Years ago zealous members from the Yahoo Message Board started contacting every company Bret mentioned and caused a lot of grief ... that is one reason he never mentions companies by name any more because Battelle and others were shocked by our rabid stockholders. You can probably find the history.
If you contact someone he is in communication with, it could complicate things, so I think I actually partially agree with Elsie ... calling Bret and getting his blessing before you proceed would be best approach in the long run.