Biotechnology by its nature goes through booms and busts driven by hope and fear, but now the industry is really in deep trouble. That’s the big headline coming out of this year’s Ernst & Young annual biotech survey, Beyond Borders. Common sense would tell you that in a global economic meltdown, where mainstays like Citigroup … Continue reading “Biotech Business Model “Unsustainable” in Financial Crisis, E&Y Says”
Category: San Diego
MindBody, Inc. Garners $5,600,000 New Funding
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=c396af3a-a1ca-477d-af50-0624127aaedf&Preview=1 Date 5/5/2009 Company Name MindBody, Inc. Mailing Address 4051 Broad Street San Luis Obispo, CA 93401 Company Description MINDBODY Inc.’s roots go back to 1998, when we were the first software consultancy developing easy-to-use client and teacher management solutions for yoga, pilates, and spinning studios. In 2001, we became an LLC, … Continue reading “MindBody, Inc. Garners $5,600,000 New Funding”
Amylin Cuts 200 Sales Reps, Looks for $45M in Savings Next Year
San Diego diabetes drugmaker Amylin Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: [[ticker:AMLN]]), under pressure to cut costs, said today it plans to lay off 200 sales representatives, or 11 percent of its total worldwide workforce. But it’s unclear if that will be enough to appease dissident shareholders Carl Icahn and Eastbourne Capital Management, which together own a 22 percent … Continue reading “Amylin Cuts 200 Sales Reps, Looks for $45M in Savings Next Year”
SDG&E Opens Renewable Resource Center
San Diego Gas & Electric said today it is opening a “renewable energy resource center” in El Centro, CA, the Imperial County seat about 114 miles east of San Diego, to help accelerate the development of clean energy and clean jobs. SDG&E, a subsidiary of San Diego’s Sempra Energy, said the center also will serve … Continue reading “SDG&E Opens Renewable Resource Center”
Acadia Shares Soar on Alliance With Biovail for Parkinson’s Psychosis Drug
Acadia Pharmaceuticals struck an important deal this morning to continue developing a Parkinson’s drug. The San Diego-based biotech company said it will get $30 million in upfront cash through an alliance with Biovail to develop a new drug for psychoses related to Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease. Acadia (NASDAQ: [[ticker:ACAD]]) stands to get as much as … Continue reading “Acadia Shares Soar on Alliance With Biovail for Parkinson’s Psychosis Drug”
A Big Convergence: Wireless Health Care, Information Technologies, and Serial Entrepreneur James Sweeney
San Diego’s James Sweeney is a big-time health-care innovator and entrepreneur. Although he’s relatively unknown to the general public, Sweeney has founded and created eight successful health-care companies—Caremark, CarePartners, CareGivers, Central Admixture Pharmacy Services, or CAPS, McGaw, Coram, Bridge Medical, and CardioNet. Sweeney founded his first company in 1979 as Home Health Care of America, … Continue reading “A Big Convergence: Wireless Health Care, Information Technologies, and Serial Entrepreneur James Sweeney”
Qualcomm and Broadcom Sign Patent Peace Treaty, A Green Day for San Diego (as in Algae, Not Rock n’ Roll), Corporate Crisis Hits Sequenom, & Other San Diego BizTech News
What a week for news! Qualcomm and Broadcom agreed to drop their respective patent lawsuits—and sue for peace, while Prize Capital moved closer to creating a $10 million prize competition, and shares of San Diego’s Sequenom fell 70 percent on news of mishandled data. It’s all in our Xconomy roundup. —San Diego’s Qualcomm (NASDAQ: [[ticker:QCOM]]) … Continue reading “Qualcomm and Broadcom Sign Patent Peace Treaty, A Green Day for San Diego (as in Algae, Not Rock n’ Roll), Corporate Crisis Hits Sequenom, & Other San Diego BizTech News”
Onestop Internet Receives $13,300,000 Series A Round
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=e5111d97-7ca8-4e20-8ef8-ea61650f3fe7&Preview=1 Date 5/4/2009 Company Name Onestop Internet Mailing Address 2332 E. Pacific Place Rancho Dominguez, CA 90220 Company Description Onestop is a full-service e-commerce technology and distribution partner. We design, build and manage e-commerce web sites on a completely outsourced basis. Our integrated technology, design, customer service and warehouse facilities. Website http://www.onestop.com … Continue reading “Onestop Internet Receives $13,300,000 Series A Round”
After the Layoff: Keeping Surviving Employees Focused and Engaged
Leap Wireless CEO Doug Hutcheson and Solekai Systems President Martin Caniff talk about techniques they have used to retain employees and keep their confidence high through difficult times. They will be joined by Vicki Krantz, director of business, science, & technology programs at UCSD Extension, who has been an active member of San Diego’s human … Continue reading “After the Layoff: Keeping Surviving Employees Focused and Engaged”
A Wireless Town Hall Meeting With Verizon CTO Anthony Melone
Anthony Melone, Verizon Wireless Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, is responsible for the technology, architecture, planning, design, and operation of the company’s coast-to-coast wireless voice and data network. He plans to talk about what’s over the horizon at Verizon, and answers questions from the audience. Registration begins at 5 p.m., or register online … Continue reading “A Wireless Town Hall Meeting With Verizon CTO Anthony Melone”
Cleantech Financing: Tapping into Government Funding
A panel of financing experts from K&L Gates and Barney & Barney explain how cleantech startups can take advantage of funding opportunities though the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Cleantech CEOs, CFOs, executives, in-house counsel, venture capitalists, and senior management are urged to attend. Registration begins at 8:30 a.m., or register online here.
Connect With Connect
Join Connect for its premier networking event, which attracts more than 350 leaders from San Diego’s most-innovative industries and take advantage of the opportunity to view presentations by local life sciences, high tech, and cleantech companies. Register online here.
Heart Surgery: Recent Trends and Coming Technologies
Smaller incisions and new approaches in cardiothoracic procedures have brought heart surgery to the threshold of new techniques and biomedical innovations. Dr. Stuart Jamieson, who heads the division of cardiothoracic surgery at the U.C. San Diego Medical Center, discusses the potential for improved patient recovery. Register online here.
ProQuo’s Founding CEO Takes a Sabbatical to Teach at Cornell
Steven Gal, who founded San Diego-based ProQuo to help consumers control their personal information and reduce their junk mail, bid a fond farewell in an e-mail blast this afternoon. “I can’t say I saw this economic nuclear winter coming last year when I decided to take a sabbatical from tech startups and return to teaching … Continue reading “ProQuo’s Founding CEO Takes a Sabbatical to Teach at Cornell”
Polaris’s McGuire Takes Helm at U.S. Venture Group, Plans to Fight Obama Effort to Hike Taxes on VC Firms
It’s probably fitting that I caught up with Boston venture veteran Terry McGuire this week while he was chatting in a corner of a busy conference room with his West Coast counterpart, Dixon Doll. McGuire, a co-founder and managing general partner of Waltham, MA-based Polaris Venture Partners, introduced Doll to me as the chairman of … Continue reading “Polaris’s McGuire Takes Helm at U.S. Venture Group, Plans to Fight Obama Effort to Hike Taxes on VC Firms”
PhotoThera Raises $50M for Laser-Based Stroke Treatment
PhotoThera, a Carlsbad, CA, startup developing transcranial laser therapy for treating acute ischemic stroke, said it has closed a $50 million Series D round of financing led by Warburg Pincus, the private equity firm. The funding is intended to support a planned Phase 3 clinical study of the treatment, which is designed to be given … Continue reading “PhotoThera Raises $50M for Laser-Based Stroke Treatment”
Avalon Ventures’ Kevin Kinsella Sees a Way Through the Recession
San Diego’s Avalon Ventures is among a handful of homegrown VC firms that remains an active investor in early stage companies in the region, even though overall venture funding is anemic right now. But Avalon founder Kevin Kinsella sees a healthy resurgence of venture activities—and even some IPOs on the horizon. “The situation is what … Continue reading “Avalon Ventures’ Kevin Kinsella Sees a Way Through the Recession”
TweetPhoto Shows Where That Pic Came From
San Diego-based TweetPhoto is taking social media a little bit further towards “Web 3.0” time. TweetPhoto today launched a social-networking photo-sharing service, which uses Twitter and Facebook and automatically geo-tags photos sent from GPS-enabled cell phones. You can check my TweetPhoto of Bird Rock in La Jolla here. The service also provides information on who … Continue reading “TweetPhoto Shows Where That Pic Came From”
Novocell Gets $5.4M State Grant
The governing board for the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, the state stem cell agency, yesterday approved $67.7 million in funding for 15 research grants, including a $5.4 million grant to San Diego’s Novocell. The multi-year grant to Novocell will fund research that’s intended to find ways of identifying and separating stem cells that form … Continue reading “Novocell Gets $5.4M State Grant”
Amylin Allows Talks Between Carl Icahn and Eastbourne
In a filing with the SEC today, San Diego’s diabetes drug developer Amylin Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:AMLN) says it has agreed to let affiliates of billionaire investor Carl Icahn and Eastbourne Capital Management “engage in discussions with the other for the sole purpose of facilitating a settlement of the proxy contest.” The two dissident shareholder groups, which … Continue reading “Amylin Allows Talks Between Carl Icahn and Eastbourne”
Ethertronics Developing Active Antennas For Cornucopia of Next-Generation Wireless Services
Earlier this month, Xconomy reported that San Diego’s Ethertronics raised an additional $4 million in a secondary round of venture funding. Yesterday, I sat down with Sahil Bansal, Ethertronics’ director of strategic marketing, who explained how the company has emerged as a specialist in embedded antennas for cell phones and how it’s planning to use … Continue reading “Ethertronics Developing Active Antennas For Cornucopia of Next-Generation Wireless Services”
Era of Over-the-Counter DNA Diagnostic Test Arrives in San Diego
A suburban healthcare group began selling personal DNA testing kits in San Diego this week, enabling ordinary people to buy an over-the-counter test to determine their predispositon to genetic disease. The Personal Genome Service packages, which retail for $399, were previously only available online. The first DNA kits ordered by San Diego’s Palomar Pomerado Health … Continue reading “Era of Over-the-Counter DNA Diagnostic Test Arrives in San Diego”
View2Gether LLC Secures Series A Funding Round
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=a8222161-5b48-4f90-87bf-ce779d23f275&Preview=1 Date 4/30/2009 Company Name View2Gether LLC Mailing Address Undisclosed Burbank, CA 91500 Company Description View2gether offers a white-label solution to any online video provider; whether it be a Web site, network or studio, blog, portal or online advertising campaign that is focused on the engagement of theircommunity through Social Viewing. We … Continue reading “View2Gether LLC Secures Series A Funding Round”
Everbridge Garners $2,000,000 Series A Funding
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=5f1c6a9e-e194-4c03-bc87-a1aebf293261&Preview=1 Date 4/30/2009 Company Name Everbridge Mailing Address 505 N. Brand Blvd. Glendale, CA 91203 Company Description Everbridge is the leading global provider of mass notification solutions to Global 2000 corporations, government agencies and municipalities, healthcare systems, and educational institutions in more than 70 countries with the ability to communicate in more … Continue reading “Everbridge Garners $2,000,000 Series A Funding”
PhotoThera Inc. Lands $50,000,000 Series D Funding Round
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=51727899-a28c-4cba-b981-0ddec4d91608&Preview=1 Date 4/30/2009 Company Name PhotoThera Inc. Mailing Address 2260 Rutherford Rd. Carlsbad, CA 92008 Company Description PhotoThera (Carlsbad, CA) is a privately owned biomedical company pioneering the emerging field of infrared energy therapeutics. Website http://www.photothera.com Transaction Type Venture Equity Transaction Amount $50,000,000 Transaction Round Series D Proceeds Purposes Proceeds purposes were … Continue reading “PhotoThera Inc. Lands $50,000,000 Series D Funding Round”
Gen-Probe Amends Deal to Get Promising Test for Prostate Cancer
Resolving a long-standing dispute, San Diego’s Gen-Probe (NASDAQ: [[ticker:GPRO]]) agreed to invest $5 million in its Canadian partner and to begin clinical trials of its prostate cancer test later this year. The deal gives Gen-Probe a 10 percent stake in Toronto-based DiagnoCure and revises the timeline for developing the test, which had become a sticking … Continue reading “Gen-Probe Amends Deal to Get Promising Test for Prostate Cancer”
Sequenom Discloses Test Data Mishandled; Shares Plunge
Sequenom’s shares plunged nearly 70 percent in after-hours trading today after the San Diego biotech said it was postponing its launch of a Down syndrome test due to “mishandling” of R&D test data. The price of Sequenom (NASDAQ: [[ticker:SQNM]]) shares fell from $14.91 at the close to $4.69 at 7:36 p.m. ET. Sequenom had planned … Continue reading “Sequenom Discloses Test Data Mishandled; Shares Plunge”
340 Lose Jobs at Sony Electronics
Sony Electronics, which has been reorganizing its San Diego operations, disclosed that 340 employees are losing their jobs through a combination of early retirement and layoffs. Because more workers took early retirement than the Japanese company had expected, Sony executives told the San Diego Union-Tribune the company could have as many as 100 job openings at … Continue reading “340 Lose Jobs at Sony Electronics”
Great (Algae) Expectations, and San Diego’s Plans for Creating a Big Green Cluster
Expectations were high at UC San Diego yesterday as the city’s academic, business, and political leaders gathered to announce the formation of SD-CAB, the San Diego Center for Algae Biotechnology. Steve Kay, UCSD’s dean of biological sciences and SD-CAB’s founding director, told the audience the single point of the center was to position San Diego … Continue reading “Great (Algae) Expectations, and San Diego’s Plans for Creating a Big Green Cluster”
Isis, Alnylam to Collaborate on Single-Stranded RNA Drugs; Deal Could Add Up to $31 Million to Isis’ Coffers
Biotech stalwarts in two of Xconomy’s home regions, Isis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: [[ticker:ISIS]]) of Carlsbad, CA, and Alnylam Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: [[ticker:ALNY]]) of Cambridge, MA, said today that they’ve agreed to share techniques devised by Isis for using single-stranded RNA interference (ssRNAi) to silence genes in the body that cause disease. Under the agreement, Alnylam will owe … Continue reading “Isis, Alnylam to Collaborate on Single-Stranded RNA Drugs; Deal Could Add Up to $31 Million to Isis’ Coffers”
Eucalyptus Systems Inc Obtains $5,500,000 Series A Financing Round
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=f6d38c09-4a95-40ba-bd7b-1b38554df02b&Preview=1 Date 4/29/2009 Company Name Eucalyptus Systems Inc Mailing Address 130 Castilian Drive Goleta, CA 93117 Company Description We started Eucalyptus as a research project in the Computer Science Department at the University of California, Santa Barbara. In the Fall of 2007, Rich Wolski (whose research group eventually designed and built Eucalyptus) … Continue reading “Eucalyptus Systems Inc Obtains $5,500,000 Series A Financing Round”
Prize Capital Moves Closer to Creating $10 Million Algae Fuel Prize
Fourteen years after Peter Diamandis proposed the idea of creating the X Prize to spur development of low-cost spaceflight, San Diego-based Prize Capital said today it has entered the final phase of creating a $10 million prize to encourage advances in algae biofuels technologies. As part of the final planning process, Prize Capital founder and … Continue reading “Prize Capital Moves Closer to Creating $10 Million Algae Fuel Prize”
Tysabri May Promote Healing Around Nerves, Study Says
Cambridge, MA-based Biogen Idec (NASDAQ: [[ticker:BIIB]]) and its partner, Elan, catch a lot of heat because their fastest-growing drug for multiple sclerosis is associated with a rare, potentially fatal brain infection called PML. But today they are pushing back a bit with a study that suggests the drug may provide an important benefit to balance … Continue reading “Tysabri May Promote Healing Around Nerves, Study Says”
Carlsbad Device Helped Detect Swine Flu
Health officials say it’s crucial to uncover a flu outbreak early, and stories on Science magazine’s ScienceInsider blog and in the San Diego Union-Tribune reveal how technology developed in the San Diego area helped local officials do just that during the current swine flu outbreak. The Ibis T5000 biosensor system, which allows rapid identification and … Continue reading “Carlsbad Device Helped Detect Swine Flu”
Life Technologies, Geospiza Form Cloud Computing Deal for Scientists to Dig Into Genome
Genome sequencing instruments have gotten so much faster and cheaper over the years that they have created a new problem for scientists—digging through mountains of data on DNA, and maintaining these stores of data. So today, Carlsbad, CA-based Life Technologies and its Applied Biosystems division have formed a partnership with Seattle-based Geospiza to help researchers … Continue reading “Life Technologies, Geospiza Form Cloud Computing Deal for Scientists to Dig Into Genome”
Lilly CEO Has No Plans to Buy Amylin
Eli Lilly’s CEO told reporters in Los Angeles the Indianapolis-based pharmaceutical giant has no plans to acquire San Diego’s Amylin Pharmaceuticals—a sentiment that seems contrary to what dissident shareholders want. Billionaire investor Carl Icahn and Eastbourne Capital Management, which together hold more than 20 percent of Amylin shares, have been waging a proxy battle to … Continue reading “Lilly CEO Has No Plans to Buy Amylin”
Ardea Forms Partnership With Bayer to Develop Cancer Inhibitors
San Diego-based Ardea Biosciences (Nasdaq: [[ticker:RDEA]]) says it has reached a licensing and drug development agreement with German drug giant Bayer HealthCare for a class of small molecule cancer drugs known as MEK (mitogen-activated ERK kinase) inhibitors. Aredea says its lead MEK inhibitor, RDEA119, is believed to play an important role in cancer cell proliferation, apoptosis … Continue reading “Ardea Forms Partnership With Bayer to Develop Cancer Inhibitors”
A Good Day for Pond Scum: San Diego’s Emerging Algae-Based Industries Set Heavy Schedule
Efforts to build a new technology cluster of algae-based industries in the region—and to make San Diego a center of excellence in algal biotechnology—are coming together in an unusual series of events today. “I’m calling it algae day in San Diego,” says Rick Halperin, project manager for the regional algae initiative, a virtual organization formed … Continue reading “A Good Day for Pond Scum: San Diego’s Emerging Algae-Based Industries Set Heavy Schedule”
Drug Maker Phenomix Lays Off 16 Employees
Phenomix, the privately held San Diego biotech that Luke profiled in February, has laid off 16 employees, according to a spokeswoman for the company. I contacted Phenomix after Xconomy received a tip concerning possible layoffs, and was referred by the company to Pam Lord of the San Diego office of Porter Novelli Life Sciences, who … Continue reading “Drug Maker Phenomix Lays Off 16 Employees”
Venture Funds Did Badly in 2008—But Maybe Not That Badly
We all know that just about every type of financial performance index for the last year showed a sharp turn downward. This definitely held true for venture capital. The National Venture Capital Association and Thomson Reuters today released Q4 2008 venture capital performance numbers showing that VC funds as a whole—early, balanced, and later stage … Continue reading “Venture Funds Did Badly in 2008—But Maybe Not That Badly”
Obama’s Science and Technology Advisory Council Includes Holdren, Molina, Mundie
President Obama announced today the members of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, in remarks made at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington DC. Some members were announced previously, but this is the first time the full council was presented publicly. Obama cited the distinguished council’s “diversity of experience and views,” … Continue reading “Obama’s Science and Technology Advisory Council Includes Holdren, Molina, Mundie”
Ethos Seeks to Patent Fuel Additive
San Diego-based Ethos Environmental said today it’s filed for patent protection of its Ethos FR+ fuel additive. Ethos says its fuel additive gives motorists increased fuel mileage, and at least a 30 percent reduction in emissions. The company says its additive was tested at the California Environmental Engineering lab, one of few labs certified by … Continue reading “Ethos Seeks to Patent Fuel Additive”
Down is the New Up: Two Suggestions for How CEOs Can Cope With the Downturn
For the last six months VCs thought they were really funny whenever they used the phrase “flat is the new up.” This crept into the VC lexicon at the beginning of the current crisis to refer to the small victories investors boasted about when raising capital for their portfolio companies. Actually the reality is quite … Continue reading “Down is the New Up: Two Suggestions for How CEOs Can Cope With the Downturn”
Histogen, Back in Startup Mode, Launches Skin Care Products
Our last installment concerning Histogen ended in a cliffhanger. As I reported in February, Histogen CEO Gail Naughton was scrambling to raise funding after a patent infringement lawsuit was filed against her biotech company by SkinMedica, a rival based in nearby Carlsbad, CA. The lawsuit led a group of angel investors to back away from … Continue reading “Histogen, Back in Startup Mode, Launches Skin Care Products”
Qualcomm and Broadcom End Patent War, Ink $891M Settlement and Cross-Licensing Deal
San Diego wireless giant Qualcomm (NASDAQ: [[ticker:QCOM]]) and Irvine, CA-based Broadcom (NASDAQ: [[ticker:BRCM]]) said last night they have agreed to end their wide-ranging patent war and enter a broad cross-licensing deal. As part of the global settlement, which terminates litigation in federal court as well as formal disputes before trade commissions in Europe and South … Continue reading “Qualcomm and Broadcom End Patent War, Ink $891M Settlement and Cross-Licensing Deal”
Psylin Neurosciences—-Amylin’s Pysch-Drug Offspring—Nearing First Clinical Trial
There are still great voids in understanding the effects of even approved psychiatric drugs. But there’s no doubt that the business of selling antidepressants and the like can be extremely lucrative. Psylin Neurosciences—a joint venture of San Diego-based Amylin Pharmaceuticals and New York drug research firm PsychoGenics—is very much a product of both of those … Continue reading “Psylin Neurosciences—-Amylin’s Pysch-Drug Offspring—Nearing First Clinical Trial”
No Resolution in Amylin’s Talks With Dissident Investors Carl Icahn and Eastbourne Capital, Anadys Sees Promise in Treatment for Hepatitis C, Chumby Makes Moves into Europe, & Other San Diego BizTech News
We saw the proxy battle for control of San Diego’s Amylin Pharmaceuticals heat up last week, amid signs that wireless technology giant Qualcomm is in peace talks to settle a wide-ranging patent dispute with Broadcom, its Southern California chip-making rival. We also got some new insights into venture capital activity in San Diego, and in … Continue reading “No Resolution in Amylin’s Talks With Dissident Investors Carl Icahn and Eastbourne Capital, Anadys Sees Promise in Treatment for Hepatitis C, Chumby Makes Moves into Europe, & Other San Diego BizTech News”
Visiogen, Inc. Garners $40,000,000 New Funding Round
Feed Type Link http://www.venturedeal.com/Search/SearchResultTransactionDetail.aspx?TransactionId=0cb58a60-3209-40b8-8884-18f10b9a59c6&Preview=1 Date 4/27/2009 Company Name Visiogen, Inc. Mailing Address 2 Goodyear Irvine, CA 92618 Company Description Visiogen, Inc. is focused on developing innovative products for cataract and refractive patients. Founded in Irvine, California, in 2001, Visiogen’s first commercial application, Synchrony®, a dual-optic intraocular lens and pre-loaded injector, is currently in clinical studies … Continue reading “Visiogen, Inc. Garners $40,000,000 New Funding Round”
Vertex’s Telaprevir Passes Test in Tough-To-Treat Hepatitis C Patients
Vertex’s telaprevir is starting to stand the test of time. The experimental drug for hepatitis C is showing today that it can cure about half of the patients who failed to respond to standard treatments. That’s about triple the cure rate for patients who tried a second round of the existing drugs. The latest findings … Continue reading “Vertex’s Telaprevir Passes Test in Tough-To-Treat Hepatitis C Patients”
X-Prize Founder Peter Diamandis and the Enormous Incentive
The San Diego MIT Enterprise Forum is sponsoring an evening with Peter Diamandis, creator of the $10 million X Prize that ignited a privately funded space race that ended in 2004 with the successful flights of SpaceShipOne. Diamandis, who is now chairman and CEO of the X Prize Foundation, will discuss the prize model for … Continue reading “X-Prize Founder Peter Diamandis and the Enormous Incentive”