CONNECT Springboard Program Quarterly Report
October – December 2009

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Overview
The last quarter of 2009 saw a major increase in activity on all fronts. A number of our graduates were honored in prestigious competitions. The pace of intake, marketing, dry run and graduation panel activity increased significantly. In addition with the help of our law firm sponsors we launched our new due diligence review process to ensure graduates are investment ready. Five Springboard companies completed due diligence reviews prior to presenting to our Deal Network where scrubbed companies present in a private home to high net worth investors. We saw participation from all the major technology clusters in San Diego within the Springboard pipeline in the last half of the year. Our Entrepreneurs-in-Residence (EIR) program became a standalone program now supporting Springboard, MIP, VRT, SEI Capital Forum, UCSD’s Entrepreneur Challenge and CommNexus’ EvoNexus incubator. The group has expanded to 193 EIRs and 250 Domain Experts. In addition, the EIRs are now available to act as Expert Witnesses for sponsoring law firms.

Graduate News

ecoATM, Inc. wins Most Innovative Product Awards (MIP) and San Diego Venture Group Pitchfest, and is runner-up at San Diego Tech Coast Angels Quick Pitch.

ecoATM, Inc. is an eCycling Station that automates trade-in and recycling programs for consumer electronics and mobile phone retailers by automatically inspecting and evaluating the condition of used electronics and enabling the immediate buy back directly from consumers. Read More >>

Pixon Imaging, Ridge Diagnostics and V-Enable named as MIP finalists and Pixon moves into EvoNexus incubator.

Pixon Imaging has developed a collection of proprietary image-processing algorithms and digital-signal-processing hardware platforms that mitigate the effects of blurring, haze, fog, smoke, water turbidity, atmospheric warping, and sensor noise, and that can provide a 5X to 10X improvement in compression compared to current methods. Pixon Imaging won a slot in CommNexus’ incubator EvoNexus.

Ridge Diagnostics is a neurodiagnostic company with a first-in-class, proprietary blood test for Major Depressive Disorder (MDD). This breakthrough diagnostic is the first blood-based test to aid in the diagnosis, management and monitoring of any neuropsychiatric disease. In December 2008, Ridge Diagnostics established a CLIA-certified laboratory in Research Triangle Park, NC where testing services were initiated. Ridge is largely funded by grants to date. Through the company's Clinical Experience Program (CEP), psychiatrists are ordering MDDScore, the laboratory is reporting results to the psychiatrists, and Ridge is processing claims to insurers. Ridge is targeting a national launch in mid-2010. Ridge Diagnostics presented to VCs at CONNECT’s 2009 Life Science Venture Roundtable program and Deal Network, and was a finalist at MIP.

V-Enable is the leading provider of local search solutions powered by proprietary search and advertising technologies, built from the ground up, specifically designed for local search and available as an end-to-end turnkey solution for mobile devices or as an extendible service to any digital environment. Since completing the Springboard program in 2001, V-Enable has successfully raised three rounds of additional financing.

ElliptiGO launches the ElliptiGO 8S’ the world’s first elliptical bicycle. Media coverage: NBC News in San Diego, North County Times, San Diego Magazine, and San Diego Metro Magazine

StayClassy.org is selected as one of 30 startups across the US to showcase at MIT's prestigious Venture Capital Conference.

OnePitch, Inc. secures a partnership agreement with Lazer Ventures Inc. to franchise a baseball hitting system. Designed by aerospace engineers and professional pitchers, the OnePitch system uses optical lasers to capture speed, break, trajectory and deceleration of pitches at a level of accuracy that vastly exceeds existing radar-based systems. Coupled with a high-speed, high-definition video feed, the system is able to instantaneously link pitcher mechanics with pitch movement to enable diagnostic capabilities never before realized. Read More >>

Panel Activity/Diligence Reviews

Springboard Stages

Overall intakes, marketing panels, dry runs, graduations and due diligence assessments of graduates were up nearly 25% in the last three months of 2009 with 16 company panels/reviews. All stages of the Springboard program showed activity. The Springboard program offers free mentoring and assistance to innovators and companies at five stages: Global Bridge (helping international companies access the US market via San Diego), Transition (helping companies deal with major change such as the launch of their second product line, move into a new market or spin-out of a technology), Commercialization, Tech Transfer and Innovation Assessment (evaluation of commercialization potential in the research institution). The program now wraps up with a due diligence assessment by one of our sponsoring law firms to ensure the company has its legal structure, IP, and other critical corporate documents in order and is investment-ready.
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Three Transition stage, five Commercialization stage and three Global Bridge program companies completed the Springboard program in the final quarter of 2009. These included five technology companies, two life science companies, and one cleantech company. Five Springboard companies completed due diligence reviews prior to presenting at CONNECT's Deal Network in December 2009. The Deal Network is a confidential list of high net worth investors who periodically review best-in-class companies that have succeeded in CONNECT's Springboard, Venture Roundtable or Most Innovative Product Awards programs. The events are held at the private residence of an investor and are attended by 25 or more investors.
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Global Bridge Panels

IAdea, Inc. has created a technology for use in the digital signage industry. This technology allows businesses to distribute multimedia information to a target audience through reliable, scalable and cost-effective video playback systems that can be managed by most major management software products. Read More >>

Lite-Med Inc. has developed a high-tech medical device for the treatment of patients with kidney stones. The device reduces side effects such as hematuria, reduced renal function and radiation damage, and can also increase the efficiency and patient safety of this treatment, and improve the stone treatment quality. Read More >>

Maki Solar Technologies Inc. has developed commercial use architectural-grade, solar-powered LED paver and ground lights. The self-contained design can save over 70% in installation costs compared with conventional electric lights, and the lights consume no energy from the power grid, which means no utility charge for future owners.
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Malama Composites LLC is a leading innovator and producer of rigid polyurethane foam made from clean, renewable hydrocarbon sources. The company’s renewable foam is cost competitive with conventional, non-renewable petrochemical foam.

Extrabux is a comparison shopping website that combines discounts from coupons and cash back to give shoppers the lowest price for any product. The site integrates online coupons, cash-back rebates, and tax and shipping costs to show the lowest possible prices on over 30 million products from over 1,500 top online retailers.

Freedom Meditech, Inc. is a medical device company focused on the commercialization of non-invasive, ophthalmic medical devices for diabetes screening and daily glucose monitoring.

U-P Laboratories serves as a raw material producer and product supplier to cosmetics and cosmeceutical corporations world-wide. U-P Laboratories’ proprietary synthetic, purified peptides behave similarly to and display comparable efficacy with botulinum neurotoxin (trade name BoTox® by Allergan) in disrupting the capacity of facial muscles to contract and thereby “erase” wrinkles. An additional area of application is the treatment of hyperhydrosis.

Medipacs is a wireless health medical device company with a platform technology to develop and commercialize programmable, disposable drug infusion pumps. The first product, the Medipacs Mini-Infuser™, has a polymer-based pumping technology that enables small volume parenteral drug administration, suitable for both in-patient and out-patient applications.