Columbus : Innovation + Job News

In the aerospace industry, weight is a big deal. An industry rule of thumb is that for every pound you can take out of a big bird like the Boeing 737, you save $1 million over the life of a plane.

Syscom Advanced Materials is helping to save weight on the 200 miles or so of wiring in a typical plane by providing electrically conducive polymer/metal hybrid fibers that are significantly lighter than the typically-used nickel-copper wires.

The Columbus company was founded in December 2005. Its products are based on needs that founder Jar-Wha Lee recognized while working at the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton and were developed under a federal Small Business Innovation Research grant, says Jeff Martin, Syscom's business development manager.

"He was doing some research there around making lightweight wires and he saw an opportunity for a business that people in the Air Force and aerospace industry were looking for," Martin explains.

The company's first product was Amberstrand Fiber, which is widely distributed to the industry in products crafted by Glenair, a California-based maker of electrical connector accessories.

"It's been on the market commercially for three years now. It's used heavily in the aerospace industry for EMI shielding (electromagnetic interference -- think of the buzz you get in your cell phone if it's too close to a radio)," Martin says.

The company recently introduced its new Liberator fiber. That product, which uses a different polymer than does Amberstrand, is still being evaluated with customers to determine its range of applications, Martin says.

"If you're comparing us to a nickel-coated copper wire, we're about 87 percent lighter and up to 26 times stronger than the copper wire. From a flexibility standpoint it's orders of magnitude greater."

The company's administrative offices and product development labs are housed at TechColumbus, with its manufacturing facility nearby. Martin reports that the company is growing, adding 12 new jobs in the past three years. The company now employs 15, he says, and expects to grow further through the year.

Source: Jeff Martin, Syscom Advanced Materials
Writer: Gene Monteith

Software testing for dummies could be the title of a new Software as a Service (SaaS) product from Janova, a Columbus area start-up that could change the way web developers test their sites.

Janova, launched in September 2010, gives its customers the ability to use its cloud-based SaaS to test their web applications using plain English syntax rather than computer code, a breakthrough for such services.

This new technology allows any user, regardless of tech background, to create and automate tests for any web-based application. Until now, such tests were downloaded onto one computer at a time, taking that unit out of commission until the tests were complete. Only computer techs could perform the tests because they were written in computer code, and they were time consuming and expensive.

"The underlying advantage is English," says Jeff Lusenhop, founder and CEO. "Everybody understands it. Everybody can communicate across the team."

The other breakthrough is the reduced time required for the tests, says Lusenhop. With the old system of downloading tests, computers could be tied up for hours. Because Janova utilizes the cloud to run the tests, the time is reduced significantly.

"It's brought all of our (beta) clients improved efficiency in their testing. We can run 90 hours of tests a day in three hours and 15 minutes."

Nominated for a TechColumbus award only two months after its founding, Janova has created great excitement for its ease of use and speed. Users can access Janova from anywhere and receive detailed reports in a matter of seconds. The company has received more than 6,000 requests for a free trial of the service.

With 34 employees now, Lusenhop says he expects the company will begin aggressive hiring efforts to add 116 employees in the next three years, bringing its payroll to more than $10 million. Most of these jobs will be in sales and consulting.

Source: Jeff Lusenhopp, Janova
Writer: Val Prevish

IT Martini was created three years ago when the opportunities for IT professionals to connect in central Ohio were few and far between, says John Bishop.

Today, thanks to Bishop and co-founder Aladin Gohar, IT Martini -- a social and professional gathering for the tech-oriented -- not only has helped build a more robust network around the Columbus area, but has caught on in Cleveland, Cincinnati and Indianapolis, with more cities on the way.

"If you go back to 2008, it was a different kind of environment for professionals and for technology professionals beyond that," Bishop says. "And what I noticed in conjunction with Aladin Gohar was that there weren't a lot of opportunities for technology professionals to meet each other and engage one another as an industry."

That summer, Bishop and Gohar held the very first IT Martini. Two hundred people showed up to hear a speaker, socialize and connect. This month, IT Martini is celebrating its third year with a May 26 event expected to draw 1,000.

The format for an IT Martini event is straightforward, Bishop says.

"We try to stay as interactive as possible," he explains. "So we put on panel discussions and we tend to have panel discussions run concurrently with the social aspect of the event in a separate, segregated space. That way, people who want to be social can participate in the social aspect of the event, and if they want to participate in a little bit more of a discussion, presentation, industry-best-practice type of activity we have that for our attendees as well."

As IT Martini began to catch on locally, a sponsor in 2009 asked that an event be held in Cincinnati, Bishop says.

"And then last year we started to do not just Columbus and Cincinnati, but Cleveland and Indianapolis."

An IT Martini in Nashville is in the works, and there also seems to be interest in West Virginia, Michigan and Wisconsin, Bishop says.

Source: John Bishop, IT Martini
Writer: Gene Monteith

FlyMuch plans to role out a new service next month that will let travelers plan their next trip with the help of knowledgeable Facebook users.

The Dublin-based startup, which began working on a mobile app for travel in 2009, aims to fill a void, says Brian Zuercher, head of product and co-founder.

"There had been no service that had created a great user experience in terms of planning travel. At the heart of it was the consumer who says 'I'm getting e-mails from Travelocity and Orbitz and Hilton everyday for things I'm never going to do.'"

That resulted in an idea for an application that would aggregate the best travel deals and tailor them to individual users through a browser add-on. Zuercher and Jim Kamnikar, CEO and co-founder, "spent almost two years, both prototyping and iterating on the product with a parallel path of fundraising."

FlyMuch will offer a scaled down version of that vision in its first phase, Zuercher says.

"The product as it's going to stand when we release it is all about getting and giving recommendations for travel things like hotels, dining and activities for your trip," he says. "What we're able to do is see inside your social network of who's relevant to ask about a destination. Maybe they live there or have been there. And then you can solicit any of those people, and we create your own unique page for your trip. Those people can come in and make recommendations, and the bonus feature is that you get access to all those things on your iPhone."

Zuercher says FlyMuch will build on that simple platform as it engages with people and builds trust. Eventually, features that tailor deals for individual users and other bells and whistles will be added, he says.

The initial mobile app will be limited to iPhone, but "pretty quickly be available for DROID and other platforms," he says.

The firm is closing in on a $1 million series A investment round, about half of which has been funded by Ohio TechAngels, Zuercher says. That has allowed FlyMuch to hire eight full-time employees with the goal of employing around 20 in the next couple of years.

Source: Brian Zuercher, FlyMuch
Writer: Gene Monteith

Event promoters hate unsold tickets. In Columbus, TiXiT has stepped in to help promoters solve that problem while offering buyers discounted prices.

The startup, with investment by the weBuild tech accelerator, "has sold tens of thousands of dollars worth of tickets " so far, says CEO Mike Figliuolo (also a principal at weBuild).

While the member base is currently small, he's encouraged by the conversion rate of those who buy tickets after opening an e-mail promoting an event.

"In traditional e-mail campaigns, for folks who sign up for membership sites and actually want to get that e-mail, you'll get a five percent open rate, you'll get a five percent click-through rate, and you'll get a five percent conversion to purchase rate," Figliuolo says. "We get a 30 percent open rate. On that 30 percent, we'll get 20 to 40 percent click-through. Of that 20 to 40 percent we'll get 20 to 30 percent to go into the shopping cart, and of that we're converting 10 to 30 percent to sales."

Members register for free to receive notifications of deals on various events. Alerts are sent by e-mail, text message, tweet -- however customers want them. 

"The value for consumers is it's free, and I can now go to one place to discover new events, buy things that I want to buy and get great deals, instead of having to go out and get a coke can for this discount, a copy of the newspaper for that discount, another site for that one," Figliuolo says. "Here are all the events in your geographic area."

TiXiT takes a percentage of every ticket sold, he says, noting that the company has done work with organizations like the Columbus Blue Jackets, CAPA, BalletMet, Jazzarts, and the Columbus Crew.

Figliuolo says the company is still in the pilot phase, launching formally only last year. As TiXiT learns what works and what doesn't, it plans to expand to other geographic regions.

Source: Mike Figliuolo, TiXiT
Writer: Gene Monteith

A pilot program launched by the Ohio Third Frontier and the Fisher College of Business at Ohio State University represents a new way to help young technology entrepreneurs get their feet on the ground in Ohio.

Modeled after nationally renowned accelerators like Y Combinator and TechStars, Ohio's New Entrepreneur Fund (ONE Fund) will award $20,000 each to 10 entrepreneurial teams as part of the pilot's first round. The funds will support business and living expenses during an 11-week period in which participants receive guidance from mentors, industry experts, seasoned entrepreneurs and investors.

Teams will compete for selection to the program, which begins June 13 and ends Sept. 1. During that time, participants will prepare concepts and business models, which they will ultimately present to investors. ONE Fund participants must reside in Ohio for the duration of the program and any resulting company must be formed in Ohio.

"We're industry agnostic," says Ben Lagemann, risk capital program manager for the Ohio Department of Development. "Information technology is likely to have a strong presence, but this is not specific to any industry or technology base. Really, we're focusing on entrepreneurship, which is a transferrable skill set between technologies, between industries."

The pilot will be coordinated through Fisher's new 10x technology accelerator, an arm of the college's Center for Entrepreneurship. Lagemann says OSU was chosen as a partner because of its proximity to government offices in Columbus, the capabilities of the Center for Entrepreneurship and the expertise of center director Michael Camp.

"Dr. Camp was able to provide a turnkey solution for us in a very, very short period of time. No one else had those resources, capabilities or stature in the state," Lagemann says.

Camp describes the partnership as "a rare connect between a state funding the teams and the university training the teams." He says the ONE Fund pilot represents the kickoff of the 10x accelerator.

Norman Chagnon, executive director of the Third Frontier Commission, says $425,000 has been made available for startup costs and two pilot rounds representing up to 20 teams. Meanwhile, Columbus venture capital firm NCT Ventures has guaranteed that one team graduating from the first round will receive $200,000 in follow-on funding.

Applications for the first round are due April 24. Those interested can apply here.

Sources: Ben Lagemann, ODOD; Norman Chagnon, Third Frontier Commission; Michael Camp, OSU
Writer: Gene Monteith

Christopher Hadad, a chemistry professor at The Ohio State University, is developing a drug that could ease the effects of a frightening world threat: a deadly chemical nerve agent attack.

Such an event is rare, but not just theoretical. One of the most memorable is a 1995 sarin gas release on Japanese subway lines that killed a dozen people and sent more than 6,000 to hospitals. These poisons can be released deliberately or by accident and have the potential to kill and severely injure thousands of unsuspecting people.

Hadad is working on a therapeutic remedy to the effects of certain nerve agents which, left untreated, cause uncontrolled secretions from the mouth, eyes and nose as well as severe muscle spasms that could lead to a quick death. This work, which is its early stages, is in partnership with the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Chemical Defense at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland.

"We are developing a therapeutic for someone who's been exposed to a nasty chemical agent that creates biological aging effects that could lead to death," says Hadad, who has been working on the project for about a year.

Hadad's work relates to common organophosphorus (OP) nerve agents Tabun, VX, VR, Sarin, Soman, Cyclosarin and Paraoxon. There are treatments that can be used for these agents today, but they don't always work because of the short time frame required for effective treatment.

Using the Ohio Supercomputer Center resources in Columbus, Hadad is working on a molecular fix that could make treatment more effective.

"We are using a computational chemistry approach which could lead to rapid development of a good, viable drug that has the best chance of success and efficacy," he said.

Source: Christopher Hadad, Ohio State University
Writer: Feoshia Henderson

You can follow Feoshia on Twitter @feoshiawrites

The University Clean Energy Alliance of Ohio was founded five years ago by Ohio's 15 research universities. The goal: to advance the cause of clean energy in Ohio in a collaborative way.

Since then, the Toledo-based organization has worked with a wide array of academic, government and business entities to further business-university partnerships in advanced energy and to encourage dialog on energy issues facing the state.

"The whole idea behind the alliance was to facilitate collaboration among the universities in their efforts to do research," says Jane Harf the UCEA's director. "And it's not the ivory tower research -- it's development and deployment. We really want to see these technologies make it to the marketplace -- commercialization and technology transfer."

While the organization started with the 15 research institutions, it has expanded its membership over the years to several community colleges and organizations like the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities of Ohio. Institutions such as the NASA Glenn Research Center and EWI (formerly the Edison Welding Institute) -- are also members.

Harf says that as part of its work, UCEA has engaged in a number of projects related to clean energy advancement, including a study on business and university collaborations, focus groups with businesses to assess the challenges and opportunities for clean energy and programs supporting the state's nine university-based Advanced Energy Centers of Excellence.

On April 26 and 27, the organization will hold it's fifth annual conference in Columbus, where it will showcase the work being done at those centers and work being done by students -- and at which it will offer breakout sessions on  a variety of topics including energy projects under way in Ohio, intellectual property issues surrounding university-business partnerships, policy issues around advanced and alternative energy and the opportunities and challenges of doing business in Ohio.

Also at the conference, the UCEA will roll out a new database that Harf says will provide advanced energy companies and others with current information about individual researchers and the work they do, programs of study available to those who are seeking degrees in alternative energy and on facilities and equipment available to businesses to further their technology development.

To register, go here. 

Source: Jane Harf, UCEA
Writer: Gene Monteith

When sign-ups started out slowly for BioOhio's 2011 Service Provider's Expo, the organization decided to get creative. The result: an online version of the expo, which began March 1, runs through April 28 and which at last count had nearly 60 virtual exhibitors.

Matt Schutte, director of communications for Columbus-based BioOhio -- the Ohio Edison Center charged with accelerating biosciences discovery, innovation and commercialization -- says the expo is a chance for shoppers and browsers in the biosciences to connect with product and service providers from within the state of Ohio.

"This is an outgrowth of a live expo that we held last year in March," Schutte says. "That event went well as a first year. This year, it was not hitting critical mass at the time that we needed to sign some facility agreements."

So, BioOhio partnered with online conferencing expert JuJaMa to build a virtual exhibition site. All exhibitors must be biosciences-based and have an Ohio presence, Schutte says. BioOhio members pay $50 and non-members $80 for the privilege of showcasing their companies.

As exhibitors, companies are able to send meeting requests to other expo participants, can send system generated messages and see the entire content of the site, Schutte says.

Shoppers can only see the exhibitors, but can register at no cost. The online aspects of the event have one big advantage over the live event, Shutte notes -- customers can come from all over the world. Earlier this week, nearly 170 shoppers or browsers were signed in to view online exhibits.

If the online expo goes well, BioOhio may extend the format to other focus areas, Schutte says.

"Maybe we'll extend this to some summits or some geographic or foreign partner sites -- who knows where that goes."

Participants can still register for the expo by going here.

Source: Matt Schutte, BioOhio
Writer: Gene Monteith

Neflix subscribers now have a faster way to add movies to their online queues.

CueThat, the latest creation of Columbus-based Big Kitty Labs, allows someone who comes across a movie title while reading online content to right click over it and instantly add the movie his or her Netflix lineup.

Dan Rockwell, Big Kitty's CEO, says the service was launched three weeks ago and "took off like crazy," accumulating 1,000 users and tracking 3,000 movie adds within the first two weeks.

CueThat will work with almost any browser, Big Kitty says. A plug-in has been developed for Firefox and Chrome and CueThat offers a bookmarklet that can be dragged from CueThat's website to Safari and Internet Explorer browsers.

Rockwell explains the advantage of CueThat is "immediacy."

"It's like a remote control for the TV," Rockwell says. "What that did for the TV is it let the person sit on the couch and change channels."

At present, there is no revenue model for CueThat, Rockwell says. Netflix does not pay Big Kitty for the additional traffic to its site, and no advertising is being sold. But Rockwell says CueThat, like some of Big Kitty's other projects, is foregoing profits now for potential pay-off later.

"It's kind of technology play, people play, in the sense of 'here's some folks that are thinking in this space and where does it go next?," Rockwell explains. "We're working on two other queuing type (projects). And we also have the analytics of what's being queued so we're gathering data. I feel like any time you're gathering data and analyzing people patterns you're sitting on something that could be interesting to a third party."

Next up?

"It's a hard one to do but I think we're going to try to do it -- library books. Where you can right click a book and automatically reserve it at the library."

Source: Dan Rockwell, Big Kitty Labs
Writer: Gene Monteith

Developed by Dublin-based WD Partners in 1999 to give architects and engineers a better way to share project drawings and documents with clients and team members, Expesite has become one of the fastest growing companies in America.

Spun off in In 2003, Expesite has rapidly expanded its business solutions through acquisitions and partnerships with industry leaders in technology and within its markets.

Led by CEO Jeffrey Sopp, the company provides project management solutions primarily to the retail, restaurant, financial services and commercial real-estate industries, with nearly 350,000 users in more than 80 counties. With headquarters in Columbus, it also has offices in Los Angeles and Toronto.

According to Sopp, Expesite, has increased its workforce 10 percent this year to 45 and expects to grow further, projecting revenue growth of 52 percent 2011. The company has made the Inc. 5000 Fastest Growing Companies in America list four consecutive years in a row.

That growth was bolstered in 2009 with the acquisition of Hilliard-based Report Hawk, which Sopp says positioned the company to gain market share in the construction and/ real estate industry.

"By vertically integrating the two SaaS (Software as a Service) offerings, Expesite's solutions portfolio now spans from the largest retail owners to the smallest vendors/contractors," he says.

Last year's acquisition of VisionFM of Toronto "was an essential element of Expesite's strategic evolution into an end-to-end platform solution for real estate development and facilities management," adds Sopp. "This acquisition increased Expesite's market share, and provided clients with a unified view for project management and facilities management."

Expesite doesn't appear to be slowing down. Sopp says Expesite is considering three companies for potential acquisition in 2011 to expand its markets and better serve clients.

Source: Jeffrey Sopp, Expesite
Writer: Gene Monteith

Kevin Gadd believes there should be a way to give entrepreneurs and business schools resources that can work together for the benefit of new and emerging companies.

That's the thinking behind Venture Highway, a web-based service Gadd launched Dec. 31.

Venture Highway combines educational courses with tools gathered from Gadd's years of experience as a serial entrepreneur and former director of information technology commercialization at TechColumbus. The new company is backed by NCT Ventures, founded by fellow Digital Storage alum Rich Langdale, Gadd says.

Venture Highway's educational component hinges on curriculum developed by Sharon Alvarez at Ohio State University's Center for Entrepreneurship. Students will soon be able to access Business 290 online.

"Students will be able to sign into our website and see a weekly syllabus of what they're going to go through, and then they'll have readings -- content from Sharon Alvarez that she wants them to understand. The idea is that at the end of Business 290 the students will prepare an executive summary" of how they would establish a new business.

Gadd adds that he hopes "professors who are teaching entrepreneurism will see this as a novel, creative, fun way to teach entrepreneurism."

Students who have completed the course -- or non-students who are interested only in the other tools on the site -- can then tap site resources related to innovation, viability, planning, operations and exit.

"The final product from each of the modules is geared specifically toward sending it out to investment, or coaching, or somebody to get on your team," Gadd says.

Users currently can use the venture innovation tool and viability module; the others will be built out later, Gadd says. The innovation tool is free, while Venture Highway will charge between $100 and $200 for the other modules, as well as a fee for taking Business 290.

Source: Kevin Gadd, Venture Highway
Writer: Gene Monteith

Can man mimic nature to improve health?

Maybe. That's what a University of Akron polymer engineering expert is researching at the Ohio Supercomputer Center in Columbus.

Hendrik Heinz is using advanced modeling and simulation techniques to more precisely understand biomineralization, nature's ability to form complex structures, such as bones, teeth and mollusk shells, from peptides; and organic photovoltaics. The work could advance knowledge of how organic materials bond to inorganic materials. Ultimately, the results of Heinz's efforts could affect the making of materials used for things like bone replacement and sensing systems -- and even disease treatment and energy generation.

Heinz has noted previously that advances in materials science such as in biomedical and energy conversion devices increasingly rely on computational techniques and modeling. In particular, work at the nanoscale level -- such as charge transport mechanisms in solar cells, the formation of biominerals, and self-assembly of polymers in multi-component materials -- is difficult to observe. Model building and simulation are critical, he says.

The Air Force Research Laboratory/Office of Scientific Research in Dayton; Procter & Gamble in Cincinnati, the National Science Foundation; and ETH Zurich  and Sika Technology AG , both of Switzerland join UA and the Supercomputer Center in supporting Heinz's activities.

Heinz is "just one of scores of researchers" who are doing "amazing work" on the computational and storage systems of the Supercomputer Center, says spokesman Jamie Abel.

The Ohio Board of Regents established the center in 1987 as a statewide resource. The state's universities, businesses and others use it for an array of educational and business purposes.

Sources: Jamie Abel and Kathryn Kelley, Ohio Supercomputer Center
Writer: Gabriella Jacobs

A community partnership has provided a one-stop portal for central Ohio startups, entrepreneurs and small businesses since 2007.

But CentralOhioEntrepreneurs.org thinks it could reach more central Ohio business leaders if they knew more about the site, says April McCollum.

McCollum, the website's business librarian and primary interface with site users, says more than 1,600 distinct visitors have used the website since May, when the website began keeping stats. But she says the resources available on the site to plan, start and grow a business have the potential to reach many more.

The website is a collaboration among TechColumbus, the Small Business Development Centers, the Columbus Chamber of Commerce, the Columbus Metropolitan Library and OCLC.

"The SBDC is our newest partner, and we are collaborating with the SBDC to reach out to entrepreneurs," McCollum says.

Financed and led through TechColumbus -- a Columbus-based technology business incubator -- the site is geared primarily to central Ohio businesses in the TechColumbus and Small Business Development Centers regional service areas, McCollum says. But, she says, much of the information on the site is helpful to any new or emerging small business in Ohio.

While the partners serve as information points, the site lists a host of other resources, including federal and state contacts for everything from obtaining licenses and grants to tax resources, regulations, and government contracting.

"I've seen other Ohio websites that are directories, but have never seen one that is as robust as this," McCollum says, noting that CentralOhioEntrepreneurs.org provides both a human component (McCollum) and extensive information directories.

Source: April McCollum, CentralOhioEntrepreneurs.org
Writer: Gene Monteith

A three-year-old Columbus firm is forging a new path in branding by developing browser themes that fans can download for their favorite sports teams, news sites or other entities.

Brand Thunder, founded in 2007 by former AOL/Netscape marketer Patrick Murphy, has provided themes -- or skins -- to more than 250 brands, including 60 NCAA universities.

"Brands are looking for new ways to engage their audience," says Murphy, the company's CEO. "Great brands are building these destination sites . . . but we all know people are getting their content elsewhere. So, how do these brands embrace their users, no matter where they are on the web?"

RSS feeds, Twitter feeds and Facebook updates can be built into brand themes, providing users with up-to-the-minute information about the goings on of their favorite brands -- and driving them to that organization's website, Murphy says.

"The Huffington Post one was one of our first clients. The average reader maybe visits their site three times a day. But we found if they were using our browser, usage was about 20 times a day."

The company shares advertising and merchandising revenue with clients based on clicks from within browser. But the principal revenue comes from the search function, enhanced by a recent partnership with Bing, which becomes the default search engine when a skin is downloaded (Murphy says users can easily change to a different engine afterward).

"As soon as that person clicks a sponsored link, Bing just made a buck or two,"  Murphy says -- and Brand Thunder earns a percentage.

Two and a half years ago, Brand Thunder received $350,000 from TechColumbus, and more recently received $1 million from the Third Frontier's Ohio Innovation Loan Fund. The company is closing on a second round of investment from North Coast Angel Fund and Ohio TechAngels.

Brand Thunder currently has seven employees -- three outside of Ohio -- but expects to add up to a dozen more in the next three to four years.

Source: Patrick Murphy, Brand Thunder
Writer: Gene Monteith