Micromidas, based in West Sacramento, develops and scales environmentally benign biological and chemical processes that produce valuable chemical and material commodities from waste biomass. The first Micromidas application for their technology is scaling a process that converts the carbon in organic wastewater into PHA (polyhydroxyalkanoate), a family of bio-degradable plastics that can be used in lieu of conventional petroleum plastics. Their process generates highly functional bio-plastic while simultaneously reducing the quantity of bio-solids that municipal utilities must pay to treat.  Micromidas is led by CEO and founder, John Bissell,  who received his degree in chemical engineering from UC Davis; his entire team are also UC Davis graduates.

If you’ve ever met John you will understand that his passion, focus, determination, and hard work, as well as Micromidas’ huge business potential, were the key factors in launching the company, and raising the money, initially from family, friends and angels, and then from a group of sophisticated investors.

There are some lessons here for aspiring entrepreneurs. John used every resource available to learn about the process of financing a high growth company, including many regional ones. He was inspired by the UC Davis Green TEA Academy which he attended in 2008 at Incline Village (UCD offers multiple versions of its Entrepreneurship Academy). Following the Academy, he found mentors among the Sierra Angels and others and then entered the 2009 California Cleantech Open, where Micromidas won in the Air, Water and Waste group. This created substantial publicity for the company and provided more mentors, and a network of interested supporters, something many entrepreneurs neglect and fail to build.

Along the way, he sought and received advice from VentureStart and local startup CEO’s, and was invited to and attended angel group dinners to get further insight into the ins and outs of raising money. In the entire process, we are sure that, while much of the advice was valid, it varied considerably from mentor to mentor and source to source. That’s the nature of getting a startup going; there is no absolutely right or wrong process; the entrepreneur listens, distills and then decides the best path for his or her company. And in the process they build and communicate with their network, never really knowing the path any lead will take. For Micromidas, that network worked out very well.

Congratulations to Micromidas and John!

Chrometa maintains an excellent blog and today we saw an interesting post on customer support for software companies and its challenges. Take a look and I think you’ll find that Chrometa have met the challenge well with some good thinking. The very fact their blog talks about this is also great marketing. Go Chrometa!

Adam Kalsey, the founder of SacStarts and a VentureStart mentor, recently gave advice on this to one VentureStart entrepreneur and then published it on his blog. We quote it here since it is so relevant to web startups.

“Got an idea for a technology product but don’t have the technical chops to build it yourself? You’ll need to find yourself a cofounder.

You’re building a technology company, but have no technology people on the founding team. This leaves you with three options. Hire, outsource, or find a technical co-founder.

It’s nearly impossible for a technology company to succeed by outsourcing their early product. Don’t even think of going that route. Freelancers or outside firms can’t possibly deliver what you want because they don’t actually care about the product or the outcome.

To hire someone full time, you’ll need to pay them a reasonable wage. For someone that’s capable of taking the business ideas you have and translating them to a real working product that won’t fall over as soon as people start using it, you’re looking at at least $80k/year in Sacramento. Don’t think you’ll go get funding and then hire someone. You’re going to need a product before you can get any funding. Gather together whatever funding you have now and hire a developer. It’s going to be important to hire the right person the first time, so if you don’t have anyone who has hired technical people for small teams before, I’d be happy to help you screen candidates.

Your third option is to gain a technical co-founder who’s willing to build this for a cut of the company. Expect to give them 25-30% of the company, but make sure you have a vesting arrangement so some crook doesn’t sign on, take 30% and quit the next day. I can help you screen these people and advise you on how you can structure things with them.

Here’s the thing… You can’t just go out and “find a co-founder” any more than you can go out and “find a wife.” Your co-founder relationship is just that, a relationship. You’ll have a significant relationship with this person, and they with you. Likewise, they’ll have a serious relationship with the business. You need someone to fall in love with you and your idea and to love it enough they’re willing to take tremendous risks in order to be involved. People grow into relationships, they aren’t recruited into them.

So how do you find your co-founder? Same way you found your wife. You meet lots of people. Put yourself out there. Make sure people know you’re available. Date.

Talk about your ideas with everyone you meet. Most people won’t want to hear about it. But some will have feedback. This feedback will shape your ideas and change your business. Along the way, you’ll meet someone with a technical mind that gets just as excited about your idea as you do. You’ll find that the two of you can’t seem to spend enough time talking about the idea and the business. You’ll know that this person is the one.”

See full details for the February 1st to 5th, 2010 Academy here.

The students are talented, motivated, ambitious people. Take a look at the video they put together with board members for SEA, one of Sacramento’s best kept secrets.