While the search (for a business model) that I wrote about last time continues, we have made progress on some other fronts. First, and most significant, is the addition of a new team member. I had written back in December and January about our need for greater expertise in the areas of paper manufacturing and paper markets. I am pleased to have found the ideal person to help in these areas and that he is joining our team as our VP, Business Development. Doug Crane is a former executive of Crane & Co.—the prestigious manufacturer of currency and security paper. In his thirty years at Crane, Doug held a variety of technical and business roles which makes him a perfect fit for our needs. Looking ahead, Doug will help us greatly in exploring potential markets, developing paper manufacturer partnerships, and scaling the process by which we’ll embed our inlays within paper.
On a related note, we have also begun to search for the first addition to our technical team. This is for a process development engineer to work with our founder Val Marinov in Fargo. Val and this first hire will form the start of our core development team. On my next trip to Fargo later this month I’ll starting looking for office space and hopefully start screening a few candidates.
Also, I have been in negotiations over the past few months with North Dakota State University’s technology licensing office for rights to the ultra-thin chip assembly process that Val had developed. I’m pleased to note that we have agreed on a term sheet and will be closing on a license this month.
To address the costs associated with the above activities, we have just closed on a Friends and Family financing round. This has brought in a modest amount of money that will help defray our initial licensing and employee expenses. We will need to supplement this with a Seed round by the end of 2014.
Lastly, for those of you who may have visited our web site and found not much there, we have recently expanded it to include a bit more information about what we do, our technology, our team, and the position we are seeking to fill.
That’s a quick rundown for now. With Doug on board I expect our efforts to explore potential markets and further our paper integration process to accelerate. We have a series of engagements on both fronts planned for the balance of this month.