Technology : Innovation + Job News

At the Brandery's third Demo Day Oct. 3, a packed house at Great American Ball Park looked forward to a home run, but not from the field below. 

The stadium's Champions Club had been transformed into a space where founders of 11 startups paced, shook hands and smiled as they prepared to offer their practiced pitches that they knew could net them millions in investment dollars.

This year, there were more than twice as many applicants for the seed-stage startup accelerator in Over-the-Rhine as both of its earlier years, combined, according to Brandery General Manager Mike Bott. 

Only 10 percent of those applicants were local, Bott says. The companies selected for the intensive four-month session in Cincinnati hailed from Seattle and Brooklyn, from Cleveland and San Francisco. One local business, REPP, made the final cut.

As its name implies, The Brandery focuses mostly on consumer products and services. Its strength is in its location and its expertise: the branding giants of Cincinnati help make The Brandery attractive to entrepreneurs from around the world. The latest startup session included plenty of mobile and social applications. 

An example? The first startup to present on Demo Day: CrowdHall.

Crowdhall, a free social platform, collects questions and ideas from a single crowd and helps the members of an audience organize and prioritize them democratically. Matthew Dooley, founder and CEO of Cincinnati's dooley media, made a bold prediction about this startup, which has already created "crowd halls" with NYU prof and Earth Institute leader Jeffrey Sachs, Dhani Jones and PG Sittenfeld. 

Dooley's tweet: "Impressed with @crowdhall pitch at #brandery2012 #demoday. Will be bought out by Twitter within a year. #boldprediction @brandery @jbkropp."

You've read about this Brandery class in Soapbox for months now, from Sostock, which planted roots and intends to remain in Cincinnati, to REPP, the latest big idea from Cincinnatians Michael Bergman, his wife BreeAnna and David Volker, formerly of LPK (where Bergman also formerly worked).

Find a full list of startups here. And more coverage of The Brandery on Nibletz, "the voice of startups everywhere else."

By Elissa Yancey
Follow Elissa on Twitter.

Mixed polymer and rubber waste represent the most robust source of energy available in our waste stream today. Yet, astonishingly, we landfill more than 90 percent of these materials annually.
 
Akron’s Polyflow, LLC, has an environmentally responsible solution. “We design and manufacture energy-recovery systems that convert mixed-polymer waste to fuels and petrochemicals before the waste reaches landfills,” explains CEO Jay Schabel.

The company, which was just established in June of 2012, recently struck a deal with private equity firm Ambassador Enterprises of Fort Wayne, Indiana, to form a new business to commercialize Polyflow’s systems. The new company – RES Polyflow, LLC -- will remain in Akron. The “RES” stands for renewable energy solutions.
 
“The influx of capital will help us scale up efforts to commercialize our technology and create new jobs in the renewable-energy industry in Ohio,” Schabel states.
 
He explains that Polyflow will be producing renewable energy locally and profitably. “Our fuel-conversion equipment doesn’t require excessive sorting, handling or cleaning of mixed-polymer waste and will significantly reduce the need to landfill or incinerate millions of tons of plastic waste annually.”
 
Polyflow’s pilot unit is in Akron, and the company used it over the past four years to prove its process, validate the chemistry involved and provide end-product liquid samples for testing and verification. “We conducted 80 test runs and successfully converted eight tons of mixed-plastic waste into crude oil,” Schabel says.
 
The company is completing fabrication of its first full-scale, continuous-feed processor. The facility is in Perry, Ohio, in Lake County, and will be able to convert polymer feed into the same fuels as the pilot-scale processor but in large volumes.  A grant from Ohio’s Third Frontier Advanced Energy Program in 2011 made this project possible, Schabel notes.
 
“Our goal is to provide licensors of our technology, such as landfill operators, recyclers,  organizations managing large polymer-waste streams and energy-park developers, with the most profitable, efficient and scalable solution for plastic-to-oil conversion. “Energy-park developers put together funding, find a location and jump through the approval hoops to get permits to vet technology for investors in the park,” Schabel explains. “They then build the entire energy park.”
 
The company plans to add technical support staff in 2013.

Source:  Jay Schabel, RES Polyflow, LLC

The Irish Taoiseach (Prime Minister) announced a new partnership between Ireland-based company i360medical and Cleveland Clinic Innovations during a speech at the City Club of Cleveland last week.
 
The partnership will result in i360medical representing the European wing of the Cleveland Clinic’s Innovation Alliance program -- the corporate venturing arm of the Cleveland Clinic. The program itself has 52 spinoff companies that have raised approximately $620 million in equity financing, according to Executive Director Chris Coburn.
 
i360medical bills itself as a medical device innovation company acting as an international and national hub for new healthcare ideas and medical technologies.
 
Frank Ryan, CEO at Enterprise Ireland -- a government funded organization tasked with developing and growing Irish companies in world markets, says there are two reasons why they wanted to work with the Cleveland Clinic.
 
“First of all, innovation. The clinicians here at the Cleveland Clinic are renowned for competence and expertise,” he says. “Secondly, it means exposing Irish companies to those clinicians and the development of new medical device technologies.”
 
Coburn says the Clinic first linked with Enterprise Ireland in the middle of the last decade. “20 percent of cardiologists in Ireland were trained in Cleveland Clinic,” he says, adding Cleveland’s strong Irish heritage was another building block early on in their relationship. It quickly became clear that Enterprise Ireland was “a perfect fit.”
 
“We view Enterprise Ireland as an absolute leader in terms of public-private entities looking to stimulate growth,” says Coburn. “This is a very sophisticated operation, and I think a role model for other entities, whether state or county or local, in terms of doing it right.”
 
 
Source: Chris Coburn, Frank Ryan, Brian O’Neil
Writer: Joe Baur

Dawn Sheanshang, a pharmaceutical sales rep, became sick of medications one day. Despite her insider knowledge, she couldn’t handle the medication regimen of a loved one who’d recently been discharged from the hospital.

Determined to help, Sheanshang searched online for solutions but found no easy answers. Out of her frustration, MedaCheck was born. With the help of startup acceleration Innov8 for Health, and a partnership with Jeffrey Shepard, a self-described “serial entrepreneur with a Ph.D.,” this high-tech health startup – and its eponymous app – were born.

“More and more today, medication regimens are extremely complicated, with many different drugs and people’s changing presciriptions," Shepard says. “People are using mobile devices for a slew of different things. We wanted to target our product around medication adherence – ensuring they’re taking the right pill at the right time, in the right amount and having it set up with a system to ensure they’re actually doing it.” 

Instead of simply placing a reminder on your phone, this app works with the pharmacies, utilizing frequently updated, high-resolution images of the approximately 16,000 medications catalogued by the National Library of Medicine. 

When it’s time to take a medication, a user can click on the pill box to open it, then view their medications using photos and bulleted lists of pertinent details: medication name, dosage, etc. Reminders, including a phone-call reminder if a dose is missed, are also built in.

The challenges of developing such an app include the necessity of HIPAA compliance and generics that constantly change. 

“The challenge is making sure that you’re not making specific claims around medication consumption,” says Shepard. “We don’t give anybody advice or share any information about any specific individual.”

The company is running a pilot of the app in November in collaboration with Cincinnati-based Kroger, with the hopes of making the app public in mid-November. Users will pay a small fee to download the app, which will be available through their pharmacy.

A web-based app as well as native apps for mobile devices is available.
 
By Robin Donovan

Lindsay Sims has been a lifelong renter and knows the headaches involved with trying to reach a property management office for leasing information. She also knows that property managers are not using social media effectively to promote their properties.

So, in 2011 Sims founded Renter’s Boom, a resource for property managers to use sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn as leasing portals.
 
“We are a software and service company smashed together,” says Sims. “We offer three apps: refer a friend, a listings app, and a make an appointment to see an apartment app. It makes it easy because that’s where some users spend five to 10 hours of their day.”
 
Sims originally designed a maintenance app where renters could text the property managers. But after going through the Bizdom U program, she refocused her businesses. “I figured out what business was going to work,” she says. “The feedback was property managers wanted to know how to handle social media.”
 
With that feedback, Sims developed Renter’s Boom. “For the past six months we were really running as fast as we can, figuring out the silver bullet that works,” she says. Originally working out the Beta Space at MAGNET, Sims recently moved into new offices at E. 55th and Euclid.
 
Business is good. Sims has a solid client base and hopes to start hiring around the first of the year. “I want to make sure our revenue strategy is okay,” she explains. “But I’ll be looking for people to get our clients serviced -- sales and marketing people.” In the meantime, Sims is looking for a fall intern to help with the daily operations.

 
Source: Lindsay Sims
Writer: Karin Connelly

EnviroFlight has developed a method of aquaculture that could play a key role in solving world hunger.
 
EnviroFlight is an insect-based feed developer based in Yellow Springs. Glen Courtright founded the company in 2009 with an eye on responding to the world’s shrinking food supply.
 
“We’re going to have to double the world’s food supply in the next 30 years to feed the projected increase in population and account for the increase in standard of living,” Courtright explains. “Aquaculture is a key part of the solution.”
 
Typical sources of protein, such as beef, pork or poultry, are far more taxing on a farmer’s resources than fish. They require more space and more food.
 
At the rate we’re going, our overtaxed ecosystems can’t supply the protein needed to meet the projected food demand. That’s where Courtright believes he can makes a difference. “We believe the cultivation of insects as an aquaculture feedstuff is a key part of a global solution.”
 
Courtright and his team have spent the past three years perfecting their technology and developing aquaculture feed formulations. The solution is converting distiller grains from ethanol production into three products that are high in protein and low in fat. These ingredients are then fed directly to the insect larvae. “Most animals can’t live on an exclusive distillers grain diet, but the insects can,” emphasized Courtright. The result is high quality, healthy feedstuff used to farm fish that will in turn feed hungry families.
 
EnviroFlight is currently testing their feed formulations on tilapia and rainbow trout with an eye on large-scale production in 2013.
 
“Our technology will greatly benefit the world,” Courtright exclaims. “We’re able to create a clean, sustainable source of feed for aquaculture” that will produce safer, better quality fish products right here in Ohio.
 
 
Source: Glen Courtright
Writer: Joe Baur

Offenberger & White (OffWhite) has launched the fifth generation of their content management application, Ed.it2.
 
The Marietta-based company is a marketing consulting firm dating back to 1985. Bill White, CEO and co-founder, says the product was conceived, funded and developed by Marietta College alumni working for OffWhite. “It is a 100 percent Ohio-generated solution to the global problem of cost-effective website management and integration.”
 
Ed.it2 is a digital media dashboard that includes a content management system developed for browser-based website management and editing. White says this latest iteration of the application permits management of digital media and websites from personal devices, such as iPhones, iPads, PCs and other computers with access to a conventional Wi-Fi or cellular connection.
 
“Central to the Ed.it2 is a ‘Simple Edit’ function that provides real-time editing on live pages whenever the user is logged in,” explains White. “If you see a typo, simply click the icon, make the change and save.” The changes are immediate, and mistakes can be undone just as quickly.
 
Looking ahead, OffWhite will be demonstrating live website applications of Ed.it2 at webinars. They’ll be hosting “lunch and learn” sessions, highlighting the products features to clients. “Ed.it2 provides easy access and a secure user interface for setting multiple access privileges, managing databases, quick content editing, content optimization to improve search engine rankings, analytics, social media and more.”


Source: Bill White
Writer: Joe Baur

Purchasing agents for mid-size companies have a very tough job, says Bob Ray, co-founder of Columbus-based ProcureSafe, which provides subscription-based online supplier management.

“Medium-size companies with 20 to 500 employees generally don’t have a formal purchasing department dedicated to making corporate purchases,” he explains. “The person responsible for purchasing may be the business owner himself, an office manager, the IT manager or so forth. He or she is inundated by supplier sales calls and has limited time to manage existing suppliers, let alone research prospective suppliers who may offer better pricing or functionality. This can lead to costly purchasing mistakes or missed opportunities for important savings.”

To address this problem for what Ray says is an underserved market, ProcureSafe  launched a new app in August that collects supplier data, organizes it and provides a rating system based on buyer experiences.

The company tested an Alpha version of the app with 22 users in eight industries, obtaining feedback on what they liked and what they thought would make the service more valuable. The company also conducted more than 100 interviews with additional businesses for their input as well.

“The new app completely automates and manages new information on existing suppliers,” Ray explains. “Buyers direct suppliers to a supplier registration portal where they complete a profile, input product information and pricing and then answer qualifying questions to match preselected qualifying criteria.”

This information is stored and categorized in ProcureSafe’s database. In addition to supplier data, the app offers a rating system based on buyer experience. “When a buyer is ready to make a purchase, he or she simply accesses the database for qualified suppliers, considers the feedback on them and can then send a quote request,” he says.

According to Ray, the new app reflects the best practices of market leaders in procurement, supplier management and group purchasing. “It’s a massive network of supplier information that will enable buyers in medium-size companies to make smarter decisions faster.”

Source:  Bob Ray, ProcureSafe
Writer:   Lynne Meyer

Cyber security is a red-hot topic of worldwide concern with would-be cyber attackers representing a significant problem for virtually every major service we use.

That’s according to Peter Jenney, chief technology officer of Dayton’s SCADA Security Innovation, Inc. (SSI), which develops software protection systems for Industrial Control System (ICS) equipment and Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition Systems (SCADA).

The Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT) has invented and is patenting software security algorithms to protect computers against cyber attacks. AFIT recently announced that it has partnered with SSI to commercialize the technology, granting an exclusive license to the invention for the ICS market and further rights for the automotive electronics market.

“This represents the first time in recent memory that AFIT has licensed technology for development in commercial markets,” says Rusty Baldwin, research director for AFIT’s Center for Cyberspace Research.

According to Jenney, the technology is aimed at general purpose computers, and SSI is focusing its efforts on specializing it for industrial control system networks that represent our critical infrastructure. The infrastructure includes everything from municipal water supplies, power plants and distribution systems to petroleum refineries, water and waste management facilities.

“Many of these computer control systems were not designed to withstand cyber attacks,” he explains.  “Unlike cyber attacks against banks or other institutions, the cost of these attacks is measured not in loss of credit card numbers and money, but in loss of life, environmental impact and cost of recovery.”

Vulnerable networks offer attack pathways into sensitive equipment that, should it be compromised, could enable an attacker to take over entire processes. The pathways may be used to capture sensitive information, such as research and development, process control or other proprietary secrets that could damage a company’s competitiveness or integrity.

“Our goal is to give cyber warriors the tools they need to make successful attacks against critical systems extremely difficult, if not impossible,” Jenney says.

SSI anticipates being ready to market the new technology in late 2013.

The company was established in late 2011 as a subsidiary of Boston’s Security Innovation, Inc. It received an investment of $200,000 from the Dayton Development Coalition (DDC). DDC says that commercializing technologies developed by or for the Air Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base is a long-term key to encouraging new business investment that can lead to job creation.

Source:  Peter Jenney, SCADA Security Innovation, Inc.

The LaunchHouse Accelerator kicked off its inaugural program on September 4 with 10 technology startup companies eager to move to the next level. The program is funded through a $200,000 ONEFund grant and a $50,000 grant from Clarion Direct Investment. Each company will receive a $25,000 investment from LaunchHouse to grow their business.
 
“We’re quite excited,” says LaunchHouse CEO Todd Goldstein. “It’s changing the way investments are made in Northeast Ohio. With a little bit of capital we work with them to go from idea to validation.”
 
Goldstein describes the accelerator program as “customer-centric,” emphasizing the identification and needs of potential customers to grow the business. The 12-week program will provide mentors and instruction to the startup owners, guiding them through set goals.

“We’re hitting the ground running,” says Goldstein. “We’re not starting from scratch. We’re looking at the best innovators and how the company has grown.”
 
More than 60 companies from around the world applied for the accelerator. Twenty were selected to make their pitches to a panel of experts. From there, 10 companies were chosen, nine of which are from Northeast Ohio. The hope is that these 10 businesses will remain in Northeast Ohio once they are better established.

“The goal is to keep these companies in the region,” says Goldstein. “We believe Northeast Ohio is prime for an explosion of entrepreneurs.”

 
Source: Todd Goldstein
Writer: Karin Connelly

Steve Deal has one problem with the infusion of technology into today’s healthcare model: it leaves out the patient. “We have the government pouring money into health IT on the providers’ side, but patients don’t have anything,” he says.

Along with co-founders Rene Raphael Vogt-Lowell and David Pingleton, Deal launched IFG Health, which is now in the beginning stages of launching a host of apps aimed at helping patients and families work more efficiently with their physicians and other healthcare providers.

Their first app, the IFG Provider Journal is available in web and mobile versions, and has a Facebook-like interface that allows users to track vital statistics, such as height, weight or blood pressure, record details of care plans during appointments and note progress via text and photos.

In many ways, the app is an electronic version of the notebook many people take to their physician’s office, and may be especially useful for caregivers who help a loved one manage complex conditions. 

Unlike a physical notebook, the app has search and sort functions for ease. Deal says that having information available – even basics that should be in a provider’s electronic medical record – helps appointments flow smoothly when time is limited. Also, not every physician or nurse is comfortable with EMRs, Deal points out.

A video on the company’s website says physicians wait an average of 10 to 15 seconds for the answer to a question before they move on, with or without the necessary information. 

Deal has experienced this firsthand as a caregiver for his father and mother-in-law, but doesn’t fault physicians. Today’s primary care providers, he points out, “go from one life crisis to another every 15 minutes,” facing burnout along the way. 

He hopes that organized patients will be able to partner better with their doctors, and plans to unveil a host of new web and mobile apps to help.

By Robin Donovan

Flywheel, Cincinnati's social enterprise hub, has launched a new series of training sessions designed to develop marketing, planning, research and business skills in the nonprofit sector.

Meetings run this month through November, beginning with a session on Market Research, Wednesday, Sept. 19. The session will help nonprofit's better use market research to test the feasibility of new programs or to improve existing ones. (The session runs from 2 to 4 pm at The Health Foundation of Greater Cincinnati. You can register at Eventbrite.)

This training series fits with Flywheel's mission to help non-profits in generating money through social enterprise, or products or services that have social value. 

The organization was formed early this year by the Leadership Council for Human Services Executives, the Executive Service Corps of Cincinnati, the Center for Social Entrepreneurship at Miami University, and Centric Consulting.

Flywheel has scheduled two other workshops. Click on the links to register for the them.

Social Enterprise 201

October 9, 1 - 4 pm

Business Planning Training

(in partnership with The Health Foundation)

November 2, 9 am - 5 pm

By Feoshia H. Davis
Follow Feoshia on Twitter.

The tech firm yet2 is gaining an Ohio presence thanks to a $1.8 million award from Ohio Third Frontier.

The Needham, Massachusetts-based company specializes in technology transfer and patent transactions, operating an online marketplace since 1999. Don Monaco, Director of Business Development at yet2, says the decision to pursue an Ohio location “was quite easy, frankly.” He explains, “The state of Ohio, being very forward thinking relative to the business base in the state, elected to invest in making small and mid-market companies more competitive in terms of technology development utilization.”
 
Establishing a yet2 location puts Ohio in good company, since the company has additional locations in Tokyo and Liverpool. “The types of businesses in the state of Ohio are very good candidates for harnessing the benefits of Open Innovation,” says Monaco, which is a concept promoted by Henry Chesbrough, a professor at the Center for Open Innovation at the University of California, Berkley. The concept is a model using internal and external ideas for mass innovation.
 
The Ohio location is yet to be determined, but Monaco says they will select what they believe is “the best fit for our company, the state and associates we will be hiring to lead the effort.” Meantime, he reiterates his gratitude toward the Ohio Department of Development and Ohio Third Frontier “for having the confidence in yet2.com’s ability to bring economic value to the state, spread the word about Open Innovation and ultimately make a positive difference in the future for our prospective Ohio clients, their employees and shareholders.”
 
 
Source: Don Monaco
Writer: Joe Baur

The Curiosity rover is busy investigating Martian climate and geology, thanks in large part to a power system developed by the University of Dayton Research Institute’s (UDRI) Energy Technologies and Materials Division.

“The art of science resides in people and not equipment,” says UDRI’s Senior Research Engineer, Chad Barklay. He explains their contribution to the Curiosity project was the result of collaboration among a team of scientists from JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory), NASA, Teledyn and Rocketdyne. “[We] determined which tests would be needed to ensure that the radioisotope power system (RPS) would properly function after entry, descent and landing.”

The result was a system that operates Curiosity’s wheels, robotic arm, computers, radio and other instruments. Needless to say, NASA is pleased with UDRI’s contribution. “Informally, there has been nothing but praise from various NASA program mangers regarding our efforts and contributions,” says Barklay, noting a few researchers on his staff have previously received formal recognition from NASA in the form of “Group Achievement Awards.”

As Curiosity continues its expedition 350 million miles away, Barklay continues his work in radioisotope power systems – something he says has a rich legacy in Dayton.

Dayton-based scientists Kenneth Jordan and John Birden developed the principle and first working model of the nuclear batter. “In 1959, they received a patent for their invention, and it is this technology that forms the basis for all RPS’s used in deep space missions today,” Barklay explains, powering some of NASA’s most notable missions, such as Pioneer, Voyager and Galileo.

“The legacy of this pioneering work that occurred almost 60 years ago in the Dayton area is amazing. It has travelled beyond our solar system and is still alive at the University of Dayton.”


Source: Chad Barklay
Writer: Joe Baur