Cincinnati/Southwest Ohio : Innovation + Job News

After more than 25 years of entrepreneurism and talent development efforts across Cincinnati, Indian-born tech entrepreneur Mahendra Vora is making yet another investment in the region.

Vora has just launched the new Vora Innovation Center in Blue Ash that houses several Vora companies, with additional incubator space and high tech meeting and demonstration areas.

It's the new HQ for The Vora Group and Vora's flagship Ascendum, a global information technology (IT) solutions company. Also housed in the Innovation Center are three of his Vora Group holding companies Bluespring Software, Vinimaya, a cloud-based advanced procurement optimization company and a social search engine company Zakta.com.

Vora has helped co-found and sell many successful tech companies over the last two decades. He also co-founded the Vora Technology Park in Hamilton, one the largest technology parks in the country. Among his most successful and well-known companies was Intelliseek which he founded in the late 1990s. Intelliseek was a search company that measured word of mouth marketing. It was acquired by Buzzmetrics, now known as Nielsen.

The Innovation Center employs more than 250. Its companies count a number of Fortune 100 businesses as clients, including Kroger and Great American Financial. About half of the 43,000-square-foot building is occupied with plans for expansion that include 250 new employees in the areas of software design, development, testing and quality assurance.

In addition to housing Vora Group companies, part of the Innovation Center space is being developed as a solutions center where companies can try out and share the latest technologies. First of its kind in the region, the solutions center is designed to be open, modern and collaborative.

Vora's vision for the center is as a place that will retain and develop local tech talent.

"We have the raw talent here," Vora said. "But what is lacking (compared to the East and West coasts) is opportunity and exposure. We can create an environment here in Cincinnati where the next hot social media or mobile company can be built."


Source: Mahendra Vora, Vora Innovation Center
Writer: Feoshia Henderson

You can follow Feoshia on Twitter @feoshiawrites

This story originally appeared in hiVelocity's sister publication Soapbox.

Pamla Winther has spent nearly 16 years teaching teams of workers how to communicate effectively, efficiently and consistently through a method she developed while working in corporate communications and business development.

During that time she's held countless, personal small group seminars detailing her proprietary Hands On Proactive Strategy, or HOPS, method. It, in part, identifies a team's individual strengths in an effort to create and monitor processes that maximize group work.

The method maps out those processes for future use in Workplates, or work templates, that can be used for employee mentoring or work sharing.

Winther has built a successful Blue Ash-based consultancy on her method, which has been used internationally in industries as varied as dry cleaning, architecture, fast food and retail. It's been used by teams in sales, purchasing, human resources and other departments.

"This is about communication not falling through the cracks." Winther explained. "People flap their jaws all day long, what this does is document the key elements of each conversation," and turn them into action.

Winther took her consultancy to the high tech level with investment from Queen City Angles in 2004. That's when she launched HOPS Technology Incorporated to create software based on her method.

"The reason I started the company wasn't because I understand all the technology, it was because every CEO I worked with said we had to get it in a software product," she said.

So that's what she did, with soft rollouts of the two versions. But with a new and improved Version 3 set to debut in the next few weeks, Witham is planning a larger roll out.

The web-based software was developed locally by IntelliTree Solutions and is being hosted by 3Z.net, in Covington.

"Version three is what we are going to blast off with," she said.


Source: Pamla Winther
Writer: Feoshia Henderson

This story originally appeared in hiVelocity's sister publication, Soapbox.

You can follow Feoshia on Twitter @feoshiawrites

IT Martini was created three years ago when the opportunities for IT professionals to connect in central Ohio were few and far between, says John Bishop.

Today, thanks to Bishop and co-founder Aladin Gohar, IT Martini -- a social and professional gathering for the tech-oriented -- not only has helped build a more robust network around the Columbus area, but has caught on in Cleveland, Cincinnati and Indianapolis, with more cities on the way.

"If you go back to 2008, it was a different kind of environment for professionals and for technology professionals beyond that," Bishop says. "And what I noticed in conjunction with Aladin Gohar was that there weren't a lot of opportunities for technology professionals to meet each other and engage one another as an industry."

That summer, Bishop and Gohar held the very first IT Martini. Two hundred people showed up to hear a speaker, socialize and connect. This month, IT Martini is celebrating its third year with a May 26 event expected to draw 1,000.

The format for an IT Martini event is straightforward, Bishop says.

"We try to stay as interactive as possible," he explains. "So we put on panel discussions and we tend to have panel discussions run concurrently with the social aspect of the event in a separate, segregated space. That way, people who want to be social can participate in the social aspect of the event, and if they want to participate in a little bit more of a discussion, presentation, industry-best-practice type of activity we have that for our attendees as well."

As IT Martini began to catch on locally, a sponsor in 2009 asked that an event be held in Cincinnati, Bishop says.

"And then last year we started to do not just Columbus and Cincinnati, but Cleveland and Indianapolis."

An IT Martini in Nashville is in the works, and there also seems to be interest in West Virginia, Michigan and Wisconsin, Bishop says.

Source: John Bishop, IT Martini
Writer: Gene Monteith

The couponing craze is boosting the bottom line for one local company that has just moved into a new space and adding 20 employees to its ranks.

LocalGreatDeals.com, an online coupon site, works with media partners and local businesses to offer Internet-based coupons for small- and medium-sized local business in Cincinnati and in 34 other cities across the country.

Based in Loveland, LocalGreatDeals.com, is growing along with the couponing and saving renaissance.

"Industry wide the coupon industry continues to grow as the economy evolves into what is today. People are interested in finding a deal and getting the most bang for their buck," said company Vice President of Sales Ryan Minton.

In Cincinnati, the company works with network affiliates websites to offer hundreds of coupons for local businesses. The site also uses web keyword search techniques to help make their coupons easier to find online.

"We're different from the deals of the day sites where you get a discount when you purchase a deal. Users that go to our site don't have to pay for anything," Minton said.

Founded in 2009, the company has just moved from downtown Loveland to a nearby office park at 424 Wards Corner in Loveland. The company has 40 employees and is in the process of adding 20 more inside sales associates.

The company is also expanding its services and moving rapidly into new cities. It expects to be live in 100 cities by year's end. The company also isn't entirely averse to daily deal methods, and recently launched Dealsthatgiveback.com. It's a twist on the deal-of-the-day site where 10 percent of each purchase goes to a charity of the buyer's choice.


Source: LocalGreatDeals.com
Writer: Feoshia Henderson

You can follow Feoshia on Twitter @feoshiawrites

This story originally appeared in hiVelocity's sister publication Soapbox.

 Three entrepreneurial minded doctors, along with their tech partners, are building on the health IT explosion with a new tool designed to cut down on both surgical and billing errors.

eMerge Health Solutions is the latest CincyTech portfolio company, formed in 2006 by three Cincinnati area gastroenterologists, a healthcare provider and IT specialist. Their first product is a voice-driven tool that allows surgeons to make documentation and notes during operations and other medical procedures. The software creates a database from those notes that a doctor can refer to and cross-reference with similar procedures.

The software is designed to improve patient outcomes through more accurate procedure documentation.

"We will be offering a first-of-its-kind-product, the ability to document during a procedure using voice command and control," said eMerge CEO Alex Vidas. "This allows the clinician to gain productivity benefits without taking focus away from the patient's care."

The company was created through collaboration of its founders Dr. Alan Safdi, Dr. Michael Safdi, Dr. Pradeep Bekal and Dan Walker of the Ohio GI & Liver Institute, and Bharat Saini, a former GE Aviation technology manager.

The patent-pending technology has been thoroughly tested in 30,000 procedures since its development. It's now being used in three ambulatory surgery centers and at The Jewish Hospital in Cincinnati. The product is initially targeted for self-contained GI units within ambulatory surgical centers and hospitals.

"We are calculating that gastroenterology represents a $250 million-$300 million market and the total addressable market is $500 million-$700 million across all medical specialty areas. This is a tremendous opportunity," said CincyTech executive-in-residence and eMerge board member Phil Huff.

Writer: Feoshia Henderson
Source: CincyTech

You can follow Feoshia on Twitter @feoshiawrites

This story originally appeared in hiVelocity's sister publication, Soapbox.

Calling the last week of April the "best in the 10-year history of the investor group," Cincinnati-based Queen City Angels announced the successful exits of two portfolio companies.

In an April 25 news release, Queen City Angels (QCA) noted the sale of Blue Ash Therapeutics' technology to Forest Laboratories and Healthcare Waste Solutions' acquisition by Stericycle.

As an investor of both angel capital and Third Frontier funds, Queen City says "QCA received significant returns" on the transactions.

Last year, QCA and its affiliated QCA First Fund III invested in Blue Ash Therapeutics, along with CincyTech, several individual investors and an east coast investment fund. A little over a year later, Blue Ash has now sold its key technology, Azimilide anti-arrhythmia drug, to New York-based Forest Laboratories, providing QCA with a return of almost 10 times its investment. The news release says QCA was the largest local investor and contributed more than $380,000.

Healthcare Waste Solutions has a national presence in the medical waste disposal business with plants in more than 15 metropolitan areas, QCA says. Stericycle, a Lake Forest, Ill.-based company in the same industry, acquired Healthcare Waste for $237 million.

"We firmly believe that Cincinnati is a great place to invest, and this successful outcome further validates our efforts," says Tony Shipley, QCA's chairman, in the release. "Our group has been actively funding startup companies since 2000, and we continued to pursue deals through the recessions of 2001 and 2008 with the belief that the long-term prospects of Cincinnati startups are outstanding. The real credit for these successes goes to the hard working entrepreneurs who are willing to take the risks of creating start-up ventures.

Source: Queen City Angels

When companies like General Electric, Procter & Gamble and Rockwell Automation need high-tech training for their employees, it's not long before Dennis Ulrich's phone rings.

Ulrich is the executive director of the Workforce Development Center at Cincinnati State University, which offers some of the area's largest employers highly specialized training tailored to specific needs.

By focusing on industrial training, HAZMAT courses, executive classes and a wide array of healthcare courses, the center has carved out a niche as an economic driver in southwestern Ohio.

"What makes us unique, I think, is that we offer an immediate return on investment," explains Ulrich. "We consult with our corporate clients, assess their needs and how to offer what it is that they need, but we also determine what their return on investment will be. We try to focus on programs that will have an immediate impact. We want to help them be more competitive in the marketplace."

In the case of General Electric, that meant launching the company's JETS -- jet engine tear-down school -- program. Since its inception, the program has instructed more than 1,100 of GE's engineers on design and maintenance issues with engines built at the company's Cincinnati plant. Now, GE has asked the center to take its program on the road to its other locations. P&G, for which the center instituted a process engineering course, has discussed offering the same instruction to its workers in China and India. Rockwell has shipped its employees to Cincinnati from around the country for Ulrich's programs.

As successes have accumulated, so has the center's clientele. About 80 companies now contract with the center for training, with growth expected to continue as word spreads.

The center also has looked for new territory to enter. As part of its industrial training curriculum, it began offering specialized "green technologies" training, like solar panel installation and weatherization, in recent years. It also was among the area's first to offer training in the booming bio-tech and bio-science fields.

Its latest effort is the Institute for Social Media, launched at the beginning of this year. Offering comprehensive courses dealing with the use of online sites for sales, customer service and recruiting of new employees, it also focuses on other areas, like legal issues.

Source: Dennis Ulrich, Workforce Development Center
Writer: Dave Malaska

The third annual Cincinnati Innovates competition has just started, growing to offer nearly $90,000 in prizes designed to push forward groundbreaking products and services.

"The goal of Cincinnati Innovates is to connect aspiring entrepreneurs -- people with ideas -- to all the great resources our region has to offer: incubators, angel investors, banks, mentors, and experts. The grant awards are just the first step," says Elizabeth Edwards, venture capital investor and founder of Cincinnati Innovates.

The competition opened April 15 and continues through July 15. As in the past two years, it's open to anyone now or originally from a 15-county area of Cincinnati, Northern Kentucky and Southeast Indiana. The contest is looking for a broad range of innovative products, devices, business processes and more to highlight, fund and support.

This year 12 awards will be given with a $25,000 top cash prize sponsored by CincyTech. For many winners, Cincinnati Innovates is an early step in their path to development, investment and growth. In total, more than $135,000 has been awarded, with winners attracting more than $3 million in additional financing, said competition founder Elizabeth Edwards.

"There have been lots of new patents filed, a lot of new funding. There has been some really great progress for these startups and that was exactly wanted we wanted to see happen," said Edwards.

To enter the contest or get more info, go to the contest website. There you'll enter a short description of your idea and upload pictures, video, or sketches to help explain and showcase it. You can also take a look at past entries and winners. Last year more than 300 people entered and more than 100 attended supporting innovation workshops offered during the competition timeline.

This year those workshops will expand and include: Patents and Trademarks, Startup Financing, Individual Health Insurance, Branding, Concept Development, and Licensing.

There are 25 Cincinnati Innovates sponsors; many are offering cash or in-kind service awards including the $25,000 CincyTech award; $10,000 and $5,000 in-kind Taft Patent Awards applied toward the patent process. There are two $10,000 in-kind branding and marketing awards: the Round Pixel Studio Web Development Award and the LPK Design and Branding Award.

Source: Elizabeth Edwards, founder Cincinnati Innovates
Writer: Feoshia Henderson

You can follow Feoshia on Twitter @feoshiawrites

This story originally appeared in Soapbox.

AssureRx, a Mason-based personalized medicine company, has just closed on an $11 million Series B round of financing.

The company, founded in 2006, was formed to license and commercialize personalized medicine technology research from Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center and Mayo Clinic.

Claremont Creek Ventures and Sequoia Capital led the round, which included existing investors Cincinnati Children's, Mayo Clinic and CincyTech. A new investor has joined as well, Allos Ventures.

AssureRx is developing next-generation medicines, recently bringing to market its first product GeneSightRx, a test that measures and analyzes genetic variants in psychiatric medicine - in other words, how individuals respond to the drugs they get. The test, administered through a cheek swab will help doctors determine the appropriate drug and dosage for each patient's individual needs, which could lessen side effects in patients.

The test is based on pharmacogenetics, or the study of how genetic makeup influences a person's reaction to drug treatments.

This financing will allow the AssureRx to expand sales and marketing for GeneSightRx, and fund other product development work.

"Our goal is to build the leading medical informatics company providing pharmacogenetic and other treatment decision support products to help physicians individualize the treatment of patients with neuropsychiatric and other disorders," said James S. Burns, president and CEO of AssureRx.

Sequoia Capital, is a Menlo Park, Calif., start-up venture capital fund for seed stage, early stage and growth companies. Claremont Creek Ventures is based in Oakland and invests in healthcare/ IT, energy conservation and security markets.

"AssureRx has enormous potential as an early leader in the transformation of neuropsychiatric treatment toward individualized patient treatment. GeneSightRx and future treatment decision support products hold the promise for faster, better patient outcomes and less costly care for psychiatric conditions such as clinical depression, anxiety disorder, and schizophrenia."

Writer: Feoshia Henderson
Source: CincyTech

You can follow Feoshia on Twitter @feoshiawrites

This story originally appeared in Soapbox.

Every hour of every day more information than one company could ever process zooms across the world at the speed of light. That's why Balanced Insight Corp., in Cincinnati, has developed new software that aims to more quickly make sense out of the information most important to businesses.

Balanced Insight's Consensus is designed to help IT departments do more with less. The software more quickly and efficiently allows IT professionals to pull out needed data, arrange it and distribute it, using fewer resources reducing costs in the process.

"The world is becoming a big hunk of data," says Tom Hammergren, founder and CEO of Balanced Insight. "Users want to get better access to this data, and inside of IT departments there are people tapped for repurposing this data. But there are not enough people to fulfill the demand of what users want. Our whole focus is to take that process and really do it better, faster and cheaper."

The product also speeds the data delivery process by speeding collaboration and automating IT data gathering processes.

"When you get into business intelligence there are 10 tech platforms that have to be brought together, and you have to have 10 humans that understand each platform. We move that demand on understanding those technologies out of humans and into the software. We take manual, laborious processes and automate them." Hammergren said.

Consensus is used in a wide variety of industries including financial services, transportation, healthcare, manufacturing and utilities. Clients have included Subway, Nike and Fifth Third bank.

Balanced Insight introduced Consensus in 2008, and is a CincyTech portfolio company. CincyTech has invested $350,000 in it.

Source: Tom Hammergren, founder and CEO of Balanced Insight
Writer: Feoshia Henderson

You can follow Feoshia on Twitter @feoshiawrites

Cincinnati will be hosting some of the area's leading experts in life science research and entrepreneurship next month, with an eye toward boosting the Ohio Valley's profile in the field.

The ninth annual OVALS (Ohio Valley Affiliates of Life Sciences) conference will bring scientists and research executives from universities of Cincinnati, Kentucky and Louisville, Ohio University and Marshall University together with entrepreneurs and investors to highlight regional initiatives, its success stories and up-and-coming start-ups.

The two-day conference begins April 14 at Cincinnati's Kingsgate Mariott Hotel.

"The conference is a great opportunity to bring together the right mix of scientists and investors," says Dorothy Air, an OVALS chair, associate vice president for entrepreneurial affairs at the University of Cincinnati and vice president of operations with CincyTech. "Networking is a big part of it, but so is just conversation. Scientists and universities don't always know what's going on elsewhere, and how their work relates to others' work."

Speakers include a keynote address from University of Kentucky President Lee F. Todd Jr., a former engineering professor and entrepreneur, along with experts in regulatory issue, clinical trial issues and ushering ideas from the drawing board to the market.

Some of the group's success stories will also be highlighted. David Scholl, president and CEO of Athens-based Diagnostic Hybrids, will talk about those successes as a blueprint for others to follow.

The conference, OVALS' signature event, is expected to draw more than 100 attendees. Since the first conference  was held in 2002, the group has grown from a small network of research and medical universities to include the Air Force Research Laboratory in Dayton, CincyTech, the Bluegrass Business Development Partnership and Cleveland Clinic's Global Cardiovascular Innovation group. Affiliates work together, sharing information and resources and drawing more than $650 million annually in basic and applied research funding to the Ohio Valley.

Source: Dorothy Air, OVALS
Writer: Dave Malaska

CincyTech's $250,000 investment in a Chicago start-up has drawn the company to Ohio, the second such announced move in the last month.

Samplesaint, which has developed a system that allows consumers to redeem coupons online using their mobile phones, will move to Cincinnati this spring, according to a release from CincyTech. The company's Cincinnati operations will include a research and development lab as well as data analysis operation.

CincyTech says Samplesaint's technology allows coupons to be scanned through a checkout system using any mobile device. The company also has developed a data base that connects with a retailer's point of service system, thus allowing coupons to be identified, redeemed and their expiration dates confirmed.

Samplesaint could not be reached immediately to elaborate on plans, but CEO Lawrence Griffith says in a statement March 14 that Cincinnati was attractive as a consumer marketing center.

"With companies such as Procter, Kroger, Macy's and dunnhumby, it is a hub of expertise about the consumer mindset. Samplesait looks forward to finding its place in that ecosystem."

CincyTech's president, Bob Coy notes in the release that the market for mobile couponing is predicted to rise to more than $6 billion within the next three years and says the rise in mobile phone use positions Samplesaint for growth.

CincyTech is a public-private venture development organization that invests in high-tech startups in the Cincinnati area. Earlier this month it announced that a similar $250,000 investment will bring Chicago-based turboBOTZ to the Cincinnati, also this spring. turboBOTZ and Samplesaint represent CincyTech's 20th and 21st portfolio companies, respectively.

Source: CincyTech

Vincent Chou is a rabid video gamer, and it irks him that there's no easy way to find used video games at a reasonable cost. Or to sell a used game for a fair price after the fun has worn off.

So Chou and fellow grad student Pratap Shergill have formed turboBOTZ -- an Internet marketplace that will bring buyers and sellers together to set their own prices.

The company was formed in Chicago but will move to Cincinnati this spring after a recent $250,000 investment by CincyTech, a public-private venture development organization serving southwest Ohio.

Both Chou and Shergill participated in a program offered last fall by The Brandery, a seed-stage consumer marketing startup accelerator in Cincinnati. Chou says the business partners were referred to The Brandery after getting high marks in the business plan competition at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, but failing to meet the criteria for a similar accelerator program in Chicago.

The Brandery, formed last year, helped the pair think about retail strategy and strategic partnerships, according to a CincyTech news release. CincyTech provided $20,000 to support The Brandery's first class of startups and now has made turboBOTZ its 20th portfolio company.

Chou says the $250,000 investment will allow it to operate in its first year. A formal launch of the service is planned within three to four months and the company is currently hiring staff, which Chou expects to total four to five initially.

"We already have one hire from the Cincinnati area," Chou says. "Once we raise a little bit more money, ideally I can see us being a 20- to 30-person shop."

Chou doesn't graduate from Booth until around New Years, he says, meaning some long commutes between now and then. Shergill, however, graduates this summer.

"So he'll be able to spend a little more time in Cincinnati," Chou says.

Source: Vincent Chou, turboBOTZ
Writer: Gene Monteith

Following last year's successful launch of the renowned Kauffman FastTrac TechVenture Program in Southwest Ohio, two Cincinnati area incubators are bringing back the high-tech business development program.

FastTrac is an intensive, hands-on program geared toward scientists, inventors, engineers and IT developers. Through this program, Southwest Ohio innovators who want to commercialize a new technology, or grow an existing tech business, can get the specialized help they need.

"We frequently receive requests from entrepreneurs for help in developing a business plan. In TechVentures, the participants learn from the facilitators, entrepreneurial guest speakers and each other. Feedback from our business plan competition judges, who are investors and professional advisors, indicated all the companies had developed a viable business plan. We decided to offer the program again because it works," says BIOSTART President Carol Frankenstein.

The program is sponsored by the Hamilton County Business Center (HCBC) and BIOSTART, a life sciences incubator.

Kauffman FastTrac TechVenture is designed to take businesses from idea through development to commercialization. Among topics that will be covered are: Defining the Target Market, Testing Your Business Concept, Planning for Financial Success and Protecting the Business and Your Intellectual Property.

At the program's end entrepreneurs will have a chance to win one of three early-stage funding prizes of $5,000, $3,000 or $1,000 through a business plan competition.

The upcoming 10-week session starts March 16, from 8:30 a.m. to 11 a.m. every Wednesday at the Hamilton County Business Center in Cincinnati. The program's cost has been slashed from the usual $895 to $399 per person though a State of Ohio Edison Technology Supplemental Grant awarded to HCBC and BIOSTART. There is a further discount for BIOSTART and HCBC clients.

You can submit an application until Friday, March 11, here. 

Source: Carol Frankenstein, BIOSTART
Writer: Feoshia Henderson

You can follow Feoshia on Twitter @feoshiawrites