Author: Rhonda Abrams
Publisher: Florida Today
Date: May 14, 2013

As an entrepreneur and small-business owner, I have been fortunate to have become friends with, and learned from, many successful entrepreneurs.

But the person who had the greatest impact on my business life was the late Eugene Kleiner, my mentor and dear friend. May 12 would have been Kleiner’s 90th birthday, and as a memorial to him — and to help aspiring entrepreneurs — I want to share some of Kleiner’s entrepreneurial wisdom, enshrined in Silicon Valley as “Kleiner’s Laws.”

One of the “traitorious eight,” widely recognized as the founders of Silicon Valley, Kleiner also co-founded one of the earliest, most successful, and to-this-day most influential venture capital firms in the world — Kleiner, Perkins, Caulfield & Byers. He also was committed to supporting entrepreneurs, and was incredibly generous to me with his time and counsel. Read more here.

Author: James Dean
Publisher: Florida Today
Date: May 7, 2012

The spotlight in a multi-state competition to win SpaceX’s commercial rocket launches today shifts back to Texas.

At a public meeting in Brownsville, residents will weigh in on a new private launch complex SpaceX has proposed building on the Gulf Coast near Mexico, which the company says could become its “commercial Cape Canaveral.”

The Texas discussion comes five days after the Volusia County Council voted 6-1 to support a commercial spaceport Florida hopes to develop at the north end of Kennedy Space Center and the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, offering SpaceX an alternative to other states.

“Given the enthusiasm which Texas is showing SpaceX, it is essential that Florida show it to wants to be a player in commercial space,” said Dale Ketcham, Space Florida’s chief of strategic alliances, of the Volusia vote’s importance. Read more here.

Author: James Dean
Publisher: Florida Today
Date: March 13, 2013

Florida remains a contender to become SpaceX’s base for commercial launches, state officials said Tuesday, days after CEO Elon Musk said Texas was leading the competition to win the business.

Space Florida CEO Frank DiBello said a proposed commercial launch complex at Kennedy Space Center would present SpaceX with a compelling business case.

“If he makes his business decision on a pure business case, or business logic, I’m confident that we can put a very attractive and even winning proposal in front of him,” DiBello told FLORIDA TODAY. “If there are other factors driving that decision, there are other customers for what we’re looking at. But clearly we want to attract a greater SpaceX presence here, along with many other players.” Read more here.

Author: Patrick Peterson
Publisher: Florida Today
Date: February 16, 2013

Last week, when FLORIDA TODAY called the Melbourne office that once was AuthenTec Inc., the receptionist answered, “Apple.”

When asked whether there was anyone there who could talk, she apologized. Everyone but her was in Cupertino, Calif., for a meeting.

Cupertino is the headquarters of Apple Corp., one of the United States’ largest and most successful electronics corporations.

If you discount thousands of Apple’s loyal computer and iPhone users, AuthenTec was really Brevard County’s only real connection to the California company.

How strong that connection is these days — if it even exists and if so, how much longer — is unclear. Read more here.

Author: James Dean
Publisher: Florida Today
Date: February 17, 2013

Since before the shuttle’s retirement, NASA has touted plans to transform Kennedy Space Center into a futuristic spaceport supporting launches of every kind of government or commercial mission.

Concept images show multiple rockets being processed simultaneously inside the Vehicle Assembly Building and sharing a common launch pad, while more rockets blast off across the Cape and space planes zip in and out of the former shuttle runway.

NASA established the “21st Century Space Launch Complex” program to help implement the vision, which promised to make Kennedy less dependent on a single government space program and attract jobs with more frequent launches.

Author: Wayne Price
Publisher: Florida Today
Date: January 22, 2013

It’s appearing more and more like Melbourne-based AuthenTec’s fingerprint sensor will be making its debut on Apple’s new iPhone.

Various media reports Tuesday said rumors are strong that the AuthenTec iPhone 6 fingerprint detection is at the heart of new Apple iPhone. Neither Apple nor AuthenTec representatives have responded to the rumors.

High-tech blogger Ed Valdez said there could be an iPhone 6 announcement by June. Some analysts and observers are predicting that that the Apple iPhone 5S or 6 release date could be as early as summer 2013, although many say a September of 2013 is more likely. Apple hasn’t publicly announced a release date or if the AuthenTec scanner will be on the phone. Read more here.

Author: Wayne T. Price
Publisher: Florida Today
Date: December 16, 2012

The Space Coast likes to boast, often with good reason, about the area’s deep pool of entrepreneurs.

Some of them are trying hard to get the attention of investors through the Space Coast Energy Consortium’s “Space Coast Challenge,” a venture with the New York-based crowd-funding company RocketHub Inc.

Last month, the consortium selected 10 area entrepreneurs to participate in the fund raising challenge using RocketHub as the launch site. Two dropped out of consideration and now there are eight in the group. Read more here.

Author: Wayne T. Price
Publisher: Florida Today
Date: November 17, 2012

Tenants at the Florida Technological Research and Development Authority’s business incubator work on computers, lasers, microscopes and other instruments. Their work involves coming up with new medical products or ways to save energy.

And the TRDA’s business incubator center provided them with low-cost work space and other services to help them get their ventures off the ground.

Soon those tenants will be without a home following a decision by the TRDA’s board of directors to dissolve the 25-year-old organization in the face of a legal action by the U.S. Department of Justice over how the organization spent taxpayer funds.

“The whole incubator facility worked out really well for us,” said William Cox, chief executive officer of Carbolic Corp., a renewable energy start-up that is moving its operations to Palm Bay and West Palm Beach. “Fortunately, we were in the process of moving out anyway.” Read more here.

Author: Wayne T. Price
Publisher: Florida Today
Date: November 16, 2012

Facing an investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice, and potentially millions of dollars in legal fees and penalties, the board of a local technology based economic development organization on Thursday agreed to dissolve.

The decision by the 25-year-old Florida’s Technological Research and Development Authority’s board of directors follows a civil lawsuit filed in March by the Department of Justice.

Government lawyers alleged the authority improperly applied for millions of dollars in grants and then knowingly misused some of that funding to build its Melbourne headquarters and business incubator. Read more here.

Author: Patrick Peterson and Wayne T. Price
Publisher: Florida Today
Date: October 14, 2012

Bigger isn’t always better in the space industry these days.

Since the massive shuttle program ended, small businesses are being sought out by the federal government. NASA acknowledges that small businesses are innovation hubs and can complete space industry jobs more quickly for less. That might be why NASA has passed its annual small-business contracting goal by more than 28 percent, spending $2.6 billion on small-business contracts.

NASA has made bold moves to harness the innovation and efficiency of smaller companies. “We’re actually being given free rein. They’re counting on rapid development and lower costs and overhead,” said Don Platt, founder of Micro Aerospace Solutions Inc. in Melbourne. “We’re working on a pretty large mission with a company in Los Angeles for a solar cell project for a small satellite.”

NASA is overseeing the project, but has tried not to micromanage the operation, which is developing software for the spacecraft. “NASA told us to push back on them when we feel the requirements are overbearing,” Platt said. “They’ve actually been very flexible.”