GrowFL Weekly Update for February 14, 2014
GrowFL provides strategies, resources and support to second-stage companies for next level growth. By supporting companies with Strategic Research and peer-to-peer CEO mentoring, GrowFL helps companies overcome obstacles to growth and leads them towards prosperity.
Happy Birthday, GrowFL
By Chris Gibbons, Founder, National Center for Economic Gardening
This year, the GrowFL Economic Gardening® program will celebrate its 5th anniversary. The ground breaking National Economic Gardening program from Colorado was introduced to Florida by the University of Central Florida, where it has served as a laboratory for how to run an entrepreneurial approach to economic development at the state level.
Economic Gardening was developed and refined over a 25 year period in Littleton, Colorado as an entrepreneurial approach to economic development. It focuses on the strategic issues of Stage 2 growth companies and uses high end, corporate level tools combined with New Sciences principles to help companies grow. Typical assistance includes market research, competitor intelligence, industry trends, building innovation capacity, developing teams using temperament, new media marketing and constructing listening posts for consumer chatter.
The Florida project has been integral to establishing proof of principle in a number of areas: Read more
Solodev is an Enterprise Content Management Platform that allows non-technical users to easily build, deploy and manage mobile applications, dynamic websites, social media applications, and custom applications. Content is at the core of every business and Solodev’s software enables businesses to deliver content & engage customers across a growing ecosystem of Internet-connected devices. Solodev places emphasis on high security; therefore, its codebase has been developed internally at its Orlando Headquarters without any outsourcing. Solodev software runs in all Internet browsers and can be installed on both Linux and Windows. Solodev has been developed on top of a database abstraction library and currently supports the following databases: Mysql, SQL Server, Oracle and PostGre. Solodev continually innovates and seeks ways to enhance its software offering to ensure its clients are in step with approaching technological trends. Solodev recently developed a first of its kind application programming Interface (API), allowing its clients to foster development of mobile application and other future technologies. The API allows app developers to take advantage of, and mine, existing (and real-time) Client data to create applications that focus on shopping, dining, arts, entertainment, nightlife, sports, music, transportation and other areas.
Founded in 1981 by Ed and Betty Rosenthal, Florikan is a privately held, wholly-owned and family operated business located in Sarasota, Florida with 40 employees. Florikan remains the only Florida based manufacturer of polymer coated controlled release fertilizers under the Nutricote® brand name and Florikote® under a licensing arrangement with The J.R. Simplot Company. Florikan serves its core agricultural and horticultural markets in the eastern U.S. and all markets in Florida. Florikan’s goal remains the same: Help growers find a better way to minimize costs and improve the quality of plants while reducing the industry’s footprint on the environment.For over 30 years, Florikan has developed production methods for the agriculture, horticulture, landscape, turf, and homeowner markets. The E.S.A.in our name stand for Environmentally Sustainable Agriculture. Florikan has developed products to meet that standard since 1981 and manufacture controlled release fertilizers that minimize the impact of nutrient leaching on the environment. Florikan promotes awareness of how fertilizers release in a given climate, soil type and season, so the appropriate blend of technologies can mitigate nutrient runoff while improving agronomic benefits. Today, it is possible to achieve both of these goals cost effectively through a more efficient means of fertilization.
