entrepreneurship : Innovation + Job News

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

After working in Cincinnati television, Bob Igoe took his skills to start his own production company. Ten years later, I and Eye Productions has created video spots for some of the city's most well-known brands and institutions.
 
I and Eye Productions is a full service, high quality video production company. It offers everything from concept through film and production, specializing in advertising production and corporate communications.

"We do everything. The only thing we don't do is buy media," Igoe says.

Among the company's clients are the Montgomery Inn restaurants, the Cyclones, and University. The company recently teamed up with UC Health's branding campaign, which won four Cincinnati Addy awards in 2010.

Before starting the company, Igoe was a producer at 12WKRC-TV'S Creative Services and at former Cincinnati-based Hasbro subsidiary Kenner. He runs the company with partners David Striet and Tony Agliata, who both previously worked for WKRC-TV. I and Eye employs seven full�-time staff, and contracts with a host of local freelancers to develop its videos.

"We do both commercials and longer form videos," Igoe said. "There has been an increased demand for longer form videos � a lot of companies are trying to get out their stories directly to their customers or to other businesses."

In the last three years, social media platforms like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter have played a larger role in video communications Igoe adds.

"It's really rare that we go into a project where (the video) is only going to have one use. Whenever we're at the point of purchase we ask our clients to think of all the other places it can be used. It actually makes them look at their entire year, and how they will be viewed on mobile, web and TV," Igoe said.

Source: Bob Igoe, I and Eye Productions
Writer: Feoshia Henderson

You can follow Feoshia on Twitter @feoshiawrites

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

Vincent Chou is a rabid video gamer, and it irks him that there's no easy way to find used video games at a reasonable cost. Or to sell a used game for a fair price after the fun has worn off.

So Chou and fellow grad student Pratap Shergill have formed turboBOTZ -- an Internet marketplace that will bring buyers and sellers together to set their own prices.

The company was formed in Chicago but will move to Cincinnati this spring after a recent $250,000 investment by CincyTech, a public-private venture development organization serving southwest Ohio.

Both Chou and Shergill participated in a program offered last fall by The Brandery, a seed-stage consumer marketing startup accelerator in Cincinnati. Chou says the business partners were referred to The Brandery after getting high marks in the business plan competition at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, but failing to meet the criteria for a similar accelerator program in Chicago.

The Brandery, formed last year, helped the pair think about retail strategy and strategic partnerships, according to a CincyTech news release. CincyTech provided $20,000 to support The Brandery's first class of startups and now has made turboBOTZ its 20th portfolio company.

Chou says the $250,000 investment will allow it to operate in its first year. A formal launch of the service is planned within three to four months and the company is currently hiring staff, which Chou expects to total four to five initially.

"We already have one hire from the Cincinnati area," Chou says. "Once we raise a little bit more money, ideally I can see us being a 20- to 30-person shop."

Chou doesn't graduate from Booth until around New Years, he says, meaning some long commutes between now and then. Shergill, however, graduates this summer.

"So he'll be able to spend a little more time in Cincinnati," Chou says.

Source: Vincent Chou, turboBOTZ
Writer: Gene Monteith

A pizza-fueled team of 20-somethings has propelled a small Cleveland technology company to swift success in the competitive world of online restaurant takeout ordering.

Onosys was established in 2005 by three Case Western Reserve University students -- Stan Garber, Oleg Fridman and Alex Yakubovich -- when Rascal House Pizza, a local campus restaurant, asked them to develop an online ordering solution for the eatery.

Researching the restaurant industry, they found it woefully lacking in high-tech online ordering systems. Believing they had found an under-served niche, they developed their own system. Their goal, according to their website, was that it must be "user-friendly, flexible in its functionality, scalable, have a great user interface and be backed by committed and friendly customer support."

With the explosion of online ordering for everything from books to snow tires, their timing couldn't have been better. They networked and established a board, which lead to important guidance, as well as funding from a local angel investor. The company name, ONOSYS, stands for Online Ordering Systems.

Today, with more than 75 national chains as clients, Onosys is a major player in the restaurant online and mobile ordering industry. Clients include Panera Bread, Honeybaked Ham, Papa John's, Houlihan's, Beef O'Brady's and Frisch's Big Boy. "We're really big on pizza restaurants," Garber notes. "We have more pizza chains than any of the competition, and pizza is a regular part of our staff's diet."
 
He attributes the company's successful growth to three things. "We have an easy pricing model, charging a flat monthly rate per restaurant location rather than a percentage of each individual transaction," he explains. "Second, we're constantly investing in refining our technology. We also have youth. We're all in our 20s, and our age demographic does the most online restaurant ordering. That means we're our customers' clients, which gives us important insights."

Garber believes Onosys also has a competitive edge in data aggregation and social media.

"Restaurants don't collect a lot of data on their customers," he explains. "We capture a host of data, which our clients can access through our customer relations management tool. Our new big thing this year," he adds, "is being able to give our restaurants live ROI data on social media promotions they run."

Onosys currently has 12 employees and plans to hire more by year's end.

Source: Stan Garber, Onosys
Writer: Lynne Meyer

When former ESPN anchor Betsy Ross and partner Jackie Reau co-founded PR firm Game Day Communications in 2002, social media sites like Facebook and YouTube weren't even invented.

Now these networking sites have become a must-have communications tool for businesses. It's also a growing part of Game Day Communications multi-media arsenal in promoting sports and entertainment events for clients across Greater Cincinnati.

That's why Game Day has just launched its latest offering, a Mobile Media Center that provides full-service, on-site traditional and social media management for large sporting and entertainment events. Game Day has done similar work for events like the Flying Pig Marathon in downtown Cincinnati and the Western & Southern Open tennis tournament in Mason.

"Sports fans want to know everything they can about an event, and social media allows us to give them to give them that," said Reau, Game Day co-founder and CEO.

For last year's tennis tournament Game Day dispatched two teams of three that offered real-time media relations services from 9 a.m. to midnight for two weeks. They did everything from responding to Tweets to posting news articles and YouTube videos online. The efforts gave the event social media reach across the world, Reau said.

"We shared 2,000 tweets that were retweeted 29,000 times. A Facebook post was translated into 19 different languages, and videos that we shared over those two weeks had 100,000 views," Reau said.

Game Day Communications has four full-time employees, but works with more than 100 talented communications experts the company taps to work on a wide range of PR projects. Reau previously worked in PR at the Cincinnati Art Museum and Cincinnati's Christ Hospital. Ross worked at ESPN where she anchored ESPN News and Sports Center, and has more than 20 years of experience as a sports and news anchor.

Source: Jackie Reau, Game Day Communications
Writer: Feoshia Henderson

You can follow Feoshia on twitter @feoshiawrites.

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

InSitu Foods has done well for itself since coming to market last summer. The artisan bread maker is baking 400 loaves a night, 363 days a year, and selling it to northwest Ohio groceries and to one of Toledo's most upscale restaurants.

But President Rick Anderson sees a bigger future for the company. His goal: to enable groceries to make and bake real artisan bread from scratch -- in front of their shoppers -- using his proprietary system.

Anderson is refining just such a system, the prototype of which was developed at Radco Industries after Anderson and his wife Mary purchased the automation equipment company in 2008.

"Essentially, the challenge with bread is consistent high quality and cost," Anderson says. "The people we're talking to, the retailers, are very interested as long as those two things are in place."

The company's current conveyer system, used at an off-site baking facility, faced hurdles in meeting regulations for in-grocery use. InSitu is now developing a machine without belts that can be used as Anderson envisions. He says interest from potential customers is growing, and he believes consumers will pay groceries the extra $2 a loaf for good, home-made artisan breads.

"Most of the artisan bread in the United States is par-baked frozen," he explains. "So, you're shipping frozen, par baked bread all over the country in trucks. In theory, you lock in the quality and -- to some extent that's true -- but the reality is in the supply chain it goes through freeze/ thaw because it's not always handled properly, and frankly the taste is just not there."

Besides that, retailers are intrigued by the entertainment value of making bread in front of shoppers, he says.

The Regional Growth Partnership's Rocket Ventures has assisted InSitu with a $50,000 Ignite! grant that the company used for R&D and market research.

Source: Rick Anderson, InSitu Foods
Writer: Gene Monteith

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

Joelle Rubcich, along with partners Erica Krumlauf and Dave Michels, started Leading EDJE three and a half years ago when a competitor purchased the IT company they were working for.

Today, the company is gaining recognition not just for its IT services, but for its growth and business philosophy.

Recently, the 15-employee firm was named one of the fastest-growing companies in central Ohio, coming in 13th in Business First's recent Fast 50 rankings. Last week, Rubcich was honored as one of 11 women business owners to receive the Ohio Department of Development's 2010 Keys to Success award. And also last week, Business First included Leading EDJE among the region's best places to work for the second year in a row.

Leading EDJE, located in the village of Galena north of Columbus, develops custom software for a who's who of central Ohio customers, including universities, retailers, fast food restaurants and healthcare organizations, says Rubcich, the company's president.

"We partner with clients of all industries and help them custom build software solutions to allow them to gain a competitive edge," she explains.

Revenues were up more than 60 percent last year over the previous year, and employment has been rising steadily, she says. While growth is important, Rubcich says doing it the right way is paramount.

"The real focus of our company is providing extraordinary technical talent with high positive energy, and creating fun in the workplace," she says -- explaining why she holds the Best Places to Work award above the others in importance. "We're not going to compromise our business plan for the sake of growth. If it gets to the point where we're focusing on anything but enjoying what we do, we've broken our business model. We're concentrating on having a blast being excellent geeks."

Source: Joelle Rubcich
Writer: Gene Monteith

One might reasonably expect hair salons, mini day spas, putting greens, dry cleaning, dinner-to-go, and concierge services at The Four Seasons. But these amenities are offered by SarahCare Adult Day Care Centers.

"The centers look much like you would expect an assisted living to look like," says company founder Dr. Merle Griff.

Dissatisfied with the level of care available for her clients and for her own mother, Griff, a gerontologist, decided to start her own adult day care center.

From two company-owned centers in Canton and North Canton, SarahCare now boasts almost 40 centers throughout the Midwest, Northeast, and Southeast. The first SarahCare franchise opened in 2004, in Strongsville. Today, all but the Canton-area centers are franchises.

It costs between $350,000 and $500,000 to open a franchise, says Dr. Griff, and financing has become difficult to obtain. ROI, however, is very good, says Griff. For that reason she expects to open several more company-owned centers in Ohio next year.

Each center has an average of 15 employees. SarahCare at Home employs 12 persons and 11 persons work in the corporate office.

"We go all out, and we will try anything we can to allow families to stay together," says Griff.

Source: Dr. Merle D. Griff, Founder, SarahCare Adult Day Care Centers
Writer: Patrick Mahoney

It's uncertain how many Americans are playing console games for money. But with nearly 70 such games hooked to the Internet in North America, Beyond Gaming hopes to tap into at least 30,000 players within its first month.

The concept is simple: provide a site through which members can play console game tournaments for fun � no membership fee � or for stakes � $7.95.

Because the Toledo company takes no cut of the winnings, and because console games are considered games of skill, the service is legal, says President and CEO Tony Legeza.

Legeza and co-founder Justin Yamek, himself a competitive console gamer, came up with the idea after Yamek qualified for a west coast tournament last year but couldn't scrape together the funds to fly to LA.

Instead, they asked, why not build a Web-based service that allows gamers to connect with others, organize tournaments, and build relationships through a robust social media component?

The service was launched earlier this year as a closed beta site with 500 players, but quickly picked up an additional 500 after going public a little more than two weeks ago, Legeza says.

"When you go on the site you create a profile, you've got your friends and your wall that you can communicate with," Legeza says. "We've got different chat rooms and video chat rooms where you can share video and let other people watch you play in a competition. People have a space to come to where they can start communicating about something they're passionate about, share their experiences, provide content, upload photos, share video content."

The company had early help from Rocket Ventures, which invested an initial $100,000, and angel funding of more than $100,000. The company is in the midst of a $500,000 venture capital round as well.

Beyond Gaming currently has four employees.

Source: Tony Legeza, Beyond Gaming
Writer: Gene Monteith

Wyndot Inc. may be the biggest company you've never heard of.

Nestled within a 250,000-square-foot plant in Marion, the company is a major player in the snack food industry. Only confidentiality agreements with its customers � retailers, like grocery stores, and brand-name snack food companies that contract with Wyandot � have prevented its name from spreading.

Hoover and Ava Brown founded the company in 1936 in an old Wyandot County schoolhouse, says Rex Parrott, the company's executive VP of operations. Wyandot Popcorn Company, which only sold un-popped popcorn, grew dramatically in the 1950s when a customer asked the company to expand into popped popcorn.

"And so they came to Marion, and rented some space and bought some poppers and started making popcorn-related snacks," Parrott says.

The company grew even more quickly in the 1960s when one of the founders' sons took over the snack portion of the business, Parrott says. Small chip makers, who didn't have the capabilities to make the all-corn products consumers demanded, flocked to Wyandot to fill their needs.

Today, the company makes nothing under its own name, but cranks out plenty of product for others � including the tortilla strips found on Southwestern Salads at Wendy's and McDonald's. The company will make about 50 million pounds of snacks this year, almost all of them corn based, Parrott says.

"About half of those are tortilla chips, and the other half are a variety of different products," Parrott says. "That equates to about 100 million bags of snacks. We handle about 140,000 cases of product every week and we handle either loading or unloading about 150 semis a week."

Wyandot is still family-owned and currently employs 350. It also has been hiring � about 30 new employees this year alone, Parrott says.
"Regardless of the economy, people still eat," he notes.

Source: Rex Parrott, Wyandot Foods
Writer: Gene Monteith

Muscles and money have joined forces in Toledo to create a success story with a company named Turning Point.

Turning Point's CEO, F. Alan Schultheis invented an exercise conditioning machine � the Core Trainer � and received important input from University of Toledo Engineering Professor Vijay K. Goel, Ph.D., in designing the final, working model.

That local help prompted Schulteheis to establish Turning Point in Toledo rather than in his home base of Connecticut.

Schultheis named his machine the Core Trainer because it conditions 28 muscles, as well as numerous tendons and ligaments. Turning Point recently received a $50,000 initial grant to design and refine the prototype, as well as an additional $450,000 to market and develop the equipment. The grants are from Rocket Ventures, the venture capital program of Toledo's Regional Growth Partnership.

Even though Schulteis will be returning to Connecticut, Turning Point now has an advisory board as well as a board of directors and will remain and grow in Toledo. According to Greg Knudson, vice president with Toledo's Regional Growth Partnership, the city's Lockery Manufacturing will manufacture the machine, and local Pinnacle Technologies is making its electronics parts.

Turning Point is gearing up to produce two models of the Core Trainer this fall � a professional model for approximately $1,000 and a consumer model for $600.

Goiel, PhD., is now the company's vice president of Research and Development.

Source: Turning Point and Greg Knudson, Regional Growth Partnership
Writer: Lynne Meyer