Innovation + Job News

Zia Systems says it has a better way to keep track of inventory and equipment. And now, it's using its patented technology to tap into what it says is an $8 billion to $10 billion pipeline rehabilitation industry.

Zia, which has an office at the National Environmental Technology Incubator at Central State University near Springfield, is the outgrowth of efforts that began in 1997 when equipment was stolen from Zia CEO and co-founder Jack Conte's construction company.

Conte asked two remote monitoring experts -- brothers Larry and Gary Rapp (Zia's chief technology officer and chief operating officer, respectively) -- to investigate ways to devise a security system around the construction site.

The first application was built on existing GPS and cellular technology, Gary Rapp says, and allowed Conte to track trucks and equipment on job sites. Later, the technology was extended to government contractor Washington Group International, which was moving equipment for construction in Iraq.

"We said there is a market out there for GPS tracking devices," Gary says. "But the market had so many players, that's really something we didn't necessarily want to stay in, and we thought 'can we build our own system that's unique.'?"

The result was a patented system using tracking tags and sensors to keep track of just about anything within a defined area, like a building, warehouse or field. If a tagged object is moved, sensors can send an alert to a smart phone, or a call center or a computer.

While the technology has a number of applications, Zia's target market today is the infrastructure rehabilitation industry -- specifically, storm water and sewer pipelines that rely on resin liners that are cured with heat. Zia technology can measure temperatures every 10 to 20 feet, rather than just at the manholes, which is where temperature readings have typically been taken.

While the technology for now is being applied to locate specific temperatures along a liner, Conte says the next step is to provide sensors to track the exact position of the liners.

The five-person company recently landed its first order for pipeline sensors -- 10,000 lineal feet of product.

Sources: Jack Conte, Gary Rapp and Larry Rapp, Zia Systems
Writer: Gene Monteith

Based on what's happening in the Gulf of Mexico, corn ethanol production is beginning to look more and more attractive. And thanks to research done by Arisdyne Chief Technology Officer Dr. Oleg Kozyuk, that process is poised to become even more efficient.

Kozyuk's patented hydrodynamic cavitation process significantly increases ethanol yield, thus improving a producer's profitability. It does so by increasing the amount of starch that is released during processing without increasing the system's demand for energy.

"This is an incredibly simplistic, small-footprinted, energy-efficient system that significantly increases ethanol yield," explains Arisdyne VP Fred Clarke.

With some 200 or so ethanol producers scattered about this nation's Corn Belt, Clarke sees nothing but growth in the coming months. "We are on the precipice of announcing our first sale," he notes. "Getting past the first adopter problem will be our biggest hurdle."

The Cleveland-based company licenses the technology and maintains equipment. Or, as Clarke explains it, "Just like Xerox was in business of selling copies not copiers, we license the capability to enhance ethanol yield rather than sell equipment."

Since receiving in 2007 a $1 million alternative fuels grant from Ohio's Third Frontier, Arisdyne has jumped from three to 12 employees. As new agreements are reached with ethanol producers, that figure is expected to climb, says Clarke.

Source: Fred Clarke, Arisdyne
Writer: Douglas Trattner

Rocker Bret Michaels has one. Patriots linebacker Tedy Bruschi has one. Beau Biden, son of Vice President Joe Biden, has one too.

What they have is a hole in the heart known as a patent foramen ovale, or PFO. It's a problem shared with millions of other Americans -- one that, left undetected, can lead to strokes and death.

Until now, detecting a PFO has required the skills of two physicians, use of a heart catheterization lab, mild sedation and a plastic tube shoved uncomfortably down the throat, says CardioX CEO Larry Heaton. That procedure is so uncomfortable that many patients refuse follow-up tests to determine if treatments have been effective.

But if all goes as planned, the Dublin-based CardioX will complete clinical trials this summer -- and next year begin marketing -- a siimpler process that requires only a small injection of dye into the blood, sensors attached to a person's ears and a tube into which a patient blows to open the flap covering the PFO. (Because blood passing through a PFO doesn't go to the lungs as it should, the dye will reach the ears ahead of schedule -- proving the existence of the hole).

CardioX, founded in 2008, has raised about $4 million in outside investments, including two rounds led by Reservoir Venture Partners and Early Stage Partners, respectively. The company has also benefited from angel funding led by Ohio TechAngels and $500,000 through the TechColumbus Regional Commercialization Fund.

"The combination of (state) initiatives, along with the source of capital, have combined to make a very nice climate for CardioX to stay here in this area," Heaton says.

The company has five full-time employees and a network of about half-a dozen outsourced or part-time people, Heaton says. More will come on board as the system goes to market.

Source: Larry Heaton, CardioX
Writer: Gene Monteith

Dan Meyer, President and CEO of Comet Solutions, credits incentives from the state of Ohio among reasons the New Mexico-founded company opened its executive offices to Cincinnati, growing in the process.

Comet Solutions uses virtual modeling to test a variety of products for functionality and durability prior to manufacturing. Incorporated in 2001, the company moved its headquarters to Cincinnati suburb Blue Ash after in 2008 after being awarded $1.4 million in incentives from the Innovation Ohio Loan Fund. The company also received Ohio Job Creation Tax Credits valued at more than $400,000.

"We were attracted to the type of incentives Ohio had that would help companies like ours grow," Meyer said. "It really was life saving. The Innovation Ohio Loan Fund allowed us to continue to invest in our product software development and to advance our product."

Comet Solutions' six-person executive team is in Ohio, including the heads of corporate development and customer support. Excluding Meyer, who worked remotely in Ohio for the company prior to receiving incentives, all the executive team members have been hired within the last year or so, and were hired from the Ohio area.

Though the company's original software developers remain in New Mexico, the future of the company's growth is in Ohio. Comet Solution plans on hiring customer support employees and engineers who will work out of the Blue Ash office within the next year, Meyer said.

Comet Solutions works with advanced manufacturing companies with a special emphasis on the aerospace and defense sectors. Though the company's client base is global is scope, Ohio's cluster of advanced manufacturing and aerospace industries made the state an attractive place to relocate, Meyer said.

"There is a lot of talent here and people who know this industry well," he said. "And many of our clients are in the Midwest, just a few hours' drive from Ohio."

Source: Dan Meyer, Comet Solutions
Writer: Feoshia Henderson

Columbus-based DoMedia was founded in 2007 to help bring some order to the "out-of-home" media marketplace. Since then, it's tripled its employee base and is ready to ride the booming digital media wave.

Out-of-home advertising is anything out of the home on which you can place a branded message, explains DoMedia CEO Andy Mansinne. Bus huts, aerial banners, pizza boxes -- just about anything can be used as an advertising medium.

However, "it's very fragmented and very opaque and there aren't very many ways to get your arms around what's out there, measure its efficacy and then systematically and efficiently secure and purchase those media assets," Mansinne says.

DoMedia provides an online marketplace for finding, planning, buying and selling alternative, traditional and digital out-of-home media. Media providers (like billboard companies) use DoMedia to create detailed online profiles, while advertisers and agencies can use DoMedia's database to plan and build their out-of-home campaigns.

While traditional out-of-home is alive and well, "digital out of home has come screaming to the forefront in the last year," Mansinne says. Think of those big screens you might view while waiting in line at the movies -- "anything that can be delivered from an extended video format or even like Captivate, which is static art in elevators."

Mansinne says 400 agencies are now registered DoMedia users as well as 1,200 media sellers worldwide. The company has benefitted from funding led by Columbus-based NCT Ventures as well as support from the Ohio Third Frontier's Innovation Ohio Loan Fund -- DoMedia received more than $1 million from the fund for 2010, Mansinne says.

DoMedia has 10 employees today compared to three two years ago, and expects continued growth behind new services and the rise of digital out-of-home media.

Source: Andy Mansinne, DoMedia
Writer: Gene Monteith

The idea for Embrace Pet Insurance began as the result of Laura Bennett and Alex Krooglik's project for the Wharton Business Plan Competition in 2003.

The two MBA students won, beating out a passel of bio-technology and technology ideas along the way. When both Bennett's husband and Krooglik moved to Cleveland to work for Progressive Insurance, so did Embrace Pet Insurance.

The Mayfield Village-based company started small, but proved it could compete with the big dogs right away. One advantage Embrace has over its competitors is that hereditary conditions are covered � expensive conditions such as hip dysplasia and cherry eye.

"A good claims experience is key to pet insurance," says Bennett, who also sits on the board of the North American Pet Health Insurance Association. "People get what they expect out of the product."

Business doubled in the last year. So did the staff � from 10 to 20 employees. Bennett says the company is growing at rapid pace. And the staff may double again.

Bennett who is originally from the U.K., says pet insurance is much more common across the pond than in the U.S. "Less than half of cats and dogs are insured here. The market as a whole is growing at 20 percent per year � that's in the down years of the economy."

That has attracted the interest of a host private investments and venture capital groups. JumpStart alone has invested $800,000 in Embrace.

"We are employing people with good and interesting jobs and we hope to continue to be a part of this exciting success story," she said, adding that the company is staying put. "I love Cleveland. I believe in this area."

Source: Laura Bennett, Embrace Pet Insurance
Writer: Colin McEwen

"The traditional paradigm in regenerative medicine consists of injecting stem cells into injured organs so that the damaged tissue can begin to repair itself," explains Juventas Therapeutics president Rahul Aras. "Ours is a more simplified approach that moves away from extracting and reinjecting stem cells."

Based on the research of Cleveland Clinic cardiologist and Juventas co-founder Marc Penn, the biomed company developed an innovative technology that offers a fresh way of looking at regenerative therapy. Penn discovered that it wasn't a lack of stem cells that made an organ's natural repair process ineffective, but rather because the molecular signals that recruit those stem cells are too short-lived.

The key molecule that serves as the beacon for stem cells is Stromal�cell Derived Factor 1 (SDF�1). Injecting SDF-1 into damaged tissue, they found, restarts a patient's natural repair process.

Presently, Juventas is in Phase 1 clinical trials to evaluate the safety and efficacy of using SDF-1 to improve cardiac function following a heart attack. But in the future, adds Aras, the same repair biology likely can be used to treat other diseases as well.

Thanks to help from the State of Ohio's Third Frontier initiative, Global Cardiovascular Innovation Center and JumpStart, Juventas spun out from the Cleveland Clinic in 2007. The Cleveland-based company currently employs four full-time and two part-time members. But as the technology moves into other disease applications, Aras anticipates exponential growth.

Source: Rahul Aras, Juventas Therapeutics
Writer: Douglas Trattner

People who suffer from chronic pain could someday toss their painkillers into the garbage. For good.

Neuros Medical is developing a device that uses an electrode to deliver high-frequency stimulation to sensory nerves in the peripheral nervous system. Basically, pain signals in the spine just won't make it to the brain.

The Willoughby-based company was founded in 2008 using technology invented by two Case Western Reserve University doctors.

Jon Snyder, founder and CEO of Neuros Medical, says Northeast Ohio has become an international hub for researching � and producing � neurostimulation devices.

"There's a great amount of this type of technology being discovered and refined here, especially with institutions in the area like the Cleveland Clinic, University Hospitals, Case Western and the Functional Electrical Stimulation Center," Snyder says. "This region is very well-known for uncovering new uses for neurostimulation."

Neuros Medical is currently in the product-development stage, but the company's pace is moving quickly. Human studies are expected this year.

Investors have taken notice � to the tune of $1.8 million so far. That includes support from JumpStart ($275,000), North Coast Angel Fund ($200,000) and Ohio TechAngels ($200,000).

"In Ohio, we've got some great support organizations, to help companies get through their early stages of development," he says.

Neuros Medical employs three people, not including consultants that are hired regionally. Within the next few years, Snyder expects to have a product on the market � which will add even more jobs. However, the company could add as many as six positions within one year. "Maybe even more," he adds.

Source: Jon Snyder, Neuros Medical
Writer: Colin McEwen

Cleveland-based Nine Sigma is nurturing business growth in Italy.

The company announced recently that Finpiemonte SpA, an Italian public holding company that supports economic development and competitiveness in the Piedmont region, chose it for a three-year project to establish an open innovation program.

Nine Sigma, which also has offices in Belgium and Japan, is a 10-year-old company that specializes in helping Global 1000 companies -- "and other innovation-driven entities" look far outside their geographical and industrial boxes to adopt changes that can facilitate their success.

Earlier this year it announced a project to provide open innovation capabilities to Middle East and North Africa organizations. That project is being done in partnership with Innovation 360 Institute, an innovation training consultancy.

"The public and private sectors in the Middle East are hungry for new tools and capabilities that will enable them to fully leverage the global research and innovation community," Kamal Hassan, president and CEO of Innovation 360, says in a news release. "NineSigma's innovation search methodology, intelligence offerings and extensive network of experienced innovators, combined with Innovation 360's systematic innovation model, will help organizations in the Middle East find new technologies and innovative ideas."

Nine Sigma President Matthew Heim says open innovation already has been applied in many industries that are key to economic growth in the Middle East, such as oil and gas, clean and renewable energy, government services and health care. "Open innovation networks are an affordable and effective way to bolster internal R&D efforts."

Among the company's domestic clients: AkzoNobel, the Cleveland-based coatings and specialty chemicals corporation.

Source: Nine Sigma
Writer: Gabriella Jacobs

Both patients and docs benefit when new medical advances reduce the cost, complexity and risks of surgery. Miamisburg-based X-spine has built a growing business on that idea.

Founded in 2004 by spine surgeon and medical device inventor David Kirschman, the company is growing on the strength of nine FDA- approved products.

The company bills itself as "leader in design and development of novel technologies for the spine." That includes the highly successful X90 screw system, a one-piece product that Kirschman, X-spine's CEO, says simplifies the old two-piece system used before.

The company's new Fixcet Spinal Facet Screw System, which received FDA clearance just last week, sports a novel dual thread design, which Kirschman -- X-spine's CEO -- says provides a more stable way to connect bones. Not just that, but it can be put in through the skin of the patient with only a very small incision.

Kirschman says X-spine is growing 20 percent to 30 percent in both revenues and employment, with nearly 30 employees to date. Along the way, it has benefited from Ohio Third Frontier programs like the Entrepreneurial Signature Program, which provided a $300,000 commercialization investment two and a half years ago, and a current University of Cincinnati-led project funded by a $3-million Third Frontier grant for development of a laser metal processing technology for use in transplants.

"Most of our products are manufactured right here in Dayton," says Kirschman. "There are a lot of skilled engineers here and lot of people with good manufacturing skills."

Source: David Kirschman, X-spine
Writer: Gene Monteith

Northeast Ohio has expanded its business attraction efforts outside of Ohio, hiring a full-time director to lead an international marketing program designed to attract two to four new companies to the region in the next two years.

Team NEO, a business attraction organization that represents the region's largest chambers of commerce in a 16-county area, last month hired Bernardine R. van Kessel as Director, International Business Attraction. Team NEO also has contracted with PM&P Consultants of Germany to act on its behalf in Europe.

The initiative is financed by a $1-million, two-year grant from the Cleveland Foundation and is intended to reach out not only to European companies but to business interests in Canada and China for renewable energy, biomedical and advanced manufacturing opportunities.

Carin Rockind, Team NEO's vice president of marketing and communications, noted that a new Team NEO report issued last month demonstrated that northeast Ohio is well-positioned for "clean tech" growth. Those industries now represent $12.5 billion, or 7.5 percent of northeast Ohio's economy, but are expected to grow more than 20 percent in the next five years.

"Northeast Ohio in particular has the benefit of tremendous access to transportation systems in terms of rail, highway and port access," she says. "Then, our workforce is accustomed to these particular (high tech) industries."

Rockind says Team NEO has set a first-year goal of 10 "hard leads" (a company that could bring at last 20 new jobs to the region and commit to at least $1 million in capital investment) -- and a goal of 12 such leads in the second. The organization also is developing a process to work with foreign businesses that aren't ready to open new offices here but are interested in U.S. partners.

Sources: Carin Rockind, Team NEO and http://www.clevelandplusbusiness.com/
Writer: Gene Monteith

On the crowded shelves of supermarkets and department stores, it's not always enough for a product to be great. It also has to look great. Creative, or just plain pretty, packaging can make a beverage, beauty or food product stand out. And an eye-catching packaging can lead to increased sales.

The people at StratusGroup in West Chester, Ohio, have built a vibrant and growing business out of designing premium packaging techniques. The company was built by Cincinnati natives Robert Curran and his son Curtis in 1992. The pair started the business shortly after Robert sold his first to international label conglomerate CCL.

"We explore all that's in the marketplace, and find the most up-to-date technology (clients) could use for packages," says Christopher Corgiat, Marketing Manager for StratusGroup. He said there often is a "gap" of understanding between designers, who create the look of package labels, and converters, who use paper, plastic, dyes and equipment to print them. It's a gap that StratusGroup works to fill.

The company develops and manufactures packaging solutions for clients in the food, beverage, health and beauty and pharma sectors, counting Fris Vodka, Wild Turkey bourbon, Seagrams gin, Hall's, Kroger and TGI Friday's among its clients. It specializes in pressure sensitive labels, paper board packaging and print technology and has evolved along with the fast-changing and highly competitive packaging industry.

The company employs 125, a number that has doubled in the past five years. There are plans to hire more sometime later this year.

Source: Christopher Corgiat, StratusGroup
Writer: Feoshia Henderson

Imagine an imaging technology that can identify TNT or anthrax beneath a terrorist's clothes. That's exactly the kind of capability the Columbus startup Traycer wants the world to have.

Conceived in an Ohio State University lab, incorporated in 2007 and housed in the TechColumbus incubator, Traycer is already attracting attention for its promising terahertz -- or "T-ray" -- technology.

"Terahertz is just a different wavelength of light," explains Don J. Burdette, director of scientific research. "It falls between infrared and microwave, so there are a lot of applications for infrared technology -- you know, catching the bad guys running from the cops."

But many materials that aren't easily detected using infrared or microwave can be readily identified using T-rays. "So this has a lot of applications for spectroscopy, food quality control, chemical detection under people's clothing, detection of breast cancer -- the applications abound."

That potential has attracted the attention of TechColumbus, which in early 2008 awarded it $500,000 in pre-seed funds. And it's caught the eye of the U.S. Air Force.

"We're in our third contract with the Air Force to prove out the technology," says CEO Brad Beasecker. "And there certainly are numerous applications within the department of defense."

The company is working with a variety of partners -- including IDCAST (Institute for the Development and Commercialization of Advanced Sensor Technology) in Dayton, where it has lab space -- and numerous Ohio and out-of-state universities.

Beasecker says the three-person company was expected to close this week on an investment round led by Ohio Techangels. But it's most important next step lies ahead.

"We've got to finish the camera. It's pretty simple."

If all goes as planned, Traycer could be in the marketplace early next year and "generate a new industry based here in Ohio," Beasecker says.

Sources: Brad Beasecker and Don J. Burdette, Traycer
Writer: Gene Monteith

NorTech's vision for a thriving advanced energy cluster in northeast Ohio just got a boost.

The U.S. Department of Commerce's Economic Development Administration awarded NorTech $300,000 to fund a series of "roadmaps" leading to a cohesive regional strategy.

It's hailed as the first competitive federal grant to northeast Ohio for development of an advanced strategy.

Kelly South, NorTech's senior director, communications, says the grant will "help us and the region do a deeper dive in four advanced energy sectors that we think have real promise. These roadmaps are going to help us assess the assets that exist in the region and what (we need) to do to get from point A to point B."

She says NorTech Energy Enterprise, the organization's energy initiative, will lead the effort and focus on energy storage, smart grid development, transportation electrification (think electric cars) and biomass.

It's not the first dollar in the pot for NorTech, a regional nonprofit tech-based economic development organization that serves 21 counties in northeast Ohio. Last fall, the Fund for Our Economic Future, a regional economic development philanthropy, committed $1.7 million over two years to NorTech to lead an advanced-energy initiative.

"So we received a sizeable grant in September to really launch our advanced energy initiative and be a focal point for driving growth in the advanced energy industry," South says.

Efforts include education, advocacy and forming collaborations, she says, in addition to helping form groups like the Lake Erie Energy Development Corp., which is focused on commercialization of wind power in Lake Erie. The organization named its first president, Lorry Wagner, last week.

Source: Kelly South, NorTech
Writer: Gene Monteith

Advertising has always been a tricky business. With the dawn of advertising on the internet, that tricky situation became an impossibly intricate one: a dizzying array of mouse clicks, website "hits" and page referrals.

While companies jockeyed to accurately measure the success of internet advertising, Columbus-based ClearSaleing Inc. has become a leader in ensuring its clients are getting the most bang for their online advertising buck.

ClearSaleing, founded in 2006 with help from the Ohio TechAngel Fund and TechColumbus, partners talent pooled from Google, electronic commerce leader ECNext, eBusiness Solutions and top online marketers. The company has gone on to develop software that accurately attributes profit and return on investment across the varied online marketing touch-points that eventually lead to more business for its clients.

"We're fully focused on advertising analytics, which is tracking every form of traffic brought to a website," says Adam S. Goldberg, one of the company's founders and its chief innovation officer.

Goldberg, who jumped to ClearSaleing after helping start Google's first inside sales team, says it's not enough to track just the end result of website visits, which is what most tracking systems do now. Instead, ClearSaleing focuses on every step along the way.

"Now, when a marketer look at their online ad investments, they have a better idea of which ones are profitable, and how profitable they are. Those that aren't, they can fix or put their money elsewhere."

Recently named TechColumbus' Product of the Year and a product marketers "Can't Live Without" at the Search Engine Watch Awards, ClearSaleing has nearly 100 clients that include names like Goodyear and Stanley Steemer. The company's also growing fast, with 40 employees -- a number Goldberg says could be increasing soon.

Source: Adam S. Goldberg, ClearSaleing
Writer: Dave Malaska