Information Technology : Innovation + Job News

Schools face a tough dilemma these days: how to integrate educational programs into the vast resources the Internet provides while minimizing the chances that their young students will zoom off to some undesirable website.

A Sharonville company has solved part of the problem by developing netTrekker, a "safe surfing" tool that has caught on with thousands of schools across the country.

Founded as Thinkronize in 1999 at the Hamilton County Business Center incubator, the company now does business under the name of its most successful product. The growth of the company, which recently moved to spacious new digs in Sharonville, was never a sure thing, says Joe Vallo, the company's Chief Operating Officer.

"We were formed in 1999 in the middle of the dot-com boom," he says. "It all went bust, but we didn't. We saw a great opportunity to help kids with netTrekker, which started as an educational search engine that was safe and fast and could be used to do their homework."

A great idea, he says, "but we weren't sure people would pay for it."

But pay for it they have. In droves. Today, netTrekker is used in all 50 states, by hundreds of schools around the world and by more than 10 million students globally. In the United States alone, the product is used by 21,000 schools -- or one out of every five.

One of the keys is the company's constant updating of the original product. Nettrekker, which provides content that correlates with each state's standards of instruction, has branched out into partnerships that capitalize on its use as a platform for all kinds of educational digital content.

The company employs 75, but plans to expand within the next year or two.

Source: Joe Vallo, netTrekker
Writer: Gene Monteith

A Dayton software company is taking a new tack on an age-old problem for colleges: how to keep students on track for graduation.
StudentZen, a web-based business founded less than a year ago by partners Marcus Milligan and Afshin Ghafouri, allows college counselors track their school's academically at-risk students and help them stay on course to get their degree.

"It's both a safety net and a compass for when you first get on campus," explains Milligan, president of StudentZen. Not only does it track students' progress in the classroom, but also help college counselors keep an eye on off-campus distractions, he adds. "(Students) don't have to be alone in trying to figure out how to overcome these issues."

The company's program, RetentionZen, features a suite of tools including a case management system, an early alert system that lets college instructors provide input, and counseling journals and goals programs that keep track of the student's progress. In all, it cuts down on a deluge of paperwork while allowing counselors more time to spend in one-on-one with students seeking help.

The program was developed six years ago at Sinclair Community College in Dayton, where it proved an early success in increasing the school's student retention and graduation rate, while raising student GPAs.

Early this year, Milligan, a former Sinclair staffer, and Ghafouri, an IT entrepreneur, persuaded the school to let them take the program into the commercial ring with funding help from the Ohio Third Frontier Entrepreneurial Signature Program through the Dayton Development Coalition.

Since February, the company has signed up nine community college systems, including the Lone Star and Austin Community college systems in Texas, the 10th- and 15th-largest systems in the country. Closer to home, another customer is North Central State College in Mansfield, which reports that the tool has driven annual student contacts from 300-500 in the past to more than 15,000 this year.

Sources: Marcus Milligan, StudentZen, and Beverly Walker, North Central State College
Writer: Dave Malaska

Columbus start-up JoeMetric, is poised to track the world's consumers, one smart phone at a time, with its new iPhone application set to launch in January.

Pending approval by Apple this month, JoeMetric will begin offering its smart phone app, JoeSurvey, free to iPhone users next year. The users can then take targeted surveys through the app and get paid for their responses.

JoeMetric makes money when marketers sign up to use their application to question consumers about their shopping habits or to get feedback instantly about events or advertising, says Stephanie Rucinski, head Joe (aka president) of JoeMetric.

"Right now market research is so expensive it's out of reach of most small businesses," says Rucinski. "(With JoeMetric) it's a self service model that opens the door to get the information they want."

Rucinski says that JoeMetric is also the only application she knows of that is making use of global positioning technology to allow marketers to track consumers through their phones, with their consent, of course, so they can instantly determine how much time a customer spends in a particular store or venue and even what they browse the most while they are there.

"We couldn't roll out fast enough for some folks," says Rucinski of the potential demand for JoeSurvey. "This type of information has been unable to be gathered before now. They've been trying to do this for years, and now they can."

After their launch in January, Rucinski says that JoeMetric will add between three and six employees to its current two. Most of the jobs will be in sales, with one position planned for tech development.

Source: Stephanie Rucinski, JoeMetric
Writer: Val Prevish

If you're like many Web users, you have a zillion bookmarks set up in your browser's favorites list. You may also have come across must-see content that you want to share with your friends: that cool llama farm, the dancing baby video, a list of favorite books or movies.

The problem is, when it comes time to share those things, you find yourself wading through an unorganized morass of bookmarks.

That's why Toobla was born. Founded in 2008 and launched this fall, the Columbus-based tech company is banking on your need for order -- and your desire to share web content with friends and acquaintances.

"Toobla was created because there are a lot of bookmarking services out there, but no one is doing it in a very visual way," says Brian Link, CEO of the fledgling company.

Toobla solves the problem by organizing everything in folders within a free Toobla account. Have a list of favorite publications? Stick them in a folder. Favorite bands? Another folder. A Toobla user can either keep the folder private for personal reference or make it public -- allowing it to be shared with friends, business associates or a wider audience via one click from within a social networking site.

"People really haven't innovated the shared space (of the Web)," Link says. "People are sending links one at a time."

The Columbus-based company, which employs four but plans to grow to around 35 over the next three years as revenues grow, has raised more than $1 million in capital through TechColumbus, the Third Frontier's Entrepreneurial Signature Program and other sources. Link says the company anticipates $335,000 in revenues in 2010 -- and as much as $31 million within five years.

Source: Brian Link, Toobla
Writer: Gene Monteith

Nathan Poeppelman loved amusement parks. But he could never seem to find real-time, organized information about the places he wanted to visit.

So, he took matters into his own hands: He formed Boz Adventures.

Poeppelman founded Boz Adventures in 2004, the same year he graduated from Miami University with a management information systems degree and entrepreneurial minor. He began offering travel information and park data through his Boz Adventures website. But the website alone, he says, really wasn't meeting the vision he had for real-time, at-your-fingertips information.

Earlier this year, Poeppelman incorporated the Columbus company and launched a new software application that allows users to tap trip logistics and inside-the-park specs through their iPhones -- wherever they are.

Want to know the wait-time for The Beast at King's Island? An interface allows park operators -- or Adventure Map users -- to upload both average wait times and real time information into a usable format. Want to know when Dollywood opens and how far it is from your Gatlinburg rental cabin? Ask your iPhone.

Poeppelman says Adventure Map currently lists more than 8,500 points of interest around the world and has signed on 31 parks on a trial basis, allowing them to upload real-time information free -- for now. While his customer base is still small, those who have downloaded the app are diverse, Poeppelman says, hailing from as far away as Great Britain, Denmark, and Australia.

Closer to home, he reports that his company is working on a partnership with Columbus-based KidsLinked, an online guide for family-friendly activities which in January won Tech Columbus's Outstanding Service Award.

Source: Nathan Poeppelman, Boz Adventures
Writer: Gene Monteith

It's a question every marketer asks: What's the best mix of activities to drive the most sales?

These days, more businesses are asking those questions using The Emerging Marketplace, a web-based technology developed by Cincinnati-based ThinkVine.

While the questions are age-old, ThinkVine's technology is leading edge. In fact, according to Chief Executive Officer Damon Ragusa, his company uses SimCity-like game technology to find the answers.

"We create artificial populations to create live, simulated environments of the marketplace," he explains. "It's a very realistic simulation of real environments. We care about why things happen, not just what. "

Founded in 1999 as an advanced analytics and economic modeling consulting firm, ThinkVine refined tools developed in that business to launch Emerging Marketplace earlier this year.

"There had been little evolution as to how the work was being done," Ragusa says. "You can hire a group of statisticians to (to review historical data), and they will go away for six, seven, nine months, and come back with a report."

By contrast, Ragusa says Emerging Marketplace's simulations are based on how real people use media and are real time, meaning a client can ask "what if" questions and get immediate answers.

Ragusa cites a growing clientele that includes businesses like LegalZoom, Hershey's, Del Monte, Novartis, Pepsico, Sunny Delight and Miller Brewing. With help from a $500,000 grant through CincyTech, "we are looking at triple digit growth in revenue and number of brands under contract. We currently don't report number of employees but we increased our employee base by five-fold year over year and plan to increase again in 2010 by roughly 75 percent."

Source: Damon Ragusa, ThinkVine
Writer: Gene Monteith

Anybody with a computer or PDA can tell you that there is no shortage of online guides devoted to supplying information about various venues, be they restaurants, nightclubs, galleries or concert venues. The difficulty, most of us quickly discover, is staying abreast of the ever-shifting events that occur at these venues.

Zipscene, launched in 2004 by Sameer Mungur and partner Jaydev Karande, endeavored to streamline and simplify the events-listings game by aggregating the information into one easy-to-use portal. Users found they could plan their entertainment calendars simply by browsing event types, dates, venues or location.

"The local entertainment business is very event-driven," explains Mungur, Zipscene's chief executive officer. "These operators are constantly changing their offerings in an attempt to attract a wider audience." A bar may launch a new happy hour; a restaurant might organize a wine dinner; a gallery may be planning a buzz-worthy art opening.

Not only did the site immediately improve a consumer's experience, it allowed the business owners to concentrate on other tasks. "To reach a highly fragmented audience, an operator constantly has to promote their events in print, on air, and on Facebook, Metromix, Twitter, and whatever the next thing to come along is," says Mungur. "Zipscene takes care of the things they don't have time to do."

Once Zipscene found its groove in Cincinnati, the owners focused their efforts on building a scalable solution that could be exported to additional markets. By developing a better platform and teaming up with media partners in other cities, Zipscene has already expanded into 15 new markets. The goal, adds Mungur, is to have a presence in the top 30 U.S. cities.

Source: Sameer Mungur, Zipscene
Writer: Douglas Trattner

Sooth Inc. is hoping to put thousands of technology geeks into a box. A really small box.

Erwin Bruder, the CEO of the Beachwood-based company, says Sooth could permanently change the way computer networks run with its cost-saving programs that eliminate the need for an army of behind-the-scenes techies.

His company's innovative new programs lend a hands-off approach to keep things running smoothly.

For example, Seer and Supervisor are two programs that can function together or on their own. Seer collects and reports information ranging from inventory to troubleshooting, and Supervisor, like its name suggests, does the busy work -- freeing up high-level technicians to do more important things.

"We have automated this. You don't have to have a person dusting and cleaning," says Bruder. "Unless there's smoke coming out of the back of the device, you'll never have to touch it again."

The company was formed in 2006 by networking expert Michael Carpenter and computer scientist Dennis Dumont -- who each have 20 years of experience in the networking sector of the computer industry.

"The two got together and realized these things were all done manually, and asked 'Why hasn't anybody automated this?'" Bruder says. "Automobiles used to be painted by hand. Now they are painted by robots. Why are these networking problems still managed by hand when they can be managed by robots?"'

There are currently nine employees at Sooth, but Bruder expects to add as many as 35 technical support and sales positions by the end of 2010.

"After that, our growth will be exponential," he says. "We are just cranking up right now."

Source: Erwin Bruder
Writer: Colin McEwen

Geoff Hardman admits that his Cleveland-based company lacks the sex appeal of other, more glamorous tech startups. As a processor of customized stored-value programs, SparkBase operates behind the scenes, servicing its client base while garnering little attention.

"Folks never think about these systems, but somebody has to make them run," says Hardman, the company's president.

When a customer uses a gift or loyalty card at one of his or her favorite merchants, the transaction is wired to a company like SparkBase, which manages and keeps track of the money. Fast becoming a leader in the stored-value card field, SparkBase handles millions of transactions annually for merchants in five different countries.

What makes SparkBase unique, says Hardman, is that clients have complete control of the loyalty card programs, which allows them to rebrand them any way they wish before marketing them to merchants. The system is also fully customizable, permitting configurations that appeal to a wider range of companies.

"We are more like a technology partner," adds Hardman. "Every bit of code, every piece of hardware is owned by us."

Founded in 2004 and located in Cleveland's AsiaTown neighborhood, SparkBase has 10 full-time employees. That number is expected to double in the very near future, says Hardman, as the technology expands to new applications.

Source: Geoff Hardman, SparkBase
Writer: Douglas Trattner

Light bulbs often flick on during the darkest times. The light bulb behind Turning Technologies went on after 9/11.

At the time, Mike Broderick was working at a firm that provided businesses with audience response software used in settings like annual meetings. When the Twin Towers fell, U.S. companies immediately canceled events that depended on travel.

"Our business went away for the rest of the year," says Broderick, now Turning Technologies' chief executive officer. "We saw it as an opportunity. We said 'if we sat down with a blank sheet of paper and applied the technology to universities, schools, corporate learning environments, how would we do it?'"

The Youngstown-based firm seems to have done it right. In 2007 -- just five years after Turning Technologies opened its doors -- Inc. Magazine ranked it the fasted-growing, privately held software firm in the country and the 18th fastest over all, with respect to revenues.

Key has been the company's flagship product, TurningPoint, which integrates natively into Microsoft PowerPoint.

"With this technology, everybody in the audience is forced to be engaged," Broderick explains. "Responses are anonymous to others in the class, but the instructor is able to know who responded and how well the entire class understands the material. It can also be used for homework and to reduce paperwork."

Turning Technologies products are now found in 1,800 major colleges and universities and 15,000 to 20,000 K-12 buildings, Broderick says.

While the firm is no longer growing at its previous pace, Broderick expects to add a modest number of jobs this year to his current 150-employee base and to enjoy double-digit revenue growth "for the foreseeable future."

Source: Mike Broderick, Turning Technologies
Writer: Gene Monteith

Like most freelance jazz musicians, John Knific was always searching for his next gig. While attending classes at Case Western Reserve University, the student supplemented his income by playing in trios at restaurants. When Knific looked at ways to promote himself on the Internet, he found that the available tools were woefully lacking.

"The only real option was MySpace Music, which was like Web 1.0," explains Knific. What he was looking for, he adds, was something more like LinkedIn for musicians. The model didn't exist -- so he created it.

Founded last year, CitizenGroove is radically different from the "flat" one-person, one-profile social networking sites dedicated to music, says Knific, the Cleveland-based startup's CEO. Artists work with numerous people on various projects, making static portfolio pages inadequate. CitizenGroove's dynamic platform links musicians to all the artists with whom they have collaborated.

This structure makes it easier for listeners to discover new music by creating a trail from a favorite band or artist. Talent scouts can use the site similarly, finding acts that fill certain niches and attract specific audiences. Conservatories are finding the platform extremely useful in promoting their music students and helping them succeed in the post-grad world.

At present, the company employs the four founders and a fulltime developer. The team has wrapped a successful beta launch and is preparing to go live in early 2010.

After receiving his undergraduate degree, Knific was accepted to Case Western's medical school. That's on hold.

"I took a one year deferral to make a go of this company because I knew I'd never forgive myself if I didn't," he says. "I don't think I'm ever going back."

Source: John Knific, CitizenGroove
Writer: Douglas Trattner

When natural disasters strike, response teams are faced with assessing damage so cleanup efforts can be mobilized quickly. Yet, disasters also require mountains of paperwork to map the damage and document response efforts -- often meaning too much time in the office and not enough in the field.

TDC Group, a Dayton software firm, has one answer: a new application that allows government agencies and businesses to file reports from the field -- right from a BlackBerry.

TDC's Freeance Mobile allows users to receive and file real-time data on location, cutting down on travel, says Matthew Reddington, TDC Group's president and CEO.

"They don't have to come into the office at the start of the day, get information (from the data base), drive half-way across the state and come back at the end of the day to file their reports."

That saves valuable time -- an important commodity during disasters.

Reddington says that Freeance Mobile is the first software that allows GIS (geographic information system) applications to be run from a BlackBerry. As such, it's not just the U.S. Weather Service that is using the software, but law enforcement, businesses and utilities that need a real-time picture of their infrastructure, crime sites or distribution of their people.

TCD was formed in 1988. With customers in the U.S., Canada and the United Kingdom, TDC is growing and adding jobs, Reddington says, though he declined to reveal how quickly for proprietary reasons.

Reddington notes that the Dayton Development Coalition has provided funding and consulting services that have allowed the firm to expand into new markets and build infrastructure.

Source: Matthew Reddington, TDC Group
Writer: Gene Monteith