Entrepreneurship : Innovation + Job News

The Hamilton County Business Center (HCBC) has partnered with the Product Development and Management Association, (PDMA), Cincinnati Chapter, for a new workshop series aimed at would-be entrepreneurs not quite sure if their ideas are ready for prime time.

This hands-on series, Commercialization Best Practices for New Business Development, helps budding entrepreneurs and innovators flesh out their ideas, and find the best ways to bring them into the marketplace.

"It's a few steps earlier than the business plan process," says HCBC director Patrick Longo. "This will help people who are thinking of getting into the marketplace. It's all about, 'How do I develop a product, and what kind of market can I serve?' "

HCBC is a local, technology-focused incubator. The Product Development and Management Association is a global professional trade association.

The five-part series starts April 13 and ends June 1. It will be held at the University of Cincinnati College of Applied Science. Sessions run from 1 to 5 p.m. and the series' cost is $199. Registration is available online.

HCBC and PDMA representatives will lead the workshops, which will include out-of-classroom work. Each session is designed to build on the one before it, Longo says.

The scheduled workshops are:

April 13 Session: Introduction to the Front End of Innovation. Introduction to the overall series design and work flow (pre-work, in-session exercises, and homework). The Stage-Gate® process will be used to outline the key elements of successful new product development. Creative problem solving will be used to ensure that the new business idea solves an important customer need in a way that maximizes economic value.

April 20 Session: Assess the Landscape. Outlines the six key focus areas required to build a compelling business case appropriate for passing the Idea Gate of the Stage-Gate® process. For each focus area, participants will assess the readiness of their business-building ideas by answering typical stage-appropriate questions. Participants will identify gaps in their own knowledge and potential killer issues/barriers in their business case and leave with an action plan to complete a landscape assessment for their own business ideas.

May 4 Session: Intellectual Property. Reviews the basic principles of intellectual property protection, addressing both patent-based and non-patent-based strategies. This session will share best practices for maximizing IP productivity and protection during Front End of Innovation (FEI). Participants will leave with an action plan to maximize the effectiveness of their interactions with legal counsel.

May 18 Session: Bringing Your Idea to Market. An overview of the end-to-end supply network required to get a
new business idea to market. Consideration of raw material sourcing, manufacturing, and distribution may uncover potential pitfalls to be addressed in the Front End. Participants will leave with an action plan to evaluate potential barriers and complete a preliminary competitive response analysis.

June 1 Session: Finance 101. Focuses on building the final business case prior to the "Money Gate," where the rate of spending (time, money and resources) increases dramatically. Participants will complete a more detailed financial analysis of their business idea (NPV, ROI, cash flow) and leave with an action plan to explore funding options and cash management resources.

By Feoshia Henderson
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LeanDog Software Studio has seen success as a software delivery firm and the team enjoys sharing their knowledge and mentoring others in the field. So the natural progression for the 55-person company was to expand into the world of fostering entrepreneurs in the tech field. The launch of LeanDog Labs does exactly that.
 
“Labs was really a part of our original vision of LeanDog,” says Nick Barendt, director of LeanDog Labs. “Very early on we were working with startups, but we were bootstrapped as a startup ourselves and cash poor. We really wanted to get back into working with Cleveland-based startups.”
 
LeanDog Labs teaches what they know to up-and-coming technology experts. They don’t invest in the companies; they are focused on being a technology partner. “We’re not looking to fund or provide office space. We’re there on the technology end to help entrepreneurs deliver their vision,” says Doc Norton, director of LeanDog Studio. “We’re looking to be a delivery partner in the startups.”
 
The company is in a position now to help out. LeanDog grew to 45 people from 18 people last year, and has hired 10 employees this year -- four of them just last week. Barendt and Norton see that growth as an opportunity to spread the expertise around.
 
“We're looking to work with entrepreneurs to help build their product vision,” says Barendt. “We have an absolutely amazing group of developers with incredibly diverse experiences, from mobile and web to financial and insurance to real time control and embedded systems, and we can make that collective experience available to our entrepreneurial partners.”

 
Source: Nick Barendt and Doc Norton
Writer: Karin Connelly
 

A new health IT startup accelerator is taking applications for a 12-week business development program that includes $20,000 in startup funds.

The Innov8 For Health Startup accelerator is an outgrowth of Cincinnati's Innov8 For Health initiative aimed at creating jobs, attracting and retaining talent and improving health outcomes through innovation.

"This goes back to the Innov8 for health theme. We want to identify people who have ideas and support and incentivize them down the path of innovation," says initiative founder Sunnie Southern, also founder of ViableSynergy.

The accelerator will take applications until April 30. It's open to any early-stage startups grounded in health IT. Companies outside of Cincinnati must move to the city during the program. It starts June 11 with eight companies.

"The focus is on providing better health care at a lower cost. The range of solutions can be everything from making it easier to select high-quality healthcare providers to making doctor and patient interaction more efficient," Southern says.

Each company selected will receive $20,000; in return, the accelerator will own six percent of the company. Startups will also work with mentors and tackle business development aspects including sales and marketing, branding, technology and operations and navigating government regulations.

Innov8 For Health partners include GE Aviation, C-Cap, Queen City Angels and the Health Foundation of Greater Cincinnati.

The Greater Cincinnati area is particularly suited for healthcare IT innovation, because many health providers here are further along in adopting paperless records and sharing secure, electronic patient information, Southern says.

"We have one of the most mature health information exchanges in the country, Health Bridge. It's really a cornerstone of what makes Cincinnati different; we have this deep expertise in sharing and exchanging data," she says.

By Feoshia Henderson
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"I want every drop of rain that falls in the state of Ohio to be drinkable," says Stephen Spoonamore, co-founder of ABSMaterials in Wooster. He and his partner and co-founder, Dr. Paul Edmiston, have developed a material that does just that.
 
The material, called Osorb, is a nanoengineered glass that absorbs non-point source polllution -- pesticides, herbicides, oils, gases and pharmaceuticals -- that make up the constant runoff from impermeable surfaces. ABS has recently secured a patent for the material.
 
The company, with 35 employees, has just initiated a B-round of seeking growth capital for R&D and expanding its customer base. Areas of research include storm water management, cleanup of water in the fracking process, remediation of former industrial sites and clean-room cleanup. ABS is the industry leader in the technology that cleans the water used in silicon chip fabrication.

“We’re the chemical garbagemen of the clean-room industry,” says Spoonamore.
 
ABS co-founder Dr. Paul Edmiston, who is the Peterson Professor of Chemistry at the College of Wooster, says, "Founding a technology based company is definitely a team effort. The science side has to be innovative and responsive, while letting the business side lead the efforts to market." Dr. Ediston won the 2011 Popular Mechanics Breakthrough Award for the development of Osorb.
 
He adds, “It is incredibly exciting to see the innovations our team has worked on here at the College of Wooster labs move into the commercial space through ABSMaterials. Every day we are making things a little better for water quality.  It is humbling to see the idea just keep growing."


Source: Stephen Spoonamore, Paul Edmiston
Writer: Catherine Podojil

“Cyber threats are one of the most serious economic and national security challenges that we face as a nation," President Barack Obama recently stated. "Our critical infrastructure, such as the electricity grid, financial sector, and transportation networks that sustain our way of life, have suffered repeated cyber intrusions."

He added, "Cyber crime has increased dramatically over the last decade.”
 
To address this, the Entrepreneurs Center, a business and technology incubator in Dayton, recently launched the Cyber Warriors Technology Accelerator. The new program, which was created in partnership with the Dayton Development Coalition, “is looking for individuals who have ideas, technology, and innovation with regard to cyberthreat security," says Barbara Hayde, President of the Entrepreneurs Center. "We’re targeting that area because [Dayton’s] Wright-Patterson Air Force Base is one of the organizations interested in cybersecurity.”

To illustrate the scope of the nationwide cyber threat, she adds, "Boeing was hit by Anonymous the other day and it shut down the corporation for a day and a half.” According to Hayde, the U.S. government gets 10,000 tips a day about people who can hack in to electrical grids, water grids, banking systems and other areas.
 
The applications will be winnowed down to ten participants. Each winner will be given $20,000 to attend a boot camp in July, where they’ll learn how to manage a startup business and develop potential customers. They'll also learn what government and industry are looking for in terms of cybersecurity.

“These fortunate ten people will be surrounded by mentors, advisors, coaches, all kinds of people whose whole purpose is to move this company forward," says Hayde.
 
At the end of ten weeks, participants will present their ideas to venture capitalists, angels and government researchers, with the goal of departing with funding.
   
The deadline for applications is May 29th.


Source: Barbara Hayde
Writer: Catherine Podojil

Peter Greco and his cofounders, Rush Bartlett and Arthur Chlebowski, have just moved their startup company, LyoGo, to Columbus from Indiana.

LyoGo, which was one of the winners of last year’s 10xelerator program at the Fisher College of Business at the Ohio State University, has created a drug delivery system that makes it possible for patients to give themselves their own injectable medications. This technology cuts out trips to a physician’s office and thereby shrinks healthcare costs..

LyoGo's technology accommodates drugs that remain unstable in solution form and must either be refrigerated or lyophilized (freeze-dried) to be stored. The existing process for such drugs leaves room for error in the mixing and injection process. LyoGo streamlines and simplifies the process, leading to greater ease and safety in the self-medication process. The company name LyoGo was derived from a shortened version of the phrase, “Lyophilized products to Go."

Greco says that a major draw of Columbus is the Battelle Memorial Institute, the world’s largest, independent R&D organization. “Battelle will provide services to refine the LyoGo device,” which was made possible through a million-dollar investment from an investor who was present at the 2011 10X accelerator program, at which LyoGo was one of the ten funded teams.

Greco and his team are excited about the possibility of eventually seeing their device on the market. Greco says “LyoGo is gathering test data which the pharmaceutical companies can use to assess the compatibility of our device with their drugs. We expect to be working soon with a pharmaceutical company to pair their drug with our device so that it may improve patients’ lives.”


Source: Peter Greco
Writer: Catherine Podojil

If you had 10 minutes to pitch your business to a dream audience of potential investors, where would you begin?       

The 10 startups featured in this month’s 10-xelerator Winter 2012 Showcase recently pondered this exact question. Their paths to the dream pitch began 12 weeks ago when they entered the intensive 10-xelerator program of the Fisher College of Business at the Ohio State University.

Recently, they took the stage for the 10x Winter 2012 Showcase, sponsored by OSU's Center for Entrepreneurship. Mike Lisavich, Program Manager for the 10-xelerator, describes the event as "the culmination of all of their efforts."

Startup teams enter the 10-xelerator at different stages of development. Some have little more than an idea, while others have already built a functioning beta website or found their first investors. The selected companies spend the early weeks sharpening their real-world applications, followed by months spent with potential clients and collaborators to learn their target markets.

Teams are mentored by and attend workshops with entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and angel investors throughout their time in the program.  A wider circle of potential investors were in attendance at the final 10x Showcase.

“The ability to have that group of people in attendance is not something that comes together very often, and the buzz and energy in the room makes for something very special,” says Lisavich. "The Showcase affords new 10x teams the opportunity to connect with an array of investors and community members."

“The great part about the diversity of investors in the audience is that each of them has their own space where they like to invest," adds Lisavich. "I think there was at least one company within the ten that sparked each investor’s interest.”

The 10x Winter 2012 team portfolio includes One Exchange Street, an online exchange for bankruptcy claim buyers and sellers; MorphCARD, a mobile application for storing and redeeming gift card values; and Rooftop Down, a property management organizational application.


Source: Mike Lisavich, 10-xelerator
Writer: Kitty McConnell

iGuiders, a Beachwood software company that guides online shoppers through their buying experiences, is the winner of the 2012 The International Entrepreneurs (TiE) Ohio business plan competition. Founded in 2008 by Jodi Marchewitz, iGuiders is a decision-making application that personalizes the search process to help users find exactly what they’re looking for.
 
Thirty-six Ohio startups entered the competition for a prize package comprised of $2,500 cash and services including incubator space, advisory services, legal and accounting support. iGuiders will now go on to Toronto in April to compete in the global competition.
 
iGuiders was selected as the winner from a panel of five judges representing investment funds and early stage advisors. Judge Todd Federman, executive director of the North Coast Angel Fund, was impressed with iGuiders concept and success in the market. “It’s always a challenging decision when a small group of judges come together,” says Federman. “iGuiders has a demonstrated a lot of traction. They’ve taken a lot of risk and positioned themselves well to grow.”
 
Federman was also impressed with iGuiders COO Chaz Napoli’s vision. “Chaz has a polished a very clear view of what they’re trying to do as a company,” he says.
 
Real Time Imaging Technologies, which miniaturizes medical fluoroscopes for dental use, took second place as an emerging company  in the competition. The company will also receive $2,500 and  have access to mentoring and other services.

 
Source: Todd Federman
Writer: Karin Connelly

LineStream Technologies, a Cleveland developer of control software for automated products, secured series B financing by U.S. Venture Partners. USVP will team up with series A investor Early Stage Partners to move the company forward.
 
“The funding we just raised allows us to find more customers,” says Dave Neundorfer, LineStream president. "It is a huge boost for us. This funding will drastically accelerate growth for our company and meet customer demand.”
 
LineStream Technologies was formed in 2008 as a spinoff out of research done by Cleveland State University’s Zhiqiang Gao, director of the Center for Advanced Control Technology, and focuses on commercializing and simplifying control software.
 
LineStream products increase efficiency, are easy to implement and therefore improve the performance of automated systems in everything from washing machines to medical robotics. Last year LineStream licensed its software to Texas Instruments for use in a chip platform in motor and motion controls.
 
Neundorfer says the funding will not only help serve its growing customer base, it will also allow the company to attract the right talent. “With this funding we can build a team and hire technical talent,” he says. “We’re attracting technical talent who are self-starters, adaptable, work hard and are willing to align themselves around the common goal.”

 
Source: Dave Neundorfer
Writer: Karin Connelly

Linkage Ventures and CincyTech have formed a unique strategic partnership to create and co-invest in startup companies whose technologies can help people as they age.

Cincinnati-based CincyTech is a public-private seed-stage investor that has invested since 2007 in 35 startup companies in IT and bioscience. Linkage Ventures is a newly created venture arm of Linkage, a Mason-based nonprofit organization whose members are senior living providers throughout the US. Linkage has hired investment banker and former technology company executive John Hopper as managing director of Linkage Ventures.

CincyTech and Linkage are partnering in order to identify, evaluate and invest in early-stage technologies that startups can take to market to benefit the aging population either directly or through care-giving organizations.

“This partnership is about promoting whole-person wellness and providing solutions that help people age successfully wherever they chose to do it,” says Scott Collins, president and CEO of Linkage Ventures.

The deal is unique in that it closely aligns the sources of “deal flow” – entrepreneurs with aging-related technology – with sources of capital that can help them grow and go to market. Linkage has 600 member communities in 39 states who are frequently approached about concepts and products that can help their 134,000 residents and 16,000 employees. With that deal flow and funds available through Linkage Ventures and CincyTech, the path for great solutions becomes easier to navigate.

Linkage also provides a rare opportunity to identify the needs of people as they age. “Our communities have built and earned a trust with this population that allows us to talk directly to them about their needs and desires,” Collins says.

This reach and relationship-building provides the ability to conduct truly transparent market research, says Mike Venerable, CincyTech’s managing director of digital, software and health tech.

“We can quickly validate the economics of a product or idea through their population,” he says.

Adds Collins: “It’s not just the investment. We’ve got the domain expertise internally, and we can do quick beta testing that marries well with the CincyTech network and expertise.”

By Sarah Blazak for CincyTech

Jennifer Simon, Director of the Innovation Center at Ohio University, has been spending a lot of time cheering on the Bobcats lately. Yet the weekend of April 19th-21st, she'll be switching her loyalties to a different set of teams with winning potential as she cheers on the inaugural Startup Weekend Athens, a new initiative to help grow businesses.

"People come up with fantastic ideas, but when it comes to whether or not there's a customer, that's a different question," explains Simon, whose 56-hour event is part of a network of Startup Weekend events. "We'll spend the weekend on customer validation, developing a beta version of the product and testing it."

The intense, often sleep-deprived Startup Weekends are geared towards budding entrepreneurs who have a business or product idea and want help developing it quickly. Over 56 hours, would-be company founders pitch ideas, form teams, develop business plans with the help of mentoring from successful entrepreneurs, and compete for hefty cash prizes of up to $2,500 in a final competition.

Only 10 entrepreneurs will have the chance to develop their ideas. The event kicks off with 60 second pitches followed by audience voting to pick the top 10. Those entrepreneurs who are not selected can join other teams and work on building relationships with other individuals with complementary skills.

In addition to meeting other like-minded innovators, participants will be able to network with successful company founders, venture capitalists and angel investors. Startup Weekend is open to both students and professionals, and Simon says she expects some registrants to travel from outside of the area.

"This is the first time OU has done this, and it's an opportunity for us to develop deal flow," says Simon. "There is a lot more entrepreneurial activity in Athens and the surrounding area, in part thanks to additional resources from Ohio Third Frontier developed a few years ago. The pipeline has really opened up."

The Innovation Center is a 36,500 square foot incubator space. Currently, the Center is about 95 percent full. The Center for Entrepreneurship is also housed on campus, and provides a range of business clients with technical assistance. Finally, TechGROWTH Ohio, an organization funded by Ohio Third Frontier and located at OU, helps to catalyze startup businesses throughout Southeast Ohio.


Source: Jennifer Simon
Writer: Lee Chilcote

There's a reason why Ohio Supercomputer Center's new $4.1 million,  HP Intel Xeon, processor based system has been dubbed the Oakley Cluster. Like the legendary Ohio-born sharpshooter and social advocate Annie Oakley, it's fast as hell, doesn't miss a shot and is improving the lives of Ohioans.

Just ask Ashok Krishnamurthy, Executive Director of the OSC, a facility that is funded by the Ohio Board of Regents and has been in existence since 1987. "We have more than 2,000 academic users across the state, and they're discovering new materials and developing advanced energy applications," he says. "To be competitive, we must provide the highest performance system, and this represents a new level of capability."

OSC's new supercomputer can achieve 88 teraflops, which is tech speak for 88 trillion calculations per second. Yes, in case you're wondering, that's lightning fast.

OSC's new system will help to achieve its mission of assisting academic and business users. Large companies such as Proctor and Gamble and Rolls Royce use OSC as a "second level system when they have needs beyond what their systems can support," says Krishnamurthy. OSC helps small and midsize companies develop and test prototypes virtually rather than investing in actual models, while academics use the system to complete their cutting-edge research.

"We give them access to software and expertise," says Krishnamurthy. "Once they understand the value of what this can do, it changes how they do business."

As one example, Krishnamurthy cites an Ohio company that is developing an LED projector small enough to fit inside a phone. How do they convince various manufacturers that their device can handle the projector's heat without testing every single one? That's where OSC's computer modeling comes in.

"You can simulate how the heat is dissipated," he says. "It's an easy, low-cost way to show potential customers how your design can be incorporated into their products."

OSC has also helped to develop courses for students at community colleges and four-year colleges and universities, as well as professionals who are seeking continuing education. "OSC is in a fairly unique position," says Krishnamurthy. "It is the most consistently state-funded center of its kind in the country."


Source: Ashok Krishnamurthy
Writer: Lee Chilcote

Richard Wagner must have seen great potential for growth when he launched his startup, Prevedere Inc., in 2010. The name he chose translates from the Italian as “to foresee,” appropriate for a fledgling company that specializes in helping medium to large-scale businesses predict their economic climate.

Today, Prevedere’s patent-pending business forecasting software allows companies to analyze external economic data and market factors which could impact their operations. The application allows corporate strategists to compare industry-specific data, geographic factors and global trends with internal data, allowing for more informed decisions.

In March, TechColumbus announced plans to invest $300,000 from its pre-seed fund in Prevedere. The organization's pre-seed, convertible debt-investments are made in the most promising incubation stage companies in the Central Ohio region. Those that are successful have the potential for future investment.

“Prevedere is an excellent addition to our investment portfolio,” says Tim Haynes, Interim President and CEO of TechColumbus. “Business intelligence and forecasting harness the power of today’s computing, and Prevedere provides software to easily and quickly make sense of time-sensitive and intensive data that influences critical decisions that impact success and bottom line results.”

“TechColumbus was the first resource I reached out to,” says Wagner. “The Pre-Seed funds are a great starting point to fund startup activity such as starting to hire our employees and marketing our products and services.”

In addition to the support of TechColumbus, Wagner says that he has benefited from working in proximity to the Central Ohio tech development community. He also cites the Dublin Entrepreneurial Center and the Technology Commercialization Office at the Ohio State University as resources. Finally, he credits Columbus angel investor Mike Figliuolo from thoughtLEADERS for introducing him to the OSU's monthly morning pitch event, Wake Up Start Up.

Wagner says that Prevedere will apply TechColumbus’s $300,000 investment to marketing initiatives and to refining the implementation of the software application to meet the needs of larger businesses.


Source: Richard Wagner, Tim Haynes
Writer: Kitty McConnell

The U.S. health-care industry is in great need of cost efficiencies and quality of care improvements, and a new company in Cincinnati is poised to help. 

In 2010, as a country, we spent more than $2.6 trillion on health care but still ranked lower than most countries in terms of quality of care. 

Also, new federal legislation will create incentives for hospitals and health-care facilities to meet quality standards and effectively punish those that don’t. 

CincyTech’s newest portfolio company, QI Healthcare, is helping hospitals meet and exceed these quality benchmarks. 

The company was created from technology developed at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center by Dr. Frederick Ryckman, professor of surgery and senior vice president for Medical Operations at Cincinnati Children’s; Paul Yelton, senior application developer; and Candace Overly, project administrator, Perioperative Services. 

What Cincinnati Children’s developed is called the Surgical Outcomes Collection System (SOCS). It’s a software application for use in hospitals and health-care facilities that aggregates data from a hospital’s various systems, including its Electronic Medical Records (EMR) system, to conduct institution-wide analyses of cases where quality of care could be improved. 

“The real power of this software is in the ability to analyze every significant patient case,” says Ryckman. “Before SOCS we spent countless hours manually gathering data. SOCS improves the process through automation and enhanced analytics – and it frees up clinical resources to focus on quality improvement.”

Leading QI’s efforts is experienced entrepreneur and health-tech executive John Atkinson. Before being named CEO of QI, Atkinson held leadership roles at WebMD, Mede America and SourceMedical. He is also co-founder of a successful mobile startup, BuzzVoice, a streaming audio news service for smartphones.

CincyTech and Cincinnati Children’s Tomorrow Fund each invested $200,000. This round of funding will go toward sales, marketing and product development, which includes securing a handful of beta test sites for the SOCS software that has been in use at Cincinnati Children’s for more than a year. 

By Sarah Blazak for CincyTech

As local artists with a common love of vintage art tools, friends Jamye Jamison, Elizabeth Emery and Wendy Partridge decided there was a need for some uniquely Cleveland promotional goods. So they formed CLE Collectiv, which produces a line of handmade note cards that celebrate all things Cleveland.
 
The trio creates the cards at Zygote Press using handset, vintage metal and wood type printing materials on 1950s-era Vandercook proofing presses. The cards are two-color and they can print up to 350 cards in one print run. All the paper is sourced from off-cuts that would otherwise be thrown away. Cards are folded and assembled by hand.
 
“We kind of started it as a little bit of a hobby,” says Jamison. “Just because we felt there was a void of interesting letterpress cards about Cleveland."
 
Current designs include “CLE - the place to be,” “CLE - full city, half price,” “I (heart) Cleveland” and “Cleveland - gentrify this!” Due out in June are “West Side Market - makin' bacon since 1912”
and “Cleveland - it grows on you.”
 
“We’ve been trying to come up with funny, quirky sayings about Cleveland, whether positive or poking sly fun at the city,” says Jamison.
 
The different cards feature vintage images found at Zygote, such as the Terminal Tower from around the time it was built, or a Tremont steel mill.
 
The cards are $5 each, three for $14 or 5 for $20. They are available at CLE Clothing Co., duoHOME, Heights Arts, Room Service, and Zygote Press. They can also be found on the CLE Collectiv Etsy page.


Source: Jamye Jamison
Writer: Karin Connelly