Hope all is going well. Hard to believe I am writing the last blog for 2021. Where did 2021 go? It feels like the year just flew by. Do you feel the same or is it just me? I think about all of the emotions that this year has been packed with. We need some down time as the year winds down. I feel like Jim Carey does in the gif we’ve provided. Any idea of the name of the movie that it is from (I’ll share the answer at the end of the blog for those who don’t know)? The persistent fear of the unknown with COVID-19 at the start of the year, but the excitement we felt soon thereafter with
the announcement of effective vaccines. We were reminded that life was still fragile when seeing some friends and their family members contract the virus. Vaccination brought us some sense of normalcy over the summer which was so enjoyable and needed after 2020. In the fall, we had the thrill of watching our daughter get married to her soulmate. We also welcomed two new furry additions to our extended family. As for Tina and I, we made it through all of the ups and downs together, making lemonade when there were lemons. I really could not have a better partner to go through life with.
The business life was also a little bit of an emotional rollercoaster to say the least. Sadly, this has been the trend for the past 18 years as most small business owners can attest to. We do this because, as I like to say, we are stupid and gluttons for punishment. Maybe we are a little sadistic too. I can say we also do it for the love of what we do. We were very encouraged by several opportunities that the business was presented. Some of these could have been real game-changers. It was really a roller-coaster of emotions dealing with these potential opportunities. At several points throughout the year, we were planning (and to some extent dreaming) of the all of the things we were going to need to do to make these happen. Even when you tell yourself to not get your hopes up, you could not help getting a little excited. Unfortunately, none of these options ended up coming to fruition. One of these opportunities saw our business team take a road trip out of state. Even though it didn’t pan out, we had such a great time as a team. I must say it takes some time to get over some of these. You have to understand that unlike a typical couple that work in two different areas, we are both experiencing the same disappointment so that does make it a challenge. That being said, as we’ve always told our children, no one really feels bad for you (minus us as the parents) so you need to pick yourself up, dust yourself off and get right back at it. And that’s exactly what we did. We reassessed our business plan, made some tweaks and then hit the ground running.
The last few months to end the year have been extremely busy on so many fronts. As I mentioned before, nothing ever moves as fast as you want it to. I just have to be a little more patient (easier said than done). We have had discussions with quite a few companies over the past two months. Some of these companies share similar business areas so we are excited about the interest and possible competition for our technology. Some of these companies are looking at completely different areas of our technology so this could bring other options. Just like before, things may not work out the way you want them to but having several groups “kicking the tires” is very promising.
On top of this, we are continuing to expand the launch our 3D Biomimetic business. We have seen positive results from a cosmetic company developing a full thickness skin tissue model. There is nothing better when a potential customer provides some great data using our technology. Why this is important is that cosmetic companies along with other consumer product companies are moving to animal-free testing of their products. We believe that our Bio-Spun™ scaffold can assist in this endeavor. More testing of our products continues.
We’ve begun to make good strides on our ongoing programs with our global partners. We love the challenges that they bring us. There is nothing better than tackling something that has never been done before. While we’ve done this before with technology that we’ve internally developed as well as with Takeda, it’s a different vibe when you have a target audience that is making plans to use this newly developed application. Our team continues to tackle new internal technology that we are developing. One program is called Project X. At some point in the upcoming year, we may let you know what this program is about. In January, we will be releasing our new animation related to our Bio-Spun™ Cell Chamber technology. This is why we love what we do!
We are already preparing ourselves for what looks to be an extremely busy January and February. It will be important to get a little downtime before the craziness begins. We hope you have a safe, happy and healthy holiday season. We hope you get a little break and get to enjoy some time with family and friends. We’ll see you next year on January 7th!
Matt
(Answer to Movie Gif Question – Liar, Liar)