Innovation + Job News

Motorcycle enthusiast/aspiring entrepreneur Gary Green � who has worked in manufacturing for 35 years � combined his love of bikes and ambitions for business when Access-O-Ride Technology, opened in Tallmadge recently.

Green had developed a way to manufacture durable fiberglass parts, but needed help to launch his business. He found it last fall when, after hearing a talk at a library, he learned about JumpStart, a Cleveland-based non-profit organization that provides resources to promising early-stage companies.

Darrin Redus, president of JumpStart Inclusion Advisors, which focuses on minority and women-owned businesses, and Entrepreneur-in-Residence Johnny Hutton, helped Green get involved with The JumpStart Launch100 Initiative, a collaboration of their group and the Ohio Department of Development Minority Business Enterprise Division. Launch100 is a statewide program to create a pipeline of 100 high potential minority and inner-city based businesses in Ohio over the next five years.

Redus found that AORT "has a patented, scalable product and a team with the right background and know-how to lead it through the growth process." He and Hutton helped Green develop an investor plan and funding strategy that enabled him to enter the market he'd identified.

Green said his JumpStart mentors helped him "round the rough edges" of plans and presentations to get better results. He said AORT and JumpStart learned "to trust each other's judgment."

AORT has begun making saddlebags and fenders already with six employees. Green hopes to hire up to 50 and eventually move into the automotive and marine segments.

Source: JumpStart
Writer: Gabriella Jacobs

iSqFt has merged information technology with traditional bidding and construction planning methods to realize a 30 percent increase in revenue and a 230 percent jump in employment over the last two years.

Founded in 1993, the Blue Ash-based firm began as a client-based software firm, says Dave Conway, president and CEO. That started to change when the company became serious about leveraging the Internet.

The result was Internet Plan Room and Private Construction Offices.

"The Internet Plan room is a service for subcontractors to gain access to bidding projects," Conway says. "They get a list of the projects in their market area and are able to view those projects on blueprints, view the specifications, search queries and they can find the kind of projects they would like to bid on. We connect subcontractors to the general contractors who are actually bidding the job. And then the general contractors will use an online tool (Private Construction Office) to manage the bidding process so they can manage their documents, manage their data base of subcontractors as well as all the communications that occur during the bidding phase."

The technology improves business processes, which reduces costs and increases efficiencies and effectiveness, he says.

Not only has iSqFt been recognized as one of Ohio's fastest-growing companies, but as one of the best places to work. Along the way, employment has increased from 150 to 350 in the last two years.

The company has received both Ohio Third Frontier money -- $2 million in 2006 and another $1 million earlier this year to further develop its platform -- and venture capital from Ohio Capital Fund participants like River Cities Capital Fund, Chysalis Ventures, Tri-State Growth Capital Fund and Reservoir Venture Partners.

Source: Dave Conway, iSqFt
Writer: Gene Monteith

Today's insurers are sticklers for making sure medical providers don't prescribe costly medications or treatments that could be substituted by generics or lower cost alternatives.

The result is "prior authorization," a set of rules and procedures that can make for a complicated and paper-intensive process for doctors, pharmacists and other professionals who must deal with a large number of insurers and a large number of forms.

CoverMyMeds has set its sites on eliminating hard-copy paperwork related to prior authorization of pharmaceuticals. The year-old company, based in Twinsburg with operations in Columbus, rolled out its solution last April. Sam Rajan, one of the company's founders, says since then thousands of clients all over the country have embraced the new online procedure that reduces time on task by as much as 75 percent.

Until now, prior authorization has been "a very manual paper process," Rajan says. "Any time there's paper involved, the work flow is disrupted and work stops. There are a couple of studies out there that show patients -- a good number of them -- can go without therapy if these prior authorizations aren't completed. That's primarily due to the provider not knowing where to go to look for the proper forms, the rules and how to get the ball rolling."

CoverMyMeds allows a provider to go online, find the right form, share it with another healthcare professional, fill it out and e-fax it to the insurer -- all in under five minutes, compared the traditional 15 to 25 minutes.

The firm has caught the attention of JumpStart, which recently invested $250,000 in the company. The funds will be used for additional technology infrastructure and personnel as the company further develops its capabilities, Rajan says.

CoverMyMeds has 11 employees and expects near-term growth to push that number up by about 50 percent.

Source: Sam Rajan, CoverMyMeds
Writer: Gene Monteith

A lunch meat business started from the trunk of Vincent Sandridge's car in 1960 has grown into one of the nation's leading fresh food providers.

Today, Sandridge Food Corp., with both food service and retail operations, is continuing to grow -- it added 64 jobs in the last year and 35 jobs since May -- and employment now stands at 469, says Mary Vaccaro, senior marketing manager for the Medina-based company.

The company's most recent job additions are at least partly due to Sandridge's first-in-industry application of a technology called high pressure processing -- a heatless technique that eliminates pathogens from Sandridge's salads, soups and other packaged foods.

Here's how it works. Food is packaged in a flexible container and loaded into a high-pressure chamber filled with cold water. The chamber is pressurized to between 58,000 and 87,000 pounds per square inch. Because the pressure is transmitted evenly, the food keeps its shape -- and because no heat is used, the flavor and other characteristics of the food are maintained while destroying harmful bacteria.

"High pressure processing is not a new technology, but it's new in our arena," Vaccaro says. "We have found that although food safety is number one, there are these residual benefits that come out of high pressure processing in our industry. It really intensifies flavors. And it extends the usable shelf life for many of our products, and that's also an advantage to our customers."

Sandridge remains a family-run business. While Vincent Sandridge is no longer alive, his sons Mark and Michael serve as CEO and senior director of food service sales, respectively, Vaccaro says. Mark Sandridge's sons Jordan and Dane also work for the company, she notes.

Source: Mary Vaccaro, Sandridge Foods
Writer: Gene Monteith

A person's body sends countless silent messages that health care professionals need to know for optimal diagnosis and treatment. A Cleveland company creates high-tech ways to capture those messages.

Cleveland Medical Devices, or CleveMed, specializes in miniaturized wireless telemetry, physiological monitoring and rehabilitation devices. Its products are designed to help people with sleep disorders and movement disorders; they also are used in research and academic settings.

Hallmarks of CleveMed products are accuracy, portability and ease of use, which the company says makes them particularly useful in homes, hospital rooms, private practices and the like all over the world. The company holds 15 patents.

The company says it is close to launching "clinically deployable" monitors that record movement, restore control and enhance function for disorders such as Parkinson's disease, stroke and cerebral palsy.

Earlier this year CleveMed finalized a license agreement with a spinoff company, NeuroWave Systems Inc., transferring anesthesia monitoring and seizure detection technologies. NeuroWave is the only company selected by both the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Defense to develop seizure detection devices to monitor patients exposed to chemical warfare agents.

"The spin-off and license is a testament to the maturity of our products and success of our businesses," Robert N. Schmidt, chairman of both CleveMed and NeuroWave, says.

CleveMed was founded in 1990 and has one other spinoff to its name: Flocel Inc., a maker of in-vitro blood brain barrier testing equipment.

The company, which has 40 employees, is expanding its sales force around the U.S. to increase sales of its new home sleep apnea testing device, the SleepView. This new device and web portal will allow primary care physicians to conduct sleep tests where the patient can sleep in their own bed.

Source: Carole Nittskoff, CleveMed
Writer: Gabriella Jacobs

"The traditional means of testing water for pollutants is to go out in boat, scoop up a few samples, and send them off to the lab for evaluation," explains Milt Baker, president of Blue Water Satellite.

The problem with that method, he says, is that a handful of random samples is a poor representation of the body of water at large. And then there is the expense of sending live people out to perform the work.

Blue Water has a better (and far cheaper) way.

Using patented image-processing software developed by the company's chief technology officer, Blue Water can determine the location and concentration of pollutants in lakes, rivers and streams without ever getting wet. Starting with high-resolution satellite imagery, the proprietary technology translates various light intensity patterns into components such as cyanobacteria, phosphorus, and chlorophyll a.

Whereas a typical water test consists of a handful of grab samples for an entire body of water, Blue Water is able to provide the equivalent of five samples for every acre. In the case of a 1,000-acre lake, that's the difference between six to 10 samples versus 5,000 � at roughly the same price.

Blue Water's customers range from federal, state and local governments to large environmental engineering firms tasked with remediating large environmental problems. The technology makes it easy to perform work for clients scattered across the globe.

Founded in 2008 in Bowling Green, the company currently employs 20 people. Baker envisions a high-growth curve that will increase sales from $1 million next year to $30 million in five short years.

Source: Milt Baker, Blue Water Satellite
Writer: Douglas Trattner

The University of Cincinnati and Blue Ash-based Ethicon Endo-Surgery have pushed forward their research collaboration to better understand the mechanical, physical, and biochemical changes that happen when people undergo bariatric surgery.

The research goal is to better understand exactly how the procedure causes dramatic weight loss and develop less invasive surgical devices that make the process ultimately more effective and less painful.

Ethicon recently awarded UC's Metabolic Diseases Institute a $13.5 million, three-year research grant extension to study the physiological issues associated with the surgery that is increasingly common in treating obesity. The grant is part of Ethicon's Metabolic Applied Research Strategy (MARS), which also includes research from GI Metabolism Laboratory and Weight Center at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH).

Ethicon Endo-Surgery, Inc. develops advanced medical devices for minimally invasive and open surgeries. Its parent company is Johnson & Johnson. Including this new grant, the EES MARS initiative has invested more than $33 million with UC and the GI Metabolism Laboratory and Weight Center at the MGH.

"Ethicon Endo-Surgery is committed to collaborating with clinicians to develop new, comprehensive bariatric solutions while also ensuring that people with obesity have access to current treatment options that can help them achieve sustained weight loss and reduce co-morbidities," says Karen Licitra, Ethicon group Chairperson.

At UC, researchers are studying of why other metabolic procedures, such as vertical sleeve gastrectomy (VSG) and laparoscopic greater curvature plication (LGCP), work. These and other studies have been presented at prestigious national conferences, including most recently the American Diabetes Association Annual Meeting in Florida this past June.

Source: Ethicon Endo-Surgery
Writer: Feoshia Henderson

When up and running, the Advanced Energy Manufacturing Center will represent a first-of-its-kind effort to make Ohio a leader in creating clean energy jobs.

A groundbreaking is planned for October for the new 20,000-square-foot Center in Lima. The center, a non-profit incubator, will initially house a flexible fabrication and robotic assembly demonstration project. It will focus on several technology clusters including design and development, sustainable energy, advanced materials, agile tooling, additive manufacturing technologies, simulation software and others.

The center is designed to create new, high tech manufacturing jobs in Ohio. The state has a history of manufacturing and innovation, but has lost some manufacturing jobs like much of the Midwest as global economic conditions have shifted. State economic development leaders and government officials in Lima see the center as way to recapture the state's manufacturing tradition by creating new manufacturing solutions and processes.

The center is backed by state and federal dollars, including $1 million the federal government awarded the project in 2009.
 
It's just been awarded a $457,375 state Roadwork Development Grant, and the center has applied for a $1.9 million grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce Economic Development Administration.

A site for the center was chosen and secured within Lima's Ohio Job Ready Site program site located on South Main Street, says Judith Cowan, the center's president. 

Sources: Ohio Department of Development and Judith Cowan, president Ohio Advanced Energy Manufacturing Center
Writer: Feoshia Henderson

"Be prepared."

That's what Seavival tells its customers. And, in a tough economy, it's a lesson the Toledo-based emergency equipment company has learned for itself.

The company has developed a patented first-response kit that has attracted quite the attention. If a contract with the U.S. military is approved, it could mean an additional 100 jobs for Northwest Ohio.

It's been slow road to success, says Seavival CEO Brian Friedman. He has dedicated more than 40 years to emergency medical kits, starting while in high school as a hospital volunteer in Miami, Fla.

Today, the company is on the brink of massive growth. "(The military contract) could be a potentially big thing for us," he says.

There's good reason for Friedman's enthusiasm. The company's staple product, The Professional, can hold up to 1,800 cubic inches � and can be mounted on a vehicle (including a motorcycle) or used as a backpack. He says there's a big demand for such a product. The other portion of Seavival's business is selling the systems, or the contents of the emergency medical kits.

The five-year-old company currently employs only a few, but more positions may be added. Soon.

Seavival is now working with the Toledo Fire Department for testing and validation, Friedman says, adding that in addition to the military, customers might include marine and industrial organizations, as well as fire and rescue operations.

The company received some marketing and strategic assistance from the Regional Growth Partnership. Seavival has also recently partnered with the University of Toledo technology innovation group. The company also works with the international division of the Ohio Department of Development, seeking a customer base abroad.

"But we could use a lot more help," Friedman says. "Small companies like our ours are totally incapable of maintaining the cost of marketing for an international effort without help from the state."

Source: Brian Friedman
Writer: Colin McEwen

Ohio soybeans instead of fishmeal in fish foods? It's a good idea whose time has come, says Dave Smith, and later this year his Freshwater Farms will start a pilot project to prove it.

Smith, who has a doctorate in fish nutrition, tried the idea a few years ago, even launching the company Freedom Feeds. He says his product was good, but its price was not as competitive as the traditional kind.

Now, largely because of damage to the fish population since the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, fish meal prices are expected to double � opening the door to a good market for a grain and insect protein feed. Smith says the U.S. Soybean Council and Ohio Department of Agriculture support aquaculture, and he plans to take up his feed project again within the next year.

Freshwater Farms is a busy place already. Three generations of Smiths work at the Champaign County site, where they raise a variety of fish. They sell pond equipment, also. The Smiths' fish are sold to stock ponds and lakes � but also, to go straight to the dinner table. By operating their own FDA-inspected processing plant and 40-by-40 retail shop, they offer smoked trout, trout dips and other goodies.

Because of his expertise, Smith has consulted with people who want to convert their hog and cattle barns to fish farms. Fish are cleaner and better for the environment, he says.

Sidenote: The 9th annual Ohio Fish and Shrimp Festival will be held at Freshwater Farms Sept. 17-19.

Source: Dave Smith, Freshwater Farms
Writer: Gabriella Jacobs

Communication errors have long been a problem in the healthcare industry, contributing to an unacceptable number of unfavorable patient outcomes. Now, a five-year-old Ohio company is stepping up with a range of critical test result management products to ensure patients get timely care while offering healthcare professionals an affordable way to close the communication loop.

RADAR Medical Systems is ramping up commercialization of a series of products that offer interactive communication to doctors everywhere, from high-end integrated systems for hospitals to a monthly subscription service tailored for single-practice doctor's offices.

"There have been companies doing this in the field of radiology for a few years. What we've done is taken that concept and expanded it dramatically," says RADAR CEO Jack Cornell.

Through three levels of its primary service, RADAR offers doctor-to-doctor instant messaging, an alert system that requires acknowledgment of important information and automatic logging of patient information for risk management. Another product does many of the same things for much less cost through a RADAR-housed monthly subscription service.

Most importantly, all of RADAR's systems seamlessly work with computer systems hospitals already have in place, meaning healthcare facilities can earn Joint Commission accreditation with very low up-front costs.

The end result is better care for patients, says Cornell.

RADAR, now based in Chagrin Falls, graduated from the Regional Growth Partnership in April, using a $50,000 grant from the organization to put the final touches on its software, test it within a wide range of computer systems and start marketing in earnest. In March, RADAR also got a $400,000 vote of confidence from Rocket Ventures.

With four full-time employees currently, the company is poised to jobs in the near future, Cornell says.

Source: Jack Cornell, RADAR Medical Systems
Writer: Dave Malaska

With the launch of their new 2.6 Version Remote Backup Appliance, 3X Systems of Columbus is optimistic that the future holds strong growth as their market share increases both in the U.S. and overseas.

3X was founded in 2006 by Alan Arman with the help of a $500,000 grant from TechColumbus. Today, the company has hundreds of clients in countries around the world and saw growth of 74 percent in 2009, says Arman.

Arman's mission when he founded the company was to create data back up that was affordable and reliable. Customers include medical practices, law firms, non-profit groups and small to medium size manufacturing companies, he says. They appreciate one of the key features of the storage back up - which is that they control where the data is stored.

"We allow customers to control where the data back up goes," he says. "They have access to the data. No one else can access it."

Arman says clients choose where the data storage appliance is located, something that is not normally a choice when hiring a data back up service.

As sales continue to increase in the next 12 to 24 months, Arman says he plans to hire up to three new professionals in sales, marketing and software development to add to the 10 employees he now has. He says he expects sales to double this year.

Source: Alan Arman, 3X Systems
Writer: Val Prevish

Frank Harris, a professor emeritus of polymer science at the University of Akron, knows what it's like to be the bona fide poster child for the growing high-tech industry in Ohio. And he's OK with that.

He co-founded Akron Polymer Systems in 2005 (with Dr. Stephen Cheng, dean of the UA College of Polymer Science and Polymer Engineering) and the company has enjoyed steady growth since.

The company now says it's within a year of taking its polymer product � with uses in fuel cells, liquid-crystal displays and solar cells � to the market.

APS has attracted the attention of several companies, including Lockheed Martin, Kent Displays and solar powerhouse Xunlight.
And to think the company was this close to leaving Ohio.

"We were approached by the state of South Carolina, but we stayed, primarily because of the Third Frontier," says Harris. "South Carolina could offer us some incentives, but they couldn't come anywhere close to the help that the Third Frontier could offer us." APS has received about $350,000 in direct funding from the state program for fuel cell technology, but through subcontracts it has also been awarded more than $2 million for several other projects.

Harris says another benefit is that the company has been able to match Third Frontier funding with industry funding, something he calls the "doubling effect."

There are currently a dozen people employed with APS, but Harris says once a product is on the market within a year, there could be more than 25 positions added. In more good news for the company, APS has been approved for a $1.25 million loan to build a new $3 million facility in downtown Akron.

Source: Frank Harris, Akron Polymer Systems
Writer: Colin McEwen

Imagine you have a chronic illness like diabetes (maybe you don't have to imagine). Now, imagine your next doctor's appointment. And imagine that instead of seeing the doctor first, you see an on-site pharmacist who evaluates the tests you've been given, asks you  questions and then walks with you to visit the doctor -- together.

Tim Schramko, president and CEO of Toledo-based Ceuticare, says that vision is exactly the kind of medical collaboration toward which his four-year-old company is working.

The Ceuticare scenario becomes possible under a set of proprietary algorithms developed by founders Allen Nichol and Kenneth Bachmann, Schramko says. Combined with a pharmacist's intimate knowledge of medications and access to a patient's complete medical profile, the data allow him or her to tell whether a chronically ill patient is following doctor's orders or fibbing. Few physicians are equipped with such tools and must base prescribing decisions on what the patient says -- which may or may not be accurate, Schramko says.

Ceuticare provides data for diabetes, blood lipids, hypertension, asthma, chronic kidney disease and cardiovascular disease. While Schramko says "I haven't talked to one doctor yet who did not like it," he says a reluctance to change long-time business and office models has kept participation low.

He expects acceptance to rise with more education and as doctors become more attuned to the collaborative "medical home" concept promoted under the National Healthcare Reform Act. Schramko says one Ohio insurer has already perked up its ears based on the results of a small study that showed Ceuticare patients went to the hospital and the emergency room far less frequency than a control group -- whose costs rose 200 percent.

The five-employee company also has the attention of Rocket Ventures, which invested $175,000 in Ceuticare.

Source: Tim Schramko, Ceuticare
Writer: Gene Monteith

At Techmetals in Dayton, investment in human resources is as important as investment in capital resources.

The 41-year-old industrial and commercial metal finishing company emphasizes employee learning for everyone, from new hires to veterans, says Phillip Brockman, director of business development and engineering.

Within the first two weeks, newcomers are required to perform some physical labor and read technical data. The tasks help Techmetals determine important characteristics about the person, such as whether they can read and follow directions, and if they're a "self-starter." The tasks also help the company evaluate the person's communication skills.

Everyone gets training in Steven Covey's "Seven Habits of Highly Effective People," which emphasizes things like being proactive, planning, and understanding; and the FranklinCovey planner system, which assists time management and organization.

But that's not all. Other company-sponsored courses cover things like chemistry, math, blueprint reading, project management, supervision, safety, and the importance of a drug-free workplace.

Each employee gets $2,000 a year for outside learning, too, typically used at places such as Sinclair Community College and the University of Dayton. Brockman says the company spent $24,000 last year for sales training. One employee underwent $7,000 of computer training. Many employees also earn the credential Certified Electro Finisher � "it's like a degree in plating," he says.

And when a company class is held on a Saturday, off-duty employees get paid to be there.

A former COO is the continuous improvement director; he teaches many of the classes. And there are two on-site training facilities. The 2009 total for all this learning was over $125,000, excluding the continuous improvement director's salary.

Why, in an era of economic upheaval, does Techmetals still budget for these things?

"It helps establish our culture," Brockman says. "�And it helps us all use the same nomenclature and procedures."

It doesn't hurt retention, either, he says. Current employment is about 125. Average tenure is 18 years.

Source: Phillip Brockman, Techmetals
Writer: Gabriella Jacobs