#aeir biologic

[aeirbio-blog]

[aeirtalk-blog]

"What is he talking about?"

"What is he talking about?" This was a common phrase in my home a couple of years ago when my oldest son, Deacon, would sit down next to me and just jabber away, but in his own language. He would talk and talk, and every once in a while sigh deeply and say "Abba dabba dabba youuuu, deabbe," like he was waxing eloquent about politics or something and concluding "What are you gonna do, you know?" Then he would get up off the couch, and go to his room to play. 

He still does this on occasion, and it is fun to watch and be a part of, but a small part of me wants to have those long conversations with my now 4.5 year old. As I read on many different message boards regarding Autism, I see the same frustration and longing for conversations with our children. 

When Deacon and Gunnar (my youngest son) started sitting down with me with Aeir Talk, I wasn't sure what to expect. But now, with a steady diet of Aeir Talk and speech therapy, Deacon will happily explain "Thank you momma!" Immediately followed by "You're welcome" in expectation of Sandy's response of "You're Welcome." Gunnar will point at objects on the screen and say them before he touches them. It's great to hear his little voice say "Sea Lion" or "Potty!" We are taking baby steps. But as many parents know, even the smallest step forward is the best feeling in the world.

Some may be concerned with Echolalia, but to be honest I am not that concerned. Why? With Aeir Talk it is not just words they are repeating. They are seeing images associated with those words, and are hearing a familiar voice say the word as well. All of these factors with repetition begin to make positive reinforcement with the child, and you begin to see progress.

So am I having long conversations? Not quite. But am I really enjoying the short sentences Deacon and Gunnar are saying to me? Oh yeah you bet! If you want to see how Aeir Talk is making a difference in peoples lives, why not take a few minutes and check it out?

[aeirbio-blog]

Our First Post and Who We Are.

Greetings.

I have been involved in two blogs before. Neither were very compelling or lasted that long. But fortunately, time not only heals all wounds, it also provides wisdom for a lot of people as they go through life having to provide for themselves and those that they love.

My name is Joseph Hill and I am the CEO of Aeir BioLogic, LLC. We are a startup Biotechnology company based out of Norfolk, VA within the greater area known as Hampton Roads. Our goal, is to pursue innovative ideas, that will not be pursued by others, because they are unwilling or unable to pursue those ideas.

My main goal with this post is to go into our brief history, and where we want to go as a company. I am a firm believer that the CEO of every company sets the pace and the culture of "their" company, and because of that a medium more organic than a company newsletter is needed. Blogging is the perfect way to get information to the company and to the public about said company. I will try to be brief in my future posts but this one requires some depth so I apologize for the length ahead of time.

I have spent the last 7 years (I was discharged from the Army in 2004) trying to find a cuture and a career that suited me. My 20's had consisted of moving to various jobs, working 2 or 3 at a time, most of them involving selling or customer service, and while they paid the bills for my family and I, they did not seem to fill me with a sense of accomplishment that I would want in a career. It wasn't until I entered into the field of biotechnology that that would change for me.

I worked as a MusculoSkeletal technician at Lifenet Health for three years. I would process donated human tissue into surgical grafts and package those grafts as well. It was very rewarding. I was able to help the customers of my company to live better lives and it was fantastic. We worked with many prestigious companies and I learned quite a bit of information about the Biotechnology field. I enjoyed that company and the people within it immensely. In May 2010, however, I lost my job there and took a job at a financial services firm in Virginia Beach, VA.

It was not an easy transition. I knew little about financial services and knew that I had a lot to learn, but it involved helping my customers so I was happy to learn. I was working 15 hour days making calls and meeting with individuals, all the while trying to convince them to trust my company in handling their money, and while they were polite, I was beginning to see that many people did not want to hand over their money to my company or me. It wasn't anything personal, they were just comftorable where they were. This is where the difficulty within this job started for me.

I had always wanted to have my own business. I spent many hours thinking of an "original idea." One that would allow me to form a business around this product and to be able to have the corporate culture I would like and be able to work in a field I could be proud of like I was at Lifenet. I was competing against Etrade, Scott Trade, Ameriprise, all of whom had multiple commercials during football games and on CNBC. How could I compete against that with a $1600 a month salary?

Don't get me wrong, I was learning a lot within my financial planning job: about business development, the importance of solid investing, how to network, and how others ran their business's. I was not making much money however, and the stress was starting to build. The stress to produce, to sell more, to do more with less time and it was starting to push me in another direction.

I began to think of my two sons, Deacon and Gunnar. Both have been diagnosed with Autism, and both had (and still are) underwent occupational and physical therapy's to help them in their development. Like most parents, I just wanted more tools to help them in their development, but didn't find many tools out there that we could affort at that time. I wanted breakthroughs and I wanted to take part in their growth. How could I though? I knew that many other parents of children with special needs were tired, and in need of help.

As I was chewing on that idea and what I could do with it, I attended a networking event that at its core goal was to bring big Biotechnology companies to the Hampton Roads area. It was not a new idea, as cities always speak of bringing new companies to the area for economic development but this particular meeting was filled with a lot of academics, doctors and professionals so it was important I went to find clients. While they were deep into the presentation about ideas to get companies to the area, I simply raised my hand and said, "Why don't we do this ourselves? Come up with a Biotech company that makes a profit? That's the only way that companies will come, if they see fertile ground."

No one said a word. The speaker moved on and I felt like a child who was just patted on the head and that was it. But a man sitting in front of me turned around and said "I'm about to leave but I want to talk to you." That man was Dr. Patric Lundberg, and he is a microbiologist at a local medical school here in Norfolk. We agreed to meet in the future and through a series of meetings we decided to start our own company. He would develop a genetic test that would change the way certain diseases are treated, and I would find the funding. Simple enough of a concept at its inception, but it took on much more that that.

That night, I came to realize that my longing to start my own company, and to work in the tech field was coming to fruition, and the tool that could help my boys and families like mine was already available, the iPad and its wonderful array of applications.I could develop applications for the iPad that had use within the medical field. It could work all we needed was to work at it. Aeir BioLogic was born. That was December of 2010.

Patric and I have been working tirelessly through hours of meetings over the last few months, forming our ideas on where we should set up shop, who will fund our endeavours, and what our roles will be (there's much more to it than that but I am starting to bore myself so I am trying to wrap it up). Patric would work on the genetics side, and I would head the technology side, specifically within consumer electronics and their application within the medical field.

Many appointments were met with rejection, others support, and some with just questioning looks as to what we want to do. And that's ok. Start up's are funny that way sometimes because you need meetings like that to sharpen your vision and your ability to explain it.

I left my position at the financial firm in February 2011 to persue Aeir BioLogic full time.So far we have seen a lot of interest in my medical iPad application ideas, the innaugural app being a communication system for children with Autism to be able to communicate with their parents more effectively, and for the parents to have an effective transition tool and "word wall" to work with their kids between therapy sessions.

We are still trying to get funding so that I can work on this full time, meanwhile Patric continues at the medical school, and I work at a hotel in the evenings and scrub warehouse floors by day, meeting with developers and potential investors in between when I can.

Who are we? We are a biotech company started from the ground up. We are rough around the edges and just starting out, but our ideas are sound, backed up by many years of research, and they are executable, with is more than I can say for many ideas out there now.

This blog will serve as a way for me to talk about what I see going on in the field of technology, web culture and my own corporate structure. It, like my comany, will be rough from time to time, but we are all learning and sometimes the best way to learn is to just jump in with both feet and start swimming. Time has taught me a lot, and it will continue to as I and my company grows.

If you have questions, feel free to email me at [email protected]. I can also be reached on twitter @bio_logic. Thanks for your time.