Innovation + Job News

Halo Coatings is hoping to cut through the red tape. Well, tapes of all colors.

The Norwalk-based company is rethinking how coatings are applied � retro-reflective, nano-technology powder coatings systems in particular. All with safety in mind.

The most practical uses for the technology are highways signs and bicycles � both currently use a reflective tape coating.

But really, the possibilities for Halo's patented reflective technology are endless. Think guardrails, poles, baby strollers and wheel chairs.

"There are things we haven't even thought of yet," says Halo Coatings CEO Aaron Bates. "We set out to work on the highway and on children's bicycles. But it's come so far so fast, we've now seen a whole gamut of applications where we can be used."

There are several advantages for Halo � in addition to being the first, and only, retro-reflective powder coating supplier in the world. Bates points out that the coating won't flake off Halo's products and is able to withstand extreme temperatures. "And you can be seen from a 1,000 feet away at night by a car traveling 70 mph."

"It's not only safer than any powder coating out there," Bates adds. "It's that there are no coatings in the world like this."

The company launched in 2008, added two large customers in 2009 and two more in 2010. Halo, a Rocket Ventures portfolio company, currently employs only a handful of employees, but in the next two years the company is expected to add as many as 15 jobs. Those positions include sales, tech-support, engineers, chemists and lab-techs. Bates expects the company to reach $100 million in sales within five years. "The question becomes 'how do we grow smart?'" he adds.

Source: Aaron Bates, Halo Coatings
Writer: Colin McEwen

Getting noticed by a Hollywood producer is tough -- especially if you live in Ohio.

GotCast answered the problem with an interactive website designed to make it easier for aspiring actors, models and others across the country to connect with producers on the coasts.

Founded in Columbus in 2007, "there was a serious problem with casting directors and producers in Hollywood connecting with your average entertainment person across the country," says Justin Moodley, director of operations.

A shift from scripted television programming to reality shows and those looking for "normal people off the street" strengthened the need for links between aspiring talent and production teams looking for fresh faces.

GotCast today boasts more than 250,000 members and has tracked more than 5,000 castings, Moodley says -- including a member chosen for next season's "Project Runway."

Most features of the site are free, though members can join at a "pro" level for $19 a month, Moodley says. GotCast's revenues come largely from sponsors and website management for entertainment partners (see http://stortellers.vh1.com)

While answering a listing on the site is easy, getting noticed takes thought," Moodley says.

"The profile's really the most important thing," he says. "You have to think about it the same way you would on Monster.com."

GotCast also includes "open" online castings, in which contestants ask others to vote for them, but Moodley says the vast majority of members get hired through manual submissions.

While GotCast management moved to Los Angeles two and a half years ago, half of GotCast's eight employees remain in central Ohio, with plans to add additional support personnel.

Source: Justin Moodley, GotCast
Writer: Gene Monteith

JumpStart, formed in 2004 to give fledgling companies in northeast Ohio the resources needed to eventually fly on their own, has seen its first portfolio company leave the nest.

Yardi Systems, a Santa Barbara, Calif. company with offices in Broadview Heights, announced May 5 that it had acquired DIY Real Estate, a Broadview Heights-based property management software developer.

JumpStart, through its JumpStart Ventures arm, invested $340,000 in DIY in fall of 2008. The sale provides a return "in the 20 to 30 percent range," says Cathy Belk, JumpStart's chief marketing officer.

"The JumpStart Ventures group invests in companies with the full intention that we are the first investor and that the company will eventually have an exit event," Belk says. "We started working actively with them in the fall of 2008, so it wasn't that long ago."

She notes that an average time for a venture-backed company to exit through either merger or acquisition, or through an initial public offering, is a little more than eight years. "And we are an investor that comes in earlier than a venture capital firm."

Bob Lasser, Managing Director of Danville Partners and former chairman of DIY, says the company enjoyed more than 100 percent compounded growth between 2007, when it was formed, and 2009. He says the company's three Cleveland-area employees intend to remain and that there are plans to add additional support personnel.

JumpStart, based in Cleveland, is a non-profit organization that provides resources and assistance to entrepreneurs leading high-potential early-stage companies. JumpStart Ventures has made 60 investments in 47 companies.

Belk says "This is the first of many (exits) that we want to duplicate," adding that another couple of JumpStart-invested companies could follow suit later this year. "The model's coming full circle."

Sources: Cathy Belk, JumpStart, and Bob Lasser, Danville Partners
Writer: Gene Monteith

Spun off from Eveready in 2003, Blue Spark Technologies finally finds itself on the cusp of a new market for printed battery technology.

The idea is a battery that is thin, flexible and produced using familiar printing and production methods.

The technology was initially pursued by Eveready's Energizer group, whose research labs were, like Blue Spark, located in Westlake. When the industry reshuffled its priorities in 2002-2003, Blue Spark was spun off, backed by venture capital from Cleveland-based Early Stage Partners.

Today, the company is focused on a battery that will power a new breed of radio-frequency identification (RFID) chip -- chips that are affixed to an item and tracked using a reader.

In fact, a Finnish company with an automatic vehicle identification system is close to integrating Blue Spark's technology, and CEO Gary Johnson says that means the company could soon start reaping revenues. 

"They could be used for toll collection . . . it could be used to integrate the vehicle registration into the tag, and so forth," says Johnson.

In September, Blue Spark and U.K.-based Novalia, which designs printed electronics products, announced a marketing agreement to create and launch new kinds of interactive printed media. The idea is to make items like singing greeting cards more interactive with the consumer and to make them cheaper to produce at high volumes.

Matt Ream, Blue Spark's vice president of marketing, says "the most exciting thing is we're on the cusp of something big, some pretty big market growth."

The company completed series A financing in 2007, raising $6.2 million in a round led by SunBridge Partners; it closed a $1.5-million series B round last year. It currently has eight full-time and five part-time employees.

Sources: Gary Johnson and Matt Ream, Blue Spark
Writer: Gene Monteith

In the old days, real-time video game communications consisted of screaming at a buddy for messing up your high-scoring Super Mario Bros. game. These days, says Ayalogic president Mike Rojas, the phrase "in-game communication" has an entirely different meaning.

"Today's online games are incredibly complex, requiring multiple people working together in a synchronized fashion to complete a desired goal," Rojas explains. "That is very difficult to do while sending text or instant messages back and forth to each other."

Ayalogic, which is headquartered in Akron, develops voice communication products for the video game industry that allow players to communicate while playing online games. The firm's Green-Ear product is embedded into games by their developers, facilitating real-time player communication using VoIP. The tool's flexibility makes it ideal for player groups of any size to quickly and easily connect during play. This makes it ideal for large-scale game tournaments that can consist of literally hundreds of players scattered across the globe.

The company also offers a free version for players to download and use with friends.

Rojas, a former NEC executive with more than eight patents and almost 30 years of software experience, founded the company in 2002.

Ayalogic employs eight people currently, but likely will add more development professionals in the near future to cultivate new features.

Source: Mike Rojas, Ayalogic
Writer: Douglas Trattner

Using tools as low-tech as a tape measure and calipers, and as high-tech as a 3D body scanner, Anthrotech  of Yellow Springs is compiling data about the physical characteristics of U.S. military personnel. The goal is to ensure optimal fitting of everything from clothing to tank interiors to office spaces.

The company received a three-year, $6.1 million contract for quantifying body sizes last fall. As a result, it recently hired and trained 21 new fulltime employees, all skilled technicians, to conduct the measurements. "They're already out in the field," says Dr. Bruce Bradtmiller, president.

The 3D scans enable analysis of a range of features of the personnel's head, body and feet.

The 60-year-old company previously had five fulltime and six part-time employees. It temporarily used extra space in Yellow Springs for training purposes but no capital expansion is expected.

Bradtmiller says Anthrotech performed a major study of body data for the Marines in 1966, and a similar one for the Army in '87-88, with pilot study in '07-'08.

"People do change over time," Bradtmiller says.

So does the makeup of the military, as more reserve and National Guard officers are activated, and as more women take on a wider range of roles.

Other users of the kinds of measurements Anthrotech performs � these "anthropometric surveys" � include, for example, makers of diapers, prosthetic limbs, eyewear, cars and trucks, safety equipment, furniture and apparel.

Anthrotech's roots are with Antioch College; the company originally was called the Anthropology Research Project.

Source: Dr. Bruce Bradtmiller, Anthrotech
Writer: Gabriella Jacobs

At Tremco, it's not only about being a part of the "green" movement. It's about staying ahead of the curve.

The Cleveland-based company is creating a photovoltaic roof that is both functional in creating energy and protective of the building's integrity � the latest sustainable product in Tremco's long history.

"Sustainability has become one of the most important subjects in the construction industry, if not the most important," says Deryl Kratzer, Tremco's roofing and building maintenance division president. "If we don't focus constantly on helping our customers meet their sustainability goals, we will lose a competitive advantage that we have built over 80 years. We will also be disrespecting our founding principals."

One of the features of the new solar roof will allow for the removal of the PV module from the protective roof membrane for maintenance and eventual recycling. If developing a useful renewable energy solution isn't green enough, Tremco will offer a "cradle-to-cradle" business model, allowing the leased roof system, at the end of its service life, to be deconstructed, recycled and reused as raw materials for a new roof.

The company's Roofing and Building Maintenance Division received a $1-million grant from the Third Frontier Advanced Energy Program toward the building-integrated solar project � a global market expected to exceed $1 billion next year.

Tremco (which belongs to parent company RPM Building Solutions Group) employs more than 1,100 internationally. More jobs in Ohio � many of them specialized positions � are expected, Kratzer says.

"We also expect to develop new processes and technologies which will help the system advance the cause of 'green' construction, and have a positive impact both on Ohio's economy and on energy costs for those using the BIPV system," he says.

Source: Deryl Kratzer, Tremco
Writer: Colin McEwen

In no other field is it as important to be perfect than the operating room, where increasingly complex procedures bring dwindling margins for error. One innovative Cleveland-based firm has stepped in to ensure doctors get all the practice they need.
 
Simbionix USA Corp. has become an international leader in simulation-based medical training and education simulators, allowing young doctors to gain experience in surgical procedures, veteran surgeons to hone their skills and all doctors to better visualize intricate procedures beforehand.

"It's made a huge difference in patient care, especially for procedures where it's critical, where there's little room for error," says Simbionix's U.S. Director of Marketing, Bill Lewandowski. "We have about 900 of our simulators in hospitals worldwide, mostly in hospitals that are associated with teaching institutions like the Cleveland Clinic and the Mayo Clinic."

"We're on every continent but Antarctica. We just can't get any of the sales guys to go there," he jokingly adds. 

Simbionix's exponential growth � founded in Israel in 1997, it later moved to Cleveland to follow investment money � has mirrored hospitals' use of highly technical, minimally invasive surgery robotic systems. The most prominent, Intuitive Surgical's highly precise da Vinci surgical system, is a multi-armed operating room robot that allows for less invasive procedures, fewer post-surgical complications for patients and quicker recovery times. It also demands extensive training, which is one area where Simbionix's simulators have proven invaluable.

Using actual patient data, Simbionix simulators allow doctors to practice the surgery electronically beforehand, identifying possible problems before the first incision is made. 

The company has more that 70 employees, but because of a recent Ohio Third Frontier grant expects to surpass 80 and expand its Medical Education Divison in Cleveland.

Source: Bill Lewandowski, Simbionix
Writer: Dave Malaska

The users of Sunflower Solutions' device don't need to be experts in solar energy. They don't need superhuman strength. They don't even need to know English.

"As long as they're not colorblind," says Sunflower's founder Christopher Clark of his device's simple instruction manual.

Clark's vision is this: to bring low-tech solar power to the developing world. The 23-year-old, recent graduate of Miami University, says the idea sprouted from a project involving engineering students who were charged with developing a business plan for a human-powered well pump.

"I thought there has to be a better way to do these sorts of projects," Clark says. "If these areas had electricity, people could do a number of things, like have clean drinking water."

The result is EmPower, Sunflower Solutions' staple: a low-tech, lightweight solar device that follows the sun's rays to obtain optimal energy. The system is simple � there are no motors or microprocessors. To operate, there are a series of simple color-coded instructions. A truly DIY-approach to solar energy.

The system has already been shipped to places like Rwanda and Kenya. This summer, Sunflower will power a hospital in earthquake-ravaged Haiti.

Other than a $30,000 grant from Cleveland's Civic Innovation Lab, Sunflower Solutions has been completely self-sufficient. There are about 35 people who work for the company.  Clark calls the workforce a "community," a group of "solar evangelists" who believe in the good work of the company. There are plans to grow, with a larger sales force and a manufacturing facility.

Source: Christopher Clark, Sunflower Solutions
Writer: Colin McEwen

Formed on the heels of a Facebook group that grew to almost 20,000 members in less than two weeks, the Secret Cincinnati web portal is nearing official launch, chock full of submissions by "secret agents" about the best aspects of the city.

"The way this came about was kind of a . . . challenge that my business had constantly undergone," says Chris Ostoich, founder of Blackbook, a Cincinnati-based company that connects employees who are relocating to Cincinnati with the resources to make them feel at home. "As an example . . . we had a female Procter & Gamble brand manager that had made a very specific request through our platform, which was she was seeking an African-American OBGYN. That's just tough information to find."

Enter Joe Pantruso, a serial entrepreneur involved in Internet security businesses who gave Ostoich an article describing the explosive growth of a London-based Facebook page focused on the best-kept secrets of that city.

"That morning, probably 15 minutes after Joe gave me that article, I started the Facebook page Secret Cincinnati," Ostoich says.

That was in late February. In the coming days, when membership ballooned, it became evident that the Facebook group would be inadequate as an interactive medium. Ostoich, Pantruso and web developer Sean Biehle put out a call for those who were interested in "building a business over a weekend." More than 100 people applied; 25 were selected. The Secret Cincinnati web site was born.

Currently in beta testing with a tentative launch date of late May or early June, the site already has attracted interest from other cities "and we're trying to work out a licensing strategy right now for that," Biehle says.

Sources: Chris Ostoich, Joe Pantuso and Sean Biehle, Secret Cincinnati
Writer: Gene Monteith

NDI Medical is taking a big step into the future of implantable surgical devices.

With its new FDA approval in-hand, the Beachwood-based firm is taking its newest product to market.

NDI Medicals' neurostimulation device will be implanted next month into the shoulder of a patient to alleviate chronic shoulder pain. Robert Strother, NDI Medical's vice president of engineering and chief technology officer, called implantable medical devices "an area of explosive growth."

As a member of the pacemaker family, the neurostimulation device � about the size of a silver dollar � works where conventional pharmacology stops short.

"Often, the solution is you take pill, it goes in the blood and goes everywhere. But sometimes there are side effects," he says. "With the device, if it has any problems it's going to be limited to where the device is."

The future, Strother says, is in the "deep brain" market. Products he says that could treat a number of maladies, ranging from Parkinson's disease to depression. "Our goal is to continue to use the technology and come up with other applications to provide alternatives to what else is out there."

Since its founding in 2002, the incubation firm has attracted over $17 million in grants (including two from the Third Frontier and exited its first venture capital round � returning over 150 times the original investment back to shareholders. In 2008, the company sold its first product � a bladder pacing device called MedStim � to medical device giant Medtronic in Minneapolis for $42 million.

There are 25 employees at NDI including entrepreneurs, scientists and physician advisors. Strother says the company has plans to grow.

Source: Robert Strother, NDI
Writer: Colin McEwen

Schools strapped for space and cash, but which have a growing need to provide science students with adequate, up-to-date laboratory equipment, can succeed if they have access to a specialized system that enables resource sharing. That's the theory behind MeasureNet Technology Ltd.'s patented networks.

The key to Measurenet's innovation is the belief that lab hardware and instrumentation don't have to be physically duplicated at each student's work station. The work stations can be networked to a single, centralized, system that allows users to monitor, collect, store, and disseminate laboratory data, as well as share specified laboratory instruments. The energy saving and environmentally friendly design MeasureNet created earned it an Ohio Governor's Award for Excellence in Energy Efficiency in 2002.

The network "makes it possible for students to do a lot of different operations they couldn't do before," says Measurenet's Estel Sprague. Plus, students can access what they need from the network when they are back in their dorms, the library, or elsewhere.

The Cincinnati-based company had its roots in the late 1990s, when Sprague and Robert Voorhees, working at the University of Cincinnati, became part of a team that devised a way to help undergraduate students in chemistry labs use electronic data collection and analysis. With early support coming from UC, the National Science Foundation, and Proctor & Gamble, the project was eventually spun off to become a private company and incubated at the Hamilton County Development Co. in Norwood.

Today, Voorhees and Sprague are Measurenet's president and vice president, respectively.

Customers include vocational and secondary schools throughout the U.S. and Puerto Rico, and even in Saudi Arabia. The company has one fulltime employee, several representatives, and uses co-op students as it continues to grow.

Source: Estel D. Sprague, MeasureNet Technology Ltd.
Writer: Gabriella Jacobs

It just got easier for Ohio colleges to collaborate with Procter & Gamble on research projects, thanks to a groundbreaking master agreement between P&G and Ohio's 14 state universities.

The agreement, announced April 22, is expected to lead to more P&G-university partnerships and increased commercialization of new technologies. But it also is seen as a template for agreements between the Ohio university system and other research-driven entities, says Noah Sudow, associate director economic advancement for the Ohio Board of Regents.

"I think our biggest next step is going to create that model that we can market to all business and say 'hey, we'll sign this with you right now,' Sudow says. "The goal is . . . to show how we can utilize the power of the university system to work with businesses."

The agreement, which governs treatment of intellectual property, licensing rights and when researchers can publish their findings, is the first of its kind in Ohio and may be the first in the nation, parties to the agreement say.

The five-year pact eliminates the need to negotiate agreements one-on-one with each university, drastically reducing the time needed up front, "where you could spend months negotiating (the rules) for what turned out to be two to three weeks of work," says P&G's Nick Nikolaides, university liaison for P&G global business development. "Getting rid of that up-front part and putting the focus on the project work really ought to catalyze more strategic collaborations in the long term."

The master agreement is patterned after a 2005 agreement with the University of Cincinnati.  Nikolaides says P&G invested nearly $20 million in university research projects across all business lines between 2006 and 2009, and the agreement should lead to additional investments with an increasing number of universities.

Sources: P&G: Nick Nikolaides, Chris Thoen (director, global open innovation) Rich Eggers (associate director global business development) and Mary Ralles (external relations manager, global business development); Board of Regents: Noah Sudow
 
Writer: Gene Monteith

JumpStart Inc., a non-profit organization that provides critical resources to promising young companies in northeastern Ohio, helped create and retain 664 jobs in the past four years, says a newly released economic impact report by Cleveland State University.

That's 162 more jobs than had been created through 2008 and a 32 percent increase within the 21-county area JumpStart serves.

Not only did JumpStart's activities lead to more jobs, they helped boost household income for those workers to $39.8 million in 2009 -- up $19.2 million from 2008.

In releasing the report, Ziona Austrian, Director of Cleveland State's Maxine Levin College of Urban Affairs, said "JumpStart's impact . . . increased during a recessionary year because the companies it supports continue to grow and create jobs."

The report was released just days before Tuesday's vote to extend funding for Ohio's Third Frontier initiative. JumpStart, which currently receives nearly half its funding from the Third Frontier, noted the importance of the initiative in its announcement.

The report summarized the impact of JumpStart's activities in three areas: investment in start-up companies through JumpStart Ventures; investments in start-up companies by North Coast Angel Fund, whose creation JumpStart led northeast Ohio's first managed angel fund; and JumpStart services to support other entrepreneurs through JumpStart TechLift Advisors.

The report also took a look at JumpStart's impact on local output -- the value of goods and services produced in the economy -- as well as its effect on tax revenues. Cleveland State measured JumpStart-related output at $90 million in 2009, a 20 percent increase. Local tax revenues in 2009 rose by $5.1 million and federal tax revenues rose by $7 million as a result of JumpStart activities, the report says.

Source: JumpStart
Writer: Gene Monteith

Michael Tomsic calls his Columbus-based HyperTech "a poster child" for how the Ohio Third Frontier should work. Not only has his company benefited from numerous state and federal grants, but since 2005 has increased employment from two to 25.

Tomsic says HyperTech is one of two companies in the world working to commercialize magnesium diboride wires, a superconducting material that could eliminate the need for high-cost helium baths needed to keep magnetic resonance imagers cool. The other is located in Genoa, Italy, and named, ironically, Columbus Superconducting.

In 2001, the company won an $800,000 grant from the Ohio Technology Action Fund to demonstrate that the magnesium-boron compound could be made into a useful wire.

"That was first major funding anywhere around the world to actually try to commercialize this magnesium diboride," says Tomsic, HyperTech's president.

That project helped paved the way for a three-year, $5-million Third Frontier research and commercialization grant in 2009, which in turn has helped HyperTech strengthen its collaboration with Siemens, Philips and General Electric -- who Tomsic says "have 95 percent of the MRI magnet market" -- as well as with the Ohio State University Wright Center of Innnovation in Biomedical Imaging and the OSU Center for Superconducting and Magnetic Materials.

Along the way, the company has garnered more than $18 million in federal funds to continue to improve the performance of magnesium diboride wire for MRI companies.

While most of HyperTech's focus today is on MRIs, Tomsic says the wires have great potential for upgrading and protecting electric power grids. In anticipation of further growth, the company moved into a 45,000 square foot facility in February.

Source: Michael Tomsic, HyperTech
Writer: Gene Monteith