration information here.
The recently passed Maryland Offshore Wind Energy Act, which will likely result in a wind farm near Ocean City, provides $10 million to assist minority firms in gaining contracts. It also paves the way for clean energy programs at historically black colleges, the Baltimore Business Journal reports.
According to the article:
The funding will help businesses gear up to handle a variety of work related to the wind farm, including manufacturing components for wind turbines, transporting freight and providing engineering and other professional services, said [Vernon] Wade, CEO of Wade Enterprises Inc., an information technology company based in Ft. Washington …
The legislation also includes the creation of a Clean Energy Program Task Force to recommend whether Morgan State University, Coppin State University, Bowie State University and University of Maryland Eastern Shore should establish programs that would grant a degree or certificate in clean energy.
Find the BBJ’s complete report here.
Check back for Q&A profiles on all the competition finalists.
Find MD BIZ News’ profile on Sickweather from March 2012.
The first-ever InvestMaryland Challenge is down to its final round with just 33 companies competing for more than $300,000 in grants and business services. The final winners will be announced during the Governor’s Cup Awards Ceremony on April 15.
One of the companies, selected out of more than 250 applicants, is Baltimore-based Sickweather, founded in 2012. To find out a little more about this innovative company, we spoke with co-founder and CEO Graham Dodge.
Q. What does Sickweather do, and how would you explain it to the average person?
A. We’re like a Doppler radar for sickness. We’re able to track illness with real-time data that we gather from social networks. We then generate these weather maps related to illness. We can show you now for the first time ever where the flu is going around, where pink eye is going around, or other various viruses.
Advanced Concepts Research Group offers secure mouses and keyboards.
Check back for Q&A profiles on all the competition finalists.
The first-ever InvestMaryland Challenge is down to its final round with just 33 companies competing for more than $300,000 in grants and business services. The final winners will be announced during the Governor’s Cup Awards Ceremony on April 15.
One of the companies, selected out of more than 250 applicants, is Advanced Concepts Research Group, based in Gainesville,Virginia and Aberdeen, Maryland, founded in 2010. To find out a little more about this high-tech company, we spoke with President and CEO Yasuko Carr and Executive Vice President and CIO Chadd Carr, who also describe themselves as a “dynamic husband and wife duo.”
Q. What does Advanced Concepts Research Group do, and how would you explain it to the average person?
Yasuko: We are a certified minority and woman-owned small business. ACRG offers expertise in information technology research and development and formal test and evaluation of information and intelligence-based systems. Our goal is to provide a broader range and more robust set of cyber threat intelligence tools essential for building a more secure cyberspace. ACRG’s Security Sciences Laboratory seeks to reduce future cyber security issues through the research of root causes of modern cyber security deficiencies, fostering open collaboration and integration of emerging knowledge, and expediting time-to-market of technologies, standards, and requirements.
Maryland has 27 business incubators.
Looking for a supportive environment for your startup—a low cost space with easy access to educational resources and exposure to investors?
You might consider setting up shop in one of Maryland’s 27 business incubators, designed to support early-stage entrepreneurial companies in fields ranging from medical research to clean energy.
Incubators exist across the state in the following regions:
Find contact and admission information for Maryland incubators here through the Maryland Department of Business & Economic Development.
Do you have a question related to Maryland business? Tell us in the comments.
Find previous DBED Answers posts here.
MSNBC’s JJ Ramberg is planning to present a free lecture in Baltimore on April 9.
Looking to transform your small business? JJ Ramberg, the longtime host of MSNBC’s “Your Business,” may offer some ideas.
On April 9, at 500 West Baltimore St. in Baltimore, the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law is sponsoring a free book signing and lecture featuring Ramberg. Starting at 4:30 p.m., she plans to sign copies of her bestselling book, ”It’s Your Business: 183 Essential Tips That Will Transform Your Small Business.” The lecture, ”An Evening of Entrepreneurship with JJ Ramberg,” is scheduled to begin at 5:30 p.m.
Whether you provide landscaping or cybersecurity, government agencies may be in need of your products or services. So, how do you make your company an eligible government contractor or vendor?
The process is easier than you think, especially if you follow the Maryland Department of Business & Economic Development’s Business-Government Guide.
Here are a few highlights:
Do you have a question related to Maryland business? Tell us in the comments.
Find previous DBED Answers posts here.
Check back for Q&A profiles on all the competition finalists.
The first-ever InvestMaryland Challenge is down to its final round with just 33 companies competing for more than $300,000 in grants and business services. The final winners will be announced during the Governor’s Cup Awards Ceremony on April 15.
One of the companies, selected out of more than 250 applicants, is Rockville-based CoFoundersLab, founded in 2011. To find out a little more about this up-and-coming company, we spoke with co-founder and CEO Shahab Kaviani.
Q. What does CoFoundersLab do, and how would you explain it to the average person?
A. CoFoundersLab is a matchmaking service for entrepreneurs to find their business partners, and we do it in two ways—we have an online matching site called CoFoundersLab.com, which is very much like Match.com but for business partners, and also through in-person events that we do in about 20 cities throughout the country, every quarter in each city. For example, here in the Baltimore metro area, we do it at the University of Baltimore, at the ETC, at Betamore, at the Rockville economic development center, and in downtown D.C. with Cooley, and in Arlington with Arlington Economic Development. We’re a business matching service to help you choose your business partner with a more objective criteria, according to who complements you the best, rather than just who you’re friends with and who you happen to know.
The InvestMaryland Challenge is heating up with 33 companies advancing to the final round.
Hosted by the Maryland Department of Business & Economic Development, the competition will award $300,000 in grants and business services to companies in the life sciences and high tech industries. Companies also have the opportunity to receive direct investments from venture capital firms and angel investors.
The 33 remaining semi-finalists were selected out of more than 250 applicants. Representatives of each company will participate in 15-minute face-to-face interviews with Maryland DBED on March 5. The Governor’s Cup Awards Ceremony for the final winners in all three categories is planned for April 15.
“On behalf of the State and its partners in the inaugural InvestMaryland Challenge, I would like to congratulate the companies that have advanced this far,” DBED Secretary Dominick Murray stated in a press release. “The Challenge is a tremendous opportunity for these startups and for Maryland to celebrate the vibrant entrepreneurial community that is producing so many promising young companies. These entrepreneurs are pushing the boundaries of life sciences, information technology, and other industries and are helping to position Maryland as a global leader in the Innovation Economy.”
A list of all companies advancing to the final round, sorted by category, is after the break.
