Startups – Saving cash during tough times

This month, we've got a 500% ROI, some $6.9B investments in Boston startups, and flying cars hitting New Hampshire.

Check it out below.

The State of Manufacturing

The overall PMI Index notched up slightly by 1.6% to 54.2%.

Production and New Orders are experiencing solid increases. Inventories across the board are contracting while Backlog is increasing. With all this growth, we might even see the employment numbers growing again in the next few months.

Average production material lead times increased by another 3 days to 66 days.

Overall, a reasonable positive outlook for the near term future.

Many of you have probably read this nice story about effort vs. skill of an old man repairing a ship engine. If not, here it is.

Here is our story. Some time ago, NPA was contracted for a supply chain project where the company felt they had a good NPI (New Product Introduction) / production prices for their components (which they quoted with multiple sources) and asked us to provide inputs on how to best go about sourcing their components.

The company suggested one particular higher price component and we reviewed the specifications, made some suggestions and recommended quoting three suppliers that best fit their technology requirements and their business case.

The result was a >90% reduction of their existing price at the same specification, terms, and lead times. and with a highly qualified supplier.

All of this took less than 5h worth of work at NPA and the client got a 500% ROI. Now our customer has a highly qualified and competitive supplier that can manage NPI & volume production which also provides all the additional services like first article inspection, tests, etc.

The actual saving equated to ~ 6 months worth of NPA supply chain contracting and we continue having fun helping this client to successfully scale their product.

If you want to learn more about successful procurement & supply chain.

Contact us!

Biotech took the majority of this funding with $6.2B. Multiple companies secured large, $100s Million rounds.

Other notable standouts were:

Check out all the companies that received funding last month here. (Source: BOSTINNO)

Franklin Robotics has been named a finalist in the Annual New England Innovation Awards. We wish them best of luck on Oct. 21st at the judging event. More on this here. (Source: business wire)

RightHand Robotics has raised a $6M debt round to further advance development and commercialization of their piece picking solutions. More on this here. (Source: SEC)

Rize3D achieved another first in the industry with their UL certifications for low emissions and high safety. Keeping you safe while 3D printing. More details here. (Source: 3DPrint)

Starry keeps on pushing all the right buttons during this crisis and unrest. Their latest coup is that they will erase customers' Covid-19 debt. Starry is truly setting the bar for "putting your money where your mouth is" by giving back and creating opportunities for the less fortunate.

Find out more here (Source: lightreading).

WaveSense added some heavyweights to its boards. Joe Hinrichs, the former Ford Motor Company Automotive President has joined their Board of Directors and former General Motors CFO Chuck K. Stevens III and Kurt Lehmann, former CTO of Continental have joint their Advisory Board. Find out more here .(Source: Globenewswire).

Whoop has furthered its partnership with NFLPA which will provide WHOOP to all active NFL players. More about this here. (Source: PRnewswire)

Ever wanted to be an Ant, worship The Queen and do ant stuff.....there is a Facebook group with almost 2 Millon members for you. AllTogetherNow (Source: Facebook)

Are you feeling a bit tense lately? Now you can scream and broadcast your frustration into the Icelandic wilderness for some relief. Check out this App. ChannelyourinnerViking (Source: NPR)

In true "Live Free or Die" fashion, New Hampshire's Legislature signed a bill to legalize flying cars! Good thing is we have two flying car companies in Massachusetts. LiftOff (Source: CarandDriver)

P.S. Contact us we are looking for support in Purchasing, Quality & Engineering, support. Most assignments are great for part-time and remote work!

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