Such a Sad Day

Today is a sad day in the history of Nanofiber Solutions. It is the last day that Dave and I will be employed here as we must return to New York and Minnesota to continue our schooling. On behalf of both of us I would like to thank everyone at NFS for this great opportunity and to Josh for taking us out to lunch on our last day. It truly was a summer filled with great experience and great people. We will forever be indebted to you guys!

As a bonus, we will show you a picture of Katelyn conquering the Therminator! Now that is a burger!

The Team

Chirp, Chirp

For the past few days there has been a cricket that has been loudly chirping... Now we're not exactly sure where this cricket is. It sounds like it is in the walls of the building that we're in but it could also be a pet? of one of the other businesses in the incubator since the walls don't go all the way to the ceiling we can hear everything! Nevertheless, it is extremely annoying and we have to put on music just to stop ourselves from going crazy (not that I mind since I'm a huge music fan).

Also, last Friday my brother had surgery to correct a condition called Pectus Excavatum (indented sternum). Since I'm in Ohio and the rest of my family lives in MN I wasn't able to be there for the surgery and having had the surgery in the past I know how painful it it. So I would like to give a shoutout to Ryan!! Stay strong buddy, it only gets easier from here!

On the business side, we're currently working on a few more distributors around the world and things are looking promising. We also have a few more trachea surgeries scheduled for later this month which is awesome! We're also revamping our entire website and so far it is looking really good!

Until tomorrow, we out here spinning.

P.S. Go Team USA!!

FDA is, well, Confusing

So today I started researching what kind of FDA approvals we would need for some new products that we're currently working on developing. Needless to say the FDA is the same as every other government organization: confusing and hard to navigate. If searching for this information isn't hard enough on the FDA's website it's even more confusing when they throw around all of their crazy acronyms for approvals (i.e. 510(k), CFR, GMP, etc.). Now I'm fully aware that these could all be fairly common acronyms that every adult would know but as an undergraduate student I'm pretty oblivious to the world still.

Anyways, on the business end of things we (NFS and a few other companies) were chosen as the recipient of a $2.4 million grant! Yay for more money for NFS! If you want to check out the grant click here.

Until tomorrow, we out here spinning!

Houston, We Have A Problem

Today my CEO asked if Dave and I would be willing to draft an outline for a business plan for the new market that we are trying to crack into. There's only one problem with that... Neither Dave or myself have even seen a business plan let alone write one!

However, we realized that this would be a great experience and said that we would make an effort toward this project. We Googled templates for business plans and started researching the market that we were creating the plan for. One of the first sources that I found, was exactly what we were looking for. It laid out the past finances and made predictions for the next 5 years! There was only one problem with this report: if you wanted to read it, it would cost you almost $2,000! Yes I counted my zeroes correctly, two thousand dollars. Ridiculous. 

Nevertheless we are still drafting this outline now and hope to have a very rough draft by the end of the day so wish us luck!

Until tomorrow, we out here spinning.

Here Comes the VP

Today in Columbus, VP Biden is speaking literally right across the street from NFS! While this exciting (for all you Democrats) and good press for Columbus and Biden it does conflict with all of those companies here in the TechColumbus incubator. To protect the VP, they're not letting anyone in or out of our parking lot between 3:30 and 5 pm. So many employees (including myself) have a decision to make: leave work early or risk sitting in the crazy traffic that will ensue after the VP speech is over at 5.

While I understand the need for the highest levels of protection for the VP during his entrance and exit from the area, I don't understand why the can't let those of us that work here out of our own parking lot? All I want to do is to leave work and drive away from the area.

In the business side of life, Dave and I spent yesterday and today crunching some data and from what we saw it looks rather promising and from it we will be able to further enhance our patent-pending electrospinning techniques in order to make it perfect.

Well since I hate driving in bumper-to-bumper traffic, I'm thinking I'm going to leave work here pretty quick. Until tomorrow, we out here spinning.

Why am I a Minnesota Sports Fan?

Being from Minnesota, I have a deeply rooted love for all of my teams up north (i.e. Vikings, Twins, Timberwolves, Wild, etc.). As many of you know Minnesota hasn't historically had the best of sports teams (no super bowls, no stanley cups, no NBA titles) but we can usually fall back on our beloved Twins to pick us up during the summer (2 World Series titles and in my lifetime more division titles than I could count). However, the past two years have been a failure in Twins standards (especially with building a sweet new stadium!).

This season has not been any better with the Twins posting an embarrassing 37-52 record and are already 12 games out of first place. While losing has not been easy this year there are moments of the old Twins coming back to life. The most recent example of this was the Twins victory over the Orioles. While the Orioles have not had very good seasons in the past, they are above .500 this year and in contention for their division title. The victory was nice but it was the score that really shocked me: 19-7.

How can you score 19 runs in a game against a decent team and be 12 games out of first place at the All-Star break? So frustrating. Welcome to the life of a Minnesota sports fan.

On the business side of things, the business hasn't gone bankrupt or burned down yet with Dave and I running things in the office so that's good! Outside of that not much new to report. 

Until tomorrow, we out here spinning!