Entrepreneurship : Innovation + Job News

Campus Shift recently announced the launch of their online textbook marketplace, allowing students across the country to sell and buy used textbooks locally.
 
Derek Haake, founder of Youngstown-based Campus Shift, says the idea was borne out of his frustration with the amount of money he was spending on textbooks during his undergrad.
 
“What we’re trying to do is give students a fair price on their books,” he says, noting Campus Shift does not purchase the books themselves, like a University bookstore might. “The marketplace allows student to connect with each other,” and determine a public location to make the exchange, eliminating shipping costs and time.
 
Haake acknowledges problems with purchasing books off eBay or Amazon, saying the student does not ultimately know what the textbook is really worth. Campus Shift works around that problem. “Our software finds what the book is really worth, so students aren’t in the dark,” he says. And it’s all done without revealing personal information. “Everything is confidential.”
 
Since launching in December, Campus Shift has seen hundreds of students signing up and listing textbooks on the marketplace. “All in all, we have a little over 175 campuses nationwide,” including California, Texas and Ohio. “Our biggest user base is in Ohio.”
 
It’s been a long, worthwhile journey for Haake, who started the Campus Shift project in 2006. He notes they’ve been working with the Youngstown Business Incubator “for about the past year,” assisting with presentations for initial seed money.
 
Excited for what’s next, Haake is asking readers to stay tuned for more in the near future. “We have a couple more software enhancements coming out in the next two to three weeks.”
 
 
Source: Derek Haake
Writer: Joe Baur

Success didn’t come in a blinding “aha” moment, but Andy Zsinko ultimately met a challenge from a buddy to create a unique, long-lasting motorcycle paint job.
 
Zsinko, founder and chief executive officer of Darkside Scientific in Medina, initially created a sprayable photoluminescent coating that made the motorcycle dazzle. The problem was that it looked that way for only a short time.
 
After several months of tinkering, however, Zsinko created LumiLor Electroluminescent paint, which continues glowing when electrically energized. It’s the world’s first and only such specialty coating, and the company has several patents pending for it.
 
Electroluminescence is an optical and electrical condition created when a material emits light in response to an electric current, explains Scott Smith, Darkside Scientific’s vice president of sales and marketing.
 
“Our LumiLor Electroluminescent paint is activated by an electric current and lights up with simple driver electronics,” he says. “A basic electronics package retrofitted on a motorcycle or car is all that’s needed.”   
 
Smith notes that the new paint can be used to create different special visual effects. “You can paint multiple fields on your vehicle to animate your paint job, and strobing and sound activation are also among many possible electronic effects with LumiLor.”
 
The company is developing a network of auto and motorcycle shops to become licensed to apply LumiLor paint. “We’re choosing partners carefully, based on their experience, expertise and capabilities,” Smith explains. “They’ll go through special training and a rigorous certification process to ensure that the work they do represents the quality brand image we’re looking to portray.”
 
Darkside Scientific plans to make a big splash this March by debuting the world’s first fully electroluminescent-painted motorcycle at Daytona, Florida’s, special Bike Week.
 
The firm, which was established in 2011, has six employees and plans to expand as business grows.


Source: Scott Smith
Writer: Lynne Meyer

When Deej Lincoln bought Interior Products Company two years ago, he thought he would build upon the commercial millwork company’s reputation for creating beautiful libraries. While the company continues to do library work, a new business built on sustainability, recycling and a bit of nostalgia has evolved.

Reclaimed Cleveland harvests wood from Cleveland properties slated for demolition and turns what they find into functional works of art. “We wanted to build the business in a new direction, and we got into wood reclamation,” explains Lincoln. “The idea resonated with our Interior Products Company customers.”
 
From benches and console tables to bottle openers and iPhone skins, every Reclaimed Cleveland product is stamped with the address of the property from which it came. Much of the focus is on old homes, which have a lot of old-growth wood, and churches.
 
“Obviously, there’s a sustainability component to it,” says Lincoln. “But there’s an aesthetic component that comes from a talented designer.”
 
The inspiration to create products from reclaimed wood came almost out of necessity. “About a year ago, we were sitting on all this wood and we had no furniture designed or built,” says Lincoln. “I said we have to have some holiday gift items at a low price point.”
 
From there, Reclaimed Cleveland made a bottle opener and marketed it through flash sales. “We immediately sold out of them,” says Lincoln. “We were impressed and pleased with the fact it took off as well as it did. I regret as a company, we didn’t do it sooner.” The products have even found a following outside of Cleveland.
 
Aaron Gogolin, who co-founded A Piece of Cleveland (APOC), joined the company in 2011 He helped produce the original products for Reclaimed Cleveland and helps maintain assembly and design standards. David Meyers joined in 2011 and is key in new product designs and branding of Reclaimed Cleveland. The company employs a total of 12 people.

 
Source: Deej Lincoln
Writer: Karin Connelly

Milo Biotechnology, a BioEnterprise startup created to find therapies for neuromuscular diseases, received FDA orphan drug designation for its AAV1-FS344, a drug that increases muscle strength.
 
The drug is a myostatin inhibitor that produces the protein follistatin, which increases muscle strength. Milo is focused on using the drug for treatment of Becker and Duchenne muscular dystrophy. In both types of the disease, patients have progressive muscle weakness and cardiac and respiratory degeneration. The drug also has potential uses in muscle degeneration in AIDS and cancer patients, but Milo's initial focus is on muscular dystrophy.
 
Orphan drug classification is given to therapies that treat diseases that affect less than 200,000 people nationwide. “Orphan says two things: One, it says this compound looks like it’s effective in some model of whatever disease it’s treating,” explains Al Hawkins, Milo CEO. “Second,  it means that the  target population is under 200,000 patients." The designation gives expedited regulatory review, seven years of post-market exclusivity and it qualifies for an FDA grant program in clinical trials.
 
Milo was founded about a year ago, after receiving a $250,000 investment  from JumpStart. The company also received funding from the North Coast Opportunities Technology fund.
 
Milo's drug is being used in clinical trials at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus with patients who have Becker muscular dystrophy and inclusion body myositis. Hawkins says the designation will expedite development of the therapy.
 
“There are no approved  drugs for muscular dystrophy, but there are a lot of promising therapies in development,” says Hawkins. “The community has banded together in supporting this, but we are still years away from getting to market.”


Source: Al Hawkins
Writer: Karin Connelly

Brian Keenan can describe a lot of projects he’s willing to take on as co-founder of Openfield Creative, but traditional advertising isn’t one of them. With the various skill sets in the air at Openfield, it’s probably not because the team couldn’t tackle that type of project, but with a growing demand for mobile-friendly websites, he and his team focus on web and mobile design with an eye to brand identity.

Like so many Cincinnati creative firms, Openfield was founded by DAAP grads; co-founders include Josh Barnes, Brandon Blangger and Keenan. The firm typically steps in once an overarching brand strategy has been defined, helping to roll out brand concepts across websites, mobile apps and more. That may mean crafting large graphics, video or digital design for landing pages or app interfaces, those so-called touchpoints consumers use to interact with a given company or brand.

The Openfield team also creates logos and other brand-based design elements and design standards and that define, for example, how photography is used with a particular brand, or specify unique design elements that set a company apart for a cohesive, branded look on company materials.

“We’re not an ad agency,” Keenan says. “We’re a design partner who gets in with our clients at a high level, understands the nuances.”
 
The company also offers staff-to-client interaction with anyone from their firm working on a project, rather than farming out interfacing to an account manager or other key staffer.

Keenan says the company name draws on a core value: Anyone (and everyone) is a creative, no matter what their background. Whether it be working with a new client or casting an eye toward the future, each member of the staff is expected to be ready to brainstorm.

“Immediately in front of us, we see a lot more mobile work as clients understand that their audiences are adopting global usage at an incredible rate,” Keenan says, noting that Openfield is creating more mobile apps than ever before. 

But he’s more proud of his company’s ability to learn and change than its current skill set. “For all we know, we may not design websites in the future, but we’re confident that there’ll always be a digital experience component. We’ll always have a place using design and smart technology to put together what our clients need.”


By Robin Donovan

Jonathan Buchanan, 11-year old son of Perrysburg-based lawyer Matthew Buchanan, may be the youngest developer to have an app in the Apple App Store coded entirely on his own. The $.99 education app ChipTrading is a fun, innovative take on math created when Buchanan was 10.
 
Although already young on the developer stage at 11, Buchanan was first introduced to coding five years ago. “When I was six, my dad introduced me to basic web pages,” he recalls. “After a while, I got interested in doing iOS apps.”
 
The idea for ChipTrading came from a mathematically themed game Buchanan and his classmates played at Maumee Valley Country Day School. “It’s a physical game,” he explains, adding that he and his fellow students wanted to be able to play the game outside of the school. “I had the idea to make it in app format, so we didn’t need these special pieces.”
 
Eschewing help from his father, Buchanan developed the app entirely on his own. “This was a completely self-made venture,” his father adds. But Buchanan gives his father some credit. “He made the app icon and filled out the paperwork.”
 
Reluctant to rest, Buchanan is eager to discuss his upcoming projects, including updates to ChipTrading, a networking platform with his father, and another app that allows the user to write their own music. “I play the violin, and I wanted to make an app for the iPad that will let you write music on the iPad and have it sent to the iCloud,” he explains.
 
His long-term plans are characteristically ambitious, as well. “I ultimately plan on starting a computer company that integrates hardware and software. Like Apple.”
 
 
Sources: Jonathan Buchanan, Matthew Buchanan
Writer: Joe Baur

A challenge issued at a White House awards ceremony in 2011 led Will Zell of Columbus to create Huddlewoo. The fledgling company will connect what he calls “extraordinary people” --- authors, leaders, entrepreneurs, speakers, personal heroes, athletes, coaches, celebrities and YouTube sensations -- to have real face-to-face video conversations with people who admire and follow them.

The ceremony was the 2011 Empact Summit, and Zell was recognized for his company, Providence Holdings, which specializes in helping foster entrepreneurial startups, partnerships and acquisitions. Empact works with colleges and universities, workforce development organizations, chambers of commerce and small business development centers to promote entrepreneurship among young, aspiring entrepreneurs.  

Summit keynote speaker Jeff Hoffman, co-founder of Priceline.com, challenged award recipients to come up with innovative ways for people to connect, Zell explains. “I’m constantly reading articles, stories and books about and written by fascinating people, including entrepreneurs, and I’ve often thought it would be awesome to connect and have a conversation with them.”
 
Zell came up with the concept of Huddlewoo to make those connections possible. Users request a “huddle” with someone they consider extraordinary and pay to have an hour of that individual’s time via a video meeting, he says. The so-called “extraordinary people” who participate in video meet ups with users through Huddlewoo establish their own rates. “Huddlewoo presents an opportunity for them to engage their followers in a unique way, potentially changing people’s lives through inspiring conversations,” Zell notes.

“Extraordinary people” are busy people who aren’t easy to access, however. Aware of the marketing challenge, Zell says he’s working diligently to spread the word and build brand recognition. “We’re sharing the value of Huddlewoo’s platform with these individuals as a way for them to engage their fans, make money and change people’s lives. It’s definitely a value-for-value proposition. The extraordinary people who participate provide the value of their time, knowledge and experience, and users who request a huddle with them bring the value of their money to the table.”
 
According to Zell, while there are online skill-sharing and mentoring platforms and companies that work to connect people with those they admire, Huddlewoo is unique. “No one has our comprehensive technology platform, which includes the request, payment, scheduling the conversation and providing the video components for it.”
 
Now about that funny name. The first part – “huddle” – refers to people huddling together, according to Zell. “The ‘woo’ part reflects an individual’s response to meeting someone extraordinary they admire,” he says. “It’s the scream of joy, jumping up and down and running around the room all excited about having made that connection.”
 
Source:  Will Zell
Writer:  Lynne Meyer

The buy-local movement has transitioned from being merely a trend to a mainstream business model, benefitting local companies and communities.

Many local businesses use daily-deal websites to generate or enhance sales. Yet when Joshua Kibbey of Columbus talked to local merchants in his area, he kept hearing that such sites weren’t bringing long-term value to their businesses. 
 
“These types of sites are simply marketing for small businesses, like mailing coupons or putting them in the newspaper,” he explains. “It’s one way to market, but the business model only works if you have high volume, low-margin deals. Those types of deals aren’t conducive to growing a quality customer base.”
 
Believing there was a better way, Kibbey created BidSwan in 2011. The online marketplace allows companies to cost-effectively market their offerings to local consumers without having to offer drastic discounts or deal with the one-time crush of customers that often occurs with daily-deal site offerings.

BidSwan originally started with a name-your-price format. “We came to the conclusion, however, that it was too restrictive and consumers didn’t embrace it as we had hoped,” Kibbey recalls. To re-tool, he and his partners created an alliance with Small Business Beanstalk (SBB), a shop-local organization with 500 merchant members, and then re-launched BidSwan in September 2012.

“We now offer a large variety of deals at any given time,” he explains.  “We count on good selection and variety – not deep discounts -- to keep customers coming back. We also don’t have a set schedule of deals. Businesses are free to choose the volume, price point and timing of their deal to maximize the benefit to them.”
 
Users can go to Bidswan’s website, obtain a free SBB Community Card, purchase  vouchers for about 20 to 30 percent off the face value of items and then use the vouchers at participating local businesses. There’s no cost for merchants to join SBB. “Businesses pay us a fee to cover credit card costs, and we get a percentage of each sale,” he explains.
 
BidSwan has more than 60 businesses signed up, and Kibbey anticipates working with other community outreach organizations to expand

 
Source:   Joshua Kibbey
Writer:  Lynne Meyer

A virtual trade mission taken by University of Cincinnati MBA students and local industries has turned into a very real product that could put a dent in food shortages across India.

Next year, new solar-powered refrigerator products will be tested on an aloe farm in the developing country early next year. If successful, the SolerCool could be a reality for Indian farmers, just in time for summer.

The product is a self-contained cooling unit that relies on the sun for power. It's a box that measures 10' x 7' x 11', and is topped by solar panels. SolerCool was developed through a collaboration between former and current UC students and local industries, including SimpliCool Technologies International LLC in Waynesville.

The idea for the technology came after the MBA students and SimpliCool attended a "virtual trade mission" to India in July 2011. The mission was part of a Business Law for Managers class taught by Ilse Hawkins, an attorney and adjunct professor of accounting at UC. The mission virtually brought Cincinnati and Indian businesses together to find ways of partnering to better preserve Indian produce.

Today, 30 to 40 percent of produce in India is lost to spoilage because of lack of refrigeration options, Hawkins says. India, with 1.2 million people, faces chronic food shortages.

"While we were doing the mission, we had this tiny, insulated structure that kept audio visual materials at proper temperature," Hawkins says. "We thought, 'Why couldn't we create a structure powered with solar panels like that that could be put anywhere on a farm?'"

Shortly after that meeting, Hawkins took a group to India where the idea was further flushed out. Eventually, a collaborative effort led to the creation of the SolerCool unit.

MBA students worked on a business plan, helped with the initial feasibility calculations and networked with Indian businesses who might contribute to the product.

Mohsen Rezayat, chief solutions architect at Siemens UGS PLM Software and adjunct professor in UC’s College of Engineering and Applied Science, primarily worked on the engineering of the solar panels in the SimpliCool-manufactured cooling cube.

UC does not own the product, and therefore won't be profiting from its sales, Hawkins says. However, SimpliCool has vowed to contribute to UC's College of Business to fund further travel to India if the idea is successful, she says.

By Feoshia H. Davis
Follow Feoshia on Twitter

This week BioEnterprise and Global Cleveland are hosting their fourth online biomedical job fair, hoping to attract top talent to the industry. “This is really driven by the growth in the biomedical sector in Northeast Ohio,” explains Aram Nerpouni, BioEnterprise interim CEO. “We’ve gone from 300 to 700 biomedical companies in the area. Cleveland is becoming a national hotbed for biomedical.”

The job fairs are an effective resource for employers. It is free for employers to post their listings and reach a wide population of qualified candidates. Arteriocyte, which does stem cell research for regenerating bones, has participated in three of the four job fairs this year. In each job fair the company has hired an employee.
 
“For us it’s appealing because it’s pretty easy as an employer,” explains Kolby Day, Arteriocyte‘s vice president and general manager of research and development. “We’ve seen really high caliber talent applying to the postings." Day says they’ve seen applicants from local schools as well as residents who left Cleveland and wish to return.
 
“We’ve interviewed a lot of people and, interestingly enough, they all want to be in Cleveland,” says Day. “A big part of that is how quickly the biotech industry is growing in Cleveland.”
 
Nerpouni points out that the online job fairs especially help the smaller employers. “For smaller companies that are growing rapidly and don’t have an HR staff, it helps them keep up with the pace of growth,” he says. “It’s much easier to hunt as a pack, so potential candidates aren’t looking at just one position.”
 
Close to 50 employers are participating in the job fair this week, posting 200 open positions. BioEnterprise plans to continue the biomedical jobs fairs on a quarterly basis.

 
Sources: Aram Nerpouni and Kolby Day
Writer: Karin Connelly

Hospitals are normally places for treating illnesses. For the past nine years, however, Nationwide Children’s Hospital (NCH) in Columbus has also been actively researching and developing high-tech advances in the areas of digital pathology, biospecimen analysis and biorepository management. These complex, behind-the-scenes functions are important for effectively diagnosing and treating diseases. Funding was provided, in part, by the National Institutes of Health.
 
The result of NCH’s work is three new web-based biomedical tools that can have a significant impact on future diagnostic and research capabilities in hospitals, academic research centers and the pharmaceutical industry.
 
To market its innovations, NCH is partnering with Transformatix Technologies, Inc., of California to create BioLinQ, a new biomedical informatics company designed to supply advanced software solutions for disease diagnosis and medical research.

According to Dave Billiter, director, Informatics, The Research Institute at NCH, “These new tools provide best practices in biospecimen management through implementation, promoting collaboration in a team science platform via the web/cloud and providing advanced methods to validate the quality of data for research.”

Ken Murray, CEO of Transformatix, will serve as Chairman and CEO of BioLinQ. He states that, with the growth of molecular technology and the advent of personalized medicine, the three new software tools are very timely.
 
"BioLinQ's primary purpose will be to provide this new software suite, via the cloud, to commercial customers, including other hospitals, academic research centers, government agencies, contract research organizations and the pharmaceutical industry," he explains. Offering the software through the cloud will enhance accessibility, Murray notes. "In addition, we will use NCH’s laboratory facilities, as well as their expertise, to prepare and analyze tissue specimens customers send us."

BioLinQ will be located at the Dublin Entrepreneurial Center. The goal is to have the new company fully operational during the first quarter of 2013. Plans call for starting with eight key personnel and expanding to 20 employees and about 100 consultants.

Sources: Dave Billiter, Ken Murray
Writer: Lynne Meyer

Donna Lee, CEO of MascotSecret, has always eyed with envy the vacant good seats at sporting events. She thought there had to be some way to get those unused good seats into the hands of those sitting in the cheap seats. So Lee and co-founder Jennifer Jeng set out to find a way.

“This is the problem we had growing up -- we always wanted better seats,” says Lee. “You go to the game, you see all the empty seats, and we thought there has to be a better solution.”
 
This past summer, Lee and Jeng moved to Cleveland from San Francisco to develop MascotSecret through Bizdom, a non-profit startup accelerator founded by Dan Gilbert, founder and chairman of Quicken Loans and majority owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers. “It allows you to upgrade your seats during game time through your mobile phone,” explains Lee. “All you need to do is open the app, put in how many tickets you want to upgrade, and then move to your new seats.”
 
Lee says the price to upgrade might be cheaper or more expensiver than face value depending on availability, the game, and other factors.
 
So far, MascotSecret has been testing the app at Cavs games. As a Bizdom company, they have gotten the support from Gilbert and Veritix. “We’ve had a really great response so far," says Lee. "Customers who have heard about it want to try it.”
 
MascotSecret recently received a $25,000 grant from the Lorain County Community College Foundation Innovation Fund, which they will use to further develop the app. The company is beginning talks with the Indians to use the app. The goal is to sell the app to markets across the country.

“Of course we want to expand as quickly as possible,” says Lee. As they expand, the company will be looking for technical and marketing talent.

 
Source: Donna Lee
Writer: Karin Connelly

Last May, Brandt Butze had what he calls an “Aha! moment.” He was 370 pounds and wanted to lose the weight and get in shape. He went on Facebook and posted that he was committed to walking.
 
“I had 225 comments on my Facebook page and all sorts of support,” he recalls. That first morning, his sister and a group of people met Butze and they went for a 30-minute walk. “We jogged the last block,” he says. “I was in tears there was so much support. Thirty-minute walks turned into 45-minute walks and in three weeks, I was walking six to seven miles a day.”
 
In fact, Butze had so much support that trying to schedule people to walk with him was interfering with actually walking. “I was spending three to four hours a day trying to plan walks,” he says.” I looked for an app to help and I realized other people were in the same boat I was -- finding some way to have a workout schedule where people can work out with other people.”
 
So Butze and friends Aaron Marks, Jonathan Schultz and Kevin Rahilly created FitVia, a mobile app that allows users to post their workout schedules and find others to join them.
 
“We tried different hypotheses, talked to friends and friends of friends and asked them what motivated them, what de-motivated them,” Butze says. “We realized we were on to something.”
 
The four approached LaunchHouse for help developing FitVia and were accepted to the accelerator program. FitVia will launch by the end of the year. “We’re launching this as a premier app initially,” says Butze. “We’re hoping to gain as many people as possible as quickly as possible.”
 
FitVia plans to hire additional staff as they grow. Butze plans to branch out to corporate America as they grow, targeting HR departments as a way to keep healthcare costs down.
 
To date, Butze has lost 71 pounds.

 
Source: Brandt Butze
Writer: Karin Connelly

“Do you know WHY you do what you do?” Ephipheo founder Ben Crawford’s PowerPoint slide asked the key question of the day at Bold Fusion, the region’s largest convergence of young talent, which took place at Music Hall last week.

This year’s theme—“The Power of Enchantment”—fit speakers Crawford and Guy Kawasaki, former chief evangelist of Apple.

Crawford discussed how “Truth. Story. Love.” motivates everything that Epipheo creates, from promotional videos to marketing. The young founder believes in only employing those who share his vision, and he thinks that human resource departments are absurd.

“How much of a tragedy is it that HR…well, that HR even exists,” Crawford says.

Young professionals in the audience gathered tips like how to smile sincerely and how to create the perfect PowerPoint presentation. The atmosphere was friendly—attendees were comfortable, excited and actively mingled.

“Young professionals have realized their voice in our region,” says Chris Kemper, PR director at the Chamber. “Bold Fusion encourages young professional energy.”

Citing three young professional city council members and causes backed by the YPs, like the Cincinnati streetcar, Kemper believes young professionals are the key to building a more successful city.

“YPs drive vibrant regions, and to have a vibrant region, you have to have a strong heart,” says Kemper.

For young professionals in Cincinnatia, the heart is already here; they’re just feeding off of it.

Bryant Goulding, of RhineGeist and Tazza Mia, moved from San Francisco, where his consulting job left him “starving for creativity and feeling like just a number.” Goulding finds the YP scene here exciting and compelling. “It does parallel the San Francisco startup scene, but it’s more focused,” he says.

Amy Taylor, another Bold Fusion attendee, agrees. “I hope big business is noticing; Cincinnati is a really good place for young energy."

For Carey Rennekamp of Vehr Communications, being a young professional is a huge point of pride. “Yes, I am a YP, and I think it means being bold, being fearless and finding the voice to make a difference."

By Gina Gaetano

Following the Brandery’s Demo Day, the rising social network CrowdHall has been developing new products and securing new investors.

While CrowdHall developer and CTO Nick Wientge is currently working at the Brandery with marketing and design staff, Jordan Menzel and CEO Austin Hackett have been traveling for business development and fundraising.

“We’re currently in due diligence process with a number of angel investment communities and institutional investment communities that span the Cincinnati area, Chicago, Utah and New York,” Menzel says.

The company is also looking to move forward with Vine Street Ventures.

“We’re also in the process of turning around a new product iteration, some of which has been added onto the site already,” Menzel says. “Another trunk will be coming out in January.”

One of its newest developments, “CrowdHall for Politics,” is an initiative based on a set of principles that CrowdHall created for elected officials: accessibility, responsiveness and innovation.

“We’re going to begin to highlight the elected officials that have committed to demonstrate those principles,” Menzel says. “We’ll be featuring a number of politicians from the federal, state and local level that are using CrowdHall to better keep an open door for decisions, now that the election is over.”

The initiative will be under development through the new year.

“If you’ve been looking for a place that provides you with the tools to be able to ask your questions, share ideas and your statement, and peer vote on the ones you would like to see rise to the top, CrowdHall is where you’re going to go to do that,” Menzel says.

By Kyle Stone