Dayton/West Central Ohio : Innovation + Job News

Tight budgets have become a way of life for school districts, and many businesses that work with schools have felt the pinch of those pennies.  But one Dayton company is enjoying steady growth with a long list of school clients by helping them save money.

Energy Optimizers USA was founded in 2009 by Greg Smith and has grown from a two-man operation then to 15 employees today.  The company designs and implements energy systems that utilize renewable energy and conservation measures to help cut the power bills for their customers.

“We’ve grown pretty rapidly,” says Smith, who formerly worked for Trane in Dayton.  “There is a strong demand for this type of thing right now.”

 Energy Optimizers’ primary customers are K-12 schools and government buildings throughout Ohio and the Midwest.  

“I like working with education,” says Smith, who says he formed his own company because he wanted to expand the type of work he was doing with Trane.  “It’s nice to help out the people that are there to help kids.”

Smith’s company implements plans that usually save his customers about 20 percent a year on power bills and include everything from new light bulbs to solar panels and wind mills.  “If it uses energy, we’ve got it,” he says.

Energy Optmizers works with partners in all areas of energy use -- HVAC, solar, lighting and more.  They handle project development and installation and will even manage the system afterward.

“We really do it all, A to Z,” says Smith.  “As I like to say, ‘people understand it when they have one throat to choke,’” he says with a laugh.

To date, they have already implemented systems for at least 100 school districts and they expect that number to double in the next year.  When a client is paying about $500,000 per year for energy, saving $100,000 on their bill is a big deal.  

Smith says he is looking to hire two more employees right now, and expects hiring to continue over the next year.

Source: Greg Smith, Energy Optimizers
Writer: Val Prevish

The next generation of Ohio entrepreneurs is in good hands, according to a prestigious ranking of college and university entrepreneurship programs.

The Princeton Review and Entrepreneur Magazine surveyed more than 2,000 entrepreneurship programs, and ranked three Ohio universities among the top 25 undergraduate programs in the U.S. The University of Dayton's Entrepreneurial Leadership Program is ranked no. 12, followed by Miami University's Institute for Entrepreneurial Leadership at no. 15, and Xavier University's Sedler Family Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at 25.

The survey covered the 2010-2011 academic year, and ranked schools based on features inside and outside of the classroom. That included academics and requirements, percentage of students enrolled in entrepreneurship programs, and percentage of graduates and faculty had run, started or bought a successful business. The survey also looked at schools' partnerships with other institutions to allow access to the entrepreneurship program, and budgets for clubs and organizations that support entrepreneurship.

The results put the universities in the company of number one-ranked University of Houston, as well as Baylor University, Syracuse University and Brigham Young University.

At the three universities, there are a total of 865 students enrolled in entrepreneurship programs, who have access to 21 entrepreneurship organizations and clubs and 14 mentor programs.

Sources: Debora Del Valle, Director for Public Relations Xavier University; and University of Dayton communications
Writer: Feoshia Henderson

New technologies are worthless if people and businesses can't easily use them. Sometimes it takes an outsider's view to take an innovation from a theory to its best practical use.

NoBull Innovation has been helping entrepreneurs and companies in Ohio and beyond develop new science and technology-based products, services and processes for more than three years. The owners have at times invested in some of these new technologies and helped launch startups in the process.

The Dayton firm works as an innovation catalyst creating new products through physical science, biology, electronics, and engineering. It works with clients who are early in the innovation process or who are trying to solve specific problems through technology.

NoBull was founded by former veteran Miami University chemistry professor Gilbert Pacey, former Procter & Gamble product developer and scientist Wolfgang Spendel and Todd Dockum, director of the Miami Heritage Technology Park. The company has two employees and is applying for federal grants that could allow them to hire two-to-three more in the next 12 months.

"People come to us who have a technology-based idea but need some help. We provide experience in developing technologies and help them get their idea to the next level. We also have people who have a good technology but are naive on the business end, and we can help them as well," Pacey says.

The company often helps clients discover multiple and new uses for their ideas beyond their preconceived notions.
"Sometimes people get tunnel vision and Wolf is really good at helping them see beyond that," Pacey adds.

Among the companies NoBull has worked with are Algaeventure Systems, Inc., a clean energy tech company in Marysville, and Applied Nanoinfusion and VCG Chromatography, both in Dayton. NoBull is partial owner of VCG.

NoBull is located in a facility of The Institute for Development and Commercialization of Advanced Sensor Technology, (or IDCAST).  IDCAST, is a research and development accelerator established through a $28 million Ohio Third Frontier grant.

Source: Gilbert Pacey, NoBull Innovation
Writer: Feoshia Henderson

Christopher Che formed Che International Group, LLC in 2005 with the goal of acquiring and growing subsidiary companies from diverse industries.

Since then, Che's first acquisition -- Hooven Dayton Corp., which he purchased in 2007 -- has doubled its revenues (from $10 million in 2007 to $20 million in 2010) and made an acquisition of its own -- Benchmark Graphics of Richmond, Ind.

On June 27, Che International made its second acquisition -- Akron-based Digital Color Imaging, which was promptly renamed Digital Color International, Che says. Altogether, Che International now employs about 150 and primarily serves Fortune 1,000 customers, Che says.

The acquisition of Digital Color, which provides digital, offset and wide format printing as well as direct mail, warehousing and fulfillment services, complements Hooven Dayton, a Dayton-based provider of high quality prime product labels, flexible packaging, promotional coupons and specialty printing solutions, Che says.

"Our goal is for the Che International Group to have subsidiary companies across industry lines but serving the same customer base," he explains.

Che's success as a small-business leader during a slow economy has been noticed not just in west central Ohio but by the White House. In May, he was asked to host a "listening session" of President Obama's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness. In June, Che was appointed to the council itself. 

"They felt I could bring my expertise to the council as a small business," he says "and help explain what it takes to grow during tough times and what some of our issues are."

How has he been able to grow?

"We focused on really training our people and we did not cut down on marketing budgets," he says."And we developed a very highly impactful value proposition to take to customers -- a value proposition that would make a difference to their bottom line."

Che, who came to the United States from Camaroon in 1980 to attend college, says Ohio has been "a beautiful place for me. It's proven to be very supportive. Whenever I needed them they were there to help me with low-interest loans or training and so forth."

Meanwhile, Che International Group is working on additional acquisitions as well as companies that might merge with Digital Color, Che says.

Source: Christopher Che, Che International Group
Writer: Gene Monteith



 

Flyer Angels may sound like a World War II-era bomber squadron . . . It isn't.

It is the name of a venture investment group managed by a group of University of Dayton undergraduates and endowed by an alumnus.

The new program, launched with a $1-million gift from 1969 alumnus Ron McDaniel, has helped to make the school's entrepreneurship program one of the best in the country. As part of Flyer Angels, about 200 students receive hands-on experience in due diligence, in finding and securing sources of capital, and even decide which business plans to bankroll and which to walk away from.

In March, Flyer Angels made its first investment: Commuter Advertising, winner of the school's 2010 Business Plan Competition.  Commuter Advertising is a high-tech startup that sells ads on board public transportation. The company received $35,000 from the university, after students vetted its business plan. 

"So far we've made six investments, most of them through our collaboration with Ohio TechAngels," says Dean McFarlin, chairman of the university's management and marketing department. "We're looking at a number of companies for possible investment right now. Some of them are through our own sources, and others through our collaboration with OTA." 

McFarlin says all of the companies under consideration are technology-based.

"The main motivation for us is education. Making money and getting a great return is secondary. There are very few undergrad students in the country who can say they were doing private investing or angel-equity types of deals, and making decisions and doing due diligence as undergraduates."

Source: Dean McFarlin, University of Dayton
Writer: Patrick G. Mahoney

Former dermatology resident Keoni Nguyen fully intends to practice medicine someday. But right now, all his time is taken up with his invention: an innovative synthetic skin that has a number of large biomedical companies chomping at the bit.

Dayton-based Dermsurg Scientific is working feverishly to fill orders for the Il Duomo, a model of a human head over which is laid Nguyen's patented, human-like system of synthetic skin, muscles, nerves, fat and cartilage.

Using an assembly team of five, the company is building models for elite clients like the Mayo Clinic, Walter Reed Hospital and Ethicon, Nguyen says. He adds that Johnson & Johnson has asked for a custom model that can be used with a new facelift device the company is planning to debut in Europe later this year.

Heady stuff for the former Ohio University medical resident who got tired of doing sutures on pigs feet.

As students and well into the residency of most dermatologists, getting a chance to to work on real human skin is rare, Nguyen says. Other synthetics are also a poor substitute for real skin, he says. He sees his product as ideal for training the next generation of dermatologists and surgeons.

"I took the last three years off," he says. "The first year I did a lot of research on the properties of the skin and got a provisional patent. But I needed more money because I was running out and couldn't sell any more of my toys."

Nguyen says he financed his patent application by selling his prized carbon-frame time trial bike, and researched and wrote the provisional patent himself because he couldn't afford a lawyer. Eventually, Dr. Thomas Olsen, a Wright State University dermatology professor who also runs the Dermatopathology Laboratory of Central States learned about his work.

"So he gave me a grant to provide me with what I needed to get this thing to where it is today."

Other help has come from the Dayton Development Coalition, which has provided funding to help Dermsurg finish demonstration units, hire employees to evolve its management team, move from its current location to its own space and develop better molds for the Il Duomo. The Coalition also provided funds to embed an entrepreneur in residents to help Nguyen develop a business plan and investment summary.

As for practicing medicine someday, Nguyen says, "that's the whole point, I want to go back. This whole thing started because of my passion for it. If I didn't have the passion for it it never would have been created. My passion is to teach and contribute something to medicine."

Source: Keoni Nguyen, DermSurg
Writer: Gene Monteith

Eyes in the sky. That's what Persistent Surveillance Systems  of Xenia provides companies and organizations.

PSS has six pilots and three Cessna aircraft on which its Hawkeye video surveillance camera is mounted and operated.

According to Ross McNutt, president of PSS, they've used their Hawkeye camera system to gather environmental data on the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, provide emergency support for the Iowa National Guard during a flood, help with traffic management and security at NASCAR races and support police in several major cities, including Baltimore and Philadelphia.

Last summer, Persistent Surveillance Systems received a grant of $900,000 from the Ohio Third Frontier initiative to develop wide-area airborne surveillance technology for continuous second-by-second video monitoring of city-size areas for law enforcement and security purposes.

What PSS developed is the Hawkeye II camera system.

"Hawkeye II is a colorized higher-resolution camera with 192 million pixels," McNutt explains. "Our original Hawkeye system was 88 million pixels. The Hawkeye II camera is comparable to 600 simultaneous video cameras. It enables us to watch a five-mile by five-mile area of a major city." 

The live video is downlinked in real time to PSS analysts at the command center.

"When we're working with police departments, police officers are also in our command center and in constant contact with police dispatchers who give them information about crimes in progress, "McNutt says. PSS has assisted law enforcement organizations throughout the United States with more than 30 murder investigations since 2007.

PSS started in 2007 with four employees and now has 25.

"We're partnering with Clark State Community College and the Advanced Technical Intelligence Center for Human Systems Development to train more analysts," he says. They have 45 analysts in training and plan on hiring many of them to work on the new Hawkeye II system.

"We're very appreciative of the support of the Third Frontier program," McNutt states. "It's allowing us to grow at a much faster rate."

Source: Ross McNutt, Persistent Surveillance System
Writer: Lynne Meyer

JibeCast was born of frustration after Mark Ford, the company's president, found few commercial solutions to the challenge of securely distributing training videos to new sales representatives of Qwasi, his previous startup.

"I found myself challenged to not sit on training calls every single day to regurgitate the same information over and over again," Ford says. "I found myself sitting on webinars doing a lot of internal activity versus helping my sales team close big deals. I started to think about how we might be able to leverage online video to basically put myself into a cloning machine so that I could distribute that training message consistently and effectively."

The result is JibeCast, a cloud-based service that allows clients to secure their video content, distribute it easily and track immediately who accesses it. Formed in Dayton last year, the company has distributed the product privately and plans a beta launch in the next few weeks.

"Video presents a unique challenge in that most companies infrastructures aren't well equipped to manage online video," Ford says. "The media streaming and encoding aspects of handling video are totally different than putting up a pdf on your website. And then properly formatting it and being able to secure it online is a challenge for most organizations.

JibeCast is targeting small to midsize businesses that either have a sales focus or heavy training component.

"We also have a focus on healthcare market, where they are constantly being mandated to comply to new government standards and they have to continually audit their employees and teams on process and procedure. So anywhere where there are process and procedure requirements for tracking and auditing are also a sweet spots," Ford says.

Ford lives outside of Philadelphia, but -- with the help of the Dayton Development Coalition and $300,000 in Ohio Third Frontier funds -- established the company in Dayton.

"Dayton provides access to affordable talent," Ford explains. We looked at Ohio, Cincinnati, Dayton, as a great hotbed for technology, and we said there's just a tremendous talent pool here and it comes at a significantly reduced cost."

Source: Mark Ford, JibeCast
Writer: Gene Monteith

Pyrograf III and Black Ice are hardly household names among the casually tech-savvy. But in the rarified circles of research scientists and high-tech braintrusts, the products pioneered by Cedarville-based Applied Sciences Inc. are considered integral to the next wave of technological wonders.

Those are just two of several products turned out by ASI, a pioneer in nanofiber technology. Founded in 1984 by defense researchers with funding from the state, the company was producing carbon nanofibers -- in reality, nanotubes -- before the term was actually coined.

Offering low-density, high-strength attributes as well as unique qualities in thermal and electrical conductivity, nanofibers are omnipresent in almost all electronics today. Because of those unique properties, they have a wide range of applications, from medical and industrial products to aerospace uses, energy storage and computer components. And ASI was in on the ground floor.

"When people were making milligram samples of nanofibers in labs, we were already applying an industrial model, assuring quality control and making huge quantities of nanofibers," says the company's director of research and development, Dave Burton.

ASI's Pryograf line is now the gold standard for improving the electrical, thermal and mechanical properties of polymer-based materials. Black Ice, a "thermally hyper-conductive diamond/carbon/carbon composite" incorporates a thin, diamond coating to the fibers that the company has developed with its partner, Nano Graphite Materials Inc.

Well suited for electrical systems that require high heat dissipation, Black Ice is seen as a key component for the next generation of compact, high-power electronics like smartphones and electronic tablets -- it was recently named one of the 100 most technologically significant new products by R&D Magazine.

Meanwhile, the work continues at ASI, with its horizons ever-expanding.

"Initially, there were only a few applications that we targeted for nanofibers, but as time goes by we keep finding more and more uses," adds Burton. "Every month, we get calls from someone else who want to use our products for applications that no one has thought of. It's a constantly growing field."

Source: Dave Burton, Applied Sciences Inc.
Writer: Dave Malaska

Composite Technical Services is among innovative U.S. companies that aspire to create an environmental and economically sustainable future.

The company, founded by CEO Enrico Ferri in 2009, is built on technology licensed from partner Cimtech labs, SEPMA and VEM in Italy. It develops bio-based resins, flame retardants, composite gas cylinders and filament winding machines for commercial use.

CTS has seven employees and one intern. They are hiring two new employees and a second summer intern, Talentino said. The company is located in the National Composite Center in Kettering, near Dayton. In 2010, the company received a $25,000 tech grant from the Dayton Development Coalition.

Composite Technical Service's first product line is ExaPhen, a resin that comes from cashew nut shells that can be used in a wide range of applications, from plastics, epoxy hardeners to adhesives and coatings. A second product line, Nanofire, is a line of liquid flame retardant additives that is targeting at the PVC industry.

"We extract the liquid from a cashew nut shell and that liquid gets purified and synthesized into a number of different products. It is like petroleum in that it has the high performance and variety to be used in a number of industries but with the added benefit that Mother Nature already engineered, the phenolic structure that makes the product inherently flame resistant. We are continually looking for other sources," said company Business Development Director Debra Talentino.

The company, which is heavy into research in development, is seeking out other natural sources that industry creates by-products or "waste" to raw materials that can be turned into products for everyday use.

Source: Debra Talentino, Composite Technical Services
Writer: Feoshia Henderson

You can follow Feoshia on Twitter @feoshiawrites

The company that pioneered proton beam therapy is bringing its technology to Ohio.

Loma Linda, Calif.-based Optivus Proton Therapy, Inc., along with partner American Cancer Treatment System, soon will begin building a $170-million research and treatment campus in near Dayton that could initially put 2,000 Ohioans to work.

Late last year, the State of Ohio announced a seven-year, $600,000 tax credit for the project. It will be the first Ohio facility for Optivus and one of only eight such treatment centers in the nation, says Jenny Camper, Optivus' Columbus-based spokeswoman.

Camper says the company plans first to build a research/development and production center on the 23-acre campus near the new Austin Interchange in Miami Township. That facility will be followed by a treatment center at which patients will receive radiation therapy using the proton beam technology, she says. Construction, which has not yet begun, will be completed over the next two to three years, she says.

Proton beam therapy was pioneered by Dr. James Slater, whose son Jon heads the company. Because it can pinpoint cancer cells more accurately than some other forms of radiation therapy, it is sometimes used to fight tumors in sensitive areas like the spinal cord, eyes and the brain. While the company says the campus will primarily serve those in the Cincinnati-Dayton corridor, it will draw patients from outlying regions as well.

Optivus estimates that 2,000 temporary jobs will be created between now and 2013, with 800 jobs from 2014 forward.

The day after Optivus and its partners announced the project last May, Kettering Medical Center announced a collaboration with American Shared Hospital Services to build an $80-million proton beam center near Dayton.  While some have questioned the need for two such centers where none existed before, Camper says Optivus believes the two centers will, in the long run, complement one another.

Source: Jenny Camper, Optivus Proton Therapy
Writer: Gene Monteith

Alfred W. French founded The French Oil Mill Machinery Company in 1900 to serve the linseed oil industry. The company's location in Piqua made sense: West central Ohio was a leading flax seed growing region, from which linseed oil is made. And those who processed the oil needed presses from which to extract the commodity.

While linseed oil is rarely found anymore, French is still going strong, thanks to innovative technologies that have branched out over the years to serve industries as diverse as the rubber and aerospace sectors.

Today, French makes screw presses to extract vegetable oil from seeds and nuts, screw presses for synthetic rubber and to separate solids and liquids, and screw presses and fiber presses for removing liquid from wood pulp fiber. The company also manufactures hydraulic presses for molding parts for a number of industries, including the medical and aerospace industries.

Tayte French Lutz, the company's marketing coordinator and a fourth-generation French, says the company is still growing, despite an off year in 2008. French hired 25 people last year, bringing employment in Piqua to 63.

"2008 was tough," she says, "but 2010 was an amazing year. 2011 is already looking to be an incredible year. Our sales for this year forecasted to be about 50 percent more than last year."

A more robust domestic business is also in the forecast.

"In 2010 about 70 percent of our business was exports and 30 percent domestic. For 2011 it's going to be about 50/50."

French has customers in more than 80 countries, and equipment on every continent but Antarctica. The company recently announced it would begin manufacturing operations in China to serve the oil seed and polymer industries there.

While the company tends to fly under most people's radar, French Lutz notes that some of our most common items may have been made with the help of a French machine.

"If you eat a potato chip, it's possible that the oil could have been pressed on a French press. If you're out playing golf, the inside of the golf ball could have been pressed on a French hydraulic press. There's just things in our everyday lives that our equipment could have touched."

Source: Tayte French Lutz, French Oil Mill Machinery Company
Writer: Gene Monteith

What began several years ago as a monthly brown bag lunch for entrepreneurs and others to hear about business trends and opportunities has grown into the Dayton-based Entrepreneurial Development Network.

"The idea was that we didn't want anybody to slip through the cracks," explains Ray Hagerman, VP-investments for the Dayton Development Coalition, one of the lead partners. "Somebody might come to one of the group members and have a particular need, and they couldn't necessarily help them but perhaps someone else could."

That informal approach has evolved into a network of 10 to 15 groups that provide entrepreneurs with key resources, including education and strategic planning assistance, organizational development services, funding opportunities, mentoring, professional services, incubation space and trade association benefits.

The luncheons continue, but much of the action is network-based and takes place outside those gatherings.

"We don't have our own website, we're not part of a formalized entity that's separately branded in and of itself," Hagerman says." Whenever people come through he door, if they come to the Dayton Area Chamber of Commerce or come to whomever it might be, they usually just start there and those folks will shuttle them over to an SBDC (Small Business Development Center) or they'll shuttle them to us, or if we get a lead where we can't help we'll shuttle them to someone else."

While that makes it difficult to track the number of people who have been helped, the process is working, Hagerman says.

"The EDN concept is a really good way of getting in the know in the area of entrepreneurial services that are out there, funding mechanisms that are out there and just the general knowledge base," he says. "And it's also become a good way for entrepreneurs to connect with potential technology generators. Not everybody that's a researcher or an inventor or a technologist wants to be an entrepreneur, but they sure would like to see their something be done with their gadget."

Source: Ray Hagerman, the Dayton Development Coalition
Writer: Gene Monteith

"If you're told it's impossible to do, we're the right place to come," says Patrick Hood, CEO and president of Dayton-based Cornerstone Research Group.

Started in Hood's basement in 1997, Cornerstone is a research and development organization that takes advanced materials technology from molecule to commercial application -- what Hood calls "a for profit incubator."

Hood says the company, which has as many as 60 projects under way at any one time, bridges the gap between market needs and technology. While the company focuses on advanced materials, its solutions have been applied in virtually every industry segment except for IT and pharmaceuticals he says.

A good example of how Cornerstone works is Spintech Ventures, a Cornerstone spinoff that takes advantage of Cornerstone's patented shape memory polymer technology and innovative tooling to make complex composite parts. The technology was developed at Cornerstone, but the early stage Spintech will give it legs.

Hood says that the typical cost of a complexly shaped carbon composite part is about $1,000 per pound. But the cost of the raw materials is only $25 to $50 per pound. The rest of the cost comes from labor and tooling, he says. Spintech's technology can reduce typical production costs by 85 percent, he says.

Cornerstone recently was one of 44 businesses nationwide that received the U.S. Small Business Administration's Tibbets Award, given to companies and individuals that drive innovation and create jobs through the agency's Small Business Innovation Research program.

In November, the company received the Dayton Business Journal's Business of the Year award in the Community Supporter category for its community involvement.

Over the years, the Cornerstone and Spintech have benefited from awards from the Ohio Third Frontier initiative, Hood says. Together, both companies currently employ about 100.

Source: Patrick Hood, Cornerstone Research Group
Writer: Gene Monteith

A Dayton company is testing a new sensor that will help utilities in their quest to work smarter with technology that enables them to monitor power lines round the clock and keep energy flowing efficiently.

Tom McCann, president of Grid Sentry, says that the company's sensor products, Line Sentry and PQ Sentry, are attached to power lines and help a utility company to identify inefficiencies that might cause it to use secondary generation sources to meet peak demand loads.

Because the sensors can help reduce peak demand loads, they can help the utility save money and more quickly adapt to changing power needs, he says.

"We have talked with 25 utilities, and all but one said they were interested in our product," says McCann. "There are tremendous inefficiencies in the distribution grid. This helps them manage those so they can avoid using secondary generating capacity, which is expensive."

Peak demand for electricity is expected to grow by 19 percent in the next 10 years, he added. Capacity, however, is only expected to grow by six percent. Maximizing current capacity is essential, says McCann.

Grid Sentry was founded about a year ago to commercialize technology developed by Defense Research Associates of Dayton.

Prototypes of the products are now in use at Dayton Power & Light Company and are being planned for more major utilities. McCann says Grid Sentry is hoping to start wide scale sales of its products in the U.S. in May next year.

They currently have six employees and could hire as many as 40 more by the end of 2011, he says.

Source: Tom McCann, Grid Sentry
Writer: Val Prevish