Happy New Year and welcome back! Even though we are already half way through January, I hope that you all had a safe, happy and healthy holiday season. I feel that it is always good mojo to provide you with these wishes at the start of the year. It is something that I have done for many years and would like to continue for many, many more years to come. Hopefully, you were able to get some down time and do something that you wouldn’t normally do in your every day work week. This could be something small like sleeping a little longer, reading that book that you’ve been meaning to get to or going for a walk (in our case, taking a walk in the snow). Tina and I always say that life is fairly monotonous so it is important to shake things up a little. For us, it is going on a long drive to go grab dinner and take a walk. Our date nights are important because we are constantly in the grind with the business. We need to be able to connect outside of the craziness and remember what is important. It also allows you to get a better perspective when you have to dive back in to work again so you can better tackle an issue or select areas that you would like to focus on.
The nice thing about writing a blog is being able to go back and take a look at what was going on at a specific snapshot in time. As I talk about monotony, last year at this time we worked over the break to submit a small business grant for our NuSpun™ vascular graft. Unfortunately, that grant application was triaged, meaning that it was not worthy of grading/scoring by the reviewers. For those that are unfamiliar with grants, the application is electronically sent to the government and three anonymous people who have expertise in several science areas (and volunteer their time) review the application against others. Not getting a score can happen for many reasons. Only about 10-15% of all applications ever receive funding so it is a high bar. The reviewers give you reasons and things to potentially change. Many times, addressing their concerns strengthens the application and sometimes their concerns are really off base. Fast forward almost a year and we’ve now changed the application, taking the reviewer’s concerns into account. Unfortunately, one of the application due dates is January 5th which usually results in some work over the holidays. It is a bummer about the due date but such is life.
Many readers will say to us that it seems like the company is just cruising along and all must be really great. We always try to keep it real with you like telling you about both the positive and negative things that happen to the company. Tina and I always say that over the past 20 years, we’ve had more valleys than peaks. I think the ironic thing is that we have never been closer to really having the company take off but we need to expand investment in the company to achieve this mission. For those who don’t personally know me, I am not one that tries to oversell anything. We have always been grounded in reality and have been conservative in our approach. There are some people that naturally have the ability to oversell something. Mind you, I strongly believe in our technology and what it can do, but the biotech world is filled with empty expensive promises. We have many connections in the science space and limited connections with the people that have the ability to bring this technology to the masses.
While we have an uphill battle, similar to most companies, I want to acknowledge that there are some great people out there that are willing to try to help in many different ways. This is the focus of this week’s blog. We cannot express how grateful we are for the people who try to help us. That starts with our current investors, who believe in the mission and continue to support us. It continues on with friends and our readers who will reach out to say we are cheering you on and want to see you succeed. Those words mean more to us that you can imagine and get us through some of those valleys for sure when things can be a little darker. I am also so impressed by the acquaintances that we’ve made, some through personal connections and others through connecting online through LinkedIn. We have had more people trying to help us connect with the right people that could make our vision a reality. These people ask for nothing and continue to try to help. With all of the negativity in the world, these people bring a light to the darkness. We are so blessed to have all of these people in our lives. It keeps us fighting hard every day because of their belief in us. They don’t have any obligation to help but these folks take time out of their busy days to make a connection or talk about our technology. We would like to thank you for caring about us and your effort is beyond belief.
We are already back into our normal schedule of keeping our readers informed, from #FactualFriday and announcements to our blogs and our Monthly Spin, which will begin starting in February. We are also planning our first webinar of the year. More details will be coming soon but I can tell you it will focus on cell therapy, have some great speakers and will include an update on our Bio-Spun™ Cell Chamber.
Thank you for your continued support! We appreciate it more than I could ever relay to you.
Matt