Teru Talk Newsletter
Volume IV, Issue
49, December 8,
2014
Teru Talk by Michael
Theroux (pronounced
"Terú")
Teru's Trash Talk
Sub-title: What I Learned in
School, or more precisely, in
Entrepreneur's Boot Camp. Last
Friday the dozen companies
that made it through the
Entrepreneur's Showcase
gauntlet, Teru Talk included,
gave our 5 minute
highly-polished Pitches to a
gathering of perhaps 75 of the
Sacramento region's venture
capital firms, angel investors,
corporate investment arms and
"Persons of High Net Worth". I
am here to tell you, the prep
for that seemly simple, short
pitch entailed some really
serious, brain-wrenching work.
Crushing, despondent, beyond
all hope … but I can now report
that every one of us, Teru
included, presented cleanly and
clearly, within the time
allotted, and without one case
of stage-fright induced
apoplexy.
The Velocity Venture Capital
team, Jack, Monique, and Jason,
run a tight ship for their
non-profit Entrepreneur's
Campus program - aided hugely
by Dan the Man, entrepreneurial
studies professor from
University of the Pacific. Week
after week, they acquainted us
lucky souls with the bones of a
Business Plan, as lain out in
the guide, "The Art of the
Start":
-
The
Problem you are
addressing: the
Pain you propose to
alleviate;
-
The
Solution you
propose: your Fix
for the identified
Pain;
-
Your
Business Model: how
you make $, who
pays, your
markets;
-
Your
Underlying Magic:
the Secret Sauce
that sets you
apart;
-
Marketing
and Sales: your Go
To strategy for
reaching
customers;
-
The
Competition: c'mon,
you know you have
Competition;
-
Your
Management Team:
your key players,
advisors,
investors;
-
Financials:
3-5 year forecast -
if Everything Went
Right;
-
Current
Status, Ask,
Timeline, and Use
of Funds
This
grueling process is "reductive"
in nature: you start with a
gazillion words about all your
wonders, and end up able to
Spell It Out in five minutes or
less. Yep, this is training in
the ancient art of concocting
the Elevator Pitch. I can tell
you this, dear readers: this
was a 10 week pruning,
reshaping, and fine-tuning
furnace. I mean, we are "Teru
Talk" and Words are Us: brevity
is not our natural habitat. It
is even more certain that we
desperately needed this sort of
house
cleaning.
Hey Rube!
Teru Talk
works hard every day to Incite
a Dialogue, and we need that
back-and-forth chatter now more
than ever. Use the channel we
have constructed. Open up
discussions about waste
conversion related issues, pet
peeves, and sore spots,
accomplishments and set-backs.
We are a global community
addressing a rapidly growing
and critically needed element -
turning Garbage to Goods, and
Waste to Wealth. Here's your
homework: think up one Big
Question that you would ask of
our mountain of detailed global
tracking data. Let's look to
the day when Teru Talk actually
gets the needed Big Data
management tools in place and
can effectively sort through
this maddening wealth of
information. As we build out
our platform, we'll need to
know what are your most
pressing concerns - because
answering your Right Tools for
the Waste Conversion Job
match-making problems is the
underlying reason why we are
constructing this toolset.
Consider yourselves, all of you
across our 28 countries, as our
Beta testing
crew.
This Week's Top Story
H2 Energy
Signs Contract for 43
Bio-Refineries with 2
Sisters Food
Group
Liverpool based H2 Energy Ltd
has signed a waste to energy
contract with 2 Sisters Food
Group for the design,
manufacture, construction, and
operation of Bio-Refineries at
all 2 Sisters' 43 factory
locations in the United Kingdom
(UK).
12/06/2014
The Week's News
FCC Is
Preferred Bidder for Zero
Waste Recycling and Recovery
Facility in
UK
United Kingdom (UK) Zero Waste:
Edinburgh and Midlothian
Councils has appointed FCC
Medio Ambiente SA as “Preferred
Bidder” to build a
state-of-the-art recycling and
energy recovery facility for
processing household waste.
12/06/2014
Novozymes'
New Enzyme Technology
Converts Waste Oils Into
Biodiesel
Denmark based Novozymes has
announced the launch of
Novozymes Eversa®, the first
commercially available
enzymatic solution to make
biodiesel from waste oils.
12/05/2014
Hawaiian
Electric Contracts with
Pacific Biodiesel for
Locally Sourced
Biofuel
Hawaiian Electric and Pacific
Biodiesel Technologies have
signed a contract for the
Maui-based biofuel company to
supply biodiesel processed from
waste cooking oil and other
local feedstocks.
2/05/2014
Nevada
County Fire Safe Council
Releases Biopower
Feasibility
Study
The Nevada County Biomass Task
Force and the Fire Safe Council
of Nevada County, California,
have released a Biomass
Feasibility Assessment
considering the development of
a 3 megawatt (MWe) biomass
fueled power plant.
12/05/2014
Edeniq and
Global Bio-chem Agree to
Jointly Develop Sugar from
Corn
Stover
California based Edeniq, Inc
has announced signing a Joint
Development Agreement with
Asian company Global Bio-chem
Technology Group Limited
(Global Bio-chem) for the
production of low cost sugars
from corn stover.
12/04/2014
Boeing
Conducts Test Flight with
Neste Oil's Renewable
Diesel-Jet Fuel
Blend
Seattle, Washington based
Boeing Commercial Airlines has
successfully tested Finnish
company Neste Oil's NEXBTL
green diesel fuel as a
component of aviation fuel in
the first test flight, which
took place in the US using a
Boeing 787 Dreamliner.
12/04/2014
US DOE
Awards $7MM to Develop
Advanced Logistics for
Bioenergy
Feedstock
The US Department of Energy
(DOE) has announced up to $7
million for two projects
designed to develop and
demonstrate ways to reduce the
cost of delivering bioenergy
feedstocks to biorefineries.
12/04/2014
Webinar
Scheduled for December 10 on
USFS 2015 Wood Innovations
Grant
The University of California
Division of Agriculture and
Natural Resources, Woody
Biomass Utilization Group will
conduct an informational
webinar on December 10, 2014 to
assist in application for the
US Forest Service (USFS) 2015
Wood Innovations Grant funding
opportunity.
12/03/2014
Netherlands
Report Released on ACT
Sewage Recycling System
Trials
California based Applied
CleanTech (ACT) has announced
the availability of a
third-party verification report
on trials of the firm's
patented Sewage Recycling
System (SRS).
12/03/2014
Rookie Wood
Stove Makers Get Highest
Score in Design
Workshop
The Alliance for Green Heat
organized the international
2014 Collaborative Wood Stove
Design Workshop held last month
at the US Department of
Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven
National Laboratory.
12/02/2014
USDA
Releases $5.6MM in Grants to
Producers of Advanced
Biofuels
The US Department of
Agriculture (USDA) has
announced the release of $5.6
million for this year's
Advanced Biofuels Producer
grants, supporting 220
companies across the US.
12/02/2014
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