On this episode of the Somewhat Frank Podcast, Frank Gruber (@FrankGruber) and John Guidos (@JohnGuidos) talk about late-summer activities, entrepreneurs tackling civilian space exploration, cloning dinosaurs, and slowing hurricanes, and more.   

Frank and John also celebrate the following people from their networks:

• Charlie O’Donnell has raised a third fund for Brooklyn Bridge Ventures – https://www.brooklynbridge.vc/bbv-raises-third-fund
• Jewel Burks Solomon and Collab Capital has raised its first fund to invest in black innovators – https://medium.com/capital-innovation/collab-capital-closes-50m-first-fund-to-invest-in-black-innovators-22896db11ae8
• Michael D Smith nominated for AmeriCorps – https://amp-cnn-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2021/06/15/politics/biden-michael-smith-americorps/index.html
• Katie Stanton raised her second fund – https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexkonrad/2021/07/19/moxxie-ventures-85-million-fund-katie-stanton-alex-roetter/
• Max Crowley has had his coffee delivery startup Bandit acquired by Gopuff – https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/bandit-now-part-gopuff-max-crowley
• Matt Galligan on the launch of his new company XMTP and securing $20M in funding – https://blog.xmtp.com/series-a/ 

 Frank and John also also invite listeners to apply for the following upcoming events: 

• Startup of the Year Awards Summit – If you’re interested in an opportunity to be a part of those awards and for a shot at potential investment and bragging rights, if you’re named Startup of the Year then join our community before Sept 30th and if you’re one of the 100 startups selected you could be in the running. More info at http://soty.link/apply 

• NASA iTech Cycle II Forum startup competition – NASA is searching for non-government funded technologies that are addressing the following focus areas:
  • Enabling Technologies for Commercialization of Low-Earth Orbit
  • Hybrid Electric Aircraft Technologies and Alternative Fuels
  • Physics-Based Machine Learning for Artificial Intelligence
  • Technologies Using NASA Data to Foster Climate Resilience
  • X-Factor Innovations (anything so cool, NASA should know about it).

Apply here: http://est.us/NIT (the deadline is Friday, October 15th at 11:59 AM PDT)

The guys talk about these new books/articles: 

• Civilians in Space! —https://www.space.com/spacex-inspiration4-returns-to-earth?utm_source=join1440&utm_medium=email
• Real-Life Jurassic Park? – Colossal, this startup just raised $15M  with the goal of bringing the woolly mammoth back from extinction by 2027 using CRISPR, a revolutionary gene-editing technology. —https://www.cnet.com/news/woolly-mammoths-could-walk-the-earth-again-by-2027-if-crispr-startup-succeeds/
• Hurricane Killing Startup? —https://futurism.com/the-byte/startup-tech-kill-hurricanes
• Zoom brain is a thing. —https://techcrunch.com/2021/04/21/this-is-your-brain-on-zoom/amp/#click=https://t.co/1q2GPOILzx
• Chickens for rent — Rent-a-chicken trend spikes during pandemic — https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/chicken-rentals-spike-during-pandemic
• Sears is closing last store in home state of Illinois —https://www.cnbc.com/2021/09/16/sears-is-shutting-its-last-store-in-illinois-its-home-state.html
• Let’s talk beef, Wagnu beef to be more specific… of the 3D variety… —https://interestingengineering.com/scientists-reveal-worlds-first-3d-printed-marbled-wagyu-beef 

The guys are also watching the following shows/movies:

• Ted Lasso – Season 2 (Apple TV)
• The Morning Show – Season 2 (Apple TV)
• Only Murders In The Building (HULU)

 Lastly, the Frank and John chat about testing out some new gear:

• ITIWIT Inflatable Kayak – https://www.decathlon.com/collections/kayaks/products/kayak-touring-inflatable-high-pressure-dropstitch-floor-3-seat-x100-177376?variant=39473127751742
• DJI Mini 2 Drone – https://www.dji.com/mini-2 

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As always, thank you for listening and feel free to reach out and let us know what you think at: somewhatfrank@est.us

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