Hank [BS/MSEE,
MSM $$$, Ph.D. Mgmt] teaches 
Indiana Soybean Farmers Looking for the Next Big Thing in Soy
Indiana soybean farmers - through their soybean checkoff - are looking for a few good soy products.
The Indiana Soybean Alliance (ISA) launched the INVEST - Indiana New Ventures and Enterprises in Soy Technology - program earlier this month to seek individuals and small businesses with innovative new soy products or technologies who need help bringing their products to the marketplace. The program has $125,000 available for the initial round of funding in 2008.
“The farmer-leaders of ISA have a long history of investing in research and new products that have true potential to become commercially viable,” said Mike Beard, chairman of the ISA demand committee and Clinton County farmer. “Indiana farmers used soy checkoff dollars to develop soy crayon and candle technologies and produce a soy-based aviation fuel with cold-flow properties useful for all diesel engines. We recognize the importance of developing and supporting new technologies that can increase the demand for soybeans and soy products.”
The INVEST program targets entrepreneurs, inventors and small businesses (with less than 10 employees) who are currently developing a new soy product or technology. It is open to everyone, not just Indiana residents or businesses.
“Specifically, we are interested in people who are past the first stage of development and are in the testing or refining period,” said Ryan West, ISA director of new uses and technology commercialization. “The goal of INVEST is to catapult these products or technologies over the last few hurdles and help with product deployment.”
Interested parties can access the complete list of rules and guidelines from the INVEST website - http://www.soy-invest.com/ Applications are due by Friday, February 29, 2008 and can also be found on the website.
“We are asking that applicants supply us with a wide range of materials, including a business plan, product summary, results of a patent search and projected budget,” said West. “We want to attract people who are serious about bringing new soy products to the market.”
A panel of industry partners will review all applications and supporting documentation and recipients of INVEST dollars will be notified by March 31, 2008.
For more information, visit http://www.soy-invest.com/ or contact Ryan West at rwest@indianasoybean.com or 317-347-3620.
IMPORTANT DATES:
Deadline for Submissions: February 29, 2008
Notification of Recipients: March 31, 2008
Finalize Agreements w/Recipients: April 30, 2008
16 Responses to “Looking for the Next Big Thing in Soy”
- 1 Pingback on Jan 27th, 2008 at 6:40 pm
I am in a group working on a soy product. Purdue held a callout back in October for this competition and it may be a little late to get in the game, but Purdue helps fund most of your product development. If anyone wants more information about the contest I would contact Jennifer Nordland, nordland@purdue.edu. Much of this contest uses skills developed in the entrepreneurship courses. As stated, it may be a little late to get started this year, but don’t be hesitant to get started next year. I had minute soy background before the contest, but marketing is 40% of this contest and all of the entrepreneurship students have these skills. My team is currently working on a soy based clay pigeon (shooting disk) that will not alter the pH of the soil, like current clay pigeons on the market. Any ideas for names of these disk, I think soy shooters is our top name.
This contest would be interesting because I know nothing about soy or farming or anything along those lines.
I think that this contest sounds interesting because i am from the city so I don’t really know anything about soy or farming. So i think that this would be a good learning experience for me.
I think this is a great idea, especially for the Midwest. Finding new alternatives for farming products is a great way to boost the economy. The more uses a crop has, the more valuable it becomes.
I have a friend who, I think, is involved in the same competition that John M. is. His team is making waffle cones made from soy. I tasted them and couldn’t tell the difference… pretty cool.
I think that the contest is a great way to get ideas going, especially when it is backed
with a serious monetary reward. Unfortunately most of us do not have soy-experiments brewing
in our basement waiting to be discovered. I understand that the people hosting this contest
don’t want to be caught up in the brand new stage of development and want something a bit more
solid, but my question to them is: how feasible is it to hope someone has been working on a soy
project and just needs the extra ‘kick’ over the edge in the developmental process? I would
recommend targetting an audience who would be interested in helping, but is not required to have
a product already far along. Aid the development of ideas rather than expect someone to come
to you with a finished project.
I’m impressed with the shear number of these entrepreneurial competitions. It seems like Hank tells us about a new one every day. There are plenty of opportunities to show off our ideas!
I would love to see the ideas that people have for soy products. I thought the use of soy to make crayons was very interesting and I would like to see what other ideas there are like that. It is a great idea to have competitions like this so that people have a chance to develop their ideas even more. I think it is good to get people involved in innovation like this.
This would be a great opportunity for someone who knows a lot about soy. I know they used to use soy crayons at some of the elementary schools. I think this is a very good competition to hold to boost the awareness of the many uses of soy.
I think that this is interesting and a good way for people who are out there developing soy technology. I have no idea about soy technology, but for someone that does, this is great. Hopefully this will inspire new ideas and developments in the soy industry.
My question is who owns the invention, does the competition, does purdue, does the inventor. Who is making money off of this I realize the goal is to help support soybean farmers of America, but if the SoyPigeons goes to market who is the distributor?
I know nothing about soy, but think it’s a great way to encourage people to seek alternative uses of soy. Everyone is used to hearing about different blends of gasoline made from corn crop, soy, etc., but I’m sure this will get people thinking outside of the box and exploring pretty unique ideas. I’d be interested to see who gets the funding and where these products end up once they are submitted.
I think this is a wonderful idea. It deals with soy, a product of farming, so what better place to target your market than an area/ state where agriculture is a major part of the economy? In turn, the company attracts entrepreneurs who have come up with a new product based off of soy. In a time when much emphasis is being place on alternative fuels, conservation, and a “greener” America, the timing of INVEST is perfect - it gives people the chance to get their soy product noticed, and it encourages people to direct their efforts into contributing to this national and global effort.
This would be a very interesting idea, I have no knowledge on farming or anything like that. So I guess it sounds like a good idea to start in Indiana.
I think this is a great idea. Like Amanda said, what better place than Indiana to have it in! The idea of using soy-based products is a tremendous break through for the farming communities & can definitely boost the economy. Also, this could help make way for different types, other than soy, based products!
I have little interest in soy, but I’m sure many people do. It is a good idea to have the contest here in Indiana due to all the farm land as well.