Innovation is a broad term, even by its own definition: "the introduction of something new."
We believe each of this year's Innovation Awards honorees match that definition perfectly. Whether it's inventing a crime-stopping technology, paving the way for Indigenous entrepreneurship or breaking outside the clothing binary, they are all innovating in their own ways.
This year's New Mexico Inno special edition comes with the same concept and the same focus as the 2022 Fire Awards, but with a new name — the Innovation Awards. In light of the devastating fires that spread across large swaths of New Mexico last year, we felt it important to rebrand this annual section.
The Innovation Awards recipients were selected by the Albuquerque Business First editorial team and New Mexico Inno Reporter Jacob Maranda. The process was based on reader nominations and our own insights. Some of the things we looked for when evaluating organizations were: new funding, adding headcount, social and community impact, product launches, company pivots/growth and stories of innovators reshaping the ecosystem.
In the end we chose five honorees, a mix of companies and organizations each carving their own path and helping to drive New Mexico's economy forward.
All five of the honorees are featured in the April 28 print edition of Business First. Each profile will also be rolled out online in the coming days.
OneTen° Capital
For OneTen° Capital, innovation isn't just innovation — it's a product, too.
"Innovation is great, but it can continue to just stay in the labs or the universities and it can continue to be only innovation," said John Chavez, one of the Albuquerque venture capital firm's general partners. "The beauty of the model that Dorian [Rader] set up is now you're making [innovation] a product that potentially solves a problem."
Dorian Rader is the managing partner of OneTen° Capital. She helped launch the early-stage venture firm in late 2017.
The firm, which has received investment from the New Mexico Catalyst Fund, focuses on investing in tech-focused New Mexico startups. Its average investment is around $500,000, Rader said.
Some of its portfolio companies include mPower Technology Inc., Mindset Integrated and Terra Vera, which took home this year's New Mexico Inno Madness crown.
OneTen° Capital's ethos goes beyond just putting money into these and other startups, though. Rader said she wants her firm to play a role in New Mexico's startup ecosystem by coaching budding entrepreneurs.
"It's much less about actually investing, which is a big part, but we also want to make them successful, how we set them up for the proper series A, for example," she said about those entrepreneurs. "A lot of what we're doing is mentoring and coaching and educating."
Chavez, who is also the managing director of the New Mexico Start-Up Factory, joined OneTen° Capital as a general partner for its first fund. Hunter Greene, an Albuquerque business owner, came on with the firm as a general partner for its second fund in March 2022.
And the firm has another general partner — Sherman McCorkle, a longtime New Mexico investor and business leader who's the CEO and chairman of the Sandia Science and Technology Park.
A native New Mexican, he's seen the state's startup and tech scene evolve over time.
"Historically, we've been startup rich and capital poor," McCorkle said.
Finding qualified investors is one challenge, he added. Making sure that money comes at the right time is another.
"When the accelerators were here, we didn't have the money. When the money's here, we don't have the accelerators," Rader said. "It's kind of a mismatch of timing."
But when things are clicking, McCorkle said, "we know the ecosystem works."
A big part of OneTen° Capital's role in that ecosystem is being able to point entrepreneurs in the direction of supportive resources so that if their idea isn't fully formed when they come seeking investment, they can use those resources and return with a more fleshed-out concept.
"About 95% of the time we coach them, we talk to them, refer them out to people and say, 'Hey, come back when you're ready,'" Rader said. "On average, from the time I meet companies to the time we invest in them is typically six to nine months."
And OneTen° Capital encourages those entrepreneurs to look around at other places for investment so that the due diligence process goes both ways, Rader said. It's part of the firm's holistic approach to supporting startups in the state.
"We really strive to have good community capital and to be open-minded, approachable stewards of the New Mexico ecosystem," Rader said. "Whether [the company] ends up in our portfolio or not, we think we're pretty unique in that we really — it sounds cheesy — but we just want to help."
