March 18, 2010

The May Report: 3/18/2010: Chicago-based Fund, Lightbank, founded by Brad
Keywell and Eric Lefkofsky to Invest Up To $100 Million in Technology
Start-Ups; Two bootstrappers, Jeff Judge and Chris Hill, can take it or leave
it when it comes to raising money; HPA has 55 members now and has done 5 deals;
Cornerstone Angels did six deals last year, three of which were in
manufacturing

Editor and publisher: ron@themayreport.com, ronaldmay@aol.com,
www.themayreport.com, 773-525-3944.

If you missed an article, go here:
www.tmronline.com/A55951/tmrarticles.nsf/vwFullNewsletter
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TEDx welcomes ideas worth sharing to Naperville on March 25, 2010

Self-organized TED event brings world class speakers to North Central College

With the Wentz Concert Hall as its backdrop, TEDxNaperville.com is launching
its inaugural conference. The kickoff event will be held at North Central
College in Naperville Illinois on March 25, 2010 from 1PM to 5PM. Cost of this
event is only $25 and is payable online at tedxnaperville.eventbrite.com

About TEDx

In the spirit of “ideas worth spreading,” TED has created TEDx, where x =
independently organized. TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that
bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At TEDxNaperville,
TEDTalks video and live speakers will combine to spark deep discussion and
connection in a small group. The TED Conference provides general guidance for
the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events, including ours, are
self-organized.

TEDxNaperville is a local, self-organized event modeled in the spirit of TED.

“Through TEDx, the TED organization has created a viral movement that allows
great ideas to be spread – starting at a local level,” said Arthur Zards,
founder and curator of TEDxNaperville, “It allows business leaders, visionaries
, community leaders, and readers of the May Report a chance to listen to area
leaders share thought provoking ideas, and have an opportunity to partake in
engaging discussions afterwards”.

Featured guests include:

• Bryan Campen, new media associate at the Long Now Foundation

• Charlie Catlett CIO of the U.S Department of Energy’s Argonne National
Laboratory

• Dr. Robert Wolcott, Executive Director/Founder of the Kellogg Innovation
Network, faculty member at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management and
Author: Grow From Within – Mastering Corporate Entrepreneurship and Innovation

• Michael Kiefer, general manager of BrandProtect, will outline his vision for
the future of art and music distribution,

• Geoff Rhyne, chef de Cuisine at SugarToad Restaurant and founder of Slow Food
Upstate in Greenville, South Carolina

• Harold Clampitt will share lessons learned, especially the confluence of
disruptive technology, decision making and success

• Todd Flaming, a passionate proponent of rethinking design

• Douglas L. Sisterson, Operations Manager US Department of Energy Atmospheric
Radiation Measurement Climate Research Facility.

Tickets are $25 and are available at tedxnaperville.eventbrite.com. Seating is
extremely limited. Interested parties can also visit www.tedxnaperville.com for
complete speaker bios and up-to-date event and ticket information. After the
event, from 5 to 6:30PM, there will be a cocktail reception with cash bar.

At 7PM, after the TEDxNaperville event, Geoff Rhyne, chef de cuisine at
SugarToad restaurant has planned a private “chef’s choice” four-course meal
with wine-pairing. If you love good food and great conversation, don’t miss
this private dinner. Space is extremely limited. The cost of this event is $112
per person and is payable online: tedxnapervilledinner.eventbrite.com

About TED

TED is a nonprofit organization devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. Started as a
four-day conference in California 25 years ago, TED has grown to support those
world-changing ideas with multiple initiatives. The annual TED Conference
invites the world’s leading thinkers and doers to speak for 18 minutes. Their
talks are then made available, free, at TED.com. TED speakers have included
Bill Gates, Al Gore, Jane Goodall, Sir Richard Branson, and UK Prime Minister
Gordon Brown.

TEDx offers individuals or groups a way to host local, self-organized events
around the world, and the TEDFellows program, helping world-changing innovators
from around the globe to become part of the TED community and, with its help,
amplify the impact of their remarkable projects and activities.

Follow TED on Twitter at twitter.com/TEDTalks, or on Facebook at
facebook.com/TED

About the TEDx Naperville Sponsors

Arthur Zards, curator, host and chief organizer of TEDxNaperville is the
co-founder and President of XNet Information Systems – a B2B ISP that offers
clients secure, high availability Internet access and datacenter

solutions.

TEDxNaperville executive producer Ben Bradley is founder of Macon Raine – a B2B
lead generation and public relations firm that uses agile marketing, selling
and lead generation strategies to help companies find new customers.

TEDxNaperville connector David Metcalfe is an independent artist, media
theorist and cultural historian whose recent animation collaboration, A Serious
Inquiry into the Vulgar Notion of Nature, was featured at the Chicago Fringe
Artist’s Networking Night and The Moon Lounge Variety Night in downtown Chicago.

Don & Kate Gingold of Gnu Ventures Company provide Internet Marketing Services
and Website Lifecycle Management to small and medium sized businesses. Gnu
Ventures provided the TEDxNaperville website design.

J & S Tech Designs: Jim Nagy and Susan Steele of J&S Tech Designs deliver
powerful websites based on the Web Content Management system called
DotNetNuke). J&S contributed the setup and provides the hosting for this site.

WebRocket Video creates targeted, authentic and personal stories for Business
Marketing to advance your sales process. WebRocket contributed video production
for the TEDxNaperville event.
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Guys Night Out for the Kids
Benefitting the Chicago Children’s Advocacy Center
Friday, May 7, 2010 5pm-9pm
Carmichaels Chicago Steak House, 1052 W. Monroe

About Guys Night Out
Don’t miss the chance to hang with “the guys” on Friday, May 7 at Carmichael’s
for the 3rd Annual Guys Night Out for the Kids presented by US Cellular. The
event kicks-off with an outdoor Happy Hour in the courtyard followed by an
indoor barbeque, games, golf pros, hand-rolled cigars and celebrity athlete
appearances. There will be a live auction featuring unique items such as a
VIP package to a White Sox game including batting practice on the field or a
suite to a 2010 Bears game.

The evening is being hosted by Mully and Hanley from 670AM The Score, and all
proceeds benefit the Chicago Children’s Advocacy Center (CCAC) for abused
children. Founded by Mayor Daley, the CCAC has served over 19,000 abused
children and their families since opening its doors in August 2001.

Details
Date: Friday, May 7, 2010
Where: Carmichael’s Steak House, 1052 W. Monroe
Time: 5pm-6pm Outdoor Happy Hour in the Courtyard
6pm-9pm – Party inside!

Tickets In Advance: $100 5pm-9pm (includes Happy Hour); $75 6pm-9pm

To Purchase Tickets: www.guysnightoutforthekids.org

Current Sponsors:
U.S. Cellular, Cameron Venture Partners, CA, Continental Resources, Huen
Electric, Labor Management Cooperation Committee of Chicago/IBEW, Northern
Trust Corporation, ComEd, Illinois Medical District, Midwest Generation,
Sidley Austin LLP/Partners of Sidley Austin, Johnson & Krol, LLC, Loop
Capital, Bombardier, CDW, Brown-Forman, Goose Island Beer Company and Vienna
Beef

For More Information: www.chicagocac.org; 312.492.3720 Melissa Siemasz
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TABLE OF CONTENTS

The Scoop section:

— Chicago-based Fund, Lightbank, to Invest Up To $100 Million in Technology
Start-Ups
— Briefly noted, by Ron May
— Tom Johnson: 10 days to enter the City Treasurer’s 2010 Elevator Pitch
Contest
— Main Township High School South wins Argonne National Laboratory’s 15th
annual Rube Goldberg Machine Contest
— ScaleWell A Creative Chicago Microfunding Option
— Miscellaneous notes (4)
____________________________________
The Scoop section:
___________________________
Chicago-based Fund, Lightbank, to Invest Up To $100 Million in Technology
Start-Ups
From: Bruce Montgomery tatvshow@yahoo.com
Subject: Chicago-based Fund, Lightbank, to Invest Up To $100 Million in
Technology Start-Ups
Date: Mon, 15 Mar 2010 21:16:50 -0700 (PDT)
To: Ron May

Chicago-based Fund, Lightbank, to Invest Up To $100 Million in Technology
Start-Ups

Technology Entrepreneurs to Foster Midwest Entrepreneurial Community

CHICAGO, March 15, 2010 (www.tatv.org) — Eric Lefkofsky and Brad Keywell, two
of Chicago’s leading technology entrepreneurs, plan to invest as much as $10
million annually in early-stage technology companies through a new fund called
Lightbank (www.lightbank.com). The entrepreneurs behind Groupon, MediaBank,
InnerWorkings (INWK) and Echo Global Logistics(ECHO) have already raised over
$150 million and generated more than $1.5 billion in investor returns through
their existing ventures.

With the launch of Lightbank, Lefkofsky and Keywell will contribute their
resources and expertise to foster a vibrant, active community of Midwest
technology entrepreneurs who are short on capital, but flush with innovative
ideas.

“Chicago is full of untapped entrepreneurial talent that just needs a little
support,” said Lefkofsky. “Lightbank will be a driving force behind
break-through ideas and help establish this city as a technology hub.”

In addition to investing capital, Lightbank will take an active role in guiding
and nurturing companies through all stages of growth, from effectively scaling
technology and finding the optimal business model to securing further growth
investment and ultimately exiting the business.

Lefkofsky and Keywell, who met at the University of Michigan, have a history of
starting new ventures that have shaken up industries with long-standing
business models.

In 2001, Lefkofsky founded InnerWorkings, a print and procurement company that
was taken public in 2006. In 2005, Lefkofsky and Keywell started Echo Global
Logistics, a transportation and logistics management company that went public
in 2009. In 2006, they co-founded MediaBank, a data-driven media-buying
platform that now processes nearly 20 percent of the media purchased annually
in the United States. In 2007, they co-founded Groupon, a collective buying
site and their first foray into a consumer-facing business. Groupon now
operates in over 40 cities, has more than three million subscribers and has
raised $36 million from New Enterprise Associates and Accel Partners.

“Our success with Groupon has created a tremendous amount of interest from
consumer-facing Internet-based start-ups in search of funding and support,”
said Keywell. “Our formula for high-growth, high-return firms in business
services has translated very well to the consumer market, and we believe there
are many opportunities to further build on our skills and resources.”

Lightbank will focus on venture investments in early-stage companies in a
number of industries. “So far we’ve only scratched the surface of industries
that follow antiquated business processes, where technology can be leveraged to
realize cost-savings and create value,” said Lefkofsky. “Lightbank will allow
us to identify and invest in promising business model innovations and quickly
take them to market.”

About Lightbank

Lightbank is a Chicago-based fund focused on early-stage technology companies.
Founders Eric Lefkofsky and Brad Keywell, who started Groupon, MediaBank,
InnerWorkings (INWK) and Echo Global Logistics(ECHO), will invest up to $10
million annually and take an active role in helping entrepreneurs turn
early-stage ideas into successful businesses.

SOURCE: Lightbank

Lightbank
Kevin Leland, 312-784-4398
kevin@lightbank.com
or
Vicki Levine, 312-784-4389
vicki@lightbank.co

Bruce Eric Montgomery
Executive Producer & Host
Technology Access Television
200 S. Wacker Drive, 15th Floor
Chicago, IL 60606-5865
(773) 410-0608
tatvshow@yahoo.com
www.tatv.org
www.twitter.com/techaccesstv
www.facebook.com/brucemontgomery
_____________________________________________
Briefly noted, by Ron May

* I won’t waste your time with how low it can go, but this week has been an
example of that. Today is the first day that I don’t have continuous 100 degree
plus fevers.

And my hemoglobin dropped back down again after it had gone up by six tenths of
a point. Nothing like going in the wrong direction. I will try to capitalize on
my current energy.

Tuesday night at MIT-EF, the room was standing room only. My estimate would be
about 110.

In part, it is because the conference room at Ungaretti & Harris is a bit
smaller than the conference room used by K&L Gates and in part it is because
this month’s topic was a natural draw.

BTW, the lawyers from Ungaretti & Harris said in the meeting that they jumped
on the opportunity to sponsor MIT-EF as soon as they found out that K&L had
dumped them — oh, and where might they have learned that little tidbit?

Bob Brill was the main organizer of the meeting this year as he organized the
meeting with Harper Reed, Jason Fried and Howard Tullman last year; and he has
recently opened his own firm, specializing in IP law. He was of counsel at Wood
Phillips but for economic reasons, he tells me he decided to go it alone. He
has the first floor of his house at 1108 West Wrightwood as an office and he
and his wife, who is a veterinarian, live on the second and third floor.

Avery Cohen and I just spoke at 2:35pm. He is driving to Evanston to give a
talk on social media — and yes, Avery freely admits that his classes are
geared toward beginners — and when he gets home, he is full steam ahead on
this write-up of the MIT-EF meeting.

Terry Flanagan, the chapter chair, said that about 40% of the attendees were
not members and were new. That is a good sign in that it means MIT-EF is
gaining reach. One new person there was the director of technology at Cars.com,
Kayne Grau. Among some of the newer start-ups that came to this meeting were:

— Dan Masterson whose product idea for a shock proof overplug outlet won the
MIT-EF White Board Challenge two years ago and who is now commercializing that
product under the company name Guardian Angel Enterprises with the help of IP
and tech commercialization guy Lanny Feder (www.protectiveIPservices.com).

— MTT Scheduling Systems, www.mtt.biz, Gary McGee, MD, president.

— Kalpana Waikar, owner, www.blossomchicago.com

— Chris Gardner, VP of Marketing, Clear Risk.com. www.clearrisk.com, and they
appear to be HQ’d in Canada:
ClearRisk™ Inc.
Suite 3033, Inco Innovation Centre
P.O. Box 28185
St. John’s, NL, Canada
Canada
A1B 4J8

— Sean Corbett, founder, www.havemyshift.com, who is also the founder of
www.scalewell.com which offers $1,000 to your start-up, no strings attached.

— Charles Stack, VP, Constant Compliance, www.2ci.com

— Warren Bent, VP Sales and Marketing, www.inchargesys.com

— Dave Culver and Andy Nadler of www.forwardmomentum.com I heard first from
Len Bland that they were up 1200% in January of last year and up 700% over Feb.
2009 in Feb. 2010, so rather than play around with numbers I just asked them.
The answer is that they did no sales in those months of a year, before they got
funding in April 2009, and this year they did $12,000 in January and $7,000 in
February.

There is a lot to say about the content of the meeting, but let me make one
correction.

I gave you the impression that ReTel Technology which had won the University of
Chicago Venture Challenge last year left Chicago. That is not entirely true.
They have one guy here and one in Silicon Valley, what Linda Darragh very
proudly calls “Polsky West.” The angel investment ReTel got recently came from
Hyde Park Angels.

The Chicago Tribune stated in their article on Hyde Park Angels that the angel
organization has looked at 350 deals in two years. That number needs some
clarification.

They charge $100 to submit a business plan and Jeff Carter revealed after the
meeting that he is surprised by how much push back they tend to get on that.

Jeff said that they hold four general membership meetings per year and review
three business plans per meeting. They also review other plans that are
reviewed through sub-groups and Jeff said that they sign up the MBA students to
do the grunt work on two year contracts and they sign them up in their first
year at ChicagoBooth.

They formally review twelve plans a year and they have done five deals in a
little more than two years.

Jeff (jrcarter@hydeparkangels.com) did confirm with me that they expect all 55
members to invest $250K over five years which comes to more than $13MM over
five years.

Larry Hayward (lkh@theventurelab.com) was filling in for Michael Gruber from
Cornerstone Angels and he said that Cornerstone did six deals in 2009 — all in
Chicago, and of the six, three were in manufacturing. Larry also said that the
deals average $250K each. Larry and Jeff stressed that they are not wedded to
the latest high tech deal in the world. They actually like older entrepreneurs
and are not looking for the latest in technology. Larry said that Cornerstone
has about 20 members and they charge $1,000 per year to members.

The two entrepreneurs, Jeff Judge from Interactive Mediums
www.interactivemediums.com/ and Chris Hill from PerkSpot,
www.perkspot.com both seemed pretty cool toward the idea of raising capital.
Judge basically had a take it or leave it attitude and Hill said he is
considering a $1MM raise but he is not desperate to do it which is the right
way to raise capital.

At the start of the meeting, it was pointed out that most VCs are reluctant to
do deals under $7MM and at somewhat later stages. I have talked to a few folks
and one explained to me that when you look at the big picture, which includes
private equity and mezzanine investing, the cycles are longer and they are
coming into a new cycle now. The PE cycle can be about 14 years, I was told.

He wrote me this note:
+++++++++++++++++
Here is a link to a great detailed blog posting that I partially base my own
perspective on.
www.bothsidesofthetable.com/2009/10/01/the-big-vc-thaw-why-the-market-is-
moving-again-part-2-of-3/
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

May again. OK, back to the big picture tied to the meeting. Both Jeff and Chris
made it clear that they don’t like the aggravation of raising money, the
process of banging on doors, putting together plans and presentations, etc.

And they don’t like the loss of control. Linda Darragh echoed this when she
said that raising money often puts the entrepreneur in an uncomfortable
position of having to grow too fast and having to throw organic growth out the
window. That can in the end be more damaging than not raising money. They all
agreed that for a firm like www.groupon.com which has massive expansion plans,
venture capital makes sense.

But if you cannot scale that fast, it may be better to take a pass.

In the Q&A, one audience member asked how the two entrepreneurs got their first
customer.

Linda closed the meeting with the reminder that the best way to build a
business is to get customers.

Some of the attendees you might know included: Chris Rollyson, Sheldon
Rosenfield, Bill McDonald, Chuck Corush, Avery Cohen, Roy Klein, Dick
Mulvihill, Scott Miller, Jim Orrico, Terry Flanagan, Nancy Munro, Bob Brill,
Ted Wallhaus, Nik Rokop, Jessica Lybeck, Collin Canright, Richard Cross, Larry
Hayward, Jeff Carter, Linda Darragh, Jeff Judge, Chris Hill, Lanny Feder, Dan
Masterson, Andy Nadler, Dave Culver, Bob Lepkowski, Tim Curley, Tom Lemanski,
Chris Monaghan, Charles Stack, Antoinette Matthews from the Cambridge HQ of the
national MIT-EF; Andrew Skipor, Warren Bent, Steve Ghareeb, and Sean Corbett.
More to come when I get the cards typed up.

A final point. Len Bland told me that G2fm which won the competition at
midVentures 25 was a B2B business, unlike the others that made the top five.

Lastly, somewhere in Chicago yesterday, Bob Geras must have been telling this
joke to anyone who would listen.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Two women were sitting next to each other at a bar. After a while one looks at
the other and says, ‘I can’t help but think, from listening to you, that you’re
from Ireland .

The other woman responds proudly, ‘Yes, I sure am!’

The first one says, ‘So am I! And where about in Ireland are ya from?

The other woman answers, ‘I’m from St. John’s , I am.’

The first one responds, ‘So, am I!! And what street did you live on?’

The other woman says, ‘A lovely little area it was in the west end. I lived on
Warbury Street in the old central part of town.’

The first one says, ‘Faith and it’s a small world. So did I! So did I! And
what school did ya go to?’

The other woman answers, ‘Well now, I went to Holy Heart of Mary, of course.’

The first one gets really excited and says, ‘And so did I. Tell me,what year
did you graduate?’

The other woman answers, ‘Well, now, let’s see. I graduated in 1964.’

The first woman exclaims, ‘The Good Lord must be smiling down upon us !

I can hardly believe our good luck at winding up in the same pub tonight. Can
you believe it, graduated from Holy Heart of Mary in 1964 me self.’

About this time, Michael walks into the bar, sits down and orders a beer.

Brian, the bartender, walks over to Michael, shaking his head and mutters,
‘It’s going to be a long night tonight.’

Michael asks, ‘Why do you say that, Brian?’

Brian answers, ‘The Murphy twins are drunk again.’

________________________________________

Tom Johnson: 10 days to enter the City Treasurer’s 2010 Elevator Pitch Contest
From: “Johnson, Tom” tom.johnson@cityofchicago.org
Subject: RE: The May Report: 3/10/2010: Bulletin: Groupon finds coupons have
hidden fees — and for some news: a competitor of Groupon’s, YouSwoop, settles
a class action case with Edelson McGuire, the same law firm that is suing
Groupon
Date: Thu, 11 Mar 2010 09:23:55 -0600
To: ‘The May Report’ ron@themayreport.com

Ron – only 10 days to enter the City Treasurer’s 2010 Elevator Pitch Contest -
Can you explain and sell your business in 30 seconds – especially vital in
technology.

Enter and win cash and a booth at the 2010 Small Business Expo on July 16th
2010 www.chicagocitytreasurer.com
________________________________________________
Main Township High School South wins Argonne National Laboratory’s 15th annual
Rube Goldberg Machine Contest

From: “Brock Cooper” bcooper@anl.gov
Subject: Main Township High School South wins Rube Goldberg competition
Date: Fri, 12 Mar 2010 16:03:01 -0500
To: ron@themayreport.com

A team from Maine Township High School South, Park Ridge today won Argonne
National Laboratory’s 15th annual Rube Goldberg Machine Contest held at the
Chicago Children’s Museum on Navy Pier. By winning Argonne’s contest, Maine
Township High School South advances to the National High School Rube Goldberg
Machine Championship to be held Saturday, March 27, at Purdue University.

Maine Township High School South defeated 11 other teams by building a complex
machine that takes at least 20 steps “to dispense an appropriate amount of hand
sanitizer into a hand.” Second place in today’s competition was won by York
Community High School, Elmhurst and third place went to Chicago Christian High
School, Chicago.

The People’s Choice Trophy, awarded by popular vote by people attending the
Chicago Children’s Museum during the contest, went to Maine Township High
School South.

If you would rather not receive future communications from Argonne National
Laboratory, let us know by clicking here.
Argonne National Laboratory, 9700 S. Cass Avenue Building 46, Argonne, IL 60439
United States
_____________________________________________
ScaleWell A Creative Chicago Microfunding Option

From: TECH cocktail &raqou; Chicago cofounders@techcocktail.com
Sender: noreply+feedproxy@google.com
Subject: TECH cocktail
Date: Sat, 13 Mar 2010 17:12:30 +0000
To: ron@themayreport.com

TECH cocktail
Link to TECH cocktail &raqou; Chicago

ScaleWell A Creative Chicago Microfunding Option, www.scalewell.com

Posted: 12 Mar 2010 12:51 PM PST

Editor?s Note: This video episode was created by Tim Jahn, a longtime Chicago
TECH cocktailer and storyteller who produces the online video series, Beyond
The Pedway focused on better telling the local business stories in Chicago. You
can follow Tim on Twitter: @timjahn.

ScaleWellIn this episode, I am chatting with the folks at ScaleWell, a company
based in Chicago that provides up and coming businesses with a crowdsourced
community funded grant and a board of trustees with experience and expertise.

* ScaleWell is a crowdsourced community funded grant for entrepreneurs
created to help companies move forward and grow.
* ScaleWell consists of a $1,000 grant and connecting the company with the
network of ScaleWell trustees.
* The only restriction is that companies are looking to build a business
and have something to sell.
* At the end of a ScaleWell session, the winning company receives a $1000
grant.
* The trustees in ScaleWell span a range of experience levels and areas of
expertise.

If you can?t see the video, please click here. The music featured during the
intro and credits of this episode is a song called ?Shift Your Gears? from
local Chicago band Webelos.
________________________________________
Miscellaneous notes (4)
________________________________
#1: From: Jeffrey Meredith jeffmere@gmail.com
Subject: Inantities?
Date: Wed, 10 Mar 2010 19:57:23 -0500
To: d5547k@yahoo.com, ronaldmay@aol.com, ron@themayreport.com

Darrell:

What the hell are “inantities”? Are you a total moron? The word is
inanities. Learn how to write. You have to be the stupidest person
I’ve ever corresponded with, aside from Shalesh Kumbhat. The
University of Chicago is an intellectual wasteland so I’m not planning
to read what you forwarded.

Jeff Meredith
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
#2: From: Jeffrey Meredith jeffmere@gmail.com
Subject: If you’ve got something to say about me, say it to me directly
Date: Wed, 10 Mar 2010 20:08:01 -0500
To: d5547k@yahoo.com, ronaldmay@aol.com, ron@themayreport.com

Darrell:

I cc: you when I have something to say. Don’t be a coward Republican
apologist saying things behind my back. Say it to me directly. You’re
a total coward.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
#3: From: Layton E. Olson leo@howehutton.com
Subject: RE: Layton/Bruce watch the report on Channel 11, The News Hour, on
broadband now.
Date: Tue, 16 Mar 2010 16:05:26 -0500
To: “ron@themayreport.com” ron@themayreport.com
Cc: Andrew Pincon (pincon@alado.net) pincon@alado.net
Ron,

Thanks for heads up. I’ll watch News Hour tonight.

Andrew Pincon and Digital Workforce Education Society might have information to
share on Broadband in Illinois from a gathering he hosted today to watch FCC
webcast of National Broadband Plan, and the links between Broadband (small,
like the body’s nervous system) and linked with Workforce Training for digital
skills, healthcare IT, computer recycling (big, big, like the body’s muscle
structure).

Thanks for your continuing coverage of these matters, and Federal grants in
Illinois – so far being about $12 million for NIU for DeKalb-LaSalle middle
mile ring to about 60 community anchor institutions and hospitals, and $22
million to Big Broadband project at UIUC matched by cities of Urbana and
Champaign (city council meets tonight to vote on matching funds). Still a few
more grants possible in IL in Round 1, as Round 2 applications to BTOP for
regional infrastructure partnerships are due in a week or so. You’ll want to
check in with Gov. Quinn’s team on this, once they get done with major
proposals by the end of the month.

Best, Layton

From: RONALDMAY@aol.com [mailto:RONALDMAY@aol.com]
Sent: Monday, March 15, 2010 6:04 PM
To: Layton E. Olson
Cc: onepresence@yahoo.com
Subject: Layton/Bruce watch the report on Channel 11, The News Hour, on
broadband now.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
#4: From: Charles Stack, MPH cstack@2ci.com
Sender: “Charles Stack, MPH” cstack@2ci.com
Subject: re: Good seeing you at the MIT forum!
Date: Wed, 17 Mar 2010 14:30:07 -0500
To: “ron@themayreport.com” ron@themayreport.com

Dear Ron,

I enjoyed seeing you at the MIT Enterprise Forum last night! The format was
very instructive, and hearing directly from boostrapping entrepreneurs
helped me to gain a new perspective versus the business school formula of
“business plan, angel capital, VC, and IPO” that I’ve heard so many times.

Thanks for coming, we know your health has been an impediment! By remaining
active and injecting your opinions and thoughts in classic Ron May fashion,
you serve as an inspiration to other disabled businessmen and entrepreneurs.
My hat’s off to you.

All the best, Chuck

Charles R. Stack, MPH
Vice President
Constant Compliance Inc.
140 South Dearborn Street
Suite 411
Chicago, Illinois 60603 USA
Cell phone (630) 841-8706
Fax (312) 782-0936
Website: www.2Ci.com/
_________________________________________
END OF REPORT