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BioMed SA’s Role in San Antonio’s Thriving Life Sciences Industry

August 22, 2014 / LauraLorek@gmail.com / 0 Comments

Molecular photo licensed from iStockphoto.com

By LAURA LOREK
Founder of Silicon Hills News

Ann Stevens has served as BioMed SA’s president since its inception in 2005. She has helped to grow and promote San Antonio’s healthcare and bioscience industry. She recently answered some questions about BioMed SA and the role the nonprofit organization plays in the city’s booming healthcare and bioscience industry.

SHN: Why was BioMed SA created?

Ann Stevens photo courtesy of BioMed SA

AS: BioMed SA was founded in 2005 by former Mayor Henry Cisneros and the San Antonio Chamber of Commerce to organize and promote the community’s substantial biomedical assets and raise the visibility of San Antonio as a City of Science and Health. Our mission is to accelerate the growth of what is already San Antonio’s leading industry, healthcare and bioscience, to create economic benefit for the region and contribute to improving global health.

SHN: What have been BioMed SA’s major accomplishments since its founding in 2005?

AS: Having an industry cluster organization like BioMed SA in place, along with a cohesive industry growth strategy, has helped San Antonio raise its biomedical profile to attract industry professionals and companies like Medtronic, InCube Labs, and Innovative Trauma Care from outside the region. At the same time, we’ve helped develop a local “innovation eco-system” to foster the growth of homegrown companies and talent. In addition to raising awareness of the sector overall, BioMed SA spearheaded a strategic initiative to identify San Antonio’s leading biomedical assets and leverage them for the collective benefit. The attraction of the World Stem Cell Summit to San Antonio Dec. 3-5, 2014 is testament to the potential of this strategy.

SHN: How does BioMed SA work with San Antonio’s life sciences companies and institutions?

AS: Joining BioMed SA enables companies and institutions to collaborate in growing and promoting this dynamic sector. Members benefit from strategic introductions, visibility raising initiatives, information updates, and getting to know local economic developers. They can participate in industry-specific work groups and events to advance sector growth and can submit nominations for BioMed SA’s annual Julio Palmaz Award for Innovation in Healthcare and the Biosciences. Members can also take advantage of a national cost-savings program that provides discounts on valuable products and services.
SHN: What are the strengths of San Antonio’s Life Sciences industry?
AS: In addition to being a regional hub for medical care and health professions education, San Antonio is increasingly recognized as a national leader in bioscience research and commercialization. Our vibrant biomedical community is bringing new therapies and solutions to market for some of mankind’s most complex diseases, with recognized strengths in diabetes, wound healing and regenerative medicine, infectious diseases, neurologic disorders, and cancer. We are also the “Home of US Military Medicine” with the nation’s largest military medical treatment complex and allied health training campus.
The city’s biomedical assets are supported by an innovation eco-system consisting of multiple tech transfer generators, incubators and accelerator initiatives; commercialization and entrepreneurship programs; research and technology parks with available land and flexible office space; supportive local government officials; and organizations that bring people together to exchange ideas and collaborate.

SHN: Which areas will generate growth?

AS: We believe all five of the disease areas identified above are ones that San Antonio can build on as it brings its biomedical expertise and assets to bear and as the word begins to spread. We’ve already seen several examples of companies relocating or expanding into San Antonio because of our critical mass of expertise in these areas.

SHN: What are San Antonio’s competitive advantages in the Life Sciences industry?

AS: Healthcare and bioscience is the city’s leading industry, employing more than one of every six people in the local workforce, with an annual economic impact of $30 billion. It is also one of the target industries in the community’s SA2020 vision and economic development strategic plan. Having a cohesive strategy and cluster organization in place to bring the industry segments together is key.
Research is the fuel that drives the life sciences industry, and in San Antonio it springs from three distinct, yet collaborative, sources: research organizations, private sector companies, and the U.S. military. Some of these entities have been operating in San Antonio for more than 70 years and are recognized leaders in their fields. The willingness of these organizations to collaborate with each other has been an important advantage for us.

SHN: What problems does San Antonio need to address to expand its Life Sciences industry?

AS: It is important for San Antonio to continue raising awareness of its exceptional biomedical assets and strengths since we have historically been better known for other industries. At the same time, we must focus on expanding the availability of venture capital to translate discoveries made in our research labs into innovative solutions for physicians and patients with unmet medical needs. San Antonio’s biomedical sector is a resource to the world, and local breakthroughs can have global impact when sufficiently funded and promoted.

SHN: Is there enough venture capital available to fuel the startup of new medical device, drug and other life science ventures?
AS: Capital availability has been a limiting factor for us in the past but has improved significantly in the last few years. We now have two homegrown VC funds focused largely on the life sciences, and we have begun to attract increasing interest from investors around the nation.
SHN: We live in an increasingly global world, how does San Antonio compete and collaborate with other countries in the life sciences industry?
AS: Our vision for this industry is for San Antonio to be recognized as a global leader in healthcare and bioscience, so getting the word out about our extensive biomedical assets and strengths is very important. BioMed SA exhibits at international industry conferences and participates in foreign economic missions to open doors and forge relationships with biomedical entities around the world. Over the years, we have traveled to Canada, Mexico, Japan, China, India, and Israel to build awareness and facilitate collaboration with interested companies and institutions.

SHN: How important is the commercialization of new technology spinning out of local universities to the city’s Life Sciences industry?
AS: San Antonio is increasingly recognized as a biomedical hub with unique assets in place and a track record of life-saving medical innovations. The stent invented in the 1980s by Dr. Julio Palmaz of the UT Health Science Center San Antonio revolutionized cardiac care and was named one of “Ten Patents that Changed the World.” Both the Health Science Center and the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) have spun off a number of biomedical companies to commercialize medical discoveries made here.

SHN: How will the new Dell Medical School at the University of Texas in Austin affect San Antonio’s Life Sciences industry?

AS: A good medical school is the foundation for developing a life sciences industry in any region. That has certainly been the case here in San Antonio with the UT Health Science Center and its five professional schools, and we would expect that to be the case in other regions as well. At the same time, San Antonio will soon be getting a new School of Osteopathic Medicine, being developed by the University of the Incarnate Word, which will further strengthen our capabilities. In addition, San Antonio’s expertise in key disease areas continues to distinguish it from other regions. We are also known for being highly collaborative and open to exploring possibilities that leverage our strengths. By understanding what our strengths are and consciously building on them and promoting them, San Antonio is well-positioned for continued momentum.

SHN: What do you think San Antonio’s Life Sciences industry will be like in ten years?

AS: With continued focus and investment, I believe San Antonio will be recognized as a global leader in healthcare and bioscience, capitalizing on the strong foundation we already have in place and the vibrant growth that is currently under way. Much like our 5-time NBA Champion San Antonio Spurs, by continuing to work together and consciously building on our strengths, we have the opportunity to go from “good to great” and make major contributions to the health of the nation and world.

Editor’s note: This article appears in the current issue of Silicon Hills News’ print magazine on the life sciences industry in central Texas.

Graham Weston and Rackspace Do the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge

August 20, 2014 / LauraLorek@gmail.com / 1 Comment

Graham Weston, Chairman, Cofounder and CEO of Rackspace, led a team of “Rackers,” the name Rackspace employees call themselves, to take the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge at Rackspace’s headquarters in San Antonio.

Weston also pledged to donate to Als.org for every employee participating in the challenge.

“You’ve probably heard of the Ice Bucket Challenge, which has gone viral on social media in recent weeks. But in case you’re just returning from vacation in Antarctica, here’s the deal: Those challenged are given 24 hours to either take a video of themselves dumping a bucket of ice water over their heads, or else donate a particular sum, usually $100, to the ALS Association,” Weston wrote in a memo to Rackspace employees. “The association promotes research on Amyotrophic Lateral Schlerosis, a degenerative nerve condition also known as Lou Gerhig’s Disease. There is no cure for ALS, which typically leads to paralysis and death. It strikes some 5,600 people each year in the U.S. alone.”

Following the massive drenching, Weston challenged Rackspace offices around the world to take the Ice Bucket Challenge.

So far, the ALS Association, at alsa.org, has received $31.5 million in donations, compared to $1.9 million, during the same time period last year, according to the association. The Ice Bucket Challenge has attracted more than 637,000 new donors.

Weston joins other tech titans like Michael Dell, Bill Gates, Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg in taking the challenge.

The Rackspace London office accepted the challenge and did an ice bucket wave.

iTraumaCare’s Clamp Stems Bleeding and Saves Lives

August 20, 2014 / LauraLorek@gmail.com / 0 Comments

By LAURA LOREK
Founder of Silicon Hills News

Dr. Ian Atkinson, Dr. Dennis Filips, co-founders of Innovative Trauma Care and Phil Faris, CEO and Chairman of the Board, photo courtesy of iTraumaCare.

One of the leading causes of death among trauma patients is the failure to control bleeding.

Innovative Trauma Care, known as iTraumaCare, a medical device maker with its U.S. headquarters in San Antonio and also based in Edmonton, Canada, has come up with a solution.

It makes the iTClamp50, a clamp that grips the skin and creates a seal that allows blood to clot rapidly beneath the skin where it is applied to stop the bleeding.

“In a matter of seconds you’ve sealed off the wound,” said Phil Faris, iTraumaCare’s CEO and Chairman of the Board.

The iTClamp50 has already received U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval for use on the arms and legs, the axilla, the groin area and the scalp, Faris said.

“This is a technology that can be deployed with frontline medical personnel both in the hospital and in the field,” Faris said. “We feel if this technology is deployed properly, it can make a significant impact on patient outcomes and in many instances may be life saving.”

iTraumaCare began selling the device last October. The product is being used in the U.S. and Canada. Also, iTraumaCare is selling the device in Europe and the Middle East.
“We’re in 26 countries right now,” Faris said.

The one-time use sterilized device costs $79 per clamp and covers a two-inch wound. They can be stacked together to cover a larger wound.

It’s just being deployed to ambulances and E.M.S. vehicles and fire equipment. San Antonio is one of the cities planning on using the device, Faris said. Some Special Forces medics in the military are also using it, Faris said. It’s being evaluated by the military for the first aid kit that the soldiers carry into the battlefield, he said.

“It’s very simple when you look at it but that simplicity can make it widely adopted and deployed,” Faris said.

The iTClamp50 covers an estimated 50 percent to 60 percent of the wounds a medic would normally encounter in trauma situations, Faris said.

Dr. Dennis Filips and Dr. Ian Atkinson founded the company in 2010. Filips, previously served as a trauma surgeon with the Canadian forces and saw the need for a device to quickly and effectively stop bleeding in trauma situations. He came up with the clamp, which replaced gauze pads and pressure applied by combat medics in the field. It also replaces the immediate need for suturing.

Dr. Dennis Filips holding the ITClamp, photo courtesy of iTraumaCare

After his last tour of duty in Afghanistan, Filips worked with the Institute for Surgical Research in San Antonio, but he couldn’t train the medics to do what needed to be done under fire.
After Filips’ last tour of duty in Afghanistan, he worked to train medics in the field that were preparing to deploy to Afghanistan, but he found the training to be difficult.
He wanted to create a product that could be used on the front lines, Faris said.

He came up with the clamp, which replaced gauze pads and pressure applied by combat medics in the field. It also replaces the immediate need for suturing.

“This is the device that came from that experience,” he said.

Last November, iTraumaCare closed on a Series B round of funding and has raised $13.5 million to date, according to Crunchbase. Targeted Technology is the lead investor in iTraumaCare. The rest of the investment has come from high net worth individuals in San Antonio, Faris said.

iTraumaCare has 23 employees. The Edmonton office has just five employees the rest are employed by the San Antonio based company, Faris said.
Faris expects to hire ten employees over the next year.

“We will continue to hire as we scale up,” he said.

The iTClamp is based on a medical platform technology with a whole series of devices coming behind it to manage bleeding, Faris said.

Faris previously served as CEO of Vidacare, a medical device company in San Antonio. He knows how to take a product to market and grow its sales into the millions. That’s one of the key reasons iTraumaCare located in San Antonio.

In the past, the two things missing in San Antonio were key executive talent and money. Now because of the successes of companies like Osteobiologics, ENTrigue Surgical and Vidacare, the talent pool is stronger here. And the capital is flowing more into medical technology startups, Faris said.

“Most of us are driven by improving patient outcomes,” Faris said. “That’s why we get into a business that is as hard, as being in the healthcare side of the world, as opposed to doing websites. We’re trying to make a difference in patient care.”

Editor’s note: this article first appeared in Silicon Hills News’ print edition

The Huge Impact of the UT Health Science Center at San Antonio on the City

August 18, 2014 / LauraLorek@gmail.com / 0 Comments

Dr. William Henrich, president of the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.

By LAURA LOREK
Founder of Silicon Hills News

Dr. William Henrich, president of The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, recently sat down with Silicon Hills News to talk about all of the innovation happening at the institution he oversees.

Dr. Henrich joined the Health Science Center in 2006 as dean of the School of Medicine and vice president for medical affairs. He became president in 2009.

At the Health Science Center, Dr. Henrich oversees a $765 million budget, 6,000 employees and projects like the construction of the $106 million Medical Arts and Research Center, which opened in 2009; the $150 million South Texas Research Facility, which opened in 2011; and the $96.5 million Center for Oral Health Care and Research, scheduled to open in 2015.

SHN: What do you think are the strengths of the UT Health Science Center at San Antonio?

WH: There are many. I think neurosciences is one – about a third of our extramural grants come in support of the neurosciences. We have outstanding work in multiple sclerosis and dementia and psychiatric neurosciences such as schizophrenia. I’ll mention our pain scientist Dr. Ken Hargreaves, a neuroscientist whose team has discovered a new class of non-addictive painkillers. In other areas, diabetes is a major strength because of the work of Dr. Ralph DeFronzo and his team. (Dr. DeFronzo leads the University Health System’s Texas Diabetes Institute, which has developed new treatments for Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes.) We always mention healthy aging through an institute called the Sam and Ann Barshop Institute for Longevity and Aging Studies. That’s a real treasure for Texas and it’s a real jewel for San Antonio. And it’s certainly something we’re extremely proud of. It’s the leading aging center, in terms of extramural funding, in Texas. And it is growing. I guess the last thing to mention that is an asset for us is we have a very strong partnership with the military and we have many programs that we share with the military. And I think it’s a natural bond to form between the Health Science Center and the many attributes of the military system in San Antonio. If you’re talking about more general assets, I’d be remiss in not mentioning the fine educational programs we have here in medicine, dentistry, nursing and the health professions. Our students are very successful and compete well nationally for positions after they finish here. I’d say we have a very strong and very competent management team – individuals who understand the mission of advancing discovery and education in health care. So I’m very proud of that.

Medical Arts & Research Center, all photos courtesy of the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio

SHN: How does the UT Health Science Center at San Antonio fit with the overall life sciences industry in San Antonio? You mentioned the collaboration with the military. Are there programs you work on together?

WH: I could start by mentioning the educational programs. At last count, we had 18 programs where we send trainees to the San Antonio Military Medical Center and they send trainees back to our Health Science Center. And the trainees get the benefit of training at both places. We both also have tremendously developed interest in post-traumatic stress disorder, which afflicts approximately 15 percent of returning veterans from theater. It’s now more of a public health problem as it affects somewhere between 5 percent and 7 percent of adults in the civilian population. Our relationship with the military and specifically with the Department of Defense led to acquisition of a major grant here in the diagnosis and better treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder.

SHN: How does the creation of the Dell Medical School affect the UT Health Science Center at San Antonio? Is it considered competition? Is it considered collaboration? Does it make you stronger? Does it impact you in getting funds?

WH: It is likely a combination of all the things you mentioned, not just one. It offers a set of new opportunities for collaboration. Enrolling patients in clinical trials could be a place where the new institution could partner with the old institution, to enroll critical numbers of patients much more quickly than if we didn’t collaborate. Secondly, I’d say there is more competition. There will be some discussion and some evolution that will occur on how the clinical practices will interact in this new space. There will be competition for faculty and that will be a two-way street. You could consider that as a negative, but I don’t because that is the kind of competition in which we already participate. We are in competition with other institutions not just in Texas but also around the country for federal grant dollars, as one example. I think there will be increased competition from this medical school in Austin but also from the new medical school in South Texas, which we are basically creating from our Health Science Center.

SHN: Are these new institutions needed and will they add to the amelioration of the physician shortage and health care professional shortage in Texas?

WH: Yes they are. Texas ranks very low in the grand spectrum of states in which we look at the per capita number of physicians per population. And these new medical schools will help with that. All the medical schools in the state are doing a good job of expanding their classes. The lesion in the pipeline is that we need more graduate medical education because we don’t have enough physicians as interns and residents to accommodate the increase in the number of medical students. So what I’m saying is there is an uncoupling of growing the medical student graduation class but not growing the graduate medical education in proportion. Hence, more and more students who graduate from Texas medical schools will have to leave the state to go find training opportunities elsewhere. And the reason that should catch attention is because there is a 60 percent to 70 percent chance that where you train you will stay. Certainly, even if you don’t stay in San Antonio but you trained here, you’re likely to stay in Texas somewhere. It costs a lot of money to educate the medical students and then we’re a net exporter of them to other states that are glad to get them. And then invariably not all of them come back. I would say we’re doing a good job of expanding medical school student size. The real key to changing the scoreboard in terms of number of physicians in the state is to grow the graduate medical education.

Main Plaza at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio

SHN: What have been some of the major successes of the UT Health Science Center at San Antonio since the first class was admitted in 1966?

WH: I’d say that among the big accomplishments, we now have upward of 30,000 alumni. If you go to a doctor or see a nurse or go to a dentist or have someone treat you for physical therapy in San Antonio, the odds are high that the person who sees you in this professional capacity either went to school here or trained here. So I think one of the major contributions from the Health Science Center is this incredibly talented workforce that has gone on to populate our city and the rest of Texas in addition to the United States and world. If I can be a bit of drum pounder, it is known that the biggest economy in San Antonio today is the life sciences. That’s a book of business that now exceeds $30 billion. What I would say about the Health Science Center’s role in this wonderful success is that it isn’t that the Health Science Center is responsible for $30 billion of business. It’s a small fraction of that. But it’s true to say the Health Science Center is at the hub of this growth. It’s hard to imagine any city having this kind of phenomenal growth in the health sciences without having an academic Health Science Center at the core. This is because the Health Science Center is partners with everybody. We’re partners with the Texas Biomedical Research Institute, the military, The University of Texas at San Antonio, with everybody. And I think it’s accurate to say the growth and the success of this sector of the city’s business would not have been either as fast or as successful without having 1,800 Health Science Center faculty, a $200 million research budget and the ability to collaborate along so many discipline levels. It creates a sense of excitement that is hard to replicate without having a wonderful university Health Science Center there.
I don’t think there is a better example, and my colleagues around the country agree with this, of the value of what a Health Science Center has done for its city than San Antonio, Texas. I know when I network with people around the country they say, “When you look at what an academic Health Science Center brings to a city, you look no further than San Antonio.” In 40 short years, this industry has outstripped the tourism industry and the manufacturing industry in San Antonio. It’s not because the Health Science Center was responsible for every brick laid or every laboratory that was built, but it was an asset to the city. And hence Austin really wanted a medical school. Phoenix wanted a medical school. Charlotte wanted a medical school. These great cities in our country, which are growing and thriving, as a case study would look at San Antonio and say maybe we can have some of that kind of success.

SHN: How does the UT Health Science Center at San Antonio work to commercialize technology coming out of the lab to create new ventures?

WH: We’re expanding our tech-transfer operation and our efforts to bring, to company acquisition or formation, inventions of our faculty – new drugs, new therapies, new devices, etc. We’re the home of one of the most important innovations of the 21st century – the Palmaz Stent, invented by Health Science Center radiologist Dr. Julio Palmaz.

SHN: What are the plans for expansion at the UT Health Science Center at San Antonio?

WH: In San Antonio, we are growing tremendously our School of Dentistry and our dental practice with a new building that is coming online. We are expanding our teaching space with a new state-of-the-art learning and teaching center. We hope to renovate a large percentage of our older lab space and convert that into modern lab space. We’re always in the business of recruiting new faculty. That will be a major effort for us. On the clinical side, we have plans to grow our clinical business substantially in cooperation with a number of our hospital partners. It’s a very busy time despite the financial austerity that exists. All of it is devoted to getting resources to our wonderful faculty so they can be successful. We need to put resources into the hands of the people who are doing the work here.

Michael Dell Takes the Ice Bucket Challenge to Support ALS Research

August 16, 2014 / LauraLorek@gmail.com / 4 Comments

Photo reprinted with permission from Michael Dell

Michael Dell took the Ice Bucket Challenge for ALS research Saturday in front of the construction site for the new Dell Medical School at the University of Texas at Austin.

CNBC’s Jon Fortt challenged Dell.

In a posting to his Facebook page, Dell, in turn, challenged Meg Whitman, CEO of Hewlett-Packard, Marc Benioff, founder and CEO of Salesforce.com and Actor Samuel Jackson. He also announced he made a donation to the ALS organization to find a cure for the disease, also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease. ALS is a “progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord. Eventually, people with ALS lose the ability to initiate and control muscle movement, which often leads to total paralysis and death within two to five years of diagnosis. There is no cure and only one drug approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that modestly extends survival. Veterans are approximately twice as likely be diagnosed with the disease.”

Post by Michael Dell.

In accepting the challenge, Dell joined other tech titans who have also taken the icy soak like Bill Gates, Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg.

The Ice Bucket Challenge has raised more than $11 million in donations for the ALS Association. “The ALS Association has received $11.4 million in donations compared to $1.7 million during the same time period last year (July 29 to August 16),” according to a news release. “These donations have come from existing donors and 220,255 new donors to The Association.”

“Never before have we been in a better position to fuel our fight against this disease,” Barbara Newhouse, President and CEO of the ALS Association, wrote in a blog post on the nonprofit organization’s website. “Increased awareness and unprecedented financial support will enable us to think outside the box. We will be able to strategize about efforts in ways that previously would not have been possible, all while we work to fulfill and enhance our existing mission priorities nationwide.”

WiseWear Creates a Tiny Platform to Analyze Your Body’s Data

August 16, 2014 / LauraLorek@gmail.com / 1 Comment

By SUSAN LAHEY
Reporter with Silicon Hills News

Wearable companies all over the world are racing to create devices that tell you what’s going on in your body. They’re on sports bras, wristwatches, necklaces and even cocktail rings. They can be stuck on wounded areas to measure pain. And then there’s WiseWear, whose tiny platform promises to “See Inside” the body and “collect contextually aware data that is automated and derived from multiple sources.” WiseWear’s tiny sensor platform monitors heart rate, movement—including what your exercise regime is producing–and dehydration, and its Bluetooth device lets it communicate with other devices to monitor health.

“Sensor technology empowers individuals to live a happy, healthy and productive life,” said CEO and Founder Jerry Wilmink. “This lets you really see everything that happens in the body. The first generation of wearables only measured one or two things and in many cases it was highly inaccurate. This is a platform and there are several use cases ranging from a patch to a watch version…. It’s highly accurate monitoring captures and gives you a really good pulse on what’s happening inside your body.”

WiseWear plans to launch a crowdfunding campaign in August for pre-sales of its first wearable device, called “Evolve,” according to a company press release. The device “adheres directly to the user’s chest with ultrathin, ultra soft, transfer-printed micro-circuitry and sensors.” The device collects biometric data that is then transmitted wirelessly to a smartphone or tablet for data analysis.

Wilmink’s Background

Wilmink got his bachelor’s and master’s in biochemical engineering at Vanderbilt then, he said “Snuck into the Ph.D. program.” When he graduated, he was a research associate with the National Academy of Sciences and then moved to the Department of Defense where he founded the first Terahertz bioeffects research laboratory where he began to develop WiseWear. “I hand picked the talent and grew it from nothing to a pretty big laboratory. We were connecting the dots, being creative, finding the talent, building a rock star team with tremendous potential.” For the first time, he said, he wasn’t competing on pure IQ but on creativity. That became his prime criteria for teammates.

Wilmink also received his Executive MBA from the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin, class of 2014.

Creating WiseWear

His interest in biotechnology, Wilmink said, came from growing up with his grandparents. Once his grandfather—a Sicilian with a black Cadillac who smoked cigars and listened to Sinatra—fell. He seemed fine on Thanksgiving and ended up dying the day after Christmas. The fall, it turns out, was because of a change in his grandfather’s gait, which is an indication of dehydration.

“If we had noticed he had changes in his gait, we could have prevented him from falling,” Wilmink said. “Our initial product was a line sensor system to pick up when a senior was dehydrated and his gait was changing. Fifty percent of seniors over the age of 65 who fall end up passing away in the next six months. And that’s not connected to the severity of the fall.”

Keeping track of what’s going on inside the body before it manifests in a negative way is a big step toward prevention, according to WiseWear advisor, Dr. David Katz Head of Yale Health & Preventative Medicine.

“WiseWear is designed to … provide personalized, real-time feedback about an individual’s daily activities fully integrated with accurate heart rate, respiration, hydration, and by providing direction, motivation, and even a kind of oversight and accountability. This kind of feedback is known to encourage healthy behaviors- and now you can get it from something that’s practically a part of you.”

“This allows a user to take a proactive kind of action to treat health and wellness rather than treat disease, “ Wilmink said. And running this company, after his long journey is “all, absolutely exhilarating.”

Founded in March of 2013, WiseWear is based in both San Antonio and Austin. The company recently moved into Geekdom, a coworking space and technology incubator in downtown San Antonio. Wilmink has raised more than $1 million in seed stage funding, and the company plans to raise a Series A round of funding next year. Wilmink has put together a team of experts including Ph.Ds, MBAs, C-Level executives and others. The company has also licensed its intellectual property from the University of Texas, according to a company release.

WiseWear plans to release its consumer products and then pursue clinical trials and FDA approval for a line of medical products. The company has plans for a device called WiseDoctor to accurately record a patient’s vital signs, hydration and activity in a hospital setting. Future products will be targeted at monitoring babies, seniors, diabetics and even pets.

Editor’s note: THis article appears in the Silicon Hills News print edition on the Life Sciences industry in central Texas.

Spot On Sciences Makes Taking Blood Samples Easy

August 15, 2014 / LauraLorek@gmail.com / 1 Comment

By SUSAN LAHEY
Reporter with Silicon Hills News

The most remarkable thing to Dr. Jeanette Hill about the evolution of her company, Spot on Sciences, is the myriad ways her blood collection device, HemaSpot, is being used. It has proven invaluable in research being done in Spain that shows taking blood pressure medication at night rather than in the morning can mean the difference between life and death. It is being used to collect blood samples from Himalayan snow leopards, to check blood among people with diabetes in the Scottish Isles and for AIDS testing in remote parts of Africa.

While Hill’s team is focused on the device itself, making it as practical and responsive to researcher’s needs as possible, scientists all over the world are discovering HemaSpot and asking whether they can use the device in their research. “I’m almost weekly surprised by someone wanting to use it for medical research, different tests that are taking place all around the world,” Hill said. “It’s surprising and exhilarating.”

Taking blood samples has always been messy and fraught with potential for contamination. It also creates a big problem for people like Hill’s mother who lives 20 miles from the nearest clinic.

“It’s such a burden for her to go in and get her blood tested,” Hill said. “It’s such a hassle to drive all that way…then the labs are only open during certain hours, and she feels lousy for days afterward. I thought isn’t there a better way to do this?” For decades, hospitals have used dried blood sampling to collect blood from newborns requiring only a small stick in the heel and then preserving blood on filter paper. Hill wondered whether she could use the same technique for adults. But that presented problems. Even with trained nurses taking the samples, there was a 20 percent rejection rate. It took hours for the sample to dry—longer if the weather was rainy. And while the paper was exposed to the air it was also exposed to numerous contaminants.

Hill began to work on HemaSpot, a small, plastic container in which sits a “flower” made of filter paper. The device comes with a lancet and alcohol wipes for cleaning the finger for a blood sample. The device only needs three drops of blood. Once the blood dries, researchers can perform up to 50 different experiments just by taking a tiny punch from the paper.

Hill is a rare combination of a research scientist and businesswoman. She received her Ph.D. in bio-organic chemistry from Washington University in St. Louis and did post-doctoral research in auto-immune diseases at Washington Medical Center. While in grad school, she founded Biochemical Resources, an Internet database source for research products and chemicals. It lasted a couple years and was beginning to get traction until the World Wide Web and companies such as Lycos and Yahoo came along and “did it a lot better.”

Afterward, she worked as a director for various small companies. She loved the variety and “chaos” of working for a small company, but when her last employer was bought by a larger company, she decided that was the time to go out on her own.

“We started in February of 2010 with just an idea,” Hill said. “By the end of that year, we had a prototype and some models. It took us another year to get our manufacturer.” Every time they ran up against a problem, like uneven blood flow over the filter paper, which would alter test results, Hill said, they thought “We can fix that.”

“That’s kind of cool,” she said. “This is an opportunity for us to make that a lot better….how can we make that very easy to use, a simple device where you understand immediately how to use it?”
They’ve been through a dozen iterations. Her biggest breakthrough, she said, was creating a design with eight blades fanning out so that the blood would flow evenly to all parts of the paper. With HemaSpot, each part of the paper has identical amounts of blood.

“Whenever you get a roadblock you either go around it or pivot and go the other direction, sometimes a couple times a day.” Hill said. “It’s my personality do a lot of different things…I don’t like where there’s a very narrow path and have to get permission to do things, and sometimes many layers of permission.”

Ironically though, with any medical device, there are many layers of permission. Currently, the device is only approved for medical research through laboratories. Hill would love to see it available on the shelves for people like her mother, but getting devices approved as diagnostic tools in the U.S. is a lengthy process. It’s moving faster in Europe.
In the meantime, HemaSpot is enabling scientific breakthroughs.

Dr. Michael Smolensky is one of the world’s foremost experts in chronobiology—natural physiological rhythms such as circadian rhythms–and always wanted to understand better how to apply them to medical conditions. “I’ve been frustrated because I know that certain constituents of the blood that are important inaccurate medical diagnoses show very great predictability. They reach peak levels or lowest levels at times when appointments can’t be scheduled, and blood can’t be withdrawn. There was not means of getting blood samples from patients at those particular times of the day or night when they would be most valuable in getting accurate determination of the value of medical interventions.”

Smolensky has been working with Dr. Ramon Herrera, Director of Bioengineering & Chronobiology Laboratories at the University of Vigo, Spain. They discovered that patients who take their blood pressure medication at night are five times less likely to suffer a heart attack than those who take it in the morning. But they weren’t able to isolate why. They knew there was a change in some levels, such as cortisol, at different times of day. But what else was going on in the interactions between the medications and changes in the blood over a 24-hour period? With HemaSpot, they can get patients with hypertension to take their blood at three-hour intervals from home to look at all the factors.

“One of (Hill’s) strengths is that she is very open minded to criticism about her product designs and development, unlike many other that companies just want to get on the market and see financial flow,” Smolensky said. “She’s just very inquisitive and open minded, not a typical business personality. She certainly has the business acumen, but she’s also very science oriented.” And as a person, he said, Hill is “just delightful.”

Most of Spot on Science’s funding has come from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Small Business Innovation Research Program. Their phase II grant was for $1.5 million, and they recently received an additional $750,000. Hill has been pitching—and winning pitch competitions—since she joined Avinde accelerator for women entrepreneurs building scalable businesses.

“I had done a lot of talks but scientific talks,” Hill said. “The very first time I got up to pitch I was so nervous. It wasn’t a very good talk at all. I had just developed the company and came up with a name for it which was Spot on Biosciences. Someone said ‘You’re going to want to shorten that name. For one thing, it’s too long. For another, you don’t want to be the S.O.B. company.”
Hill did a lot of things right from the beginning, said Terry Chase Hazell, director of emerging tech at Avinde. “She made a clean break from her employer, protecting her IP, built a great team, she’s fully participating in the entrepreneurship scene and most importantly she picked a business model that could scale.”

Right now, Hill said, HemaSpot is being used in pilot studies but they’ll need to hit a certain critical mass to scale up. A study starts with a few patients. Once it’s determined that the device works, a research project increases that to 100 patients, 1,000 patients, 10,000…once it hits 100,000, Hill said, it will be time to scale up. She’s building relationships now to determine who would be a good investment partner for Spot on Sciences.

But what brings her to work every day, Hill said, isn’t growing the company. “We can see that this can make a difference in the world. This is going to change the way we do blood tests. This is going to advance clinical science. That’s what I love to hear.”

Editor’s note: This story first appeared in Silicon Hills News’ print magazine on the Life Sciences industry

Leto Solutions Launches IndieGoGo Campaign to Produce Cooling System for Amputees

August 14, 2014 / LauraLorek@gmail.com / 2 Comments

Leto Solutions Team Members Gary Walters, Becky Ariana and Justin Stultz, photos courtesy of Leto Solutions

By LAURA LOREK
Founder of Silicon Hills News

While the South Texas heat makes most people sweat, the heat and sweat can be particularly unbearable and dangerous for amputees with prosthetic limbs.

“Amputees everywhere have heat related issues,” said Kirk Simendinger, a prosthetist with Bulow Orthotic & Prosthetic Solutions in San Antonio.

“When skin reaches elevated temperatures and perspires, that trapped sweat between the limb and the prosthetic device can cause tissue to soften and break down and become susceptible to friction damage, blisters, skin ulcers and infections,” Simendinger said.

“There’s nothing out there on the market right now that combats the overall temperature inside a socket environment,” he said.

Healthcare workers often tell amputees to use antiperspirant, talcum powder and absorbent socks to solve the problem.

But Leto Solutions, an early-stage startup spun out of the University of Texas at San Antonio, has the high-tech solution to solve the problem for countless amputees, said Becky Ariana, the company’s CEO. Leto’s team of four engineers created the Aquilonix Prosthesis Cooling System. Leto’s lightweight thermoelectric cooling device fits into the socket of the prosthetic limb and runs on a five-hour battery which can be turned on or off by the wearer.

“There is a real need for this that has not been tackled until now,” Simendinger said.

Leto Solutions created a prototype of the Aquilonix Prosthesis Cooling System and is currently raising a $2.5 million seed stage round to take the product to market, Ariana said. The company also launched an IndieGoGo crowdfunding campaign last Friday. Already, it has raised more than $6,000 from 24 funders towards its goal of $98,000.

Ariana joined Leto Solutions in January of 2013 after serving as the company’s mentor at UTSA. Ariana previously worked at Vidacare Corp., which created and manufactured the EZ-IO, a drill-like device to provide medical professionals the ability to quickly access the vascular system to deliver medicine, blood and intravenous fluids. Ariana served as Vice President at Vidacare, with responsibility for the OnControl Bone Marrow Biopsy System, which won the 2012 Wall Street Journal’s Technology Innovations Award. Teleflex Inc. bought Vidacare last year for $285 million.
“I’ve always been fortunate in being involved in products that make a difference for patients,” Ariana said. “This is certainly one of those products. It’s hard to believe that up until now no one has addressed this problem for amputees.”

The initial funding will allow Leto to get through the Food and Drug Administration clearance process for its class one medical device and to commercialize the first product, Ariana said. It will also help to fund the development of its second product for above the knee amputees, she said.

Leto plans to contract for manufacturing locally with Coastal Life Technologies, the same company that manufactured Vidacare’s device.

Already, Leto Solutions has met with success. The startup and its eight-member student team won the UTSA Center for Innovation and Technology Entrepreneurship 100K Student Venture Competition in 2013. Earlier this year, ABC News ran a story for their “Second Tour” series, which featured the company and one of its founders.

In February, the Texas Life Science Forum honored Leto as one of ten Rice Alliance Life Science Companies for having the best business opportunity and promise for high-value commercialization.
Leto solutions identified a problem in the marketplace and came up with a solution that is needed, said Anita Leffel, assistant director of the Center for Innovation and Technology Entrepreneurship. Those are the best kind of startups, she said.

Gary Walters, a retired U.S. Army Sergeant, came up with the idea for the product. Walters lost his lower right leg during a roadside bomb explosion in Iraq. He now wears a prosthetic limb. But he suffered from intense heat and sweat build-up at the point where his limb met the socket interface for his prosthetic limb. The problem became extremely uncomfortable when he did chores outside or played with his daughter. The pain and discomfort from heat and sweat build up interfered with his ability to lead an active life. So he challenged his team to design a system that would resolve the problem.

They came up with the Aquilonix System and Walters has tested the product with great results so far, Ariana said.

“At a time when so many advances are being made with bionic arms and other prosthetics, it’s amazing someone has not addressed this problem,” Ariana said.

Leto’s device is going to be very sought out, Simendinger said.

“I think that people who wear prosthesis nowadays are showing others they can do anything they want to do – they can run, hike, ride a bike,” Simendinger said. “This device is going to take that to a new level really.”

Editor’s Note: This article appears in the current print edition of Silicon Hills News on the Life Sciences Industry in Central Texas.

The Pioneers of 3D Printing, an Industry Invented, In Part, at UT in Austin

August 13, 2014 / LauraLorek@gmail.com / 14 Comments

By LAURA LOREK
Founder of Silicon Hills News

3D printed sugar art, photo courtesy of 3D Systems’ Sugar Lab

The applications of 3D printing seem only limited by an inventor’s imagination.

Today, 3D printers can make dental parts, hip replacement joints, food, toys, jewelry and more. The futuristic technology can even print human tissue and recreate human organs.

But few know one of the technologies behind the 3D printing industry began at the University of Texas in Austin.

The pioneers of 3D printing met in Austin last week for the 25th annual International Solid Freeform Fabrication Symposium, the world’s leading research-focused summit on 3D manufacturing.

For 25 years, the Cockrell School of Engineering at the University of Texas has hosted the group.

Only 40 people attended the first meeting in 1989, which was held in a conference room instead of an auditorium, said Carl Deckard, one of the inventors and developers of “Selective Laser Sintering,” the technology at the forefront of 3D printing.

Deckard developed “Selective Laser Sintering” with Joe Beaman, a professor at UT. Deckard was working on his undergraduate degree and later his masters and Ph.D. in the UT Mechanical Engineering Department.

“SLS has grown to be one of the world’s most advanced and promising manufacturing methods in use today,” according to a UT Mechanical Engineering blog post detailing the birth of the 3D printing industry. “The SLS patents were the highest revenue generating intellectual property out of UT Austin for many years,” and even though they are set to expire soon, UT continues to be highly involved in the 3D printing industry, according to the Cockrell School of Engineering at UT.

Deckard eventually spun out a company, DTM, to commercialize the technology.

Meanwhile, Chuck Hull, co-founder and chief technology officer of 3D Systems, now based in Rock Hills, South Carolina, invented a competing technology called stereolithography.

“I worked at small company and developed the first additive manufacturing technology in a back lab by myself,” Hull said. The owner wasn’t interested in investing in the technology so Hull spun out a company and licensed the technology, founding 3D Systems in 1986 in Valencia, Calif. Hull invented the first stereolithography (SLA) rapid prototyping system.

Hull’s company, 3D Systems bought DTM in 2001 and remains the industry leader in additive manufacturing today. 3D Systems had a record $513 million in sales last year, up 45 percent. It is the fastest growing tech company on the New York Stock Exchange, Hull said.

Its main U.S. competitor is Stratasys, based in Minneapolis, inventors of fused deposition modeling, a technique used by the popular MakerBot consumer-focused 3D printers, which Stratasys acquired in 2013. Lisa Crump and her husband Scott founded Stratasys in 1988.

The Pioneers of 3D Printing: Terry Wohlers, industry expert, Chuck Hull, co-founder of 3D Systems, Carl Deckard, inventor of laser sintering, Lisa Crump, co-founder of Stratasys and Dave Bourell, professor of mechanical engineering at UT.

Hull, Deckard, Lisa Crump, Terry Wohlers, an expert on the 3D printing industry, and Dave Bourell, professor of mechanical engineering at the Cockrell School, who organized the event, sat down with Silicon Hills News last week to discuss the evolution of the industry.

The industry has changed dramatically in 25 years and these pioneers have been on the forefront of those changes.

Today, 3D printers have produced more than 90,000 titanium hip replacement devices, half of which have been implanted into humans, Wohlers said.

Every week, 3D Systems machines produce 20,000 dental coping devices, the main structure of a crown or a bridge, Wohlers said.

Three-dimensional printing has transformed entire industries like aerospace, automotive and especially healthcare.

“It’s used in so many different fields it’s hard to characterize,” Wohlers said. “Today, you’ve probably touched 25 products that have been touched by this technology. Jewelry, the cars you drive in, the planes you drive in have benefited from prototyping.”

Boeing has 16 different aircraft that use tens of thousands of parts created with 3D laser sintering technology, Wohlers said.

The Automotive Industry Adopted 3D Printing Early

The first 3D Systems machine using stereolithography, the SLA 250, made a ten inch by ten inch part for a large automotive company that needed rapid prototyping, Hull said. But the technology quickly spread to other industries like medical and aerospace, he said.

“It’s a down and dirty industry machine that the general public doesn’t know about,” Hull said.

Today, the “maker” movement, which has hobbyists building toys, tools, parts and more in their garages with 3D printers, has popularized an industrial technology used for decades in plants for prototyping.

Consumers can readily buy 3D printers from companies like MakerBot, which sells its latest model for $2,800 at Staples, Home Depot or on Amazon.com.

“Things didn’t look quite this way 25 years ago,” said Crump with Stratasys.

The Influence of 3D Printing on the Medical Industry

Stratasys’ first customer, Biomed, made custom hips and knees.

“We went from zero in sales in 1988 to $487 million in revenues for 2013,” Crump said.

The medical device companies were early adopters and leaders in this field, she said.

The 3D printing technology is not just making products, but changing people’s lives, Crump said.

Emma, a six-year-old girl, suffers from a degenerative muscular disease that doesn’t allow her to use her arms, but with an exoskeleton made using Stratasys’ 3D printing technology, she can use her arms.

“It’s awe inspiring seeing this little girl – she calls them her magic arms – because now she can color and do things that a normal six year old can do,” Crump said.

The technology has also successfully helped doctors separate conjoined twins, Hull said. Doctors have used 3D Systems printers to create models of the patients before an operation to do practice exploratory surgery.

And one of the emerging areas of medical applications is the printing of organs and human tissue using 3D printers.

The 3D printing technology allows manufactures to create customized products affordably. With conventional manufacturing, a mold can cost $50,000 and 3D printing does away with the need for that, Wohlers said.

3D Printing On Demand

3D printed plug and cord, photo courtesy of Stratasys

With 3D manufacturing, companies can create digital inventories and produce products on demand, he said. It cuts down on storage, wasted products and unnecessary production.

“When this area first started we were mainly making parts that were designed to be made some other way,” Hull said. “Now people are designing for these processes and are taking advantage of the process.”

The 3D Printing Impact on Aerospace

The 3D printing process has transformed the airplane manufacturing industry.

“Weight is so important in aerospace,” Deckard said “If you take one pound off a commercial airliner, you save $100,000 in fuel over the lifetime of the plane.”

Airplane makers like Boeing and Aerobus expect to have hundreds of 3D Printers to make plane parts within five years, Wohlers said.

Efforts in 3D printing date back to the 1950s but the machines needed Computer Aided Design software that didn’t exist until the 1980s. And the computing power wasn’t sufficient back then either.

Faster computers, better software and cheaper storage make 3D printing accessible to more people now, said Bourell with UT. That accessibility has ignited the interest of kids, he said.

“Five years ago to get students involved in manufacturing you had to do a sell job,” he said. “Now the students are coming in and saying they want to do 3D printing.”

“They don’t see it as product development,” he said. “They see it as making stuff.”

During the last few decades, the U.S. has become a nation of consumers, Wohlers said.

“We have to bring back the nation that was once famous for making stuff,” he said.

3D Printing is igniting that inventive spirit, especially in young people and creating excitement about engineering and manufacturing this country hasn’t seen since the space race in the 1960s, Wohlers said.

Other factors bringing manufacturing back to the U.S. include the availability of cheap natural gas, Deckard said.
“In a lot of areas, the cost of the product isn’t as much driven by labor as it has been in the past,” he said. “When the labor content goes down there’s less reason to go off shore.”

The momentum for 3D printing is just going to continue to build, Hull said.

Now it’s about targeting certain applications and perfecting them and increasing production speed, Hull said.

“Transition from using it for modeling, prototyping and tooling to using it for manufacturing,” he said.

A Booming Multi-Billion Dollar Industry

Overall, the 3D printing industry grew 35 percent last year and has averaged 32 percent for the last five years, Wohlers said.

“The industry is going to be in the tens of billions of dollars,” he said.

If it captures just two percent of the $10.5 trillion worldwide manufacturing industry that translates into a $210 billion industry, Wohlers said. Last year, the worldwide industry for 3D printing topped $3.1 billion.

Eventually, everyone could have a 3D printer in their house just like they have a computer printer, said Crump with Stratasys.

Later this year, 3D Systems will begin selling its Chef Jet, a 3D confectionary printer aimed at professional chefs, Hull said. The printer can make 3D chocolates, cake toppers, sugar skulls and more.

“Some of the products are so exquisite you don’t want to eat them,” Hull said.

A 3D Printed Sugar Skull, photo courtesy of 3D Systems

In Los Angeles, 3D Systems operates the Sugar Lab. They bring in chefs and let them use the 3D printing technology to create edible products, he said. Food printing is becoming a huge industry. Just about anything that can go through a nozzle such as peanut butter, frosting, chocolate and more can be used in 3D printing.

The first 3D printer is also going to space soon. Made In Space, a Mountain View-based startup, has created a 3D printer that will allow astronauts on the International Space Station to print parts and tools and other stuff in space. The printer will be included in the SpaceX CRS-4 launch to resupply the ISS, scheduled for September.

Already, 3D printed parts have made it off the earth. NASA used 3D printed parts on the Mars Rover.

“All of us have been in this since the ‘80s, but what we are experiencing now, we’ve never seen it before in our lives,” Wohlers said. “The government and states are supporting it. But the big brands are investing – Amazon has a store with 3D printed products. Google, Microsoft, Adobe, GE, Home Depot, some of the biggest brands in the world are getting into this. Some are motivated, right or wrong, by the fact that other big brands are getting into it.”

With all this money being invested that can really accelerate the development of transitioning ideas into products and services, Hull said.

“Now it’s just applications development,” he said. “I talk to young inventors a lot and my conclusion is, clearly, much of the future has not been invented yet.”

LawnStarter Launches in Austin to Simplify Lawn Care for Consumers

August 9, 2014 / LauraLorek@gmail.com / 12 Comments

Ryan Farley, co-founder of LawnStarter, a Techstars company in Austin

When the temperatures hit triple digits in Austin, many homeowners don’t want to mow the lawn.

A new startup, part of Techstars in Austin, has a solution.

LawnStarter, founded in August of 2013, wants to take the pain out of lawn maintenance by hooking up homeowners with lawn care crews. The company officially launched this week and provides service to all of Austin and many outlying areas from Marbles Falls to San Marcos and Round Rock.

LawnStarter is taking a “highly fragmented, old school industry” and bringing it into the digital age, said Ryan Farley, one of the founders.

“The bar for the customer experience is extremely low,” Farley said.

That’s why it’s ripe for disruption, he said. Farley and Steve Corcoran founded the company originally in the Washington, D.C. area with $110,000 in seed stage capital they raised from a group of angel investors. This summer, they relocated to Austin for the Techstars accelerator.

“Texas is one of the biggest markets for lawn care,” Farley said.

A few guys have become millionaires doing lawn care but that that’s a small fraction of the market, Farley said. In fact, the top 50 lawn care companies account for just 15 percent of the market, he said.

“There’s lots of small companies out there that need help,” Farley said.

While Farley didn’t grow up mowing lawns, he did work on grounds maintenance during the summertime and for a golf course. His co-founder, Corcoran ran a lawn mowing business.

In studying the industry, they found some lawn service companies are completely offline and don’t even have a website. They typically are one to two person companies, Farley said.

“They are at a point in their business where managing the business is becoming hectic,” he said.

LawnStarter wants to take the pain and paperwork out of the process, Farley said. The company takes 15 percent to 20 percent on each transaction, depending on the job. The average price for lawn service is $48 for half-acre lots, Farley said. And typically, homeowners get their lawns mowed every few weeks.

LawnStarter’s platform matches consumers with lawn care providers and lets them get an estimate for any yard work with a few clicks.

LawnStarter is working on developing partnerships with national chains. The company wants to scale to provide service to the entire Southwest region of the U.S. by next summer, Farley said.

“The shared economy is doing well right now,” said Brandon Marker, analyst with Techstars in Austin.

Companies like HomeJoy have found success matching cleaners with consumers.

“But this does not exist for lawn care,” Marker said. “People have tried to make this work for lawn care but they haven’t succeeded so far. I don’t believe that’s because there isn’t a need or a market for it. It’s just difficult to do.”

But the LawnStarter team has got all the ingredients to make it work, Marker said. And now people are more comfortable with the shared economy.

The LawnStarter founders taught themselves how to code and gave up good jobs on Wall Street to do LawnStarter.

“They turned a great deal of financial experience into coding experience,” Marker said. “They found out how to do this successfully in the Washington, D.C. market. And now they’re replicating that success in the Austin market.”