Category Archives: Materials Science

Industrial Business Models – Customer ROI

Posted on January 10, 2018 by

Your technology is great.  It makes the world a better place.  Benchtop results were good – but yields actually went up as you’ve scaled results.  You’ve also made your first big decision and you’re going to sell the technology to … Continue reading →

Posted in Industry, Innovation, Marketing, Materials Science | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Industrial Business Models – Choice #1

Posted on January 9, 2018 by

Hardware is dead. Hardware is booming. Hardware is hard and no one should do it. Hardware is different. Hardware is the same. IoT, IIoT and additive manufacturing attract attention to heavy industry – where a thing is being produced and … Continue reading →

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“What does it take to be (a good) CEO?” Answer: People

Posted on January 1, 2018 by

All of the successes were from bringing in good people, helping them frame problems and getting them the tools they needed to be successful. The failures? They were mine – mostly due to not properly resourcing a problem with the … Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Disruption, Filtration, Innovation, Invention, Marketing, Materials Science, Methods, Textile, Theory, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Project Planning: Stay out of the (San Francisco) Mud

Posted on August 29, 2016 by

San Francisco’s $350 MM Millennium Tower is sinking into the mud beneath it.  Finished in 2009, some now believe that it could sink as much as 3 feet – greater than initial estimates of ‘possibly an inch in the event … Continue reading →

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Fraud in Industrial Technologies

Posted on May 4, 2014 by

GigaOm’s article on green energy snake oil highlights the challenges faced by investors in any industrial technology.  We’re not investors, but over the past six years of applying our process and equipment in this industrial technology space, we have certainly seen many unusual … Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Filtration, Industry, Invention, Materials Science, VC | Tagged , , , , , ,

Seven Red Lines (aka “The Expert”): The Transcript

Posted on May 3, 2014 by

[If dealing with absurd situations like those outlined in this hysterical sketch is part of your work life – learn about how to deal with them better following Goldratt’s Major Concepts or by reading this Chapter by Chapter summary of … Continue reading →

Posted in Disruption, Invention, Marketing, Materials Science, Theory | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Define the Mission, then the Vehicle

Posted on March 12, 2014 by

Pat Duggins’ book Final Countdown, which documents NASA’s move to shutdown the Space Shuttle Program repeats an important aviation and aerospace maxim: The mission should define the vehicle, not the vehicle define the mission. Apollo’s mission was to put a … Continue reading →

Posted in Aerospace, History, Industry, Innovation, Invention, Marketing, Materials Science, Theory, VC | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Superbowl Post: Playing a Different Game

Posted on February 2, 2014 by

In 1906 the rules were modified to allow the forward pass American Football (aka “Gridiron”), defining the schism between football and rugby and enabling those teams that made use of the play to dominate their opponents.  If you had the … Continue reading →

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Google’s “Create a Filter” – Pure Torture If You Make Real Filters

Posted on October 21, 2013 by

Specialized software programs are unusual in the filtration industry – Excel and Minitab are used for data analysis, there are lots of .pdfs circulated with marketing materials and those are often originally crafted in PowerPoint, Word or other commonly used … Continue reading →

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Filtration in the Popular Media: Ultrafine Particles and 3D Printing

Posted on October 19, 2013 by

Dr. Brent Stephens and his co-authors at the Illinois Institute of Technology attracted a good deal of popular press attention (TechCrunch Article) with their recent publication of, “Ultrafine paticle emissions from desktop 3-D Printers” in the journal of Atmospheric Environment. … Continue reading →

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