Columbus/Central Ohio : Innovation + Job News

Ninety-five percent of American businesses have nine or fewer employees. But until recently it was almost impossible to find a single source of information about them.

Today, that's changing, thanks in large part to Manta, which bills itself as the "largest free source of information on small companies."

The Columbus-based website, which launched in September 2005 as the offspring of ECNext, has sometimes been described as "the fastest-growing business site you've never heard of." But these days, plenty of people are hearing about Manta.

Launched with a data base encompassing 24 million companies, the online resource now covers 64 million -- 20 million of which are U.S. companies -- and was cited in September as the fifth-largest business/finance/news site according to ComScore, recognized within the industry as the Nielsens of the digital world.

Manta's Internet audience penetration of 5.8 million outranked even Forbes Property, CNBC.COM, Reuters, CNN Money and BusinessWeek.com. And its October visitor count topped 14 million, up 34 percent from the year before.

Pamela Springer, president and CEO, says Manta's appeal is simple: give information away for free and let listed companies update and add to the information that's there. Revenue comes from advertising, she says.

"We have democratized this information and leveled the playing field," she says. "It's not just the big guys anymore."

She says Manta's primary target audiences are small-business owners, account executives and business development professionals, senior executives, researchers and analysts who are looking not just for information, but to connect.

Boosted by a $1.2-million Ohio Third Frontier Innovation Loan in 2006, Manta continues to report breakneck growth, both in audience and employment. When ECNext launched in 2003, the company employed 12; Manta now employs 45, with plans for an additional 10 this year.

Source: Pamela Springer, Manta
Writer: Gene Monteith

While recent economic woes have forced a number of established businesses to shutter, one long-lived Ohio manufacturer is thriving through innovation.

Ohio Willow Wood USA, in rural Mt. Sterling, manufactures several high-quality prosthetics. Started in 1905, the company, located just southwest of Columbus, has come a long way from founder William Edwin Arbogast's hand-carved artificial limbs. Arbogast, who lost his legs in a railroad accident, founded the company after being dissatisfied with other available artificial limbs.

Fast forward to today. Ohio Willow Wood is not only an industry leader in manufacturing but in distribution and development.

"Ohio Willow Wood's research and development team is constantly exploring and developing new product opportunities, testing new product designs, as well as enhancing current products for continual maximum performance," says company spokeswoman Lisa Watkins.

Landmark products include the Sterling Stump Sock (1921), Carbon Copy II Foot (1984), Alpha Liners (1995), the Pathfinder Foot (2001) and LimbLogic VS (2007).

The company employs 168, in engineering/R&D, prosthetists, accounting, IT and more. Willow Wood soon will hire a quality manager and a certified prosthetist/orthotist. Several state grants helped the company with ongoing worker training, including a $17,500 of an 2009 Ohio Department Jobs and Family Service training grant.

"The products developed by Ohio Willow Wood provide comfort and assist consumers in leading a functionally normal lifestyle, all of which allows Ohio Willow Wood to grow and succeed," Watkins said.

Source: Lisa Watkins, Ohio Willow Wood spokeswoman
Writer: Feoshia Henderson

Columbus start-up JoeMetric, is poised to track the world's consumers, one smart phone at a time, with its new iPhone application set to launch in January.

Pending approval by Apple this month, JoeMetric will begin offering its smart phone app, JoeSurvey, free to iPhone users next year. The users can then take targeted surveys through the app and get paid for their responses.

JoeMetric makes money when marketers sign up to use their application to question consumers about their shopping habits or to get feedback instantly about events or advertising, says Stephanie Rucinski, head Joe (aka president) of JoeMetric.

"Right now market research is so expensive it's out of reach of most small businesses," says Rucinski. "(With JoeMetric) it's a self service model that opens the door to get the information they want."

Rucinski says that JoeMetric is also the only application she knows of that is making use of global positioning technology to allow marketers to track consumers through their phones, with their consent, of course, so they can instantly determine how much time a customer spends in a particular store or venue and even what they browse the most while they are there.

"We couldn't roll out fast enough for some folks," says Rucinski of the potential demand for JoeSurvey. "This type of information has been unable to be gathered before now. They've been trying to do this for years, and now they can."

After their launch in January, Rucinski says that JoeMetric will add between three and six employees to its current two. Most of the jobs will be in sales, with one position planned for tech development.

Source: Stephanie Rucinski, JoeMetric
Writer: Val Prevish

If you're like many Web users, you have a zillion bookmarks set up in your browser's favorites list. You may also have come across must-see content that you want to share with your friends: that cool llama farm, the dancing baby video, a list of favorite books or movies.

The problem is, when it comes time to share those things, you find yourself wading through an unorganized morass of bookmarks.

That's why Toobla was born. Founded in 2008 and launched this fall, the Columbus-based tech company is banking on your need for order -- and your desire to share web content with friends and acquaintances.

"Toobla was created because there are a lot of bookmarking services out there, but no one is doing it in a very visual way," says Brian Link, CEO of the fledgling company.

Toobla solves the problem by organizing everything in folders within a free Toobla account. Have a list of favorite publications? Stick them in a folder. Favorite bands? Another folder. A Toobla user can either keep the folder private for personal reference or make it public -- allowing it to be shared with friends, business associates or a wider audience via one click from within a social networking site.

"People really haven't innovated the shared space (of the Web)," Link says. "People are sending links one at a time."

The Columbus-based company, which employs four but plans to grow to around 35 over the next three years as revenues grow, has raised more than $1 million in capital through TechColumbus, the Third Frontier's Entrepreneurial Signature Program and other sources. Link says the company anticipates $335,000 in revenues in 2010 -- and as much as $31 million within five years.

Source: Brian Link, Toobla
Writer: Gene Monteith

Juice Technologies is helping the University of Toledo "go green." But that project -- an effort to audit and upgrade the campus's energy infrastructure -- is only a fraction of what the company believes awaits it within an evolving automotive and electric utility industry.

At the University of Toledo, Juice Technologies is helping the campus both with an extensive energy audit and in managing the evolution of the institution as one that will, in the future, leave no "carbon footprint."

Rich Housh, Juice's president and CEO, says that project is paying the start-up's bills for now. But he sees a future in which his company is also leader in management of plug-in vehicle charging and energy management technologies that tie into utility "smart-grid" infrastructures.

Developed under the Plug Smart brand, products include the Plug Smart Pal and Plug Smart Solo, cordset devices that can be carried in a car's trunk to allow charging anywhere. Both collect, store, report and calculate emission statistics that can be viewed at a Plug Smart-hosted website. The technology is expected to be in the marketplace sometime next year. Meanwhile, the company is advancing charging station technology that can communicate directly with a utility company to authenticate the vehicle and owner as well as information needed to bill the owner through his or her home utility bill.

The 12-person, Columbus-based company -- which appropriately shares a location with the Ohio State University Center for Automotive Research -- is also developing prototypes of a networkable energy management system to let homes and businesses tie into a utility company's advanced meter infrastructure using a web server to view energy statistics, configure their own energy strategies, and control their usage.

Source: Rich Housh, Juice Technologies
Writer: Gene Monteith

As a urological surgeon for OhioHealth, Wayne Poll knew there must be a way to keep his laparoscopic lenses clear without constantly having to stop and clean them. While it took him 10 years to bring that vision to fruition, Poll's FloShield is now in the marketplace.

"I tried going to companies with my ideas, and I did that for ten years," says Poll, whose Columbus-based Minimally Invasive Devices gained FDA clearance for the product last year. "But I was constantly frustrated. I got to know some people and entered the Ohio State University (Fisher College of Business) 2006 business plan competition, and we won it. That got us some momentum and we started to raise money."

With the help of TechColumbus, a technology business incubator serving a 15-county area in Central Ohio, MID raised an initial $200,000 in start-up capital and a total of $2.4 million in angel funds, a portion of which came from funds supported by the Ohio Third Frontier. In October, following FDA approval of FloShield, the company raised $2 million in Series B funding.

FloShield works by keeping air flowing around the end of the scope, blowing away debris that can obscure a clear image at the surgical site. Poll says the company, so far, has sold about 600 of the devices and has introduced a new product, FloShield Plus, that uses a saline solution to clear the lens.

MID was founded in 2006 and grew from one employee to five this year. Poll serves as MID's founder and chief executive officer and as director of innovation for the OhioHealth system.

Source: Wayne Poll, Minimally Invasive Devices
Writer: Gene Monteith

Nathan Poeppelman loved amusement parks. But he could never seem to find real-time, organized information about the places he wanted to visit.

So, he took matters into his own hands: He formed Boz Adventures.

Poeppelman founded Boz Adventures in 2004, the same year he graduated from Miami University with a management information systems degree and entrepreneurial minor. He began offering travel information and park data through his Boz Adventures website. But the website alone, he says, really wasn't meeting the vision he had for real-time, at-your-fingertips information.

Earlier this year, Poeppelman incorporated the Columbus company and launched a new software application that allows users to tap trip logistics and inside-the-park specs through their iPhones -- wherever they are.

Want to know the wait-time for The Beast at King's Island? An interface allows park operators -- or Adventure Map users -- to upload both average wait times and real time information into a usable format. Want to know when Dollywood opens and how far it is from your Gatlinburg rental cabin? Ask your iPhone.

Poeppelman says Adventure Map currently lists more than 8,500 points of interest around the world and has signed on 31 parks on a trial basis, allowing them to upload real-time information free -- for now. While his customer base is still small, those who have downloaded the app are diverse, Poeppelman says, hailing from as far away as Great Britain, Denmark, and Australia.

Closer to home, he reports that his company is working on a partnership with Columbus-based KidsLinked, an online guide for family-friendly activities which in January won Tech Columbus's Outstanding Service Award.

Source: Nathan Poeppelman, Boz Adventures
Writer: Gene Monteith

If you've got a suspicious bump, you'll want a doctor to look at it. The question is, if it comes time for a biopsy, would you rather make two stops -- first, to your family doc, then to the dermatologist -- or one? And would you rather go home with stitches or a quick closure that creates less blood?

The folks at CleveX believe that patients will prefer the latter. And doctors seem to agree.

The Columbus-based company recently signed an exclusive national distribution agreement and its first stocking order for $180,000 worth of its ExiClip, making it one of a small, but growing, group of Ohio biomedical startups that are off the drawing board and into the marketplace.

Sam Finkelstein, CleveX's chief executive officer, says the device reduces the time a physician needs to do a biopsy from the traditional 20 to 30 minutes to less than five. It does so with a small, hand-held tool that removes the skin and closes it up in one single motion.

"You can clip, cut and close in ten seconds," Finkelstein says, adding that docs still must take time to anesthetize the area.

According to Finkelstein, the company first tested ExiClip with dermatologists, who said they would prefer to do fewer biopsies so they could concentrate on other parts of their practice. They steered CleveX toward primary care docs and OBGYNs, who often send patients to specialists because of the time it traditionally takes to remove a skin lesion and stitch it up.

Last year, CleveX raised more than $1.9 million from angel and venture investors. The company employees 10, but Finkelstein says "we expect to increase personnel, and, depending on sales, it would not be unrealistic to expect us to double."

Source: Sam Finkelstein, CleveX
Writer: Gene Monteith

Since its formation in 1994, NexTech Materials has grown from zero employees to 35. Along the way, it has gained attention for both its leadership team and its innovative products.

But the real growth is coming, says William Dawson, NexTech's chief executive officer.

NexTech, based in Lewis Center, does business in 35 countries and offers more than 100 products, mostly related to ceramic materials used in solid oxide fuel cells. The company is working with a number of partners in development of new products -- but much depends on the adoption of fuel cell technology in the U.S. to power vehicles and buildings, Dawson says.

"There's a lot more going on outside of the United States due to government incentives," Dawson says. "Korea provides an 80 percent subsidy for (homeowner purchases of) fuel cells. Japan has thousands of units going into homes right now."

While a number of stationary power demonstration units exist in the United States, widespread use here is in the future, Dawson says. Yet, the advantages are clear, both for stationary units and mobile units used in military applications or to power vehicles, he says.

"They have very high efficiency, they don't create pollution, and because of their high efficiency the greenhouse effect is reduced more than 50 percent."

While NexTech continues building inroads into the fuel cell business, it is also forging ahead with production of a number of sensors used to detect the presence of gases in the surrounding air.

"We just started offering hydrogen safety sensors (to detect hydrogen in the air), and are working on emissions sensors that we hope will be coming to the marketplace in two to three years," says Dawson.

Source: William Dawson, NexTech
Writer: Gene Monteith

Home brewers know that fermentation stops when the yeast produce so much alcohol they can no longer survive. If you want a higher alcohol content, you'd better find a different yeast strain that can survive in a more toxic soup.

That, in essence, is what Ohio State University researchers have done in developing a new strain of bacterium (clostridium beijerinckii) that produces twice the amount of alcohol -- in this case butanol -- before kicking the bucket. The potential payoff is a motor fuel that has many advantages over ethanol -- America's current biofuel of choice.

Shang-Tian Yang, professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, says butanol, which is used widely as a solvent, now sells for $3.50 to $5 a gallon. Because much of the cost is in production, getting twice the amount of butanol from the same amount of bacteria could reduce the cost by half.

"Ethanol has severe limits," Yang says. "It is corrosive and can't be shipped through a pipeline, you have to ship using trucks. And it must be mixed with gasoline to be used as a fuel in current automobiles."

He says ethanol alone has around a third less energy content than gasoline and gets only 65 percent of the mileage. It is highly volatile and explosive. Yang says butanol is superior to ethanol in every way but one: its price.

Boosted by a $1-million grant from the Ohio Third Frontier, Yang is leading work to develop the technology needed for commercial production. In the meantime, his team has applied for a patent on the new bacterium and production process.

Source: Shang-Tian Yang, Ohio State University
Writer: Gene Monteith

Delaware County's efforts to extend new broadband fiber along a 12-mile corridor are both a reminder of the economic necessity of broadband in Ohio and a cautionary tale for other communities.

The lesson? Be ready when new industry comes calling.

"If there was a crucial moment in Delaware history, it was when we worked on bringing in Motorists," says Gus Comstock, Delaware County's economic development director.

Motorists Insurance Group, which considered several sites late last year for a new $14 million data center, ultimately announced in May that it would locate its center in New Albany.

"We could talk about water, sewer, gas and the benefits of living in Delaware -- but we couldn't provide a good description of the availability of fiber," explains Comstock. "We were caught flat-footed."

As the county now discusses options for installing new fiber to serve growing parts of the U.S. 23 business corridor, the economic reality of broadband in central Ohio reflects the need across the state, says Tom Fritz, executive director of Connect Ohio.

"A seven percent (increase) in residential adoption of broadband means the addition of 96,000 new jobs," he says, quoting a recent economic impact study of the issue. "And companies that use broadband grow at a much faster rate than those who don't use broadband."

Connect Ohio, a public-private partnership focused on broadband access, also found that a 7 percent adoption increase in a stable economy contributes $5 billion annually to the state's economy.

Sources: Gus Comstock, Tom Fritz
Writer: Gene Monteith

What are the next steps for Ohio biosciences companies?

Find out Sept. 30 and Oct. 1 when a diverse audience descends on Columbus to discuss the topic "Where in the world are bioscience opportunities?"

Sponsored by  BioOhio, the organization's annual conference is expected to draw a diverse statewide audience of researchers, entrepreneurs, suppliers, service providers, bioscience executives -- you name it, they're likely to be there, says Matt Schutte, BioOhio's director of corporate communications.

"It's a unique conference in a way," says Schutte. "There are a lot of biomedical, biosciences events around Ohio, but very few have a statewide mission."

With more than 1,100 bioscience-related organizations in Ohio, more than $2.5 billion were invested here to accelerate Ohio's bioscience growth in 2007 alone. BioOhio's annual conference -- its 20^th since the organization began -- aims at bringing the best minds together to keep that ball rolling, Schutte says.

"The best thing people will get out of it is the networking," Schutte says, which can lead to new partnerships, collaborations and job growth.

The conference itself will feature numerous topics related to globalization of bioscience business and research, including the benefits and challenges of conducting clinical trials abroad, Schutte says. Panelists were drawn from a who's who within the industry; Battelle President and CEO Jeffrey Wadsworth will give the keynote address.

Want to attend? Information is available at http://www.bioohio.com/news/Annual-Conference.aspx.

BioOhio, founded in 1987, is a non-profit organization designed to build and accelerate bioscience industry, research, and education in Ohio.

Source: Matt Schutte, BioOhio
Writer: Gene Monteith