beta centauri, LLc

Beta Centauri Project, LLC
SCORE Online Counselors Help Entrepreneur Build a Business Foundation while Serving in Iraq
In most respects, Bill Rasmussen is no different from the thousands of aspiring entrepreneurs who have looked to SCORE for help in launching a small business. What sets him apart, however, is that much of the counseling and planning work took place during his recent one-year deployment in Iraq.
A respiratory therapist in civilian life, Bill got the idea for a medical product that would help speed care to victims of disaster situations when he was a corpsman with the U.S. Marines in 1995. “I realized that the weak link in the chain of care for a wounded Marine is at the field level,” he says. “I looked at what could be done to help medics care for a larger number of advanced life support patients at the same time.”
Bill subsequently discussed the feasibility of his product with a SCORE counselor, but the idea stayed on the shelf until 2006 when he arrived in Iraq to conduct convoy escort missions with the 1041 Engineering Company from Rock Springs, Wyoming.
“There were many decisions to make, such as how to structure my business and secure patents,” Bill says. After reviewing the SCORE Web site’s listing of online counselors, he began an email correspondence with David Sneed of Cheyenne SCORE. “David had the varied expertise and background that I was looking for,” Bill says. “Plus, he was based near my home in northern Colorado, so we had a lot in common.”
“SCORE Counselor Elaine Jeveli directed me to the right contacts in the Food and Drug Administration and provided advice on the manufacturing part of our venture. I will continue to collaborate with her as we move forward.”
—Maureen Greene, CEO, Beta Centauri Project, LLC
As Bill began communicating with various medical and research organizations, David helped him to determine what questions to ask and to make sure that Bill’s ideas were safeguarded from infringement. David also served as a valuable information conduit to Bill’s primary business and administrative partner, Maureen Greene of Las Cruces, New Mexico.
“David provided Maureen with the information she needed to develop our business plan while I continued to work on the product development and patents,” Bill says. “SCORE also put me in touch with Ed Crabtree, a patent attorney who provided us with information and documents to use to file a patent on our prototypes.”
Taking a cue from Bill, Maureen teamed up with SCORE Counselor Elaine Jeveli in Las Cruces. “Elaine has been helpful in starting this process off and getting the appropriate focus to move forward,” Maureen says. “She directed me to the right contacts in the Food and Drug Administration and provided advice on the manufacturing part of our venture. I will continue to collaborate with her as we move forward.”
Given the highly complex nature of gaining regulatory approval for medical products and bringing them to market, Bill expects it will take approximately two years before his business is in full swing.
“All of us are dealing with school, deployments and other jobs, as well as laying the groundwork for this business,” Bill says. “That’s why I’m encouraging all our core people to work with SCORE representatives in their area or online to learn as much as they can about setting ourselves up and running the right way,” he says. “Thanks to David, we’ve already made one key decision—establish ourselves as a limited liability company in Colorado.”
Now home safely from Iraq, Bill plans to call on his SCORE counselor more frequently to make his dream a reality. “Our future will include working with many different companies around the country and overseas,” he says. “None of us has any expertise with this, but we’ll be camping out at a lot of people’s doors—especially those of our SCORE counselors.”