Category: Press Releases

ROCHESTER, NY (November 25, 2020) – How does a great market research team give thanks?… by freely sharing information. Recognized for the hundreds of reports it prepares annually, this proficient and highly skilled team has just completed its 2020 update of Dawnbreaker’s Defense, Energy, Medical and Space portals. Each portal is chocked full of information selected for high tech small businesses seeking information related to Federal initiatives within these sectors.

Dawnbreaker’s popular Defense Portal is newly updated and designed to provide information for those seeking Phase III funding from the Department of the Navy. A limited domain of topics which frequently arise when discussing Phase III has been selected. Here you will find up-to-date information for individuals and organizations including the Chief of Naval Operations (CNO), OPNAV Resource Sponsors, ASN(RDA), United States Marine Corps, as well as Resources and Reports.

The Energy Portal focuses on alternative energy. Up-to-date information is readily available regarding technology gaps, roadmaps, legislation, current projects, advantages and disadvantages for the alternative energy sources which will define our future. Lists of Trade Shows and Conferences extending into 2021 is also available, as well as Climate Change and Foreign Energy Reports.

The Medical Portal is built around the Food and Drug Administration’s regulatory processes. Highlighted are descriptions of relevant FDA centers, as well as information on vaccines, blood and biologics, biotechnology, medical devices and veterinary products.

The fourth in this series, the Space Portal highlights NASA’s activities, beginning with an overview of the FY 2021 Budget Request and the NASA organization. Additional sections are dedicated to technology development, commercial space, partnership development, current opportunities and featured missions.

Take a moment to explore the Dawnbreaker portals and refer back to them in the future when you need key information regarding federal initiatives in these sectors.

Rochester, NY, November 2020 – Dawnbreaker, Inc. has added three new members to its team. Chris McCray, Karen Mesolella, and Jill Porter joined Dawnbreaker to provide its clients with more top-notch talent to meet the demands of working with over 600 advanced technology companies each year.

Chris McCray, MBA brings years of experience in several industries as a U.S. Navy veteran in cryptology, an experienced healthcare clinic manager, an IT entrepreneur, and a small business consultant. Prior to joining Dawnbreaker, McCray leveraged this experience as a Business Consultant at the Florida Small Business Development Center (SBDC) at the University of Southern Florida (USF) where he provided one-on-one confidential counseling to current and potential small business owners. In his role as a Business Strategist at Dawnbreaker, McCray will work with a variety of clients to fulfill their diverse commercialization needs.

Karen Mesolella, MBA, MS has a background in Healthcare IT and chemistry applied to both materials science and healthcare coupled with extensive experience in marketing, sales, IT, supply chain and manufacturing. Most recently, Mesolella was the U.S. Commercial Operations Manager for a leading global provider of products and systems that contribute to quality enhancement and cost efficiency within healthcare and life sciences – her commercialization expertise comes from working across four fortune 500 companies leveraging DMAIC Six Sigma principles. As a Business Strategist at Dawnbreaker, Mesolella will assist small, advanced technology firms by leveraging her strong background in healthcare informatics, software, lifecycle management, and manufacturing as they transition their technologies to the market.

Jill Porter brings years of management experience to Dawnbreaker in her new role as the Contract Administrator for Dawnbreaker’s Technical and Business Assistance (TABA) services – a component of the business that is growing quickly. TABA provides SBIR/STTR awardees the option of selecting a vendor of its own choice to assist in the commercialization of agency- funded technology. Through her extensive experience in contract administration, Porter interacts directly with small businesses and the Dawnbreaker team to facilitate the processing of TABA requests, as well as the record keeping associated with this initiative.

Rochester, NY (August 22, 2019) – Dawnbreaker, Inc. is proud to welcome Dan Keeley who joins the team as a Business Acceleration Manager bringing with him an extensive background in biomedical engineering, innovation and technology commercialization. Most recently, Dan worked for the University of Rochester at UR Ventures and Nextcorps (formerly High Tech Rochester). In both roles Dan helped professors, medical professionals and entrepreneurs develop strategic plans to commercialize their technologies.

Mr. Keeley spent six years at Johnson & Johnson working in new product development and technical project management and has worked on a number of portfolio development projects performing business case analysis and developing a pipeline of products from a single platform technology. Working at Becton Dickinson and Co. Dan helped develop the strategic plan to launch a new segment of their Biosciences division.

“Having worked at a university and in the startup community, I believe strongly in the SBIR and STTR programs’ ability to accelerate innovation. Joining Dawnbreaker, I’m proud to be working for a company that helps make these programs successful,” said Mr. Keeley. “I enjoy the business problem solving that goes into transitioning technologies from the lab to the marketplace and am excited to be able to leverage my expertise in product development, engineering and technology commercialization to help startups and small companies create value from their scientific innovations.”

Throughout his career, Mr. Keeley has worked with a range of biotechnology products including implantable biomaterials, stem cell technologies, high molecular weight growth factors, combination devices and more. He has been awarded 3 patents with 8 patents pending, a publication in the Journal of Neuroscience Methods and was a 2008 Michael J. Fox Foundation Award recipient. Dan has an BS and MEng in Biomedical Engineering from Cornell University’s School of Engineering in addition to an MBA from Cornell’s Johnson School of Management.

Rochester, NY (August 21, 2019) – Dawnbreaker, Inc. is pleased to welcome a new graphic designer, Holly Reader, to its team. Ms. Reader joins Dawnbreaker with 15 years of experience in Visual Communications as a Graphic Designer, most recently for MacKenzie-Childs, LLC.

With a proven ability to translate marketing ideas and design concepts across all organizational levels in print, web and mobile design solutions, Ms. Reader will provide clients with a variety of marketing materials, and is experienced in working on cross-functional teams, or solo to produce effective solutions.

“I am excited about my role with Dawnbreaker. I look forward to planning and creating marketing design solutions to benefit the customer and help promote the Dawnbreaker brand,” Reader says. “I admire Dr. Jenny Servo, the President and CEO, because of her knowledge, drive for success, business ethics, and her leadership role as a woman. I am lucky to serve on her team of multi-talented professionals with varied areas of skills and expertise and look forward to contributing to the clients’ and company’s success.”

Ms. Reader’s experience, which includes: brand strategy, typography, logo design, print advertising, web advertising, business collateral, strategic communication, photo retouching, photo editing, web banners, newspaper ads, page layout, direct mail, technical illustration, email marketing, social media campaigns, trade show and career fair graphics, promotions and fundraising, web design, and more will provide Dawnbreaker and its clients with creative and effective marketing materials. Ms. Reader holds a BA in Mass Communication from King’s College and a MFA in Graphic Design from Rochester Institute of Technology.

ROCHESTER, NY (June 7, 2019) – Following its recent website release, Dawnbreaker has just unveiled three refreshed industry portals, aimed at assisting aspiring small businesses within the SBIR/STTR programs. The Defense, Medical and Space portals are each available at https://www.dawnbreaker.com/portals/ and provide a wealth of resources for high tech small businesses seeking answers to commonly asked questions within these sectors.

While the Defense portal is specifically geared toward Department of Navy SBIR-funded companies seeking Phase III transition, the Medical portal is provided as a service to those developing and improving drugs, biologics and medical devices. Meanwhile, the Space portal provides information on changes in the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) organization, the NASA budget, funding, commercial space, featured missions and past programs.

“We have leveraged the talents of our market research and business acceleration teams here at Dawnbreaker to create this expansive library of frequently asked questions, regulatory requirements, information on funding opportunities and much more,” says Dr. Jenny C. Servo, President and Founder of Dawnbreaker, Inc. “We will soon be launching our Energy portal as well, so companies seeking to partner with the Department of Energy can also utilize the resources.”

As always, the industry portals are free to use for interested parties. To view the portals, please visit https://www.dawnbreaker.com/portals/.

About Dawnbreaker Market Research
For over 25 years, Dawnbreaker has provided market research to advanced technology firms funded by the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) programs of the Department of Defense, Department of Energy, the National Institutes of Health, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the Department of Transportation. Visit https://mrr.dawnbreaker.com to learn how this same expertise can be applied to your small business.

ROCHESTER, NY (April 23, 2019) – Chloe Capital has been on a national mission to discover the best and brightest female entrepreneurs and their innovations. The seed-stage venture capital firm has been holding women-only pitch events in five cities across the United States as part of their Chloe Capital National Tour. Companies are selected based on their online submission and are then chosen to pitch their ventures live. The winner receives an investment from Chloe Capital and the opportunity to pitch to their funding partner, Astia Angels, for a follow-on investment.

Ms. Theresa Pipher of Dawnbreaker has been active on Chloe Capital’s Due Diligence Committee throughout the tour and has provided Competitive Intelligence (CI) and material review assistance for the applicants.

“Dawnbreaker is dedicated to assisting women and minority-owned firms prepare SBIR/STTR applications for federally funded advanced S&T awards,” says Dawnbreaker Founder & President Dr. Jenny C. Servo. “Assisting Chloe Capital in a nationwide search for the very best in female entrepreneurship was a very natural fit.”

The previous leg of the tour, held in Chicago, resulted in a $100,000 investment from Chloe Capital to Journey Foods. Riana Lynn, Founder and CEO of the start-up, is using AI-based foodtech to help solve the world’s $600B nutrition dilemma. The National Tour wraps up in May, with a stop in Binghamton, NY on May 1. More dates and cities are expected to be announced this year.

About Chloe Capital
Despite recent progress, less than 5% of all venture capital in the U.S. goes to women-led tech companies. Yet studies show that companies with women at the helm grow faster and produce greater returns for investors. Chloe Capital is a seed-stage venture capital firm that invests in women. We’re catalyzing solutions to the gender and diversity gap in entrepreneurship by offering investors the opportunity to Do Well by Doing Good. We recruit women-led technology and tech-enabled companies and use our national network to drive business after our investments.