Cincinnati/Southwest Ohio : Innovation + Job News

From the spark of an idea, Noel Gauthier hopes to release a firestorm in the fight against world poverty and its risks.

Gauthier, a graduate student in the University of Cincinnati's industrial design program, took a homework assignment a step further, resulting in FireStop, a low-cost, environmentally responsible fire extinguisher to fight fires in urban slums around the world.

"Our assignment was to create a more ergonomic fire extinguisher," Gauthier says, "but as I looked into it, in most places these days there are sprinkler systems and fire retardant materials. In those places, you don't need a fire extinguisher. So I started to look at where extinguishers are needed."

He soon figured out that low-income housing with dense populations, especially in poorer countries, is where they needed extinguishers the most and set about developing a low-cost solution instead.

FireStop is a one-button system that is made of easily manufactured plastic parts and a cardboard tube, filled with a simple fire retardant compound. Gauthier figures each extinguisher would take $1 to make.

Along with being affordable, Gauthier says he wanted to make FireStop so simple that populations protected by it could also manufacture the extinguisher, eventually turning it into an exportable product and helping fight poverty that's part of the problem to start with.

Others soon saw the value of Gauthier's idea. Last year, FireStop took the $5,000 third prize in the commercialization category of Cincinnati Innovates, a contest to recognize entrepreneurial ideas. Also, the local law firm of Taft, Stettinius and Hollister aided Gauthier by filing FireStop's patent application on a pro bono basis.

Gauthier and his team are working on the final engineering specs for FireStop, which he hopes will be ready to start production by spring. In the meantime, while he's finishing his degree, he's also launched his own design firm, UMi Design and Development. And he's set his sights on FireStop's successor � similarly simple-design alternatives to expensive medical devices.

Source: Noel L. Gauthier, UMi Design and Development
Writer: Dave Malaska

While deep thinkers continue to debate whether the chicken or the egg came first, one thing's for sure. In the biomass research business, AdvanceBio Systems of Milford is a leader. Two big deals this summer are proof.

On Aug. 2 the company announced the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colo., is acquiring a Biomass Pretreatment Reactor System. Experts at the 27,000-square-foot Integrated Biorefinery Research Facility there will use the AdvanceBio system for projects to make fuel ethanol from cellulosic biomass cost-competitive.

And on July 19 Penn State University awarded AdvanceBio a contract to supply a Bench Scale Hydrolyzer System for its Shared Fermentation Facility in University Park, Penn. The equipment will be used for research, development and demonstration of technology related to production of biomass-based fuels and chemicals from feedstocks. The company and school intended to collaborate on related research and development projects.

Earlier this year the company released The Bench Scale System, designed for university and corporate R&D personnel working on pre-treatment of biomass for next-generation fuels. AdvanceBio's other products are the lab, pilot and commercial scale systems � each escalating in the volume of material to be studied. All can be used on things such as sugar cane, corn cobs, corn stalks, switchgrass and wood chips, says Richard C. Agar, P.E., a senior associate at the company.

AdvanceBio's fuel and chemical consulting business began in 2007; the systems business began in '09, Agar says.

Source: Richard C. Agar, P.E., AdvanceBio Systems
Writer: Gabriella Jacobs

Nearly 5 million people in the last month have logged onto SparkPeople, a free, Cincinnati-based web site designed help people connect with like-minded folks pushing toward their life goals, from weight loss to stress management to fit pregnancy.

SparkPeople was founded in 2001 by University of Cincinnati graduate and former Procter & Gamble employee, Chris Downie, with central mission: to spark millions of people to reach their goals and lead healthier lives. The site does this in a myriad of ways: through nutrition, health and fitness tools, and maybe most importantly, through personal support with online message boards, blogs and social networking groups.

"You can look at just at the name and see how we are different. We try to tap into positive thinking and making a true lifestyle change. So it's not just about health. Using these same techniques, people have told us they got a promotion at job, or are being a better parent. They take small steps and get huge life breakthroughs," Downie said.

Downie started SparkPeople.com with the proceeds of Up4Sale.com, which he sold to Ebay in 1998. It was the online auction site's first acquisition. And though SparkPeople's thrust is health, fitness and weight loss, for some the site has affected their lives in other ways.
SparkPeople has 26 full-time and 6 part-time employees. The company plans to hire several more in the near future.

The site has a total of 8.5 million registered users. Many will use it for a short period of time, leave, then come back months or several years later when they need a refresher.

Within the last year the site has launched SparkAmerica.com, a national campaign to help people of all ages exercise more, eat better, make healthier choices and enjoy active, healthy lives. The company also has launched a section devoted to people with Type II Diabetes and now you can Spark on the go with free mobile apps.

Sources: Chris Downie and Tim Metzner, SparkPeople
Writer: Feoshia Henderson

Those who run customer contact centers are constantly challenged with scheduling scores of agents to handle calls. While they may have a good idea of how many agents they'll need tomorrow, most can't predict with any accuracy how many they will need a week or two from now.

WorkFlex Solutions has developed software to do just that, says Larry Schwartz, Chairman and CEO of the Montgomery-based firm.
Schwartz formed the company last year with Mitesh Desai, two years after leaving Convergys to open a consulting firm.

The company's signature product, WorkFlex Manager, is based on the manufacturing industry's concept of real-time supply chain management. The turning point in forming the company was the convergence of Schwartz's idea with an application built earlier by Desai that was helping the hotel industry schedule rooms and rates. WorkFlex Manager is now in service with a major outsourcer, and a number of other clients are preparing to implement it, Schwartz says.

WorkFlex's potential has been recognized by the venture capital community, which has invested $1.5 million in the young company. CincyTech, which invested $250,000, led the round, making WorkFlex its 16th portfolio company.

The company currently employs two in North America, and another dozen in India. But as it grows, Schwartz says the company will add business development and marketing jobs, primarily in the Cincinnati area.

There also is the potential to leverage the company's workforce solution to create more call-center jobs here in Ohio and elsewhere in the United States, he says.

Source: Larry Schwartz, WorkFlex Solutions
Writer: Gene Monteith

Keeping tabs on company productivity and efficiency isn't just good business for the big guys. When every dollar counts, smaller companies can benefit from a system that tracks productivity and sales numbers too.

That's why Cincinnati entrepreneur Ben Moore created xRP, an online productivity tool for small- and medium-sized manufactures that quickly tracks a host of important numbers aimed at cutting the fat, managing resources and boosting sales.

Ben Moore, president of Agent Technologies, launched xRP in 2007 in West Chester as a tool to help save Ohio manufacturing jobs.

"The basic purpose of xRP is to help companies become more productive and profitable. Companies typically have to invest tens of thousands of dollars and months of time and effort with software before they start getting any benefit. My goal was to build software that worked over the Internet through an Internet browser that these companies could subscribe to and begin getting benefit from immediately," says Moore, an electrical engineer, and a former Procter & Gamble and U.S. Department of Defense contactor.

xRP can be integrated with popular financial management systems including QuickBooks. The system includes sales contact management, task management, knowledge management an Inventory, Production or eCommerce management among other systems.
"xRP is about saving and creating jobs in manufacturing. Manufacturing has slid to about 12 percent of Gross Domestic Product in the U.S., and manufacturing has traditionally been one of the biggest creators of a Middle Class in any country," Moore said.

Source: Ben Moore, Agent Technologies
Writer: Feoshia Henderson

Cincinnati attorney Candace Klein is a good girl gone bad, and she wants to take other women with her.

That's exactly why she launched Bad Girl Ventures early this year. But really, it's not as bad as you might think. Bad Girl wants to help fill the gap between small women-owned startups looking for loans and funders who want to help create jobs.

"It's really difficult for women-owned startups right now," says Klein. "Personally, I've given to so many charities, political causes and organizations. I thought, 'If there was a way I could give just a portion of that to a startup company that would create jobs, I would.' I think we're really missing the boat on supporting women-owned startups."

Bad Girl Ventures is based on the micro-financing model of international organizations like Kiva, where small loans from individuals are bundled. It's also a nonprofit, so contributions are tax deductible.

Klein believes BGV is the first of its kind in the nation because it pairs the micro-lending model with a curriculum and a focus on women. Five chosen startups will undergo a six-week entrepreneur curriculum, where they will learn the building blocks to starting a business and be responsible for submitting a business plan, WBE application, etc. While one of the five entrepreneurs will receive a $25,000 low interest loan from Bad Girl Ventures, other partner banks will be approached to finance the other participants.

Eligible businesses must be at least 51 percent women-owned and in the sectors of retail, restaurant or professional services. The first Bad Girl class has recently applied for loans in a competitive application process that will allow them to get their businesses off the ground. The chosen businesses will be announced later this month.

So how does Klein define a bad girl? Bad Girl (Bad gurl) n. -- A female with an inner voice urging her to start something. Typically adverse to authority, she creates energy with her ideas and is a natural born leader. Peers admire her grace and intellect and the community is stronger as a result of her presence.

Source: Candace Klein, founder Bad Girl Ventures
Writer: Feoshia Henderson

In the world of Internet security, there's bravado . . . then there's Wiresoft's brand of bravado.

The Cincinnati-based network security provider, which markets its Firegate security platform as "the world's leading network security platform providing enterprise-level security at an affordable price," recently backed up those claims with a challenge.

Last December, the company made itself a target to hackers with its "Hack Us If You Can" dare, offering a $24,000 prize if anyone could break into their systems within a 24-hour period. If that wasn't gutsy enough, the company then kept the challenge going for 90 days.

In the end, no one � including former National Security Agency employees who tackled the challenge � was able to claim the prize money.

Wiresoft President and CEO Tom Schram says the contest proved Firegate was proven everything Wiresoft said it was � complete network protection at a price affordable enough for small- to mid-size companies.

"If you're not willing to put your money where your mouth is in this business, you should rethink what you're doing," Schram, a former Navy cryptologist, explains.

Launched in 2008 in the Cincinnati suburb of East Walnut Hills, Wiresoft is focused on network security and disaster recovery products. With prices that make the protection available to even small businesses, Wiresoft's client list is already into the "hundreds" according to Schram, with more signing on every day.

"What really sets us aside is that we a firewall that's never been broken. We've never had a virus get through, if its signature was known anywhere in the world. We offer a spam wall, content filtering and disaster recovery of information from an online archive. We've got 24-hour tech support doing constant updates," explains Schram. "Our competition can't say that. We can."

Source: Tom Schram, Wiresoft
Writer: Dave Malaska

Cincinnati's first-ever consumer marketing startup accelerator wants to make a deal with you entrepreneurs out there: $20,000 in startup funding in exchange for a 6 percent equity stake in your brand new company.

The Brandery is offering funding, mentoring and partnerships to local consumer marketing businesses. The Brandery's founders are Cincinnati digital marketing executive David Knox and serial entrepreneur J.B. Kropp, vice president of channel development at social media branding firm Vitrue.

The Brandery is now accepting applications for its 12-week program that will include that 20K grant upon completion. The founders also will set up meetings between entrepreneurs, potential partners and customers.

Once the program ends, the real works starts with a demo day that gives companies the chance to pitch to the press, angel investors, brand marketers and leading venture capitalists.

"The power of The Brandery is the collaboration between people and companies in our community," says Knox, brand manager of global branded entertainment at Procter & Gamble. "Entrepreneurs will benefit from a wide range of talented people in consumer marketing here as well as globally."

The Brandery is looking for tech-based, consumer businesses including Internet, media and entertainment companies. Companies can begin applying for the accelerator program immediately at Brandery.org. Deadline for submissions for this first session is Aug. 11, 2010. Five companies will be selected for the first session which will begin in late August.

CincyTech, a public-private venture development group, is funding those $20,000 grants through its Imagining Grant funds aimed at growing companies through the investment stage.

"Our hope is to create a whole new pipeline of startup companies that focus on consumer marketing, to complement our portfolio of companies in information technology, bioscience and advanced manufacturing," says CincyTech President Bob Coy. "Our mission is to grow jobs in thriving industries."

Source: CincyTech
Writer: Feoshia Henderson

In a competitive industry where it's hard to keep your footing, MilAIR has developed and manufactured cooling units for military use since 2006.

Revenues at this built-from-scratch company have jumped annually, from $233,000 in its first year to a projected $5 million in 2011, says Director of Sales John Lyons. The company currently employs 45 and plans to add new workers at a rate 10 percent each year as revenues continue to climb, Lyons says.

MilAIR manufactures heavy duty air conditioners, dehumidifiers, chillers, heat exchangers, generators and power converters for the military market. MilAIR moved to Milford, just northeast of Cincinnati, shortly after being broken from its parent company Burtek, Inc., in Michigan, which modifies trucks and other transportation equipment for the military. Burtek's former owner Bruce Burton also owns MilAir.

The company relocated from Michigan to Ohio largely on the strength of the area's workforce, Lyons says.

"There are a lot of people in the greater Cincinnati area that are very experienced in military air conditioning. So I thought, we should locate close to the people we want to hire," says Lyons, who is from the Cincinnati area and a 1977 graduate of Miami University College of Engineering. "Clermont County did give us some incentives and there is an ample supply of manufacturing space here, but workforce was the primary draw."

The company's innovation was recently recognized by Cincy Magazine with a 2010 Manny Award in manufacturing excellence. The magazine recognized the company's use of 3D computer-aided design (CAD) and computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) to better design refrigeration components in the desert.

Source: John Lyons, MilAIR
Writer: Feoshia Henderson

Sensus President Dan Wampler put his Ph.D. from The Ohio State University and a 15-year career in the flavor industry into his own company, which extracts flavors, colors and health properties from natural products for use in food and drinks.

Wampler founded Sensus in 1999 with the goal of delivering high-quality natural flavor ingredients and health benefits from natural products to the food and beverage industry. The Hamilton-based company pulls flavor from raw materials like coffee, tea herbs and tomatoes to deliver extracts, concentrates and essences that other companies use in their products. Sensus employs 35 people in manufacturing, research and development and quality control.

Sensus works with leading tomato ingredient processor The Morning Star Company in Woodland, California to provide industry leading tomato essences.

Sensus is currently working on a joint project with Ohio State and Wyandot Inc. in Marion. The trio is working on a snack chip that will use a purple corn extract made from Ohio-grown corn. It would be a full-grain corn meal snack that is purple in color.

"We want to develop the corn so it can be grown in Ohio and it can be put into a healthful snack. There is a big demand by consumers who still want to snack but want snacks with more health benefits," Wampler says. "It's a research project that we hope leads to commercial product."

Source: Dan Wampler, Sensus
Writer: Feoshia Henderson

The Ohio River laps the shores of the Buckeye and Bluegrass states, and a project involving both is creating a renewable energy source for the city of Hamilton.

American Municipal Power in Columbus in June broke ground on a hydroelectric plant at the Captain Anthony Meldahl Locks and Dam in Willow Grove, Ky., in northeastern Kentucky. The plant will add 105 MW of new, renewable generation to the region. Hamilton will own 51 percent of the plant, as well as the license for the facility. AMP, a nonprofit conglomerate of 128 power companies in six states including in Ohio, will own the remainder of the plant.

"With the Meldahl project partnership, Hamilton continues its goal of providing cheap, green, renewable energy to Hamilton citizens," said Hamilton Mayor Patrick Moeller.

It's estimated that the half-billion-dollar Meldahl project will employ 200 to 400 construction workers and create up 20 permanent operating positions. The plant is expected to go online by 2014, and will generate about 70 percent of Hamilton's electricity. The city owns another plant in near Portsmouth.

"The hydroelectric generation currently being developed by AMP is a large part of a coordinated effort to reduce our members' over-dependence on the volatile wholesale market and create a balanced power supply. At the same time, this development effort is creating jobs and economic development in the region," AMP President/CEO Marc Gerken said.

Source: American Municipal Power
Writer: Feoshia Henderson

The University of Cincinnati and Blue Ash-based Ethicon Endo-Surgery have pushed forward their research collaboration to better understand the mechanical, physical, and biochemical changes that happen when people undergo bariatric surgery.

The research goal is to better understand exactly how the procedure causes dramatic weight loss and develop less invasive surgical devices that make the process ultimately more effective and less painful.

Ethicon recently awarded UC's Metabolic Diseases Institute a $13.5 million, three-year research grant extension to study the physiological issues associated with the surgery that is increasingly common in treating obesity. The grant is part of Ethicon's Metabolic Applied Research Strategy (MARS), which also includes research from GI Metabolism Laboratory and Weight Center at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH).

Ethicon Endo-Surgery, Inc. develops advanced medical devices for minimally invasive and open surgeries. Its parent company is Johnson & Johnson. Including this new grant, the EES MARS initiative has invested more than $33 million with UC and the GI Metabolism Laboratory and Weight Center at the MGH.

"Ethicon Endo-Surgery is committed to collaborating with clinicians to develop new, comprehensive bariatric solutions while also ensuring that people with obesity have access to current treatment options that can help them achieve sustained weight loss and reduce co-morbidities," says Karen Licitra, Ethicon group Chairperson.

At UC, researchers are studying of why other metabolic procedures, such as vertical sleeve gastrectomy (VSG) and laparoscopic greater curvature plication (LGCP), work. These and other studies have been presented at prestigious national conferences, including most recently the American Diabetes Association Annual Meeting in Florida this past June.

Source: Ethicon Endo-Surgery
Writer: Feoshia Henderson

What started out as the purchase of few reburbished robots has grown into an internationally known company that sells, programs and services robots needed for complex manufacturing work.

Ken Carrier, owner of KC Robotics, says that besides selling robots, the company programs them to weld, cut, assemble route and handle a variety of industrial and manufacturing tasks. KC Robotic's technicians can also install, repair and service the robots on site.

"I'll put my guys on a plane and fly them all over the country. We work nationally and internationally. Right now I have a crew in Washington State, and we spend a lot of time on the West Coast," Carrier said, of his Fairfield-based company.

Carrier started KC Robotics in 1989, after transitioning out of an electronics sales and repair job for a Detroit manufacturer.
 
"I started buying used robots and then I had an inventory of 150. One thing led to another," Carrier said.

Like many companies, the recession dealt KC Robotics a bit of an economic hit, but business has begun to pick up. The company lost a few workers in the last year, but Carrier said he plans to rehire several of them this year. He currently has 14 employees.

The company's customers include food industry suppliers, foundries and aerospace companies. Technicians do work in South America, Europe, Asia, Mexico, and Canada, as well as the U.S.

Source: Ken Carrier owner KC Robotics
Writer: Feoshia Henderson

While the global economy has presented a rough road for many companies, Kendle International has managed not only to miss the potholes, but to pave its own way to growth. 

A leading global clinical research company, Kendle recently opened a new operations center in the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) of the Ahmedabad-Gandhinagar Knowledge Corridor in India.

"Growth in India is a key component of our strategy and will be very important to the future of Kendle" says Stephen Cutler, senior vice president and chief operating officer. "Our expanded presence in Asia, and in India in particular, creates efficiencies in the clinical development process for our customers worldwide."

Founded in Cincinnati in 1981 by Candace Kendle and Chris Bergen, Kendle was also ranked a top clinical research organization (CRO) to work with in the 2010 CenterWatch European Investigative Site Survey. Kendle is the only CRO to be ranked consistently among the top three providers for each of the past four years in the annual U.S. and European site surveys conducted by CenterWatch, a leading publishing and information services company focusing on the clinical trials industry.

"Kendle's ability to forge strong and collaborative relationships with investigative sites across the globe is key to our ability to deliver studies more efficiently and cost effectively for our customers, which is increasingly important in today's environment," says Cutler.

The company reported net income of $1.2 million for the first quarter 2010 compared with net income of $886,000 for the first quarter 2009.

Source: Stephen Cutler, Kendle International
Writer: Val Prevish

Mason IT consulting firm Afidence's expertise in saving companies money through increased efficiency has helped this young company grow in just a few short months.

Afidence President Bryan Hogan started the company as a spinoff from Ray & Barney Group, an IT recruiting and consulting company based in Columbus. Hogan co-owned the Columbus company and bought out the consulting portion, opening an office in the Cincinnati area where he lives.

Afidence advises clients on how to best use IT to improve efficiency and the bottom line. The company works with a variety of large and small companies but has a large number of clients in the higher education and health care sectors.

Afidence doesn't promote or sell hardware or software, but its employees have expertise in more than a dozen programs including Microsoft Exchange, Cisco, Blackberry, Citrix, K2 automation, WMware virtualization and Windows 7.

Afidence's key focus areas include backup, disaster recovery, and business continuity, IT planning, strategy, and business goals alignment, business process automation and workflow, document, data, and content management, workforce planning and project management among others.

Hogan brought several employees from his former company, starting out with 15 when Afidence opened its doors in January 2010. The company has since hired three employees and could hire up to four more by year's end, he said.

Source: Bryan Hogan, Afidence
Writer: Feoshia Henderson