Thursday, May 14, 2015

Template letter of support

For those wishing to write a letter of support for Oregon City Applied Research Incubator, Inc. but don't know where to start, here is a template. Feel free to modify it, then email a signed copy to wahl.troy@ocari.biz

If you wish to make a tax-deductible donation (we are a 501(c)3 business), please send a check to

Oregon City Applied Research Incubator, Inc.
c/o Immix Services Inc
121 Salmon St, Suite 1000
Portland, OR 97204

Thank you for your support,
Troy


Wednesday, May 13, 2015

Help out the Oregon Startup Science Forum by taking a survey!


Survey link here: http://bit.ly/OSSF_survey 

As the ACS Portland section 2015 chair-elect, I am working with Troy Wahl, the president of the Oregon City Applied Research Incubator, to bring the Oregon Science Startup Forum to Portland in the spring of 2016. The forum will present what it takes to start a science company and to apply your knowledge as a chemist (industrial or academic) to create a new business. 

The event's flyer is here: http://bit.ly/OSSF_flyer 

While both Troy and I are chemists, we are reaching out to other disciplines for their perspectives on how to start and run a science-oriented business. 

Interested? 
To help plan this event, we'd like your opinion on what you'd like to learn about, whom you'd like to hear from and how you'd like to participate. By taking this survey, you consent for us to use the information you provide. Survey link here:http://bit.ly/OSSF_survey 
Please share this with those you think would be interested.

Best wishes, Jim Tung
2015 Chair-Elect, American Chemical Society, Portland local section

Wednesday, March 25, 2015

Organizing a "Startup Weekend-esque" event for science-based start-ups

Hi,

I'm working with Jim Tung (2015 Chair-elect of the Portland section of the American Chemical Society) to on organizing a  "Startup Weekend-esque" event for science-based* start-ups, and we are looking for as much help or advice as we can get.

Due to the nature of science-based start-ups, they don't lend themselves well to  the "build a MVP and market test" part of the standard start-up weekend format, which I'd be happy to talk about  later, but would benefit from rest of the "startup weekend package/experience." Also Startup Weekend is an organization with resources that would be great to tap into.

Our target location is Salem, during a week day(s) sometime in March or April of 2016, so we can invite the state legislature and governor to attend. Obviously we are targeting science entrepreneurs in Oregon. We also wish to include those in southern Washington, and possibly as far south as Redding CA and east into Idaho. We also wish to include in-state and out-of-state investors.

If you'd like to help or have advice, please contact me at wahl.troy@ocari.biz.

*: pharmaceutical, biofuel, biosynthesis, catalysts, nanomaterials, green chemistry (a type of cleantech), medical devices, polymers/new materials, etc...

Thank you,
Troy

Monday, March 23, 2015

ACS Presents: How to Create a Safety Culture while Growing your Business

The Portland section of the American Chemical Society (ACS), and Oregon City Applied Research Incubator Inc, invite you to attend "How to Create a Safety Culture while Growing your Business" as part of our efforts to encourage scientific entrepreneurship in the Portland Oregon Metro Area. If you are thinking about starting your own business or joining a start-up, please come. If you are thinking about being a professor with your own research group, please come. Not a chemist, please come because the principles discussed apply to all types of businesses (at the minimum, every business has someone using cleaning supplies).

For you business students and faculty, please come. From CEOs to the least paid janitor, safety is everyone's responsibility. Also, this will be a good chance for you to meet your future business partners.

We have invited biology, chemistry, physics, and business students and faculty from colleges, and universities throughout the Portland Metro Area to attend. So if you have an entrepreneurial spirit, this should be a good networking event for you.

"How to Create a Safety Culture while Growing your Business" will be held at Portland State University in the Science Research and Teaching Center (SRTC) room B1-52 on April 14th at 4pm.

To attend, please contact either Jim Tung (2015 Chair-elect for the Portland Section of the ACS, jimtung@gmail.com ) or myself (Founder of Oregon City Applied Research Incubator, wahl.troy@ocari.biz).

The flyer for this event can be viewed here:

Friday, March 13, 2015

Updated Business Plan

After much fiddling, I've finally finished updating OCARI's business plan (Oregon City Applied Research Incubator Business Plan ). This version reflects many of the things I've learned since writing the original business plan and explicitly touches on several state policy issues. While being more comprehensive, it is long.

Saturday, February 21, 2015

It is official, we are a tax deductible non-profit public charity

Just a little update.

On Tuesday, I got the notice from the IRS that OCARI is a tax deductible public charity. So any donations (including services), dating back to August 11th 2014, are tax deductible. That should help with fund raising efforts.

On another front, in conjunction with the Portland Section of the American Chemical Society I'm starting work on putting together a science start-up symposium focused on start-ups in Oregon and Southern Washington. It will be combination of poster session, short presentations (~30 minutes), and maybe workshops. Now this would be fairly pointless without investors present, so I intend to invite OEN, OAF, PSF (the obvious Oregon investment groups) as well as VC from out of state - how many and from how far away will depend on how many start-ups attend. I'll post updates about this as things move along.

Friday, January 30, 2015

A side post... 2 redesigned high vacuum traps

Besides doing synthetic chemistry, I am always looking for ways to improve workflow & efficiency. Sometimes that means looking at a piece of equipment and redesigning it. An example of this are this pair of high vacuum traps which are designed so one can empty them without dismantling one's system. They are also designed with greaseless ball joints (AKA: O-ring spherical joints) to reduce the time it takes to assemble a high vacuum system (most are designed with flat O-ring flanges which require very precise alignment to avoid leaks) and to reduce contamination due to vacuum grease.

Design 1: Dewer style

Here one has a Dewer to fill with either liquid nitrogen or dry ice/acetone and a receiver that can/should be submerged in liquid nitrogen. When one is ready to empty the trap, close off the pump, open the line to atmosphere and the disconnect the receiver - that simple and fast.



Design 2: Recirculating chiller design

In this design, one attaches a recirculating chiller (< -40 C) and the receiver is vacuum jacketed (one could also have a single-walled receiver submerged in dry/acetone or liquid nitrogen). This design has an outer vacuum jacket, a middle shell for the coolant, and the inner shell for the vacuum line. The inner surface of of the middle shell is a Friedrich style condenser body to force the coolant to circulate around the condenser. The hose connectors should either be barbed or threaded instead of smooth as shown.




The designs are copyrighted 2015. If you wish, I'll send you a copy of the designs (.dwg files - requires a CAD program to open) for personal use in exchange for a reasonable fee. If one would like to produce them for sale, please contact me for licensing arrangements.

The designs were done using VectorWorks, vectorworks.net