Cincinnati/Southwestern Ohio : Innovation + Job News

Women entrepreneurs have been really shaking things up in the Greater Cincinnati area. Twice during the past three years--both in 2009 and again in 2011--women have won  all of the prestigious SCORE-Greater Cincinnati annual Client of the Year Awards.

SCORE is the volunteer counseling arm of the Small Business Administration, offering free workshops and mentoring to its clients.

“Over the past few years, about 40 to 50 percent of our clients and workshop participants have been women,” explains Rick Johnston, chairman of SCORE-Greater Cincinnati. “We’re definitely seeing a trend of more local women becoming entrepreneurs and also SCORE clients, which we think is great.”

Landing a coveted Client of the Year Award isn’t easy, according to Bob Wiwi, marketing chair. “Candidates must complete an extensive application process on all aspects of their business, including the challenges they faced, how they overcame them, and how their SCORE counselor helped them.” Candidates’ counselors then provide a letter of recommendation describing their client’s work and progress. “The judges have a lot to consider when deciding on the winners,” Wiwi notes.

The Cincinnati chapter named four winners in November 2011: Connie Abirached, InkyDinkTs; Lisa Gear, Lunatic Fringe Salon; Candace Klein, Bad Girl Ventures; and Shannon Adams, My Flower Service.

“These women are creating jobs, and that’s terrific for our region,” notes Johnston.

Winner Connie Abirached says, “I learned long ago that, as a woman, success is achievable but also is harder to achieve unless you work hard, are deeply dedicated, and have ambition and guts.” Winner Lisa Gear remarks, “I feel so blessed and honored to be part of this amazing group of women. SCORE was so helpful to me on my journey, and I highly recommend them to anyone.”   

By Lynne Meyer


Sources:  Rick Johnston & Bob Wiwi, SCORE
                 Lisa Gear, Lunatic Fringe
               Connie Abirached, InkyDink Ts

CincyTech closed out 2011 with pride. The organization’s annual Breakfast Meeting and Startup Showcase last quarter highlighted the start-up incubator’s $10 million investment in 28 companies and the creation of nearly 300 Ohio jobs.

CincyTech receives half of its funding from about two dozen local partners and individuals, matched by money from Ohio Third Frontier. The organization began its work in 2007.

"Thanks to the foresight of the state of Ohio in creating Third Frontier and of Ohio voters in approving it, we have been able to begin building what is now a burgeoning entrepreneurial ecosystem that is churning out new companies and new jobs at a rapidly increasing rate," says Bob Coy, president of CincyTech.

According to Coy, in 2011 CincyTech led 50 percent of all venture capital deals in the region this year and 90 percent of the venture-backed deals in the region were CincyTech portfolio companies. CincyTech gauges successful investments, in part, by the exit of member companies with increased ROI, by the funding its companies draw from private investors, and by the new opportunities created within the Ohio workforce as a result.

“As of June 30, 2011, we had created 207 jobs at an average annual salary of $63,000,” says CincyTech communications director Carolyn Pione Micheli.

“In addition, AssureRx Health (in Mason) and ThinkVine (in Blue Ash) were each hiring dozens of people this spring, bringing their jobs to about 50 a piece. That will give us a nice boost in the jobs numbers, in addition to our new investments in the second half of the year,” Micheli says. “You could say we were anticipating having created about 300 jobs by the end of 2011.”

2012 will see the launch of CincyTech’s investor-only secure document website featuring investment data. The organization will launch an expected $6-million investment fund and will continue to sponsor The Brandery, the Cincinnati-based consumer-marketing startup accelerator.

“The climate and the resources available for high-potential technology-based companies in Southwest Ohio have never been better,” Coy told the crowd at the Breakfast Meeting and Startup Showcase in November.

Beginning this Friday, CinciTech beneficiary companies will take part in the Northern Kentucky Startup Weekend. Startup Weekends nationwide 54-hour events where developers, designers, marketers, product managers and startup enthusiasts come together to share ideas, form teams, build products, and launch new ventures. The Northern Kentucky chapter is sponsored in part by the CincyTech-funded Brandery.
 
By Kitty McConnell
Sources: CincyTech

To spur economic development and create jobs in their communities, several Ohio cities have created new, hyperlocal funds that offer attractive financing to entrepreneurs that may have the next great business idea, yet lack the actual cash to implement it. The catch? They must be willing to put down roots and grow their businesses locally.

One example of a growing Ohio business that recently took advantage of such hometown love is ManuscriptTracker, a Wooster-based firm that sells web-based software that automates the peer review process for academic journals. Co-founder Brian Boyer says a $35,000 deferred-payment loan from the Wooster Opportunities Loan Fund made it possible for him to bring his product to market last year.

“We saw lots of potential to grow our business, but funding is very hard to come by for start-up software companies,” says Boyer, a Wooster native. “Thanks to receiving funding last year, we were able to develop a market version of our software, as well as sales resources such as a database, marketing collateral and potential client list.”

ManuscriptTracker’s software organizes and automates peer review tracking for busy academics that don’t have the time or resources to manage the process themselves. The stringent nature of the peer review process, particularly with scientific journals, often necessitates involving as many as 20 individuals in a single review.

“To be published in an academic journal, your work must be vetted by the research of your peers, but that means asking top researchers to set aside their time,” explains Boyer. “We simplify and organize the process and provide helpful reporting forms. We also help academics to track who in their network is quick and knowledgeable.”

With the assistance of the economic development nonprofit Jumpstart, similar hyperlocal funds have also been created in Barberton, Canton and Mansfield.

As the New Year kicked off, ManuscriptTracker had already secured one new client, and Boyer says he’s hopeful that the new software will attract additional clients soon.


By Lee Chilcote

A Cincinnati web entrepreneur has developed a new social search engine that allows groups to collaborate, organize and save topic searches with SearchTeam.com.

"Searching has been a lonely, solo activity to date.  But by delivering real-time as well as asynchronous collaborative searching, SearchTeam is bringing a fundamentally new way to search and research information in personal, education, business and other professional settings," says founder Sundar Kadayam.

The engine is an outgrowth of his Zakta.com search engine. Launched in 2009, Zakta was developed as personal engine that allows editing, saving and categorization of results.

It allows members to create profiles in a "SearchSpace," where they can invite others to search with them. Results can be saved into topic folders and others can "like" and comment on topic results. SearchTeam also has a chat feature that allows for coordination of searches.

Potential uses include vacation planning, genealogy research, R&D and patent research. The tool is especially useful in the educational realm, where students can use it for group research projects. Teachers, can use it in distance learning programs.

 "It really is imaginative and ingenious. The ability to work together as a group adds a whole new dimension to searching, especially for students who are used to working together in groups," Kadayam says.

Zakta is currently located in Blue Ash's Vora Innovation Center. The company has several interns and part-time employers, with plans to expand with some full-time employees later this year. The company has received investment from CincyTech, Vora Ventures and some private angel investors, Kadayam says.

Source: Sundar Kadayam, SearchTeam.com
Writer: Feoshia Henderson

You can follow Feoshia on Twitter @feoshiawrites

A team of recent University of Cincinnati grads hope to commercialize a portable stroke detection device created in the Medical Device Innovation & Entrepreneurship Program (MDIEP) at UC's Department of Biomedical Engineering.

The device, Ischiban, has the potential to be a game-changer in the early detection and treatment of strokes, a life-threatening condition where minutes can make a difference in a successful recovery, disability or death.

Ischiban was developed by a group of UC student biomedical and computer engineers and an industrial designer: Pooja Kadambi, Joe Lovelace, Scott Robinson and Alex Androski. They developed the device, comprised of an elastic headband connected to an electronic diagnostic device, which can quickly determine the type of stroke a patient is suffering from. This allows for quick diagnosis and faster treatment for better recovery rates, according to the developers.

Ischiban relies on Impedance Spectroscopy, which can measure electrical property changes in the brain associated with strokes.

"We received the idea to use Impedance Spectroscopy from a group in Massachusetts General Hospital doing research in this area. We developed the device, made prototypes of the parts and built it by ourselves," explained Kadambi, a biomedical engineer.

Strokes are caused by a blood clot in the brain, or bleeding in the brain. Treatment is different based on the type of stroke.

Currently, such stoke differentiation is done by a CT scan, which is costly and time consuming. Ischiban can be used by EMTs at a patient's home or during the ambulance ride. Early detection is important because patients whose stoke is caused by a blood clot who are treated within three hours of symptoms are significantly more likely to survive and recover.

Ischiban is one of 90 entries in the ongoing Cincinnati Innovates contest. The third annual competition offers nearly $90,000 in prizes designed to push forward groundbreaking products and services. It ends July 15, and all entries are posted online. Kadambi said the competition could help Ischiban garner attention and investment.

"Medical device research and development is an expensive, complicated and long drawn out process. We are a passionate team but do not have the funds to carry this forward alone. Winning this competition would open doors for us, help us make great contacts and keep our project alive and on track. Putting Ischiban on the market will help save lives and prevent disability globally and that is a fact," she said.

Source: Pooja Kadambi, Ischiban co-developer
Writer: Feoshia Henderson

You can follow Feoshia on Twitter @feoshiawrites

This story originally appeared in hiVelocity's sister publication Soapbox.

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