Paul Simonet Paul has a broad experience base that spans from Advanced Development R&D through basic consumable products. Exposure to numerous industries enables him to quickly gain perspective on the circumstances confronting a business.

Early in his career, Paul was the lead negotiator and contract manager for a $2 billion defense contract with the US Navy. As a result, he has hands on experience navigating government contracts, joint development,and R&D activities with numerous government entities. He has held a significant Government security clearance and has been involved in numerous advanced development activities with a number of Navy labs.

Over the last 15 years, Paul's career has migrated towards profit and loss responsibilities for 3 different companies. While comfortable with high tech activities, he has also successfully grown companies in industries such as light manufacturing, software development/services and entertainment.

From his Executive Management experiences, it has become clear to Paul that many keys to growth are common across widely differing businesses and industries. For established companies, the barriers for identifying growth-oriented courses of action are usually internal to the company. Further, the required skills and expertise are usually already resident at the company. Unfortunately, corporate culture, a predisposition to past successful strategies and personal resistance to change can create significant problems for growth.

Having outside help from consultants can provide objectivity and a methodology for guiding the company through desired changes. We believe we can help existing companies transition from ineffective management of a stagnant period to effective management of a growth period.

Start-up companies have a different source for the barriers they face regarding successful growth. Some predictable issues are: lack of industry specific knowledge; basic marketing; responses to consumers' key purchase criteria; competition; and more. While we don't guarantee clairvoyance, our skills and experience should definitely improve the chances for successfully navigating the launch of a new venture or a new direction.

Paul holds a BS from Cornell University , where he met Randy, and an MBA from Syracuse University . A quality of life choice has led him to reside permanently in Upstate NY, where he consults, works and serves in such functions as local government and youth sports organizations.

 

RANDY HARMON For the past 12 years Randy Harmon has counseled and consulted with science, technology, and Internet entrepreneurs assisting them in commercializing their new technologies, and in financing and building their businesses. He helps entrepreneurs develop business models, plans and strategies that can enable them to successfully move their technology out of the lab or home and into the marketplace.

Randy is also an expert on the sources of grants and capital, as well as strategies for financing a sci/tech business. He knows the funding requirements of investors and government loan programs and works to help clients meet them. He has helped clients secure government SBIR/STTR R&D grants, state loans, venture capital and investments from high net worth individuals often referred to as angels. Randy has a reputation for being a tireless champion of entrepreneurs and for doing all that he can to help them move their ventures ahead.

The two biggest challenges that promising young growth businesses typically face during their early stages are a lack of financing and even more important the absence of a management team. The typical sci/tech business is founded by one or more scientists, or technical professionals with little or no formal business training and experience. They have great technology but are often unable to turn it into a business themselves and are likely to fail without experienced business help. They often fail to realize from the start that business development and marketing expertise are a separate skill set as important to the success of their business as the technology. Our goal is to help bridge this gap and to bring our clients to the place where they are able to access the resources necessary to build an effective business management team that will speed their development and increase their prospects for success.

Randy Harmon serves as the Director of Technology Commercialization for the New Jersey Small Business Development Centers (NJSBDC) of Rutgers Business School. He managed the Rutgers Technology Business Incubator in New Brunswick from 1995 until 2001.

Randy holds a BS degree from Cornell University and a MBA degree from Rutgers. He is active within New Jersey's entrepreneur community and sits on the board of the New Jersey Entrepreneurial Network. Randy makes frequent presentations on launching, financing and growing science and technology-based businesses. He has also written several articles on various aspects of technology commercialization and is referenced regularly in regional newspaper articles and business publications.