Innovation + Job News

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

Youngstown-based Visualized Energy is tracking energy usage to help customers reduce costs during peak usage by anticipating them in real time and signaling automated systems to cut back.
 
Dr. Marv Schwartz, founder of Visualized Energy, says he came up with the idea after talking with an acquaintance in the energy management business.
 
Schwartz says his acquaintance was in need of cost effective technology that could monitor energy usage. “Basically, what you have to think about is that companies manage all kinds of things,” explains Schwartz. “They manage people, they manage raw materials, finished goods, schedules for manufacturing and shipping, yet when they receive a utility bill, they just pay it.” Schwartz’s solution with Visualized Energy was to show companies what exactly they’re paying for.
 
“We tie into the revenue meters that we supply, and we monitor utility use over time,” he explains. “So instead of having one data point a month – your bill – we give you real time data on a 15-minute interval basis.”
 
Clients of Visualized Energy, typically large manufacturers, have access to the user-friendly systems by logging into its website. On the site, energy usage is broken up by month, highlighting average and peak usage. Users can click on a month to see a daily breakdown, and then click on a day to see usage broken up into 15-minute intervals. The detailed display allows companies to ensure their systems are automatically turning on and shutting down at programmed hours of operation. Schwartz estimates $160,000 in savings with previous companies they’ve caught wasting energy outside of hours of operation. “One in the Youngstown area cut their electric bill by 40 percent,” he notes.
 
Besides cutting costs, Visualized Energy’s technology has helped companies receive energy efficiency grants. Considering the longstanding and immediate impact Schwartz’s startup has had, it’s hard to imagine the venture is just one of his many roles in and around Youngstown.
 
“I’m also Chief Scientist at the Case Connection Zone,” says Schwartz. “And I’m the Chief Science Officer at the Youngstown Business Incubator, as a way of giving back.”
 
 
Source: Dr. Marv Schwartz
Writer: Joe Baur

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

Tesla NanoCoatings is expanding to new markets in response to growing demand from the oil and gas industry for Teslan, a corrosion control coating for structural steel developed in collaboration with the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center.  

"Right now we are collaborating with the Department of Defense, the world's largest aerospace manufacturers, and several of the top 10 global oil and gas producers," explains Managing Director Todd Hawkins. "They all grasp the potential and promise of our coating technology."

Hawkins adds that the grand opening of their new Research Center at Stark State College will also help them develop new applications for new markets. Details are being held due to competitive reasons, but Hawkins is happy to introduce three new management employees hired as a result of the company's growth after a successful first five years -- Michael Wright, retired Colonel Stephen Stohla and Charlie Simpson.

"Both Mike and Steve bring us a wealth of experience within the Army Facilities Command, Army Engineers and National Guard," says Hawkins, noting Stohla's extensive military background. "Charlie brings an added level of expertise to further bolster our already robust new product development process. We anticipate launch of two to three additional game-changing protective coatings in the next year."

Hawkins praises Tesla's technology, employees and partners for their continued success and growth, adding a bright forecast for their growing industry in the state. "In history, there has never been a better time or place than in Ohio now to do what we are doing."


Source: Todd Hawkins
Writer: Joe Baur

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

The Barberton Community Development Corporation (BCDC), which serves as the city’s economic development arm, was recently tapped by the Small Business Administration (SBA) to receive a $1 million loan for small businesses in the region.
 
BCDC is one of only two cities in Ohio and 20 nationwide to receive $1 million SBA loans in a special two-year pilot program.

“Historically, we’ve only provided loans to companies in Barberton,” explains Scott Wagner, BCDC executive director. “With this SBA loan, we want to think more regionally since neighboring communities benefit from one another’s growth. What’s good for New Franklin is good for Barberton; what’s good for Norton is good for Barberton.”
 
According to Wagner, local companies seeking a loan from the new SBA fund must commit to staying and/or expanding in the region. They must also have fewer than 500 employees and demonstrate that they are an established, profitable business.

Loan amounts will vary from $10,000 to $200,000, and may be used for a host of purposes, including building construction or acquisition, equipment, furniture, fixtures, inventory or working capital.

Wagner indicated they’ve already received several applications from companies, ranging from manufacturing to customer service, in all three communities.
 
He believes that BCDC’s proven track record making effective loans to local small businesses, as well as their current loan portfolio, helped set them apart and give them an edge to land the SBA loan. “The competition was very intense, and we were extremely fortunate to be selected,” he says. “It’s a fantastic honor to be one of only 20 economic agencies nationwide to receive this award.”
 

Source:  Scott Wagner
Writer:   Lynne Meyer

According to a special report prepared by Youngstown's  via680 on the state of email communications, business professionals send and receive 112 emails a day, on average, but 42 percent of them are ignored, and 50 percent are misunderstood.
 
“Email has evolved very little over 20 plus years from being a one-way delivery of text,” says Brad Gant, via680’s vice president of marketing. “When you send out an email, you wonder: Did they get it? Did they view it? Did they understand it? And are they working on it?”
 
To address these questions and combat the high level of ignored and misunderstood emails, via 680 developed Ving, a new web-hosted email service that, the company says, is “transforming email from being a one-way delivery of text to a dynamic two-way exchange of information.”

According to the company's website, the software application enables users to “create, distribute and track attention-grabbing, multi-media messages, including videos, documents, audio files, pictures and surveys.” These communications “packages” can then be sent through email, social media or text messaging.

The claim that Ving is “transforming email” is a bold assertion, however, and Gant acknowledges that other email providers, like Constant Contact and iContact, also enable users to deliver videos, photos and surveys and receive responses to them.

“It's true that some email providers let you send out a survey and an html email, and others let you attach videos and photos,” he says. “But they can’t bundle together all the elements of a multi-media message, including videos, documents, audio, pictures and questionnaires, and send them all out at one time, which you can do with Ving.”
 
Another advantage Ving offers, according to Gant, is the ability to track individual recipients’ interaction with each different element at a “granular level.” “I can see who opened each element and at what time,” he explains. "Other email services, like ConstantContact for example, only offer aggregate data about open rates, bounces, click-throughs and responses."

The two biggest users of Ving are in the fields of human resources and education. “Human resource and C-level professionals are turning to Ving to improve internal communications, automate compliance tracking and enhance new-employee orientation,” Gant reports. “Educators are using it to enhance learning in the classroom, create media-rich assignments, communicate with parents, recruit students and improve internal communications.”
 
Via680 is a portfolio company of the Youngstown Business Incubator. Established in 2010 with four employees, it currently has 12. It started with nine clients and now has 1,265, the largest of which is Northern Illinois University.

Source:  Brad Gant, via680
Writer:  Lynne Meyer

The Dayton Region Signature Fund has announced its recent distribution of $520,000 to area tech startups, totaling $1.4 million for 2012. The Dayton Development Coalition manages the fund to assist the growth of technology-based companies.
 
Launched in September of 2007, over 60 startup businesses comprise the Fund’s portfolio, making a significant difference in the local economy. This latest distribution was raised primarily from the exit of NanoSperse, a design and manufacturing company located at the National Composite Center. Their work consists of manufacturing nano-enhance dispersions for aerospace and industrial uses.
 
“We support investments that support individual entrepreneurs and grow the region’s key cluster areas,” explains Ray Hagerman, Vice President of Investments at the Dayton Development Coalition. These clusters include Aerospace Systems, Advanced Materials and Advanced Manufacturing, Information Technology and Advanced Data Management, and Human Sciences and Healthcare.
 
Universities and non-profits stand to benefit as well. “The money is going to investors, some of which are universities and non-profits,” explains Hagerman, adding the investment will allow them to have “more money to use for scholarships and to give away to worthy causes.”
 
Companies aligned with the Fund have received nearly $200 million in additional funding, creating approximately 412 jobs. This clustering of companies has garnered attention from global corporations that are now looking at Dayton as a place to build additional supply chains.
 
“The Fund’s primary goal is to provide solid returns to its investors,” says Hagerman. “The by-products are jobs and healthy companies.”
 
 
Source: Ray Hagerman
Writer: Joe Baur

The Innovation Fund has awarded $50,000 to North Jackson-based The Learning Egg. Funds will be used to improve their web-based application, Lightning Grader.
 
“[Lightning Grader] allows teachers to quickly and easily create a learning assessment, grade 100 pages a minute, and generate an analysis of student performance,” explains Elijah Stambaugh, CEO at The Learning Egg.
 
He says he got the idea when he was teaching middle school math at National Heritage Academy in Youngstown. “I was frustrated with reaching kids, understanding what they knew and what they didn’t.” Stambaugh’s frustration led to a meeting with the Youngstown Business Incubator (YBI) during the summer break of 2010. “With YBI’s amazing encouragement and business acumen, I was able to take my dream of making teaching more effective into reality.”
 
Feedback from teachers has been equally amazing. With teachers subscribing to the app from Alaska to Texas (32 states in total), Stambaugh says learning professionals are “finding they rely on the 14 real-time reports as a way to measure and improve achievement among students, teachers and their respective states.” Lake Catholic High School in Lake County, Green Local Schools in Summit County, Lorain County Educational Service Center and Canfield Middle School in Mahoning County are among Ohio schools currently using Lightning Grader.
 
Now Stambaugh hopes to use the Innovation Fund award to make some improvements on his product.
 
“The Learning Egg will enhance its feature set and continue school integration across the country,” he explains. “[We’ll] also continue to integrate with other educational applications, such as books, content providers, professional development groups, and assessment solutions.”
 
Before long, Stambaugh hopes to refocus on building web assessment technology, so teachers can use any means to assess students. “The Lightning Grader solution is the only all in one solution for assessment.”
 
 
Source: Elijah Stambaugh
Writer: Joe Baur

NorTech received one of seven Regional Innovation Cluster contracts from the Small Business Administration to grow its flexible electronics cluster FlexMatters. The four-year, $385,000 contract will allow NorTech to train and assist small companies in the FlexMatters cluster in attracting larger market leaders as customers through its Anchor Customer Engagement (ACE) Academy.
 
“One of the really important things about this contract is it gives us recognition on a federal basis,” says NorTech vice president Byron Clayton. “Being nationally recognized as an emerging cluster helps us bring more federal funding to the region.”
 
This is the fourth time the FlexMatters cluster has been recognized on a national level. The ACE Academy will help give the region an upper hand in terms of both jobs and securing the first customers for new technologies.
 
“It’s designed to help small, emerging businesses capture the first significant customers,” says Clayton of the academy. “It helps them be prepared so if they do get that opportunity to present themselves, they put their best foot forward. The goal is to go away with something concrete.”
 
Success of these businesses translates into more jobs in the region. “It really helps small businesses grow and create high paying jobs in growth industries,” says Clayton. “We’re already seeing success, and we’re just getting started.”

The SBA award is for one year, with a four year renewal option.

 
Source: Byron Clayton
Writer: Karin Connelly