Cradlepoint had long been on the list of Idaho’s Startups Most Likely to Exit, so it wasn’t a surprise in September 2020 when the company announced it was being acquired by Stockholm, Sweden-based telecommunications company Ericsson for *$1.1 billion, with the deal closing in November. Almost two years later, it seemed like time to check in with CEO George Mulhern and see how it was working out.
READ MOREThink of Liiingo – with three Is – as a QR code on steroids. Except instead of getting just a single canned text item when you scan it, the system automatically knows your preferred language and can present all sorts of content to you without your having to download a separate app for it.“Forbes reported that, for 90% of people, their pet peeve is that they hate downloading a separate app for every business,” said Andrea Sorensen, CEO of Liiingo, based in Boise. “Now you don’t have to. You have the improved experience of a platform without having to download a separate app.”
READ MOREWhat goes up must come down. Fortunately, in economics, what goes down can come up again, but only if your startup is still there when it does.That’s the message local and national venture capitalists and other sources of funding are giving to startups who might be about to experience their first financial crisis.The good news is that with problems comes opportunity. “Economic downturns often become huge opportunities for the founders who quickly change their mindset, plan ahead, and make sure their company survives,” wrote YCombinator, a startup incubator, recently in a note to its companies.
READ MOREMedian drug prices for a year’s supply increased from $2,115 in 2008 to more than $180,000 in 2021, according to a recent study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.That’s something Scott Martin, founder and CEO of Ketchum-based Rescription Inc., wants to change. “A drug is made,” Martin said. “There’s a distributor. There’s a pharmacy. Employees get a prescription. It goes to insurance. This should not be that complicated. They’ve turned that into an insane system that doesn’t need to be like that.”
READ MOREWith a return to in-person events, Trailhead held a live Pitch Night on June 7 in Boise, with four Boise-based startups looking for funding. The event didn’t feature “winners” as such, but enabled the founders to present their companies to a variety of people in the startup ecosystem who could help them develop further.
READ MOREIt’s hard not to make jokes about “seed rounds” and “growth companies” when talking about agricultural technology such as one Idaho startup’s Internet of Things entry. The device is a sensor that can detect factors critical to crops, such as temperature, humidity, and moisture. Moreover, it’s not only planted in the field, but is harvested with the crop to continue sensing those factors, which can affect storage and processing.“Farmers grow on the edge,” said Ehsan Soltan, founder of Soiltech Wireless Inc. “The difference between making money and losing everything per season is a very fine line.”
READ MOREPitch Aeronautics Inc., developing a drone that can perform high-altitude inspections more quickly and safely, launched its crowdfunding raise on May 31 on StartEngine, a crowdfunding platform geared to startups. The crowdfunding round, with which Pitch Aeronautics hopes to raise $1 million, is a follow-on from the $250,000 IGEM grant it received from the Department of Commerce in partnership with Boise State University in 2020, and will enable the company to develop a prototype model for demonstrations this summer, said Zach Adams, cofounder and chief engineer. “The people we’re competing with aren’t other drone manufacturers,” Adams said. “It’s people on ropes and ladders and helicopters and cranes.”
READ MOREAdam Stock, founder of Cargo Made-EZ, took home $50,000 as the winner of the third season of Bloomberg Television Network’s 2 Minute Drill. As the winner of the 2021 Boise Entrepreneur Week pitch competition, Stock automatically qualified to participate in the third season finals of 2 Minute Drill.
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