Innovation + Job News

The Clinton County Port Authority (CCPA) and Airborne Maintenance and Engineering Services (AMES) have announced plans to move forward on financing and construction of a new $15.4 million hangar facility at the Wilmington Air Park.
 
“As designed, the hangar will be capable of housing up to 767 and 777 class aircraft,” explains Kevin Carver, Executive Director of the CCPA, adding the hangar will be approximately 100,000 square feet once completed.
 
Carver points to JobsOhio and the Ohio Development Services Agency as vital partners in financing the project. “The total financing package from Ohio for this project was approximately $14.6 million,” he says. “In addition, the state’s willingness to be flexible with the terms of the Ohio Enterprise Bond and the 166 Low Interest Loan were essential in being able to complete this deal.”
 
The new project gives the small southwest Ohio town of 12,000 hope of economic recovery. On November 10, 2008, DHL announced that their Wilmington hub would be closed as they discontinued shipping operations in the United States. 8,000 employees lost their job, including 3,000 residents of Wilmington or Clinton County.
 
“The loss of DHL affected not only Wilmington, but a significant portion of southwest Ohio,” notes Carver. “At its peak, DHL was the single largest single site employer in a five county area of southwest Ohio.” The new hangar facility will create 259 new jobs.
 
“While the 259 jobs that will be created with this new hangar do not make up for the 8,000 or so jobs that were lost in the DHL closure, it is a very welcome addition to the community,” reflects Carver. “And it is a healthy start in the continuing effort to rebuild after the departure of DHL.”


Source: Kevin Carver
Writer: Joe Baur

The branding firm Rocket Science now occupies a third-floor space in downtown Cincinnati’s Eighth Street Design District. The branding and design firm relocated from Mason at the beginning of December to be closer to major companies like P&G, Kroger and Macy’s, as well as other design firms.
 
“We really felt that being in the suburbs precluded us from being part of the local advertising and branding community,” says Chuck Tabri, director of business development and client strategy for Rocket Science, and one of the company’s three partners.
 
Greg Fehrenbach and Joel Warneke founded Rocket Science in 1999 under a different name. The company merged with one in Dayton, then de-merged, and in 2005, became Rocket Science in its current form. At the time of the merge, the firm was based in Mason; it then moved to a space in Deerfield Towne Center.
 
Rocket Science employs about 15 people, and it recently added in-house digital capabilities to its traditional print offerings to assist its clients' shift from print to digital. It made more sense for the company to develop its own digital branch rather than farm it out to another company, Tabri says.
 
Rocket Science had begun to outgrow its space in Mason, and after talks with 3CDC in the fall, the right space opened up. 

And from a talent standpoint, moving downtown gives Rocket Science greater access to young, fresh designers.
 
“Young designers want to be in a more urban environment,” says Tabri. “They get more inspiration from the creativity in a downtown environment than from a strip center in the suburbs.”
 
Because of Rocket Science's size, it can offer new thinking and capabilities that larger firms might not have, says Tabri. He adds that the move will help Rocket Science expand its consumer, business-to-business and healthcare verticals.
 
Originally published in Soapbox, our sister publication in Cincinnati.

By Caitlin Koenig
Follow Caitlin on Twitter

Jonathan Yale has always been socially conscious. As an athlete, he is also concerned about what foods he puts into his body. Those two principles came together when Yale and Phillip Williams founded HooftyMatch last August, an online marketplace for buying and selling locally produced meats.

“It started from a nutritional aspect,” says Yale. “I actually went to farms and bought some whole animals. I started educating myself on all the different factors of why it’s better meat.”

Yale and Williams came up with the idea for HooftyMatch after seeing a booming trend in farm-to-table eating and a strong desire to consume meat from humanely treated animals.
 
“We focus on farmers and the trend of beef without hormones or antibiotics,” says Yale. “We want to make that higher-quality product easier to get into the market. We want to have a consumer-friendly product where our customers can buy directly from our site and have it shipped to them or they can pick it up from a set location.”
 
A portfolio company in LaunchHouse Accelerator, HooftyMatch received a $25,000 investment. The company also won Startup Lakewood’s Ideation Challenge last summer.
 
Yale plans on starting a monthly Cleveland Meat Series with "localvore" restaurants to market HooftyMatch and educate people. “There are definitely people who want this and we want to say it’s out there,” he says. “It's good for farmers, it’s good for the restaurant business, and it’s good for people. It’s kind of like a win-win-win.”
 
HooftyMatch plans to officially launch its site next month.

This story originally appeared in Fresh Water Cleveland, our sister publication in Northeast Ohio.
 
Source: Jonathan Yale
Writer: Karin Connelly

It’s a familiar struggle for those who lay down cash for season tickets to the Bengals or the Reds: trying to sell, donate or give away the extras when you can’t make a game.

Alex Burkhart grew up in Mansfield, Ohio, rooting for Cleveland sports teams. And while falling in love with Cincinnati as a student at Xavier may mean his love of Cincinnati sports is growing, he’s mostly impressed by the city’s budding startup culture.

A Macy’s employee by day, Burkhart won the Cincinnati Startup Weekend competition last November. During the event, individuals pitch startup ideas and form makeshift teams to develop them during a single weekend. Burkhart, who longingly noted that he missed a great Xavier game to do so, grabbed attention and a few helpful connections after he pitched his idea, which is now called Tixers.

Burkhart says the company will provide a new way to buy and sell tickets on an online platform. “Hypothetically, if you can’t go to a Reds game, you can sell the tickets on StubHub at a significantly reduced price, give them away or let them go to waste,” he says.

Tixers aims to even that exchange. Still in its early stages, the platform (likely to be web and mobile) will allow people who have tickets for sporting or other entertainment events to exchange them for points, which can later be redeemed for other tickets. In other words, no more last-minute emails or tickets gone to waste.

But before all this can happen, Burkhart hopes to connect with a partner who can complement his business acumen with technical know-how. He won the competition just weeks ago, attracting attention from startup accelerators and investors, but cautions, “It’s not a working business yet.”

Still, Burkhart is optimistic that Cincinnati’s sustainable startup culture combined with his education, enthusiasm and upbringing—he’s from a family of entrepreneurs—will soon mean a successful launch for Tixers.

Originally published in Soapbox, our sister publication in Cincinnati.

By Robin Donovan

When Dave Lazor founded Lazorpoint nearly 16 years ago, he had a vision of building a full-service IT firm that would allow clients to focus on what they do best and not worry about whether their information services capabilities were the right match.

“We think, build and run informational systems that instill confidence,” explains Lazor. “Entrepreneurs or mid-market CEOs are focused on running their businesses and servicing their customers. They know they need information services, but they don’t know anything about it. They need a point man.”
 
And a point man is exactly what Lazorpoint provides. Each client is assigned a point man, who makes sure every need is met. “They have a vision: the point man can provide the leadership,” says Lazor. “When there are problems, or opportunities, we provide the leadership to make things happen.”
 
Lazor makes sure all of his 22 employees are dedicated to their clients’ needs. “The people we hire are very passionate about serving our clients,” he says. “We are relentless in whatever mission we’re on. We go beyond just the technology. We look at the people process.”
 
An example of the point man philosophy at work is demonstrated in an instance where a client had a warehouse fire.

“The client called his point man at 11 p.m. on a Saturday night and asked if we could help,” recalls Lazor. “At 8 a.m. Sunday we were on site. They were back in business Monday morning, with emails getting through. No one knew they had this problem.”
 
The point man approach has proved successful for Lazorpoint. The company has been named to the Weatherhead 100 as one of the fastest growing companies in Northeast Ohio eight times. Lazorpoint hired two additional people last year, and recently brought in a co-op student for a second year. The company currently has one open position, plans on hiring two interns this summer and creating another full-time position later this year.

Originally published in Fresh Water Cleveland, our sister publication in Northeast Ohio.
 
Source: Dave Lazor
Writer: Karin Connelly

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

ABSMaterials is partnering with the College of Wooster on a plan that aims to turn the campus into a zero stormwater discharge campus, and a model for the rest of the country.
 
Jenna Blankenship, Executive Assistant at ABSMaterials, says they’ll use their patented Osorb technology on the project. Engineered in 2005 by Dr. Paul Edmiston, Peterson Chair of Chemistry at the College of Wooster and co-founder of ABSMaterials, Osorb is used in water treatment applications to detect and separate contaminated molecules.
 
“As stormwater travels, it picks up all sorts of contaminants, including oil, pesticides, nutrients, pharmaceuticals, and household chemicals,” Blankenship explains. “As a result, the surface water becomes polluted, which causes a number of problems related to water quality and algae growth.”
 
Blankenship believes this is an overlooked issue, ineffectively communicated to the public considering the hundreds of millions of Americans that rely on clean surface water for their drinking water, crop irrigation and recreation. “Lake Erie, for example, provides drinking water for almost 12 million people […] but around 5 billion gallons of untreated water is discharged to the lake every year.”
 
ABSMaterials previously worked with the College of Wooster in 2011. A field site was constructed with an Osorb rain garden and a control garden, funded by the National Science Foundation. Blankenship counts that prior relationship as key to developing this new project, noting they recently completed a site survey to select areas where stormwater systems should be built on campus.
 
“The areas selected are places where there is excess stormwater runoff that needs to be managed,” she says. “We will submit a final outline of the plan to the College in February, and construction should begin a little later in the year.”
 
 
Source: Jenna Blankenship
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

Texting and talking on a cell phone while driving are just two of the behaviors that engineers at the new $1.3 million OSU Driving Simulation Lab will be studying.
 
The state-of-the-art facility, located on the university’s campus, is the result of a partnership between OSU, Honda Research & Development of America (HRA) and the Ohio Supercomputer Center.
 
According to Jan Weisenberger, senior associate vice president for research at OSU, engineers and researchers will use the lab to study a wide range of driver behaviors. “The overriding goal for studies conducted at the lab will be the design of vehicles that will minimize driver distraction, reducing the incidence of accidents and improving auto safety. Other goals include gaining a better understanding of human perception, cognition and attention to help create new vehicle designs that are less stressful and more enjoyable for drivers.”
 
The lab will be available for use by university, industry and government groups to investigate how drivers interact with, and react to, a wide variety of in-vehicle systems, vehicle characteristics and external driving situations. Users can also study special populations, such as teenagers or elderly individuals, or evaluate the effects of fatigue on driving accuracy.
 
Weisenberger points out that the auto industry can use the lab to evaluate new designs for infotainment systems in a vehicle that can minimize driver distraction, and a university researcher could study basic mechanisms of attention and cognitive workload.
 
The facility boasts three simulation setups with a full array of hardware and software, according to John Dirrig, senior manager/chief engineer, Corporate and Technical Communications for HRA, “The hardware includes projection screens, motion simulators and user interfaces and equipment for measuring eye movements and gaze, as well as physiological correlates such as blood pressure and heart rate. The software allows the researcher to simulate different driving scenarios, like urban, freeway, or suburban settings, and to alter the vehicle dynamics of steering, braking and other characteristics to simulate unexpected occurrences in different weather, road and lighting conditions.”
 
The lab is being funded by HRA and the Ohio Board of Regents. “Additional funding from the Honda-OSU partnership is supporting operation costs as we bring the facility on line,” Weisenberger notes. “Ultimately, we hope to support operations from user fees and research grants.”

Sources: Jan Weisenberger, John Dirrig
Writer: Lynne Meyer

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

Graduates of The Brandery, Over-the-Rhine’s popular startup accelerator, have access to a new pool of potential funding with the recent launch of Vine Street Ventures Fund LLC, a venture capital firm created by Brandery co-founders Robert McDonald, Brian Kropp and Dave Knox.
 
While Vine Street represents a for-profit reach by the nonprofit’s founders, some of The Brandery’s values have translated to the new firm. “The primary goal is making money for our investors," says McDonals. "That said, we expect that the fund will also help the Cincinnati ecosystem by drawing additional top-quality companies to Cincinnati and potentially encouraging them to stay."
 
The fund raised just under $1.4 million, according to an amended U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing on Dec. 10. Vine Street Ventures reported participation by 42 investors, each with a contribution of at least $15,000. The fund’s initial offering was $2 million.
 
Asked whether the recent addition of new venture capital agencies in Cincinnati made for a competitive atmosphere, McDonald expresses hope that investors would bolster startups at various stages of development.

“To effectively fund a venture track business, we need to have a horizontal offering of funding sources. Vine Street Ventures focuses on the early growth companies coming out of The Brandery, but our portfolio companies will likely need funding all the way from Series A [the initial round of venture funding] through Series ZZ, as the case may be. We are thrilled with the current activity in Cincinnati and welcome any other funds that visit the region," he says.

By Robin Donovan

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

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