On this special episode of the Somewhat Frank Podcast, Frank Gruber (@FrankGruber) and John Guidos (@JohnGuidos) are joined by Jen Consalvo (@noreaster) and talk about drone tugboats, NFTs, alien origins, and more.”

The group also celebrate the following from their networks:

• This week we had National Entrepreneurship Day on November 16, 2021.
• Global Entrepreneurship Week was recently celebrated Nov 8, 2021 – Nov 14, 2021
• Huge win for the Established team and for the SBIR team at the SBA – we produced the inaugural Innovation Ecosystem Summit from the 15th – 17th. Speakers ranged from Kathryn Finney to Steve Case and Victor Hwang – over a 1K people attended and videos will be posted soon.
• Andrew Warner has a new book https://www.StopAskingQuestions.co
• @properties in Chicago goes global with Christie’s deal – https://www.chicagobusiness.com/residential-real-estate/christies-international-real-estate-selling-properties
• Jodie Howard & Lisa Lewis is starting a new business called “Togather” in Southern Maine
• We are very excited about this next step for Established Ventures portfolio company, SoLo Funds, and their SoLo Causes launch. Helping underserved communities has always been the SoLo mission, now users can also give back through partnerships with Habitat for Humanity International and United Way. See the People Magazine article here: https://people.com/human-interest/habitat-for-humanity-united-way-solo-funds-solo-causes-non-profit-rodney-williams/

Frank, Jen, and John also also invite listeners to participate in the following upcoming events:

• Startup of the Year then join our community 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 on Dec 8-9 – register at nasaitech.org Announced out Startup of the Year Summit is happening in Tampa on Jan 25-27 https://summit.startupofyear.com/
• The Consumer Technology Association Foundation is bringing our CES Pitch Competition (https://www.cta.tech/Who-We-Are/CTA-Foundation/Pitch-Competition) sponsored by AARP Innovation Labs back live to CES 2022! The pitch event will take place Thursday, January 6th at 1:00 PM PT on the Startup Stage in Eureka Park.

The group talks about these new books/articles:

• Agree! There are more than one ways to fry an egg. – Founders, Stop Obsessing Over Venture Funding (https://news.crunchbase.com/news/founders-vc-david-kolodny-wilbur-labs/)
• A drone tugboat – A tugboat made a 1,000-mile voyage around Denmark. The pilot was in Boston. (https://www.bizjournals.com/boston/inno/stories/news/2021/10/15/seamachines_nelliebly_denmark.html)
• Were we created by aliens in a Lab? – Our universe was made by aliens in a lab, theorises Harvard scientist (https://www.dazeddigital.com/science-tech/article/54556/1/our-universe-was-made-by-aliens-in-a-lab-says-harvard-scientist)
• This is kind of bonkers – How Four NFT Novices Created a Billion-Dollar Ecosystem of Cartoon Apes (https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/bayc-bored-ape-yacht-club-nft-interview-1250461/)
• So you’re saying they are priceless? – Science proves it: Most NFTs are worthless (https://www.fastcompany.com/90695605/science-proves-it-most-nfts-are-worthless)
• So true – Why It Feels Like This Year Is Going By Too Quickly, According to Experts | Apartment Therapy (https://www.apartmenttherapy.com/why-this-year-is-going-by-so-quickly-36947464)
• New laws forming around working from home in Portugal – The government in Portugal passes a law to help remote workers (https://www.npr.org/2021/11/11/1054615000/the-government-in-portugal-passes-a-law-to-help-remote-workers)
• Beyond Happiness by Jenn Lim (https://jennlim.com/beyondhappiness)
• Beyond Diversity by Rohit Bhargava and Jennifer Brown (https://www.nonobviousdiversity.com/book/)

We are also still watching the following shows/movies:

• Succession on HBO Max
• Working Moms Curb Your Enthusiasm Season 11
• The Morning Show

We also want to wish everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving!

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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