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W W W. M A I N E B I Z . B I Z 17 N OV E M B E R 2 , 2 0 1 5 data management company that you can think of as being a bit like iTunes for scientifi c data. We all hear a lot about big data and huge data sets and the vast need to have computing and analytical power and understand the big data. It's based in Boston. We just invested in a company called MyTaskit, which manages relationships between service pro- viders and consumers. eir fi rst target market is marinas to mediate the relationship between boat owners and service providers in marinas. But their business model applies to many diff erent services. ere are 3 million of the kind of service providers we're talking about in the United States. Often we know the people pretty well, like in the case of MyTaskit, the CEO is someone we knew from the pharmacy business, a guy named Kevin Hutchinson. So we have a lot of confi dence in his ability to build something. MB: How do you vet prospective investments? DS: Absolutely no ventures start by just coming in over email from people we don't know. It's almost always a derivative of a relationship. I was a partner at Venrock [the venture capital arm of the Rockefeller family] for a while so some leads come in that way. Rather than managing a fund with a lot of outside capital, we club up with other people. We just did that with a fi nancing here at Vets First Choice. And we did that in MyTaskit and Physion recently. And NanoMech [Fayetteville, Ark.] makes nan- otech lubricants for the auto industry. We like and we know that nanotechnology is going to change the world. And it is in everything from medicine to energy to consumer products. Friends of ours invested and invited us into it. One of the investors that got us involved with NanoMech is the head of CuriosityStream and the founder of Discovery Communications, John Hendricks. He and Chris Galvin of the Motorola fam- ily, who is a friend of mine, asked if we'd like to come into this and we did. We're not usually out prospecting. MB: Are you usually the lead investor when you go in with a group of investors? BS: It's situational. We're a supporting investor with NanoMech, but were the lead with Vets First Choice. MB: Why are you so interested in materials science investments? DS: Materials science is a really fascinating part in what's happened in the world of physics and biology. We funded a company called Modern Meadow in Brooklyn, N.Y., with other investors, including some from China. It is creating an application in the biofab- rication of food and leather with no animal slaughter and lower use of land, water and energy. It takes eight to 10 pounds of grain to make a pound of beef, for example, and when you look at it from a food security or a leather point of view, there are a lot of people who would like to see leather for fashion or furniture where you don't have to kill animals to get it. Another example is Sapphire Energy Inc. [San Diego, Calif.], which is growing crude oil ponds in New Mexico at experimental levels quite effi ciently. e world's most effi cient photosynthetic organ- ism is algae. And that's where all of the crude oil and fossil fuels and hydrocarbons on the planet came from, from algae blooms millions of years ago. Sapphire uses a diff erent treatment process so you can grow protein in the same process as growing crude oil. You can also grow it in brackish water, so if you're in Qatar, Abu Dhabi or Saudi Arabia it might be attractive to think of this as a food source. MB: Are you looking for companies at a certain phase of development? DS: If we think the idea is really intriguing and we think it's successful and we like them that's the most important thing. I had a brain injury and I'm a little reluctant to light the fuse of startup ven- tures right now in my life. I would prefer to put my energies now into someone who has operated some pretty big companies. L V, Mainebiz senior writer, can be reached a t @ . a n d @ LV A healthy smile is a powerful thing. It deserves Delta Dental, the nation's leading dental benefits provider. With the largest network of dentists nationwide, quick answers and personalized service, we make it easy to protect your smile and keep it healthy. www.NortheastDeltaDental.com It was really important It was really important It was really important It was really important It was really important It was really important It was really important It was really important It was really important It was really important It was really important It was really important It was really important It was really important for me to have a frame of for me to have a frame of for me to have a frame of for me to have a frame of for me to have a frame of for me to have a frame of for me to have a frame of for me to have a frame of for me to have a frame of for me to have a frame of for me to have a frame of for me to have a frame of for me to have a frame of reference to understand what truly great looks like in the business you're involved in. — David Shaw

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