Several “Innovation Crossroads” companies issue progress reports
By Kailyn Lamb, Marketing Content Writer and Editor, PYA
“Innovation Crossroads” gave a quick update from three of its participating companies earlier this year, including new hires and patents, as well as revenue for one company.
Leila Safavi-Tehrani, the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Purist, was able to hire John Foster through the 2020 LaunchTN Internship Program. Foster started as a Business Development Intern for Purist. He works on customer discovery and strategic partnerships, according to the newsletter from Innovation Crossroads.
“LaunchTN’s internship program is a phenomenal resource that provides start-ups the opportunity to gain access to great talent. As a result of participating in this program, my summer intern transitioned to a valuable employee of Purist,” said Safavi-Tehrani in an email.
Safavi-Tehrani was also recently announced as a member of the new “Forbes Next 1000.” Read more in this teknovation.biz article on the announcement, and you can also learn more about Purist in this 2019 teknovation.biz article.
Neptune Fluid Flow Systems had a good year in 2020, according to Co-Founder and CEO Trevor McQueen. The company was awarded two patents and made $25,000 in revenue through direct sales of microfluidic products. Neptune also participated in the “RevV1 TN Manufacturing Innovation Program” from which the company received a collaborative $100,000 grant. The “Innovation Crossroads” newsletter also said that the company has established an off-site research and development facility and has made progress on the technical front.
“Despite the various challenges bought on by the pandemic in 2020, Neptune Fluid Flow Systems had a productive year with the progress it made: two issued U.S. patents, one PCT application, $250,000+ in product sales, and a much improved device prototype,” said McQueen in an email. “The company will be in a good position to increase its revenue through additional product sales and providing customer support as a CRO in the new year.”
Learn more about Neptune in this 2019 teknovation.biz article.
Both Safavi-Tehrani and McQueen are in Cohort 3 of “Innovation Crossroads.”
Erica Grant of Cohort 4’s Quantum Lock Technologies received a patent for her quantum random number generator lock. The technology helps protect the lock from electronic hacking as well as physical lock picking. Quantum will use the technology to create an alpha-stage door lock system to be installed in several doors at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in collaboration with ORNL’s Cybersecurity Institute, said Grant in an email.
This patent “protects the use of true random number generation to secure the locks of a facility,” she said. “This is central to the Quantum Lock design and brings us one step closer to securing facilities by harnessing the power of quantum information.”
Learn more about Quantum Lock in this 2019 teknovation.biz article.
