Cincinnati : Innovation + Job News

In the competitive convenience drink market, a group of Cincinnati entrepreneurs have found a niche: rapid rehydration for adults.

Hoist is a new drink developed by four friends looking for a way to recover from a little too much fun after parties. At the same time they noticed that to rehydrate after hard games and workouts, a friend in the NFL would drink Pedialyte -- a drink to hydrate sick kids.

"We started using Pedialyte, and it really worked, but the taste was syrupy," said Hoist President Kelly Heekin.

The idea for Hoist was born.

Heekin, and his partners, including his entrepreneur brother Brett, visited a beverage chemist in Chicago that helped them develop something similar to a sports drink but with double the electrolytes of Gatorade to rehydrate people fast. The drink debuted in Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky last October. Now it's being sold in about 850 locations, including convenience stores and at Walgreens in Columbus and Dayton as well.

Kelly Heekin, the only partner working full time for the company, is currently working to get the drinks into grocery stores, and recently made a deal with Remke/Bigg's stores. The drink is also sold on the Hoist website.

"We're really marketing right now, working on expansion into the market and gaining more sales. We definitely want a bigger footprint in the Midwest," Heekin said.

Hoist is sold in 12 oz. cans, and is manufactured by Pri-pak in Lawrenceburg, Ind. The company is gearing up for holiday sales, and in anticipation has ordered a production run of 200,000 cans.

Source: Kelly Heekin, Hoist
Writer: Feoshia Henderson

A medical device startup is moving from Tennessee to Cincinnati. Along the way, it's getting up to $2 million in venture capital and a new, locally based CEO.

NanoDetection Technology, relocating from Oak Ridge, is about two years from bringing its first product to market. Its patented Biosensor Detection System finds genes, antibodies or pathogens within a biological or environmental sample. It's designed to be used in emergency rooms, doctor's offices or by food safety or law enforcement organizations. The system works quickly; it takes just minutes instead of days to detect infections or bio threats, making it a potential game changer.

The company is currently looking for lab space in Cincinnati. CincyTech, the city's nonprofit venture capital investor, was instrumental in recruiting NanoDetection. This is the first company CincyTech has attracted from outside the state, and the nonprofit is participating in what's expected to be a $2-million venture capital round.

In the first round of financing, CincyTech has pledged $250,000, Southern Ohio Creates Companies is investing $100,000, and an unnamed private investor is putting in a sizeable stake. The U.S. Department of Agriculture awarded NanoDetection a $175,000 grant to research food-safety applications.

Joel Ivers, an experienced Cincinnati area executive, will come on as the NanoDetection's new CEO. Ivers has worked in biomedical fields in Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky for more than 30 years, most recently as president of Union Springs Pharmaceuticals in Northern Kentucky.

"The funds raised now will allow the company to complete clinical trials and obtain regulatory approval to launch the system in the health-care market in early 2013," Ivers says.

Source: CincyTech
Writer: Feoshia Henderson

Six new digital companies are pitching to investors in Cincinnati, New York City and San Francisco after finishing an inaugural 12-week program aimed at developing promising consumer-based businesses.

These companies were housed at The Brandery, Cincinnati's first consumer marketing startup accelerator. The Brandery's founders are Cincinnati digital marketing executive David Knox and serial entrepreneur J.B. Kropp, vice president of channel development at social media branding firm Vitrue.

The companies -- ranging from an innovative online gift-giving service to a wedding vendor website -- were chosen in a competitive process. They were unveiled to about 150 potential investors, mentors, area media and fellow entrepreneurs in a Demo Day in mid-November. Each received $20,000 in financing from The Brandery in return for a 6 percent equity stake in the company.

The founders of two companies actually moved to Cincinnati from other states because of the opportunity The Brandery provided. The founders of Giftiki, which offers an online version of a greeting card with money enclosed, came from Texas. Founders of TurboBOTZ, a video game management service for consumers, also moved to the Queen City from the Chicago area.

"Both of these companies will be staying in Cincinnati now that The Brandery is over," Knox said.

The accelerator sought company founders who could prove their success potential, with big ideas, who devote a full-time effort to their company, Knox said.

"We didn't want "lifestyle" companies that would employ a few people, but instead businesses with the potential to one day employee hundreds," Knox said.

For a full roundup of The Brandery's first class, or to apply for next year's class, go the The Brandery's website.

Source: Dave Knox, The Brandery
Writer: Feoshia Henderson

Zoo Games, Inc. has emerged as a major player in the development, publishing and distribution of interactive software for family-oriented consumers.

The Cincinnati company, which in 2007 sprang from Take Two -- the creator of Grand Theft Auto and one of the top game publishers worldwide -- focuses on more casual games.

"Triple A or blockbuster games like Grand Theft can cost from ten to eighty million dollars to develop, whereas development budgets for our casual games are anywhere from one hundred thousand to one million dollars," says Mark Seremet, Zoo Games CEO. "Casual games don't have steep learning curves and are generally played for short periods of time. The Wii and most iPhone apps are some examples of casual games."

Themes include sports, racing, game shows, strategy, and action-adventure. Zoo develops software for all major consoles, handheld gaming devices, PCs, and mobile and smart-phone devices, as well as the emerging "connected services." Its 100-game library will grow to 150 games by the end of the year.

The company's innovative content creation site, indiePub Games, develops opportunities in digital entertainment. The site, which consists of independent game developers and players, offers the resources to create new games and serves as a venue where enthusiasts can help to create new software. "indiePub is like an American Idol for video games," says Mark Seremet, the company's CEO.

Sales for the first nine months of the year show a 50 percent year-over-year increase compared to last year's sales of $48.5 million. Zoo's games vary in price from about $20 to $40.

Source: Mark Seremet, Zoo Games
Writer: Patrick G. Mahoney

Green jobs may well be the key to future prosperity in Greater Cincinnati, says a locally-sponsored study that recommends a Green Jobs Council, among other things, to jump start the region on the path toward growth in the rapidly expanding global green marketplace.

The report, "Pathways and Policies Towards Green Jobs in Cincinnati," was released in October and was sponsored by the Greater Cincinnati Foundation and the Blue Green Alliance.

In addition to a Green Jobs Council, the report also recommends:

- Defining green jobs
- Supporting existing companies in their efforts to transition to green jobs
- Developing a strong funding model to support additional investment
- Adding "green strings" to existing government incentives
- Adding, aligning and enhancing existing policies for green jobs

The project was launched in part due to a 2009 study released by the Pew Charitable Trusts, which listed Ohio as having the fourth most green jobs in the nation. Ohio was noted as having 2,800 green manufacturing related jobs, behind Oregon, Minnesota and California, which was the clear front-runner with over 13,000 green jobs.

The state is projected to lose as much as four percent of its traditional manufacturing jobs in the next four years. The report's goal is to intensify efforts to attract green manufacturing to the state to offset the loses of skilled manufacturing jobs in other areas. It also focuses on how to define more jobs as "green," says Shawn Hesse, an architect with Emersion Design and one of the authors of the study.

"If we keep the definition of green jobs too narrow, we'll never get to where we want to be. We should be focusing on 'greening' our existing jobs," he says.

The study concludes that Cincinnati's workers have the right skills to succeed in green manufacturing jobs and that these jobs can mean that manufacturing can continue to be a vital part of the region's economy. To make this happen, it says, governments, businesses, unions, non-profits and education organizations will have to work together to develop an economic strategy and policies.

Source: Shawn Hesse, Emersion Design
Writer: Val Prevish

Some of the nastiest environmental problems have the smallest solutions.

In the case of chemical spills -- particularly where solvents used in dry cleaning or as industrial degreasing agents, and fuel spills where hydrocarbons contaminate water or soil -- a Cincinnati company is making its name offering one of the smallest and most effective solutions.

Cincinnati-based CL Solutions, founded in 1999 out of a local environmental consultancy, is pioneering the use of tiny one-celled microbes to fight contamination. Over millions of years, the naturally occurring microbes have developed the ability to not only survive in contaminated environments, but thrive in them.

"You always read about biologists going all over the world and investigating how various plants and animals can be used to develop medicines," explains Mike Saul, CL Solution's vice president. "Microbiologists do the same thing, though they've found these tiny microbes that break down contaminants. They feed on them."

Behind them, they leave a clean, reclaimed environment, converting the contaminants into harmless, naturally recyclable by-products. They also do the job quicker than conventional methods, completing the job in a matter of weeks or months, rather than years.

To date, Saul says, CL Solutions has been responsible for more than 300 clean-ups across the country. The company's biggest success has been in Denver, where rifle scope and binocular producer Redfield Inc. suffered a huge chlorinated solvent contamination. After a decade of studies and other clean-up attempts, Redfield turned to CL Solutions.

"It was a huge plume, contaminating miles of land and affecting groundwater," says Saul. "There were residential areas included in that plume, and we were able to help protect those residents from the contamination. That's probably the project that we're most proud of."

Source: Mike Saul, CL Solutions
Writer: Dave Malaska

A conversation two years ago between Cincinnati physician Sambhu Choudhury and his cousin, an Iraqi veteran, sparked an idea for a medical device that could help save soldiers' limbs after traumatic bomb blasts.

"My cousin was an Army Ranger who did four tours in Iraq. After his last one, we were talking about him and his buddies and some of the things they went through. A lot of them are surviving blasts that would have killed them in the past, because of body armor. The armor covers their torso and organs, but not their limbs," Choudhury says.

From that conversation, the idea sprang for a sterile, stabilizing wound sleeve that would protect limbs during emergency transport. The idea got a boost in September as a winner of Xavier University's XLAB (Xavier Launch-a-Business) first-ever business competition.

Choudhury was one of eight Greater Cincinnati innovators awarded an academic year's worth of business mentoring services designed to take ideas from concept to marketplace.

Choudhury is an orthopedist who developed the idea along with fellow Cincinnatians Sean Lynch, a certified physican's assistant and Arturo Sanchez, an engineer. Xavier is giving the developers something they lack: business acumen. They will get a business adviser, consulting services, access to Xavier workshops, mentors and networking events. They will also get help in developing a business plan and a meeting with potential investors for their new company Concepto.

"As a company we don't have a business background," Choudhury said. "Developing the technology is easy for us, and we have a good handle on it. But we need to work with people who can help us get into the market without breaking the bank."

Source: Sambhu Choudhury, Concepto founder
Writer: Feoshia Henderson

Cincinnati Innovates awarded $25,000 to Jocelyn Cates for Venue Agent, an event-venue booking website application.

Venue Agent was chosen from among 301 online entries. More than 16,000 votes were cast for the HYPE! Community Choice Award. The competition was open to anyone with an idea or an invention who has a connection to the Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky MSA. Prizes totaled $80,000.

Venue Agent helps brides and event planners find and book venues for weddings. The same tool helps venues to promote off-peak and off-season discounts.

"Many brides don't know that booking on a Thursday or Friday could save them 50 percent on their venue - and many venues have a tough time selling off-season dates. VenueAgent is like the Hotels.com of event venues," Cates says.

"The purpose of Cincinnati Innovates is to identify high potential entrepreneurs and technologies and connect them with more than 50 local resources for entrepreneurs," says Elizabeth Edwards, founder of Metro Innovation, a catalyst for innovation and entrepreneurship.

The competition was produced by Metro Innovation, with the Taft Stettinius & Hollister  law firm, CincyTech, the Northern Kentucky eZone, and 22 area sponsors.

"This year we really saw more winners than we had awards to give out," says attorney James Zimmerman, a partner at Taft. "From biotechnology and the Internet to consumer products, medical devices and green technology, the range of innovation has been amazing."

Bob Coy, president of CincyTech, says the competition helps to spur local entrepreneurial activity, which then spurs economic growth.

"We've been very pleased with the kinds of participants Cincinnati Innovates is attracting," says Coy. "We are looking for strong startups in which to invest, and we've seen many good ideas coming out of this competition."

Source: Jocelyn Cates, Venue Agent, and Bob Coy, CincyTech
Writer: Patrick Mahoney

Cyber spying is the stuff of blockbuster movies, but it is also a very real nightmare for businesses and government agencies trying to keep their information secure in the age of internet communication.

Northrop Grumman subsidiary Xetron, based in Cincinnati, is partnering with the University of Cincinnati School of Computing Sciences and Informatics to offer its employees and graduate students at UC, coursework designed specifically to address some of the skills needed to prevent cyber security breeches. Students completing the coursework can earn a master's degree in computer science with a focus on cyber informatics.

"(Cyber security) issues are one of the most serious threats we face nationally," says Pabir Bhattacharya, director of the School of Computing Sciences and Informatics. "The more we use the Internet, the more we need to make our transactions secure. With mobile communication like cell phones there is an increased risk."

The 29 employees of Xetron enrolled in the coursework and the roughly two dozen graduate students at the UC campus will learn about skills such as encryption, detecting intrusion, maintaining a secure network and preventing viruses, spyware and malware, says Bhattacharya.

Classes will be held at both the UC campus as well as Northrop Grumman's Xetron facility, with live video feeds connecting the two locations. Both UC professors and Northrop Grumman employees working as adjunct professors for the university will teach.

Skills that students learn through the program are critical in today's information climate, says Martin Simoni, site director for Northrop Grumman's Xetron business unit.

"Educating and developing home-grown talent is critical in today's highly competitive job market," says Simoni. Our cyber master's program will allow our technical experts to groom students on the job and in the classroom."

About 20 percent of Xetron's engineering staff are UC graduates, says Bill Martini, director of engineering and operations, Northrop Grumman Xetron facility. "We want to educate (engineering students) so they can be better prepared for the work force," says Martini.

Sources: Pabir Bhattacharya, University of Cincinnati;  Martin Simoni and Bill Martini, Xetron
Writer: Val Prevish

A $5-million federal grant is aimed at revving up the skills of Ohio's displaced auto and other workers, training them for jobs in the growing bioscience world.

The grant was awarded to BioOhio, a nonprofit, Columbus-based bioscience accelerator, for its Ohio Bioscience Industry Workforce Preparedness Project. BioOhio doled grants to Cincinnati State Technical and Community College,  Columbus State Community College,  Cuyahoga Community College, Lakeland Community College,  Owens Community College and Sinclair Community College.

The initiative will take place over three years, and more than $2.8 million of grant has been set aside for tuition reimbursement and trainee scholarships

The dollars will be used to create new programs or build on new ones at the colleges, which are partnering with employers and labor, workforce development and non-profit organizations to develop programs to retrain and identify workers in Ohio's auto and other declining industries.

The program is focused not just on education and training but moving people into jobs through the public and private partnerships says Dr. Bill Tacon, Senior Director, Workforce & Education at BioOhio.

"We will help them find a job. We're not simply training and just letting them go. Each has an industry advisory board, and when we got the grant the industry advisory board signed a letter of commitment saying they are looking at new potential hires," Tacon says.

The program has a goal of retraining 660 displaced or underemployed workers in declining industries

Northeast Ohio is leading the charge, because the region's colleges have several programs in place that likely will spread to other campuses, Tacon says. For example, Cuyahoga Community College and partners have a medical device and pharmaceutical manufacturing program that could be implemented across the state.

Source: Bill Tacon, BioOhio
Writer: Feoshia Henderson

Founded in 1995, Dovetail Solar and Wind began modestly, installing solar systems for rural-Ohio residents seeking to go off-the-grid. Solar panels were incredibly expensive � but still a substantial savings for many who could not afford to have a utility company run power to their homes.

A little federal and state legislation changed everything. For the better.

"Prior to 2006, it was almost all residential," says Dovetail vice president Alan Frasz. "The (Energy Policy Act of 2005) offered a 30 percent tax credit. Businesses took notice."

Then, a second tremendous boost for the company, Frasz says, came from the renewable portfolio standard bill that Ohio approved in 2008, requiring 25 percent of the state's energy to be generated from alternative and renewable sources.

"We doubled our business," he adds. "We've been growing quite a bit in the last in few years."

A member of the University of Toledo Clean and Alternative Energy Incubator, Dovetail now provides energy systems for solar electric, solar thermal and wind � and has installed 175 systems such across Ohio and its neighboring states.

"We expect to finish the year between six and seven millions dollars in sales," Frasz says. "In a worldwide economy, the beauty of renewable energy is that the wind and sun are free. They don't put out any pollution � and renewable energy creates clean, green jobs in Ohio, as opposed to other places."

There are now offices in all corners of Ohio: Athens, Columbus, Cleveland and Cincinnati. In 2006, there were just a handful of people employed with the company. There are now 32 full time employees, but Frasz says that number could hit 50 by the end of 2011.

"Rather than having this money going out of the state and burning in a smoke-stack, let's take some of that and put it into renewable energy," Frasz says.

Source: Alan Frasz, Dovetail Solar
Writer: Colin McEwen

From the spark of an idea, Noel Gauthier hopes to release a firestorm in the fight against world poverty and its risks.

Gauthier, a graduate student in the University of Cincinnati's industrial design program, took a homework assignment a step further, resulting in FireStop, a low-cost, environmentally responsible fire extinguisher to fight fires in urban slums around the world.

"Our assignment was to create a more ergonomic fire extinguisher," Gauthier says, "but as I looked into it, in most places these days there are sprinkler systems and fire retardant materials. In those places, you don't need a fire extinguisher. So I started to look at where extinguishers are needed."

He soon figured out that low-income housing with dense populations, especially in poorer countries, is where they needed extinguishers the most and set about developing a low-cost solution instead.

FireStop is a one-button system that is made of easily manufactured plastic parts and a cardboard tube, filled with a simple fire retardant compound. Gauthier figures each extinguisher would take $1 to make.

Along with being affordable, Gauthier says he wanted to make FireStop so simple that populations protected by it could also manufacture the extinguisher, eventually turning it into an exportable product and helping fight poverty that's part of the problem to start with.

Others soon saw the value of Gauthier's idea. Last year, FireStop took the $5,000 third prize in the commercialization category of Cincinnati Innovates, a contest to recognize entrepreneurial ideas. Also, the local law firm of Taft, Stettinius and Hollister aided Gauthier by filing FireStop's patent application on a pro bono basis.

Gauthier and his team are working on the final engineering specs for FireStop, which he hopes will be ready to start production by spring. In the meantime, while he's finishing his degree, he's also launched his own design firm, UMi Design and Development. And he's set his sights on FireStop's successor � similarly simple-design alternatives to expensive medical devices.

Source: Noel L. Gauthier, UMi Design and Development
Writer: Dave Malaska

Nearly 5 million people in the last month have logged onto SparkPeople, a free, Cincinnati-based web site designed help people connect with like-minded folks pushing toward their life goals, from weight loss to stress management to fit pregnancy.

SparkPeople was founded in 2001 by University of Cincinnati graduate and former Procter & Gamble employee, Chris Downie, with central mission: to spark millions of people to reach their goals and lead healthier lives. The site does this in a myriad of ways: through nutrition, health and fitness tools, and maybe most importantly, through personal support with online message boards, blogs and social networking groups.

"You can look at just at the name and see how we are different. We try to tap into positive thinking and making a true lifestyle change. So it's not just about health. Using these same techniques, people have told us they got a promotion at job, or are being a better parent. They take small steps and get huge life breakthroughs," Downie said.

Downie started SparkPeople.com with the proceeds of Up4Sale.com, which he sold to Ebay in 1998. It was the online auction site's first acquisition. And though SparkPeople's thrust is health, fitness and weight loss, for some the site has affected their lives in other ways.
SparkPeople has 26 full-time and 6 part-time employees. The company plans to hire several more in the near future.

The site has a total of 8.5 million registered users. Many will use it for a short period of time, leave, then come back months or several years later when they need a refresher.

Within the last year the site has launched SparkAmerica.com, a national campaign to help people of all ages exercise more, eat better, make healthier choices and enjoy active, healthy lives. The company also has launched a section devoted to people with Type II Diabetes and now you can Spark on the go with free mobile apps.

Sources: Chris Downie and Tim Metzner, SparkPeople
Writer: Feoshia Henderson

Those who run customer contact centers are constantly challenged with scheduling scores of agents to handle calls. While they may have a good idea of how many agents they'll need tomorrow, most can't predict with any accuracy how many they will need a week or two from now.

WorkFlex Solutions has developed software to do just that, says Larry Schwartz, Chairman and CEO of the Montgomery-based firm.
Schwartz formed the company last year with Mitesh Desai, two years after leaving Convergys to open a consulting firm.

The company's signature product, WorkFlex Manager, is based on the manufacturing industry's concept of real-time supply chain management. The turning point in forming the company was the convergence of Schwartz's idea with an application built earlier by Desai that was helping the hotel industry schedule rooms and rates. WorkFlex Manager is now in service with a major outsourcer, and a number of other clients are preparing to implement it, Schwartz says.

WorkFlex's potential has been recognized by the venture capital community, which has invested $1.5 million in the young company. CincyTech, which invested $250,000, led the round, making WorkFlex its 16th portfolio company.

The company currently employs two in North America, and another dozen in India. But as it grows, Schwartz says the company will add business development and marketing jobs, primarily in the Cincinnati area.

There also is the potential to leverage the company's workforce solution to create more call-center jobs here in Ohio and elsewhere in the United States, he says.

Source: Larry Schwartz, WorkFlex Solutions
Writer: Gene Monteith

Cincinnati attorney Candace Klein is a good girl gone bad, and she wants to take other women with her.

That's exactly why she launched Bad Girl Ventures early this year. But really, it's not as bad as you might think. Bad Girl wants to help fill the gap between small women-owned startups looking for loans and funders who want to help create jobs.

"It's really difficult for women-owned startups right now," says Klein. "Personally, I've given to so many charities, political causes and organizations. I thought, 'If there was a way I could give just a portion of that to a startup company that would create jobs, I would.' I think we're really missing the boat on supporting women-owned startups."

Bad Girl Ventures is based on the micro-financing model of international organizations like Kiva, where small loans from individuals are bundled. It's also a nonprofit, so contributions are tax deductible.

Klein believes BGV is the first of its kind in the nation because it pairs the micro-lending model with a curriculum and a focus on women. Five chosen startups will undergo a six-week entrepreneur curriculum, where they will learn the building blocks to starting a business and be responsible for submitting a business plan, WBE application, etc. While one of the five entrepreneurs will receive a $25,000 low interest loan from Bad Girl Ventures, other partner banks will be approached to finance the other participants.

Eligible businesses must be at least 51 percent women-owned and in the sectors of retail, restaurant or professional services. The first Bad Girl class has recently applied for loans in a competitive application process that will allow them to get their businesses off the ground. The chosen businesses will be announced later this month.

So how does Klein define a bad girl? Bad Girl (Bad gurl) n. -- A female with an inner voice urging her to start something. Typically adverse to authority, she creates energy with her ideas and is a natural born leader. Peers admire her grace and intellect and the community is stronger as a result of her presence.

Source: Candace Klein, founder Bad Girl Ventures
Writer: Feoshia Henderson