Problem: Alternative Energy spinout seeks growth financing in tough times. Diversified business can fall back on professional services, but would rather invest in technology development. Solution: Position startup for gap-financing programs; recast company story to highlight leadership/incumbency; develop executive summary and financial materials for due diligence. Technologies used: Coaching, marketing consult, financial analysis Work  done [...]

Problem: Even with its recent expansion, the University of Michigan Museum of Art suffered from Too much art, Not enough gallery space. Solution: Open-storage galleries housing waaay too much art, accessed by a virtual docent kiosk based on iPod’s “coverflow” metaphor. Technologies: AJAX, jQuery, PHP, SQL Server Work done on this project: Software architecture and [...]

Problem: New Startup professional services consulting firm needs go-to-market consultation on branding and messaging, sales pipeline, and collateral. Solution: Coach the coach, engineer the engineer, market the marketer, sell the seller. Technologies: Drupal, Flash. Work done on this project: Coaching, brand research and design, messaging platform consult and refinement, market strategy and program development, initial [...]

Problem: Medical device e-commerce site requires rescue and retread. Solution: Move site from a stick-built mess on a proprietary platform to a templated site that the client can maintain.  Consult on payment gateways and traffic management. Technologies used: Coaching, e-commerce consult, SilverStripe CMS Work  done on this project: Design, development, templating, hosting.

Problem: An advanced 3-D pattern-recognition camera needs to be able to work with a range of biometric facial recognition systems using an emerging integration standard . Solution: Implement the BioAPI standard, with a full complement of events and attributes for integrating this revolutionary camera. Technologies: BioAPI, C++, Dot.NET, Visual Studio. Work done on this project: [...]

Problem: Only security geeks understand the need for wireless security. Everybody else (read: the vast majority of customers) doesn’t get it. It’s hard to sell something when consumers don’t know they need it. Solution: Interactive Flash animation and voiceover makes it easy. Technologies: QuickTime, Flash, Javascript. Work done on this project: Designed and developed the [...]

Problem: Teacher contracts stipulate that new-hire teachers must be given tenure in four years unless annual reviews can show why they shouldn’t. To fulfill the contract, school principals must observe teachers in the classroom, write reports, and benchmark them against other scores.

Problem: Everyone agrees that a business incubator is an economic development asset – until it comes time to pay for it. Solution: An incubator grows businesses, but at its heart, an incubator is a business. So create a business plan! Research entrepreneurial requirements, study other incubators and how they serve their constituencies, build a sustainable [...]

Problem: Business Incubators have traditionally focused on centralized facilities, to concentrate resources and focus services within four walls. But the entrepreneurial community is changing to a virtual model, which makes the old physical incubator look, well, “old.” Solution: A Virtual Business Incubator, that allows free access to resources and services, 24x7x365,over the web. Netwok consulting [...]

Problem: A small startup needs a fully featured eCommerce site but couldn’t afford a high-end framework like WebSphere Commerce.