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| The Louisiana
Business & Technology Center |
February 27, 2007
Network Foundation Technologies, a Ruston-based incubator company developed
by 10 programmers from Louisiana Tech University, was awarded a $100,000
Phase I SBIR grant from the National Science Foundation.
With the assistance of the Louisiana Business and Technology Center at LSU’s
E. J. Ourso College of Business, the company has grown and developed within
the Technology Business Development Center at Louisiana Tech.
“It is great to see a company that we funded for a Phase 0 SBIR grant
and that received assistance from the LBTC in its conception successfully
win the NSF award,” stated Charlie d’Agostino, executive director
of the LBTC.
According to founder Mike O’Neal, NFT is working to "revolutionize
the delivery of online video. We're doing for broadcasting what Vonage and
Skype did for telephone service," O'Neal stated.
NFT's software, focused on live online video, cuts the network load carried
by the original broadcaster by using users' personal computers to receive
and repeat broadcasts without saving content to their computers. NFT has
invested over 50,000 hours into the company’s software since 2003,
and that number continues to rise as the company refines and updates the
software. Of 1,013 small businesses vying for coveted grants, NFT is one
of 100 that received the recognition.
Phase I awards are generally around $100,000 with Phase II awards reaching
$750,000. These grants provide entrepreneurs and small technology companies
with capital to help them develop further funding, contracts and company
credibility.
For more information about the LBTC at LSU, please visit www.bus.lsu.edu/centers/lbtc.
Wendy Osborn Luedtke
LSU E. J. Ourso College of Business
225/578-8865
