Only settle for the Real McCoy
I’m currently reading The Wide Wide Sea, an epic tale of the final expedition of Captain James Cook in the late 1700’s. But on this day in 1579, two centuries before, Sir Frances Drake set sail from a protected cove to continue his legendary circumnavigation of the globe, the first Englishman to do so.
While camped for weeks in this cove to repair and resupply his ships before the journey across the Pacific, he christened the beautiful location Nova Albion – Latin for “New Britain” – and he laid claim to it as the first English territory on the Pacific Coast, what would be later be renamed California.
The camp was in Drake’s Bay at Point Reyes National Seashore, 30 miles north of San Francisco. Sir Frances Drake returned home a hero and his exploits launched an era of British maritime dominance. Years later, Roanoke and Jamestown would be settled by the British.
Sir Frances Drake was the Real McCoy. Speaking of which, on this day in 1872, a black son of escaped slaves secured a patent for an automatic lubricator device for steam engines. It would be Elijah McCoy’s first of nearly 60 patents he would receive on his way to being inducted in the National Inventors Hall of Fame, including patents for the ironing board and lawn sprinkler. The first regional office of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is also named after Mr. McCoy.
The steam engine lubricator was so successful that it was quickly copied with numerous inferior knockoffs. However, railroad engineers understood the superiority of Mr. McCoy’s original and thus would often inquire if a train was outfitted with “the Real McCoy” now synonymous for the real deal.
IBank closed out a fantastic fiscal year 2025:
- We’re awaiting Q4 results, but in the first three quarters, we had already booked a full-year record of $288M in small business loan guarantees, impacting over 13,000 jobs.
- Our Bond Unit also achieved one of its most productive years in history, with 12 deals for over $3B, creating nearly 10,000 jobs.
- ISRF added $39M to our green portfolio, completing our first two “water recharge” projects that support drought resilience to farmers and communities.
- While we suffered a setback when the new administration froze our NCIF Climate Catalyst funds, we remain committed to gaining access to the funds and closed our first Catalyst transaction in forest biomass.
- We successfully worked with the Legislature to extend the sunset date for IBank’s two newest programs.
- Climate Catalyst, originally scheduled to sunset last month, has been extended to December 31, 2031.
- The Public Records Act exemption on commercial trade secrets collected by Catalyst and our VC programs was similarly extended.
- Lastly, we were able to recruit talented new hires across the organization, welcoming Andy as Chief Deputy, Mona and Andriy to small business, Shuang to Fiscal and Dilin to manage Catalyst.
Our team is gearing up for a great FY 2026 and we look forward to keeping you updated on our progress.
