Dr. S. Michael CampGrange Life is an
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Grange Life Insurance Company
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About Grange Insurance
Grange Insurance, with
COLUMBUS, Ohio, July 28 /PRNewswire/ -- Noisy and damaging washing machine vibrations could become a thing of the past, thanks to the new Steadywash(TM) vibration isolation platform. Produced by Ohio Steel Industries through a strategic partnership with inventor Seicon Limited, the Steadywash platform sits beneath a washing machine and keeps up to 95 percent of the vibration from transferring to the floor.
"We are excited to introduce a true solution to a difficult problem that many consumers have faced for a long time by offering a platform that incorporates the best vibration-reduction technology available." said Tom Martini, CEO of Ohio Steel Industries, "The Steadywash platform works with all major brands of front-load washing machines and can eliminate the need for expensive home renovations in first- and second-floor laundry rooms."
Seicon Limited develops and licenses proprietary technology for isolating and controlling vibration and shocks. Seicon developed the Steadywash platform at the request of Neil Drobny, the owner of a front-loading washing machine that vibrated so forcibly during the spin cycle that it rattled dishes in his china cabinet. Seicon then learned that front-loading washing machines often generated vibration problems ranging from keeping babies awake at night to making it impossible to watch television in adjoining rooms.
"Our patented technology virtually eliminates vibration-related problems, and the Steadywash platform will last at least as long as the washing machine," said Fred B. Miller, president and CEO of Seicon Limited. "In testing, the Steadywash platform continued to perform perfectly even after 5,000 hours of wash time."
Drobny says the Steadywash platform solved his problem. "As a result of Seicon's innovative platform design, we were able to retain our environmentally friendly front loader washer, which we otherwise would have had to sell in order to protect our house from the excessive vibration caused by the ultra high spin cycle," he said.
Front-loading washing machines clean better, are more energy efficient and use less water than conventional top-loading machines. But because they also spin faster and revolve perpendicular to the floor, some machines create noisy vibrations that can even cause structural damage to the home. In homes with first- or second-floor laundry rooms, some manufacturers recommend reinforcing laundry-room floors to combat the problem.
Existing solutions consist primarily of rubber feet or mats that eliminate only a fraction of the vibration and can undergo excessive wear. Washing machines also have been known to fall off rubber feet, causing damage to the washing machine and the floor.
At 2 3/4" high and 27" square, the Steadywash platform is much slimmer than the aesthetic pedestals that manufactures sell to raise washers and dryers off the floor.
More information about the Steadywash platform, including a list of retailers, can be found at www.steadywash.com. Manufacturer's suggested pricing is $199.95. A matching dryer platform is available at a suggested price of $69.95.
About Ohio Steel Industries
Founded in 1958, Ohio Steel Industries is a Columbus, Ohio-based diversified manufacturing concern in the structural steel, metal fabrication, and plastic extrusion industries. For more information, visit www.ohiosteel.com.
About Seicon Limited
Based in Columbus, Ohio, Seicon Limited is primarily engaged in the development, marketing and licensing of proprietary technology for isolating and controlling vibration and shocks generated by seismic and mechanical activity across a wide range of frequencies, reducing transmission by 90 percent or more. Applications range from consumer appliances, machinery, buildings, bridges and roadways to aircraft, ships and vehicles of all types. To learn more, visit www.seicon.org.
A Battelle spinoff and Ohio State University’s Center for Automotive Research are moving forward with two key technology projects after securing a final OK for state funding.
The state Controlling Board approved a $4 million grant from Ohio’s Third Frontier program for Plain City-based Velocys Inc. The company is continuing development on its microchannel hydroprocessing technology, a process that converts waste to biofuels.
Velocys was founded in 2001 within Columbus research and development giant Battelle and last year was acquired by a United Kingdom firm.
The Controlling Board also approved the first $500,000 of $3 million in Third Frontier dollars headed to OSU’s automotive center. The university is working with a number of companies, including Columbus-based American Electric Power Company Inc. (NYSE:AEP), to develop market-ready electric vehicles, including buses and trucks. The grant, the center said, will pay for a new testing facility that will help speed the conversion from gas to electric.
Medical device developer Neoprobe Corp. has locked in millions of dollars in additional financing from a key investor as it moves closer to completing pre-market testing of its cancer-detecting Lymphoseek drug.
The Dublin company this week said New York investor Platinum Montaur Life Sciences LLC has agreed to exercise all 6 million stock warrants it had been issued, a move that will result in $3.45 million in proceeds by October. Platinum Montaur, which signed a financing accord with Neoprobe in late 2007, had until December 2013 to cash in the warrants.
Neoprobe (OTC BB:NEOP) this week also tweaked provisions of its agreement with the medical investment fund that make a $7 million note fully convertible into stock and will lead to the issuing of another $2.3 million worth of stock warrants.
Neoprobe locked in $13 million in financing from Platinum Montaur over the course of a year as it mounted clinical testing of Lymphoseek, which identifies the lymph node to which fluid drains first from a breast cancer or melanoma tumor site. The company also is making strides in the development of Rigscan, a diagnostic tool for colorectal cancer that fell short of Food and Drug Administration approval more than a decade ago.
“The additional financial resources provided by the exercise of the warrants assure the financial resources to complete the development of Lymphoseek and to prepare for the commencement of a new phase 3 evaluation of the Rigs technology,” CEO David Bupp said in a release.
Bupp said some changes to the company’s financing agreement with the investor also reduce non-cash liabilities on its balance sheet.
Lymphoseek is on its way to the second leg of the third and final clinical-trial phase, with marketing clearances from U.S. and European regulators up ahead. The Rigscan technology has received favorable assessments from European regulators while a review by the FDA awaits.
Dr. Michael Goldberg, a Montaur principal, called Neoprobe an excellent investment opportunity but said it’s pushing the company to boost shareholder value by assessing its strategic options with an investment bank. Neoprobe, which employs 25, lost $5.2 million on $7.9 million in revenue last year.
CallCopy cc: Discover Rated Compliant on Avaya Aura Platform
Call recording product suite undergoes successful compliance testing on newest version of Avaya IP communications platform
COLUMBUS, Ohio – July 28, 2009 – CallCopy, a leading provider of innovative call recording and contact center solutions, today announced that its cc: Discover product suite is rated compliant with key IP communications platform solutions from Avaya, a leading global provider of business communications applications, systems and services.
cc: Discover enables organizations to optimize operational efficiencies by delivering innovative call recording, quality management, screen capture, and performance management capabilities. The product suite has been compliance-tested by Avaya for compatibility with Avaya Aura™ Communication Manager 5.2 with Avaya Aura™ AES 4.2.
“Avaya is a recognized leader in the business telephony market. Through tight product integration and compliance testing, we are able to offer our joint customers a more cost-effective solution,” said Patrick Hall, vice president of product management of CallCopy. “As a longtime member of the DevConnect program, we have a tradition of offering high-quality products with tight integration to Avaya. This latest certification on the Aura platform further strengthens our line of Avaya-certified solutions. In combination with Avaya, we are dedicated to helping companies incorporate new technology easily and cost-effectively and uncover new possibilities for getting more out of their communications infrastructure.”
Avaya’s DevConnect program is an initiative to develop, market and sell innovative third-party products that interoperate with Avaya technology and extend the value of a company’s investment in its network. As a Gold member of the program, CallCopy is eligible to submit products for compatibility testing to the Avaya Solution Interoperability and Test Lab in Lincroft, N.J. Avaya engineers there develop a comprehensive test plan for each product to verify whether it is Avaya compliant. Doing so ensures businesses can confidently add best-in-class capabilities to their network without having to replace their existing infrastructure—speeding deployment of new applications and reducing both network complexity and implementation costs.
“By offering compliance testing to the many innovative companies like CallCopy who are members of our DevConnect program, Avaya promotes fully interoperable solutions that help businesses unleash powerful new possibilities,” said Eric Rossman, vice president, developer relations and technical alliances, Avaya. “They are able to use Unified Communications to connect employees and customers to information from wherever they are, over whatever device they have available – getting more out of their multivendor network and delivering new value to their bottom line.”
About CallCopy
Through its commitment to the highest standards of customer and employee satisfaction, CallCopy has established itself as a leading provider of innovative performance management solutions. The highly scalable, award winning cc: Discover Suite delivers advanced call recording, screen capture, quality monitoring, speech analytics, customer satisfaction survey and workforce management capabilities to contact centers, trading desks, financial institutions and healthcare providers worldwide.
CallCopy empowers organizations to gather business intelligence, which is leveraged to maximize performance through improved employee retention, compliance with government regulations, and a more customer-centric environment.
For more information, visit www.callcopy.com.
For three years, Tobias Roediger and a friend spent their spare time in Mr. Roediger's basement working on a dream: starting a small digital-film and visual-effects company. When Mr. Roediger lost his full-time job as a computer-lab supervisor in June, the friends decided it was time to launch the company -- and move out of the basement.
They were able to afford the move by "co-working," a rental arrangement in which the tenants -- usually small-business owners and professionals -- share space and office equipment, and pay short-term leases, usually month to month. Some co-working spaces feature groups of desks positioned in open rooms; others have individual offices. Many provide certain amenities such as a receptionist, kitchen or game room.
Tobias Roediger runs his digital-film company in a shared office space he rents from Qwirk for $500 a month.
For entrepreneurs, it's a cheaper and more flexible alternative to renting or buying space of their own. The 32-year-old Mr. Roediger and his partner contracted with Qwirk Columbus Corp., a recently opened co-working space in downtown Columbus, Ohio, to pay $500 a month for two desks in an office, computers with Wi-Fi, use of conference rooms, a shared printer/copy/fax machine, espresso maker and more. Mr. Roediger estimates he's saving $300 to $400 per month on utility bills and not having to rent space he doesn't need.
It's also a much more social setting than Mr. Roediger's basement. "The thing that really drew me was the ability to work with a lot of other creative people," says Mr. Roediger, who adds that the shared space is good for networking, too: He says he's been talking to an advertising company on the premises about a possible deal.
Sharing office space with other businesses isn't new, but the tanking economy has prompted many small-business owners to consider it as they look for any practical way to lower overhead costs.
Some providers of co-working space are also offering reduced rates and even giving entrepreneurs opportunities to barter their services in return for paying no rent at all.
In February, Office Nomads LLC of Seattle started giving a "Pink Slip Special" to customers who were recently laid off, offering a free one-month membership worth $375. Overall, a dozen people took advantage of the offer, which ended last month, says Susan Evans, co-owner of Office Nomads.
Winnie Fung, a manager of the Change You Want to See Gallery, a nonprofit co-working space in Brooklyn, N.Y., says she sees a lot more bartering than she did a few years ago. At least three or four people from the 10 in her co-working space have partially or fully bartered their services for desk space, she says.
Ms. Fung says a few months ago she made a deal with one of her members, a tech start-up owner, to look after the building's computers and Internet service in return for free space.
Glenn Okun, clinical professor of management and entrepreneurship at New York University's Stern School of Business, say that the co-working environment presents an opportunity to tap into the collective expertise of the group and create business deals with other business owners, who are just a cubicle away.
Other experts, though, say small-business owners should be wary about the loss of privacy in such a workplace.
Sara Beckman, a senior lecturer who has taught a course on workplace design issues at the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, suggests that entrepreneurs should consider these drawbacks: "Am I sharing the space with people who are direct competitors? How do I draw boundaries around the information I can and cannot share with people who don't work in my organization?"
Michael Patino of Fairfax, Va., who was laid off in October from an executive-search firm, started his own firm, Patino Associates LLC, and says he saw co-working as a better alternative to working from home. It's a more professional place for clients to visit, and a businesslike environment in which to make calls and conduct interviews.
But he didn't want a work space that was airy and open. "I needed four quiet walls," he says, to evoke the image of confidentiality, especially when he needed to interview candidates for executive positions.
For six months he worked at home, while also taking care of two kids. But "in a field where you spend most of your time on the phone, [home] is not the best dynamic in the long term," says Mr. Patino.
He started looking for a suitable co-working space for his company and found one in McLean, Va., owned by Preferred Offices LLC, which has nine locations in the Washington area. Mr. Patino signed a 12-month lease in June. He says he spends $2,000 a month, which includes the lease, utility, telephone and Internet charges, and a receptionist, who works for all the businesses on the floor.
"It's wonderful so far," he says. "There's an extra layer of credibility when there's someone picking up the phone for you."
Write to Raymund Flandez at raymund.flandez@wsj.com
The so-called Wi-Fi "cloud" would enable users of laptop computers and other wireless devices to connect to Internet, and to each other, throughout the city, 10TV's Kevin Landers reported.
On Monday night, City Council agreed to seek nearly $38 million in federal stimulus dollars to fund a city-wide wireless broadband network.
The city wants to use the network for things like reading water meters rather than going house to house; allowing hospitals to provide tele-medicine by talking to patients over the computer; and for police to download critical information in their onboard computers before they arrive at emergency scene.
The Wi-Fi "cloud" is also seen as a lure to attract new businesses to the city.
"I believe this is our first step to encourage economic growth for the City of Columbus," council member Troy Miller said.
If Columbus builds the wireless network, the service would not be free to the public.
The cost to users is not yet known.
The city hopes to learn by November if it qualifies for government funding.
Watch 10TV News and refresh 10TV.com for additional information.
The ColumbusChamber doesn’t haul or warehouse freight, but it has recently played a role in the area’s logistics sector.
In partnership with the region’s logistics trade association, the chamber has begun an internship program to improve the odds students will consider taking a Central Ohio job when they graduate. The goal is for students to get a view of what the region can offer as a logistics career center and as a place to live, said Andrea Applegate, the chamber’s director of workplace development.
“We want to help retain as many graduates in the Columbus region as possible,” she said. “We believe when students understand the employment opportunities available, then they’re more likely to stay.”
The issue is an important one for Ohio. A June study by the Washington, D.C.-based Thomas B. Fordham Institute found 58 percent of Ohio’s college students plan to leave the state when they finish college.
The internship program includes tours of logistics companies, work skills workshops, tours of area housing and visits to cultural destinations in the area. Interns also recently toured a downtown condominium project.
The initiative seems to be working for at least one intern.
“I’ve started to realize how great Ohio is,” said Becca Ruda, a 21-year-old student at Ohio State University.
The Avon Lake native interning at Zipline Logistics in German Village said the program has introduced her to downtown and gave her a view of the diversity of logistics companies in Central Ohio.
The seeds for the program were planted in 2008, when the chamber launched its columbusinternships.com Web site to connect employers with interns. The chamber used a state grant to hire a consultant to tailor internships.
Then the chamber began talking with the Greater Columbus Region Logistics Council about internships in the sector.
The result was a collaboration of about a dozen area logistics companies that offer site tours for interns and have worked together on internship programs, said Dan Ricciardi, the council’s executive director.
“This is a little more of a structured program,” he said. “The internships are able to be a meaningful experience.”
Interns work for companies in paid positions, then participate in a regular series of events facilitated by the chamber. The chamber’s consultant, Dave Cofer of Columbus-based Cofer Consulting Solutions LLC, also leads work-skills training seminars.
The Web site has filled 133 internships since its launch, including about 20 in the logistics program this summer.
“They have made it as simple as possible for employers to first of all build a program, and then to connect to potential interns,” said Michael Linton, vice president of strategic development at ODW Logistics Inc. in Columbus.
In the past, Linton relied on networking in what he described as a hit-or-miss effort. The Web site allows ODW to post internships in a public forum that attracts applicants, said Linton, formerly the CEO of Adecco USA, a staffing agency.
Zipline Logistics’ partners didn’t know how they’d snag an intern – until they hooked into the chamber site, said partner J.J. Rodeheffer. The three-employee shipment management company posted on the site seeking an intern and received 110 applications.
“We were elated; we didn’t have to do anything,” Rodeheffer said.
While the platform has been a boon for employers, the elements of the logistics program make the internships more fulfilling, Ruda said. A visit to Rickenbacker Global Logistics Park opened her eyes.
“I didn’t even know that existed,” she said.
The program also helps interns sharpen workplace skills, said Mary Vaughn, chairwoman of integrated media and technology at Columbus State Community College. Vaughn also sits on the council’s work-force development committee. Interns in the logistics program, however, get training in basic work skills such as leadership, teamwork and customer service.
“That’s very important,” Vaughn said. “Every industry comes back to us and says we want those kind of fundamental skills.”
Mike Broderick,Cardinal Health Inc. is bringing on the former chief information officer at Motorola Inc. next month as its technology chief leaves the Dublin company.
The health-care products provider said Friday that CIO Jody Davids is leaving Cardinal to “pursue personal interests.” Replacing Davids on Aug. 3 will be Patricia Morrison, who left Schaumburg, Ill.-based Motorola (NYSE:MOT) last year after three years in the job.
Morrison’s experience includes a stint as CIO for Office Depot Inc. (NYSE:ODP) and top-level technology jobs at General Electric Co. (NYSE:GE), PepsiCo Inc. (NYSE:PEP), Procter & Gamble Co. (NYSE:PG) and Quaker Oats Co. She has bachelor’s degrees in mathematics, statistics and secondary education from Miami University of Ohio.
George Barrett, a Cardinal executive who will become CEO when the company completes the spinoff of its CareFusion Corp. division Aug. 31, said in a release that Morrison’s “significant experience with systems in large, complex organizations positions her perfectly to execute the long-term IT strategy Jody and her team have developed in support of our company.”
Morrison will report to Barrett, the company said.
Cardinal (NYSE:CAH), Ohio’s largest publicly held corporation, earned $1.3 billion on $91.1 billion in revenue for the year ended June 30, 2008.
Several startups have set their sites on the medical community in an attempt to provide physicians with their own social media network ala Facebook or MySpace. A Massachusetts-based company, Sermo, seems to have made the furthest inroad into the medical community claiming it has 100,000 physician users registered on its site. This number is no doubt due to the fact that, until recently, Sermo was connected to the medical community through the AMA. The two organizations have subsequently gone their separate ways. But Sermo continues to try and gain traction for its social network for doctors.
Other entrants to this market include Ozmosis, an invitation-only physician community which claims to verify and identify its members by name, thus presumably increasing the site’s credibility and value to physicians. Cleveland-based Within3 has focused its efforts on creating closed communities for targeted audiences such as the faculty, residents, fellows and alumni of Children’s Hospital Boston. Seattle’s iMedExchange is attempting to engage physicians 24/7 through new applications, widgets and platforms including mobile.
The challenge these companies face is the question of what would be compelling enough to convince a significant number of time-crunched and inward-looking physicians to seriously embrace an online network. But whichever company can figure it out has a lot to gain. If done correctly, these sites could become the new places pharmaceutical companies can connect with doctors and invest what is reported to be their billion-dollar budgets for marketing.
For more information see the story in Med City News
We are a week away from IT Martini Hour 5: Bridge to Somewhere at Havana Martini Club in Cincinnati! Join hundreds of Ohio IT pros next Thursday. Register here.
IT professionals in Columbus can take the Quick Bus, sponsored by Quick Solutions, to the event. The bus will depart Bill McDonald Sports Complex at 3 p.m. and return at approx. 10:45 p.m.
Technology for Ohio’s Tomorrow is excited to be a Top Shelf sponsor for IT Martini Hour 5, along with CBTS. Join the fun!
Have you been watching the news and seen where the economy is showing signs of recovery? I'll admit it appears the economy may have hit bottom but how quickly will we see it begin to move up? I would say we are in more of an "L" shaped recovery than a "U" of "V" shaped recovery. Sure companies that have been putting off purchases are getting to the point where they have to start buying but sales cycles are being still stretched as companies try to manage cash flows and extend scarce resources. This is still a critical time to be strategic, now is not the time to take you foot off the gas and coast.
Even though I run the risk of going all Gordon Gekko in Wall Street on you, here are some lessons from "The Art of War" that may help your business.
"True excellence is to plan secretly, to move surreptitiously, to foil the enemy's intentions without shedding a drop of blood." Strategic thought and preparation is what will move your business forward. Where is the market going and how do you position your business to be there? I've often heard that Wayne Gretzky was such a great hockey player because he could see what was going to happen two to three steps ahead and he could position himself to be ahead of the play and the other players. You need to do the same thing. Where do you want to be in 12 months...36 months...60 months?
"Making no mistakes is what establishes the certainty of victory, for it means conquering an enemy that is already defeated." Knowing your business, knowing your capabilities, knowing your market, knowing your customers, knowing what you have to offer will allow you to proceed with confidence and make the best decision for your business. You need to touch and re-touch every relationship in your business to build your knowledge. I have seen examples of long standing business relationships that have gone out the window not because of performance problems but because of budget problems on the other side. Knowledge allows you to make the best decisions for your business and not make mistakes.
"Hence the skillful fighter puts himself into a position that makes defeat impossible and does not miss the moment for defeating the enemy." Another critical relationship is with your bank. To often small business owners feel that they are the weaker player when it comes to their banking relationship but that is not true. Be proactive and go meet with your bank. Ask the tough questions about THEM and their status. Know what they are looking for and what their appetite is for various types of loans. Take this information and and use it when you are ready to go for financing.
"Thus it is that in war the victorious strategist only seeks battle after the victory has been won, whereas he who is destined to defeat first fights and afterward looks for victory." Preparation is the key. Good entrepreneurs are not risk takers, they are good are recognizing risk and mitigating the risk. Preparation reduces risk. Preparation leads to success.
A new report released by The Pew Charitable Trusts ranks Ohio number one in the Midwest and among the top five states in the nation for the most jobs in clean energy, energy efficiency and environmentally friendly production in 2007. Ohio has experienced an overall job growth in these areas of 31 percent since 1998.
Factors leading to the state’s advanced energy industry success include the Ohio Third Frontier and other advanced energy incentive programs, one of the nation’s most aggressive advanced energy portfolio standards, a significantly reformed tax structure, world-class supply chain and an available, educated workforce.
In a related story, the City of Columbus was named a Smarter City for its performance in sustainability. The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) ranked Columbus 15th among large cities for its progress in sustainability. The city received top rankings for its environmental standards and participation, its green building, green spaces and recycling efforts. The NRDC recognized the city’s efforts to become the “bicycling capital of the country” and its commitment to expanding park space and revitalizing downtown. It cited the city’s launch of ColumbusGreenSpot.org as a resource for keeping residents and businesses updated on environmental awareness issues. The site currently has 1,000 registered business and community members.
For more details on Ohio’s standings in the Pew Charitable Trusts report, see the release from Ohio Means Business.
To learn more about Columbus’ ranking as at Smarter City, click here
OSU Medical Center is among only 21 hospitals in the country named to the magazine’s elite Honor Roll, which demonstrates a hospital’s excellence in at least six specialties.
This is the 17th consecutive year the magazine has named OSU Medical Center one of “America’s Best Hospitals.”
In this year’s rankings, which appear today at www.usnews.com and in the magazine’s July 21 print issue, Ohio State’s Ross Heart Hospital is recognized as a leader in heart care, ranking 37 out of 4,861 hospitals from around the country. In addition, the James Cancer Hospital jumped one place to 18th in the nation for cancer treatment.
Other Ohio State specialties included on the list are ear, nose & throat, diabetes and endocrinology, gynecology, kidney disease, orthopedics, respiratory disorders, rehabilitation and urology.
The continual presence of Ohio State in the magazine’s annual survey and this year’s inclusion on the prestigious Honor Roll is a direct reflection of faculty, staff and university teamwork, according to Dr. Steven G. Gabbe, CEO of OSU Medical Center.
“Our success is guided by many, many people who each day make the Medical Center a special place for our patients,” said Gabbe.
In addition, last month Nationwide Children’s Hospital was named by U.S. News & World Report as one of the best pediatric hospitals. Children’s Hospital serves as home to the department of pediatrics for Ohio State’s College of Medicine, with many of Children’s medical staff and physician scientists holding faculty positions at the university.
Earlier this year, Ohio State’s College of Medicine ranked 27th in Research among America’s 125 accredited medical schools in the U.S. News & World Report “America’s Best Graduate Schools” rankings.
The “America’s Best Hospitals” issue, considered by many consumers and health care industry analysts as a leading indicator of quality care and performance, is compiled using data collected annually from nearly 5,000 U.S. hospitals. This year, only 174 scored high enough in measures of quality such as mortality and patient volume to be ranked in any specialty.
Hospitals selected for the magazine’s rankings are institutions of varying sizes around the country. Measurements such as staffing levels, reputation and technology also are used to compile the final lists.
TechColumbus, the region’s technology industry advocate, is calling for local software developers and engineers with ideas for Internet and mobile Web applications to apply for a new program dubbed 14ninetytwo. The pilot program is designed to provide seed-stage funding and advice to local entrepreneurs who want to, for example, develop the next Apple iPhone application or Firefox Web browser add-on.
“The targets of this are people who have day jobs,” said William Indest, vice president of formation at TechColumbus. “Say, an engineer in the IT department at Nationwide.”
14ninetytwo – a name derived from the year Christopher Columbus landed in the Americas – is accepting applications from entrepreneurs through Aug. 7 to be a part of its first “weekend of discovery,” tentatively scheduled for Aug. 21-23, said Willie Neumann, 14ninetytwo’s program manager. Applications can be found at the TechColumbus Web site, 14ninetytwo.wordpress.com.
The 10 to 15 budding entrepreneurs chosen will spend the weekend attending sessions with technology industry veterans, attorneys, marketers and accountants that will help shape ideas into what’s hoped will be viable products and companies. At the end of the weekend, each entrepreneur will make a competitive pitch for his product that will determine which three companies are picked to join the incubator and get further funding, Neumann said.
The three firms chosen will have as much as $25,000 made available to them, which will come from Ohio’s Third Frontier program, a 10-year, $1.6 billion initiative to create high-tech jobs. In exchange for the cash and help, Neumann said TechColumbus, which manages the local distribution of Third Frontier money, will take a 5 percent ownership stake in the company.
A small investment is the industry standard. At the AlphaLab, a Pittsburgh-based incubator that 14ninetytwo hopes to emulate, companies receive a maximum of $20,000 said Terri Glueck, director of community development for Innovation Works, a venture capital fund that runs AlphaLab.
“The companies are smaller and so there’s a smaller investment,” Glueck said, noting that most are composed of one- to three-person software developer teams.
“It’s not like investing in a robotics company,” she said.
Like AlphaLab and similar incubators, 14ninetytwo sets a fast pace. Companies chosen are expected to have a product ready 90 days from that first weekend. 14ninetytwo is designed to quickly separate the chaff from the wheat because software and mobile Web applications can become outdated in the blink of an eye, Neumann said.
“It’s a fail fast philosophy,” he said.
14ninetytwo is a departure for TechColumbus. Its incubator on Kinnear Road specializes in helping larger technology companies reach maturity over several years. Most tenants require lab space and significant capital infusions.
Indest said TechColumbus agreed to start 14ninetytwo after Neumann and others convinced the organization there was no help available in the region for small developers and programmers.
14ninetytwo is focusing on Internet and mobile phone applications because it’s a market that requires little capital but has great interest among potential developers.
“I would say there are hundreds if not thousands of people in Central Ohio (who) would be interested in this,” Indest said. “The area is so heavy in IT and software talent.”
Interest in Web and mobile application development isn’t just a local trend. Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple Inc.’s decision to offer an iPhone developer’s kit in February 2008 set off a gold rush of third-party application development for the device. As of July 14, the iPhone App Store boasted more than 65,000 applications, up from 35,000 just three months ago.
Another popular area for third-party development is for Mozilla’s Firefox Web browser. Firefox, one of the most widely adopted browsers, uses open source coding that has resulted in programmers creating more than 5,000 add-ons for it.
While 14ninetytwo is, as of now, a pilot program, demand to keep it going likely will be strong, Glueck said. Now in its third cycle since starting last summer, Glueck says AlphaLab has funded 12 companies and receives applications from across the country and overseas. So far, it has had the expected results.
“Some (companies) have gotten follow-on funding from angels, some are in talks with venture capital firms from outside the region, and some have folded,” she said.
But even when a company folds, it doesn’t mean efforts have been wasted, Glueck said.
“Adding to the entrepreneur base,” she said, “is a very important outcome.”
"We have failed to translate the power and potential in our nation's capacity to compete in a more globally competitive marketplace," he said in a keynote address to the Open Government and Innovations Conference in Washington, D.C. "Our public policy has failed to keep up with all we have around us."
However, he said, the United States can regain its footing with focused innovation policy that acknowledges and capitalizes on emerging opportunities. Chopra pointed to a number of technologies where the United States can be a leader, and where the Obama administration is investing, like healthcare IT and the smart grid. "We are still an innovation machine," he said.
Chopra said that the digital era is still in its infancy, and said repeatedly that he was looking for "game-changing" innovations from companies, citizens, and government. In fact, he listed "driving game-changing innovation" as one of his key areas of focuses as CTO.
Among the pillars of that innovation, Chopra said, are open data standards, research and development investment, and preparing the workforce for jobs of the future. For example, in terms of the smart grid and health IT, the government is working with the private sector to figure out what should be standardized and why.
Key innovations recognized for advancing scientific discovery
Columbus, OH—Battelle and the national laboratories it manages or co-manages for the U.S. Department of Energy have won 24 of the 2009 prestigious R&D 100 Awards, four more than it won in 2008.
Winning 24 percent of all the awards is the largest amount in the last five years and brings the total number of wins for Battelle and its affiliate labs to 215, tallied during the time Battelle has managed or co-managed those labs. R&D Magazine has been presenting the R&D 100 Awards since 1969.
The R&D 100 awards are given annually to honor the year's most significant scientific and technological innovations. This year, Battelle won its award for its array of bio-based materials, meaning products derived from soy that can eventually replace oil-based plastics, deicers and other materials.
Six of the national laboratories affiliated with Battelle won 23 awards. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory won eight awards, Oak Ridge National Laboratory won six, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and Idaho National Laboratory won three each, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory won two, and Brookhaven National Laboratory won one.
“Our mission is to develop innovative solutions to many of the world’s toughest problems. Winning R&D 100 Awards demonstrates that our hard work, dedication, and devotion are helping to achieve this goal,” said Battelle President and CEO Jeffrey Wadsworth. ”I am extremely proud that Battelle and our family of national labs continue to receive accolades.”
The winning technologies are:
Battelle is the world’s largest non-profit independent research and development organization, providing innovative solutions to the world’s most pressing needs through its four global businesses: Laboratory Management, National Security, Energy Technology, and Health and Life Sciences. It advances scientific discovery and application by conducting $5.2 billion in global R&D annually through contract research, laboratory management and technology commercialization. Headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, Battelle oversees 20,400 employees in more than 130 locations worldwide, including seven national laboratories which Battelle manages or co-manages for the U.S. Department of Energy and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and two international laboratories—a nuclear energy lab in the United Kingdom and a renewable energy lab in Malaysia.
Battelle also is one of the nation’s leading charitable trusts focusing on societal and economic impact and actively supporting and promoting science and math education.
Media contacts: Katy Delaney, 
(410)-3...
or delaneyk@battelle.org or T.R.Massey, (614)-424-5544 or masseytr@battelle.org
Sterling Commerce, an AT&T Inc (NYSE:T) company, today announced that Sterling Integrator 5.0 has been awarded the 2009 SWIFTReady label for Financial EAI (enterprise application integration). Announced in April 2009, Sterling Integrator 5.0 enables secure end-to-end management on a single platform of financial data exchange across business processes within an enterprise and among an enterprise and its business partners. Sterling Integrator is part of Sterling Business Integration Suite, a comprehensive set of solutions for all integration needs, inside and outside the enterprise.
This is the fourth consecutive year Sterling Integrator has received this annual certification, demonstrating Sterling Commerce’s commitment to supporting the rigorous standards established by SWIFT for the global financial services market. SWIFT supplies standardized and secure messaging services to more than 8,300 financial institutions in 208 countries and territories. The SWIFTReady certification evaluates products based on their ability to provide SWIFT users with the technology and functionality required to manage financial data and fully integrate with the SWIFT community. In this year’s certification, Sterling Integrator’s superior capabilities in detecting and correctly defining validation errors were seen as significant in enabling improved straight-through processing levels, an important criterion in global financial management.
“Sterling Commerce continues to demonstrate its dedication to the global financial services community by meeting our evaluation criteria,” said Eric Meirlaen, Solutions and Markets manager, SWIFT Partner Management. “Completing the certification so quickly illustrates the flexibility and ease-of-use of Sterling Integrator as well as the commitment from Sterling Commerce to this certification as a way to ensure the company meets the needs of its global customers.”
“As organizations look to streamline the processing of financial transactions, support for global standards such as SWIFT is increasing in importance for both financial services organizations and their corporate clients,” said Jim Gahagan, global industry executive, Financial Services for Sterling Commerce. “This trend has led to increased demand for a secure and reliable communications platform such as Sterling Integrator that can provide increased visibility into global financial data transmissions by centralizing control of all transmissions across multiple standards and protocols.”
Financial services organizations are transforming their global inter-bank transactions with Sterling Integrator by reducing complexity and enabling real-time visibility over the high volumes of data transfers that many SWIFT member organizations execute each day. Sterling Integrator allows financial communities to transmit and share financial data in a secure, accurate, efficient and highly cost-effective way across diverse business processes, protocols and standards, on a single platform.
Corporations also are benefiting from the robust and flexible integration capabilities of Sterling Integrator. As more corporations expand globally to improve their financial position, they need to optimize and better manage their treasury operations across multiple financial institutions and in multiple countries. Sterling Integrator is helping these corporate customers to transform their treasury operations and fragmented IT environments into integrated, cost-effective solutions that drive operational efficiency.
Sterling Integrator 5.0 includes several new capabilities designed to help companies ensure their business processes are automated, streamlined, integrated and coordinated with those of their business partners. It adds Sterling Community Manager, a new capability that reduces the cost, resources and time involved in on-boarding and managing large and diverse trading partner communities. Sterling Community Manager helps companies reliably on-board, expand and manage their partner communities more quickly and accurately, and with fewer resources. In addition, new communications and security capabilities have been added to ensure companies can support the various requirements of their partners.
About Sterling CommerceFor more info and to register go to: http://bit.ly/17fjih
The countdown is on: there’s less than 10 days to go before IT Martini Hour 5: Bridge to Somewhere comes to Havana Martini Club in Cincinnati! This may be the fifth event in the series, but it’s the very first time Bengal Nation is getting the IT Martini DEMO experience on their home turf.
Four Cincinnati start-ups have DEMOs competing for the IT Martini Community Choice Award, which is decided by a vote of IT Martini Hour 5 attendees. Past winners include JoeMetric - which went on to get early stage funding through TechColumbus.
The contenders are:
Looking for an E-Waste Solution for your enterprise and have a side benefit of doing good for the community - check outThere are very few economical and environmentally responsible solutions for getting rid of old computers, copiers and other electronic waste. But, now you can rely on Possitivity’s E-Waste Program to provide a responsible solution with multiple benefits at absolutely no cost*.
Our e-waste recycling program is a free disposal service that picks up your company’s e-waste and takes it away.
Possitivity Green Offers:
At Possitivity Green, we do things the right way for the right reasons.
Our mission inspires us to continually identify business solutions that can help companies become more environmentally responsible.
The quality and reliability of our entire line of services are matched only by the compassionate nature of our company. And how we do it is just as important as what we do.
We employ talented people with disabilities who enjoy the satisfaction and self-worth that comes with gainful employment.
At no cost or hassle, you can help promote environmental responsibility and our mission of providing good jobs for good people. Contact us today at 614.846.4877 because doing the right thing has never been so easy.
Biotechnology and medical device start-ups typically take many years and a lot of money to get to market. But Chrysalis Ventures, a venture capital firm in Louisville, Ky., takes a different approach to health care investments.
Instead of backing the discovery of new drugs or the creation of new medical devices, Chrysalis searches for health care start-ups that make treatments more productive or make information about health care more cost-effective and accessible to patients.
And though no one is quite sure what the health care reform package that comes out of Washington will look like, companies that help patients while lowering costs will likely benefit, said David Jones, chairman and managing director of Chrysalis Ventures.
“Whatever form health care reform takes, we believe companies that can improve the productivity and efficiency of improvement of health care services and avoidance of medical problems are going to prosper, and we’re putting our money behind that belief,” Mr. Jones said.
One start-up in which the firm recently invested is called Achieve. It helps people who are struggling to pay their medical bills create a personalized budget that incorporates their credit card bills and other debt. “It makes medical services more affordable to consumers and reduces bad debt costs to providers,” Mr. Jones said.
Another is called CerviLenz. It is a simple device, cleared by the Food and Drug Administration, that helps determine the likelihood that a pregnant woman will have a pre-term birth. That is a problem that costs the health care system $26 billion a year, Mr. Jones said. But if it is diagnosed early, doctors can use progesterone to prevent some of the early births.
In October, another Chrysalis portfolio company, HealthMediawas acquired by Johnson & Johnson. HealthMedia provides health coaching for patients, but over the Web. Patients with chronic diseases or those who want to prevent diseases can go online or get text messages that help them lose weight, remember to take their medicine or manage diabetes, for example. “It automates what would otherwise be a nurse on the phone,” Mr. Jones said.
Chrysalis has $400 million under management and closed a new, $175 million fund last year. While most venture firms are cutting back on investments this year, Chrysalis figures that these cost-saving technologies will be in more demand than ever. The firm usually invests in five new companies a year, but this year will probably back eight. Most are in the Midwest or the South.
“We really do feel it’s an attractive time to put money to work in the kinds of companies we’re looking for,” Mr. Jones said.
Check out the new website of a up and coming Columbus Tech Company - click on the logoCallCopy is one of the fastest growing companies in the call recording / quality monitoring industry. Our momentum is fueled by successful installations and satisfied clients. As the range of industries we serve continues to expand, our solution suite grows accordingly. We are always evaluating new technologies that will provide greater efficiencies to the users and administrators of our systems, and our business development team is finely tuned to the ebbs and flows of the markets we serve. Our goal is not to provide software – our goal is to deliver solutions.
cc: Discover was designed and developed by contact center industry veterans. Ray Bohac, CallCopy’s President and founder, had worked with the multiple recording systems used in the outsourcer’s many facilities. He recognized that of all the applications installed, not one of them had the capacity to scale quickly and affordably to accommodate the changing needs of the clients. A system that was installed for 100% call recording (call logging) could not convert to a system for random monitoring and screen capture, and vice versa. Nor could those systems blend the various recording needs into a single system that could accommodate multiple clients (tenants).
A market niche was identified, and Ray began planning the development of cc: Discover. After securing his rights to the software he planned to develop, Ray was able to negotiate a deal with the outsourcer to leverage its people and technologies for research and development in exchange for favorable licensing rates. He then set to work, building focus groups to identify the likes, dislikes, and unfulfilled needs inherent in the existing recording applications. Data was collected from a wide range of contact center employees serving diverse markets. From this data the cc: Discover feature list was born. The end-user was a key consideration in every phase of design, and the finished product was a feature-rich application that is easy to use.
cc: Discover was field tested, proving to be stable at large and small scales. The end result is a full-featured Quality Monitoring/Call Recording system that is easy to use.
Ray then built the team to take cc: Discover to market, recruiting executives with the experience needed to successfully market, sell, and support cc: Discover. Today CallCopy continues to gain market share, satisfying its customers with the industry’s most user-friendly Call Recording/Quality Monitoring system at a competitive price point.
In April, OCLC announced plans to launch a new service for Web-scale, cooperative library management services—network-level tools for managing library collections through circulation and delivery, print and licensed acquisitions, and license management. These new services will complement existing OCLC Web-scale services, such as cataloging, resource sharing, and integrated discovery.
The Library Advisory Council comprises leaders from the library community who will assist OCLC in creating a service strategy that will meet the needs of libraries across various sectors and geographies. Members of the Library Advisory Council are:
The Library Advisory Council will hold its first meeting following the ALA Annual Conference in Chicago. The Advisory Council will expand soon to include more global representation, and pilot sites for the new Web-scale management services will be announced at the ALA conference. Andrew Pace, OCLC Executive Director for Networked Library Services, will host a meeting to discuss OCLC Web-scale cooperative management services during the ALA Annual Conference on Monday, July 13, from 10:30 a.m. to noon, at the Chicago Hilton, Northwest I Room. To register for this meeting, go to www.oclc.org/info/ala/.
About OCLC
Founded in 1967 and headquartered in Dublin, Ohio, OCLC is a nonprofit library service and research organization that has provided computer-based cataloging, reference, resource sharing, eContent, preservation, library management and Web services to 71,000 libraries in 112 countries and territories. OCLC and its member libraries worldwide have created and maintain WorldCat, the world's richest online resource for finding library materials. Search WorldCat.org on the Web at www.worldcat.org. For more information, visit www.oclc.org.
A big shout out to local entrepreneur Brian Zuercher - (founder of ClearWish) and now Head Lacrosse coach at Dublin Scioto.
Click on the icon to register: http://bit.ly/yF43OThe last Thursday in July brings IT Martini Hour 5 to Havana Martini Club for IT Professionals in Cincinnati. But what about IT Pros in Columbus?
Quick Solutions is sponsoring the Quick Bus: a full featured motorcoach that’s giving Columbus IT Professionals a round trip to Cincinnati and back! Nearly fifty IT Pros are riding in style to the first, ever, IT Martini Hour outside of Columbus.
The ride includes refreshments, trivia, and a networking experience on wheels. And the destination presents a unique opportunity to see some great things happening within the Cincinnati IT Community.
The Quick Bus takes off for Cincinnati at 3pm from the Bill McDonald Sports Complex, located just South of Bethel on Olentangy River Rd. The anticipated return time is 10:45pm.
About IT Martini;
IT Martini brings interactive and FUN events to IT Professionals in Columbus. Read more about the IT Martini Mission here.
Are you interested in learning something new, expanding your network, or just catching up with IT Professionals colleagues from past projects? If so, check out past and present IT Martini Hour events here!
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By Doug Morgan - originally published at Two WheelingSince we adopted EcoBucks in February 2008, we've been tracking the "mode shift" among the 40+ employees who work in the Columbus office of Calfee, Halter & Griswold, a 100+ year-old, Cleveland-based law firm. "Mode shift" is the term transportation engineers use to describe the shift from automobiles to bikes, walking and mass transit for urban transportation needs.
To put things into perspective, consider these stats: Columbus, like other auto-centric U.S. cities, has a meager 1% mode shift. Portland is tops in the U.S. with 10+%. Many European cities have 20-50% mode shift. Congressman Blumauer, who heads the U.S. Congressional Transportation Committee, aspires for the entire U.S. to achieve 10% mode shift because this would eliminate the need to import ANY foreign oil.
Drum roll, please................................................since adopting EcoBucks 16 months ago, our office has achieved 15-20% mode shift every month. Last month we hit 20% for the first time. We're doing it with a combination of alternate transportation modes: cycling, walking, taking the bus and carpooling. I'm very proud of us.
Several other CBus companies have adopted EcoBucks, including Edison Welding Institute, Manley, Deas & Kochalski, and TechColumbus. I'd be interested to know whether they're experiencing significant mode shift, too.
Let me know if you're interested in EcoBucks......I'd be happy to send the materials to you. It's really easy and doesnt' cost that much ($1 per day for each day an employee uses alternate transportation to get to work............it costs us approx $1,500 per year for our office.) Even if you don't have EcoBucks, please consider using "people powered" transportation to get to work or to make those short urban automobile trips (42% of the auto trips in the U.S. are 2 miles or less and 85% are 5 miles or less). You and our environment will be healthier for it!
The goal of 14ninetytwo is to foster the growth of early stage Web and Mobile focused business concepts in Central Ohio.
14ninetytwo is a Business in a Box for startup businesses
14ninetytwo offers startups the opportunity to learn about business
14ninetytwo introduces time tested mentors to startup businesses
14ninetytwo helps new businesses find their first customer
14ninetytwo is a one of a kind business providing early stage startupswith the resources needed to create and grow a new business.
With the support of TechColumbus and Ohio Third Frontier, 14ninetytwo is creating an virtual incubator for new ideas and businesses focusing on Web and Mobile solutions.
If you have a day job, don’t quit it. We expect the finalists to spend a minimum of 16 hours per week working on their business. Profiles for the candidates range from developers with early stage product offerings to people with great web or mobile product ideas, but no development resources. We will work with you to turn your idea or product into a viable business.
During the weekend of August 21-23, 14ninetytwo will sponsor and coordinate the Weekend of Discovery event. This event will team seasoned business experts with new business creators. Over the weekend, the business creators will pitch their ideas and work hand in hand with community experts. These experts will advise on legal, financial, sales, marketing and other areas of business expertise.
At the end of the weekend the field of candidates will be narrowed to three. The business ideas will be mentored for 90 days. During that time, they will focus on creation of a solid business plan and completion of a prototype product. The goal is to use these to help the business find their first customer.
Candidates interested in applying can fill out the Application Form by clicking here. We provide both an online and a downloadable application form. Pick your poison. Deadline for applications is August 10, 2009.
The 14ninetytwo website will also contain information for businesses or individuals interested in providing valuable resources to the community.
Applications are available in online and downloadable versions. Click here to pick your poison.
For more information, contact Willie Neumann at willie@14ninetytwo.com.
Joan Goodchild has a very informative interview with Sebbe Jones posted on CSO Online. Sebbe is the head of our Fraud team and has written his own articles explaining online fraud and tips to avoid fraudulent purchases.
“E-commerce fraud costs retailers approximately $4 billion each year, according to the most recent results of an annual survey conducted by Cybersource, a provider of electronic payment and risk management services. Sebbe Jones, manager of fraud and disputes at 2Checkout, is in the business of keeping e-commerce fraud at bay.”
Check out the interview, it’s a good read with lots of information.
Brand Thunder formed in April, 2007 to leverage the power of customization within the web browser and offer companies a compelling, patent-pending solution for creating a more persistent presence with their internet consumer. Brand Thunder has branded the browser and extended its functionality for some of the most recognizable brands in sports, music and the internet.
The mission is simple: Provide your fans and customers an immersive, engaging brand experience while they are AWAY from your website.
Patrick Murphy - Founder
Before founding Brand Thunder, Patrick was a product and program manager at AOL where he was responsible for browser distribution and video-search partnerships. Patrick’s background in web-marketing spans from Chase Bank to Swiss Re. He received his B.A. in Finance from Capital University.
Brij Charan - Director, Technology & Design
Brij brings deep knowledge of browser design, both from graphical and programming angles and has a strong background in User Interface development and design. He has completed diplomas in Computer Hardware, Software Development, and Graphical Design.
Kevin Dwinnell - Director, Product & Marketing
Kevin has over 15 years of experience in the online industry with AOL, CompuServe and Netscape. His experience in business, product and promotion management also includes positions at Hanna-Barbera, Liebert and Turner Broadcasting. Kevin received his B.S. in Marketing from George Mason University and his M.B.A. from The Ohio State University.
 Jacadis and Ohio Dominican University have been recognized as one of Campus Technology’s 2008 Innovators to be featured in the August issue of Campus Technology magazine. The editors of Campus Technology thoroughly reviewed and selected 14 innovative campus technology initiatives in diverse categories from just under 300 remarkable case studies. The nomination they accepted was for the school’s information security renovation project. |
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Innovation to Investment An Ohio Bioscience Perspective July 30 | 4pm - 5:30pm TechColumbus, Kinnear Rd. | ||||
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A late afternoon "town hall" discussion with private equity managers on the funding climate for emerging bioscience companies, including current trends and some forecasts on what the future may hold. At least 7 private equity fund managers will be on hand, including those participating in the Ohio-Midwest Fund, a $102 million regional investment program established by the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System and Credit Suisse to generate superior returns for OPERS members and encourage business growth within Ohio and the surrounding region. Wine and cheese, and other refreshments, will accessorize conversation following the program. Brought to you by BioOhio and the Ohio-Midwest Fund. To register, send full contact information to Jennifer at BioOhio (jgoldsberry@bioohio.com or 614.675.3686, x1004). Free for members and non-members, but registration is required. | |||
Every month I make a pilgrimage to Silicon Valley to visit my startup brethren and soak in the startup vibe. And every month I return home to Columbus, Ohio thinking I've just visited another planet.
The problem with Silicon Valley is that the people there are absolutely in love with Silicon Valley.
So much that they tend to forget that the rest of the world doesn't operate anything like they do, yet ultimately they rely on the rest of the world to absorb and digest the products they create.
Having had lots of conversations with brilliant entrepreneurs and investors, I'm constantly reminding them of the way "the rest of the world works" which is odd, because everyone is more or less from places like Columbus, Ohio anyway.
Inevitably I keep reminding my friends the same things -
People Don't Care What Technology You Use - OK, so you're building a killer app using Ruby on Rails, or Apollo, or whatever. No one cares. People in Columbus care that when they log into a site they don't get an error, that's about it. You know who really cares about what technology you're using? Other people in Silicon Valley.
.NET Programmers Make $70,000 p/year and live great - That's because in most cities you can buy a 2,000+ sq. ft. house for just over $200,000 in a nice neighborhood and live great. You can party all weekend downtown for a few hundred bucks. More importantly you can hire a great developer for the cost of a Silicon Valley administrative assistant.
People Still Don't Know What Craigslist Is - While you're talking about how Yelp.com is already passe, keep in mind that most people still don't even realize what Craigslist is. I ask people all the time how often they use Craigslist and 9 out of 10 respond "What's Craigslist? Is it like Angie's List?"
People Don't "Need" Venture Capital - Because the costs of operations are a fraction of the costs in the Valley and frankly because there is so little of it outside the Valley. What happens when capital is so scarce is that companies are forced to figure it out without capital - and they do. Companies are run for customers and profits, not for VC's.
No One Throws Launch Parties - We're all too busy actually building companies to take the time to wallow in our own manufactured successes. We're also likely spending our own money, which no one would use to piss away on launch parties.
Your Customer Lives in Columbus, Ohio - Sure, all of your friends in the Valley think your new Web app is sweet. But getting a bunch of other nerds to use your app only buys you a small initial audience. Critical mass comes when you get the everyman to use your app, and the everyman lives in Columbus, Ohio.
Our Businesses Need to Earn a Profit - Maybe you can afford to squander $20 million of OPM on a product that has no revenue model in hopes you'll get bought. The rest of the world has to build real companies that make real money to sustain themselves.
The easiest way to explain this is that most of what makes sense in Silicon Valley only makes sense in Silicon Valley. The rest of the world simply operates on a much different schedule. Maybe someday my entrepreneurial brethren will make a pilgrimage to Columbus, Ohio to see how the rest of the world really works.
Congratulations to Ohio's business and economic development community. For the third straight year, Site Selection has awarded its prestigious Governor's Cup to Ohio, recognizing it as the nation's leading state for capital investment.
The Governor's Cup is awarded annually to the state with the most capital investment projects during the previous year. Ohio claimed the 2008 Governor's Cup with 503 projects, edging out second place Texas, who finished with 497.
In addition to winning recognition as the nation's top capital investment state, Ohio's metropolitan areas and micropolitan cities also received notoriety as ranking in the top 10 in their population categories. The Cincinnati, Columbus and Cleveland MSAs ranked as top Tier 1 metropolitan areas (population over 1 million); Dayton, Akron, Toledo and Youngstown-Warren ranked as top tier 2 metropolitan areas (population between 200,000 and 1 million); Springfield ranked as a top tier 3 metropolitan area (population between 50,000 and 200,000); Wooster, Ashtabula and Wapakoneta ranked as top micropolitan cities (population between 10,000 and 50,000).
Factors leading to Ohio's significant recognition include:
Zyvex Performance Materials (ZPM) of Columbus continues its winning ways by receiving a nod from the Ohio Department of Development’s Third Frontier Commission (ODOD TFC) that they are going to share a $4.9MM development grant with PolyOne Corporation of Cleveland and include Renegade Materials Corp., Hexion Specialty Chemicals, APV Engineered Coatings, the University of Dayton Research institute (UDRI), the University of Akron (UA), and Shawnee State University (Shawnee) as principal collaborators.
The objective of this Research Commercialization Program (RCP) grant is to commercialize nanomaterial composites for marine, aerospace, defense, automotive, and electronics. Additional collaborators will include PolymerOhio, the Center for Multifunctional Polymer Nanomaterials and Devices (CMPND), the University of Akron, Lockheed Martin Corporation, Owens Corning, the National Composites Center, and Hexcel Corp.
The grant will fund further development and production of carbon nanotubes (CNT) composites. Several months ago, Zyvex and PolyOne initiated a joint development effort and agreed to produce CNT-filled thermoplastics for structural and electrically conductive applications. In the process of applying for this Ohio Third Frontier funding, Zyvex and PolyOne built a collaborative effort and reinforced a supply chain within Ohio that will strengthen Ohio’s already prominent role, nationally, in polymer development and manufacturing and potentially bring jobs and more business to the State.
CMPND supported the proposal effort by helping to build a collaborative team and develop technical strategies for the team. Program deliverables are expected to be a mix of technology and products for the markets including defense, marine, electronics, and wind energy and jobs for Ohio throughout the supply chain.
PolyOne has built its reputation on the commercialization of CNT thermoplastics for electronics, automotive, and industrial applications. PolyOne will be the primary channel to market and will offer the products as a “powered by Zyvex" solution.
Among the collaborative team members, Zyvex along with its partner Renegade has already commercialized CNT-enhanced carbon/glass fiber composites (Arovex) for marine, aerospace, automotive, and defense. These products will be sold by Zyvex and will support further manufacturing and development of CNT composites.
Hexion will work with Zyvex to create CNT-enhanced resins for composites and for applications for various manufacturing process and applications such as wind energy and aerospace. Both Hexion and Zyvex plan to be channels to market depending on the application and leverage each organization will bring.
UDRI will work with Zyvex for composite testing, application development, and technology development. UA will provide expertise in computer modeling of CNTs and host-matrix interfaces.
Shawnee State University specializes in workforce development and training for skills required to work with nanotube-enhanced composites, and will help develop training programs that will ultimate strengthen the workforce needed to enhance statewide manufacturing and distribution. APV will be able to provide the mixing technology for CNT-enhanced materials.
CMPND will work with the entire team to assist with project management, technology development, and IP management. PolymerOhio will work with ZPM on networking and commercialization
Lance Criscuolo, Zyvex president said, "This grant underscores our commitment to the technology and our certainty that Zyvex Performance Materials and PolyOne have the expertise needed to drive thermoplastic nanocomposites to the next level of performance.” Dr. Cecil Chappelow, vice president, innovation, sustainability and chief innovation officer at PolyOne said that his company is thrilled by this award and is looking forward to the significant portfolio of next-generation thermoplastic, CNT-based materials that will likely be developed as a result of this Third Frontier funding.
Together, the Zyvex and PolyOne will focus their research and development efforts on CNT-based thermoplastic materials that will have structural and electrically conductive applications.
According to Criscuolo, “With the RCP award, we expect to accelerate product development and commercialization of our technology along with that of our collaborators. We expect to also accelerate our hiring with the RCP funds.”
Several Ohio hospitals made Hospitals and Health Networks magazine’s Health Care’s Most Wired 2009 list.
Akron General Medical Center, Dublin Methodist Hospital, MedCentral-Mansfield Hospital, MedCentral-Shelby Hospital and ProMedica Health System in Toledo all made the list of the 100 most wired hospitals in the country.
The Most Wired list is based on the annual Most Wired Survey and Benchmarking Study. Hospitals are named to the list based on a detailed scoring process.
Ohio hospitals were also listed in other categories. Catholic Healthcare Partners in Cincinnati and Memorial Hospital of Union County in Marysville were recognized in the Most Improved category. Adena Regional Medical Center in Chillicothe was included on the Most Wired-Small and Rural listThursday, July 16; 9 am - 5 pm
Please join us for casual co-working, come and go or stay all day. A big thank you to Bonny and Neal of QWIRK Coworking for providing snacks for the day.
Location Details:
Dublin Entrepreneurial Center
7003 Post Road
Dublin, OH 43016
From I-270, Rt 33/161 Westbound, Exit at Post Rd, Left on Post, Left on Eiterman, Right into 7003 Post Rd. (Entrance is off Eiterman)
Map and Details here
view pdf map
PLEASE NOTE: mapping applications and GPS are not accurate Google Maps IS now correct.
PARKING: is free and plentiful
What is Jelly?
Jelly is casual coworking. We invite people to work from a public meeting spot for the day. The spot will have chairs, tables, wireless internet, and interesting people to talk to, collaborate with, and bounce ideas off of. You bring a laptop (or whatever you need to get work done) and a friendly disposition.
Tag: #TheDEC
Visit Jelly Columbus
Check out the media coverage of coworking in Columbus , including the Columbus Dispatch
Tag: #jellycbus
Photos of Coworking in Columbus
When: Wed July 22 3:30 pm
Where: Dublin Entrepreneur Center
Fee: FREE
To register go to: http://bit.ly/wKfFn
Has your company ever considered recycling? Now is your chance to learn from people who have employed a recycling program and from a recycling resource. Please join us. We’ll provide you with a step-by-step process to plan and begin a recycling program in your workplace. Whether you are just getting started or would like to re-energize and expand your current recycling program, this expert line-up of presenters will provide you with helpful advice to take your company to a deeper shade of green.
Presenters:
Albert Iosue, Solid Waste Authority of Central Ohio (SWACO). Al will present the basics of how to get a recycling program started, who to involve and how to keep your program going strong. www.swaco.org
Michelle Crandall, City of Dublin. Michelle will present a case study of how the City of Dublin has achieved success and actively engaged employees in recycling within the City’s workplace. www.dublin.oh.us
Highlighting Recycling Resources:
Jesse Roberts. Possitivitygreen. Jesse will provide an overview of e-recycling and discuss the free e-recycling services that Possitivity provides to companies and residents in central Ohio. www.possitivitygreen.com
Neil Drobny, Waste-Not-Center (“Unleashing Creativity Through Recycling”). Neil will provide an overview of the Waste-Not-Center and how your company can become a partner with the Center. www.kfcb.org/wnc.php
Slow servers. Sporadic backups. Frequent downtimes. Lackluster customer service. Admittedly true to some degree at one point in time.
But because the technology arena is famous for great comeback stories, I wanted to hear this one -- and I think you will, too.
Ben: So you want to transform IX Web Hosting and “build a second-to-none IX customer experience.” What happened that made you take a good look at customer service and what do the changes at IX mean for small- and medium-sized businesses?
Fathi: Let me start by saying that many of our customers are thrilled with the work we’ve done for them in the past and are anticipating the great things we’ll do next. And we’re grateful for our customers and their loyal support. But, as you know, some have experienced slow server problems that were, understandably, frustrating. As a company we had some growing pains that, unfortunately, interrupted the level of service we’re committed to providing. We’re truly sorry for that. But we’ve listened to our customers and developed a plan that will include the introduction of sweeping changes to improve our service.
Ben: Looking back, there were certainly some positive things that happened, as well. What were some of IX Hosting’s milestone moments over the past couple of years?
Fathi: I’m happy to report that we’ve accomplished three key success metrics. First, we deployed IronPort anti-spam and anti-virus filtering to our entire customer base, which was a very expensive project, but well worth it. This eliminated 99.9 percent of all spam and virus emails received to our customers’ domains and created a significant uptime improvement.
Second, we dramatically accelerated our database-related servers (all types of SQL) through improved “abuse” management and massive hardware upgrades. Today’s customers experience expedient and stable database connections.
Third, we now operate our data center out of our own state-of-the-art, 20,000-square-foot facility in Columbus, Ohio. We’re connected with Tier 1 Premium Bandwidth only at 5gbit/s (from Sprint and Qwest). At some data centers, you’ll find “cheap bandwidth,” resulting in longer loading times. These delays are hardly noticeable when you test for them yourself, but as long as they exist, sites will lose visitors. But not with IX. At our facility, we won’t allow mediocre fiber optics. Our industry-grade true Tier 3/4 data space can house over 10,000 servers, all self-managed and employee-owned. I’m so proud of our data center that I invite any of our customers to come for a tour.
Ben: Sounds like you’ve been busy. Talk to me about your new goal of maintaining near-perfect server uptime.
Fathi: Customer service and server performance are key for us. By year’s end, we’ll upgrade our entire web hosting infrastructure and put an end to virtually all service-related issues. While I can’t promise 100 percent uptime, it’s certainly what we’re shooting for. We’re introducing Imperia, an “intelligent cloud” hosting environment, which means that our customers’ web sites, databases and email services will be hosted not on one server, but on hundreds or thousands, all at the same time. You could theoretically turn off half our data center or take an axe to the server and it would be back online within seconds or not go down at all. But, please, don’t take an axe to any server!
Ben: Given that customer service is your top priority now, tell me what else IX Hosting is doing to make the tech life easier for small and medium businesses.
Fathi: For starters, we have an in-house team developing a web site management control panel featuring a user-friendly interface. We’re also replacing ALL of our existing hardware with brand new blade servers, centralized storage and a fiber-channel switching architecture. Ben, we’re making a multimillion-dollar investment into our networking and server infrastructure that will make our customers’ web sites load faster than any dedicated server ever could. If you were to rent an entire server and all it hosted was your web site, it would load your site slow as molasses compared to how fast your site will load on ours. And, we’re starting a special Imperia VIP Membership. Customers who join will help us test and optimize the new platform. We’ll share top-secret development material with VIP members, solicit their feedback and give them early access to new releases. As you can tell, I’m really excited about involving our customers in our company-wide improvements.
Ben: Let’s talk specifically about your new customer service model. What is it and what does it look like?
Fathi: As I said, we’re wholly committed to delivering amazing customer service. In fact, we call it the IX Wow! Customer Service Experience. Our customer service team is dedicated to delivering Wow! every time a customer calls, emails, chats, tweets, IMs, Skypes, visits or posts a comment on our blog or Facebook page. Every customer gets their own “Personal Hero,” which is a personal, accountable contact at our company who will be responsible for ensuring satisfaction at all times. Customers will know their Personal Hero by name and, in turn, their Personal Hero will know everything about them and their web site. He or she will be “heroically interested” in what the customer is trying to achieve and what obstacles they’re facing so that he or she can blow them away. And every one of them will do everything in their “Hero Special Powers” to make the customer’s web site successful.
Ben: And as part of the Wow! Customer Service Experience, you’re leveraging technology and social media, too?
Fathi: Of course. Our company blog will soon be filled with stuff to help grow a web site, increase traffic and eXplode Sales. Our status blog will feature posts and comments about any current and past service issues that warrant special attention. We’ll also have a customer forum and comm-YOU-nity, which is a place of vivid discussion among all of our customers and Personal Heroes. We’ll be talking a lot about how to use a web site to its fullest capacity. Our customer wiki is a place that customers and their Heroes will co-create. Any content worth mentioning can published here and shared among our entire customer base or the world, for that matter. Of course, anyone can follow us on Twitter and become a fan or friend on Facebook. Our Army of Heroes will soon appear e-v-e-r-y-w-h-e-r-e ...
Ben: It sounds like you’re looking for a lot more quality interaction with your customers. What are your plans for soliciting their feedback and how will you incorporate that feedback into the business?
Published: 2009-07-06
Brighter days may be ahead for Ohio’s economy, especially if the results of a recent study conducted by the Center for Entrepreneurship at The Ohio State University’s Fisher College of Business are any indication. The full study will be released by Ohio State later this year.
The study examines 2008 venture capital investment in Ohio and compared results to the state’s historical data and national figures. The results indicate a nearly 50-percent increase in Ohio’s seed and early-stage venture capital Investment dollars year over year while the national levels of seed and early-stage investment decreased by 20 percent.
Dr. S. Michael Camp, academic director of Fisher College of Business’ Center for Entrepreneurship and the study’s lead researcher, said: “The data indicates that in Ohio 66 percent of all investment dollars went to seed and early stage companies compared to national averages that are closer to 20 percent. Ohio’s angel and venture capital community continues to build a resilient infrastructure for developing and financing young technology startups.”
“It’s encouraging to see that while early-stage investment has contracted nationally, Ohio was able to buck the trend with a significant expansion,” said Paul Cohn, regional director of The Ohio Capital Fund, which works to attract early-stage investment to Ohio. He continued: “This is important, because early-stage investment is vital to building this next generation of Ohio employers.”
The Center for Entrepreneurship at Fisher College of Business manages the Venture Capital Research Program in collaboration with The Ohio Capital Fund and contributing state and regional partners. Other key findings of the study include:
July 10, 2009
PreCelleon Inc. has agreed to license technology from Ohio State University and Cleveland Clinic to develop a tool that collects more cancerous cells for research and could potentially gauge the severity of cancer in a body.
The magnetic cell separation process is based on research from OSU’s Jeffrey Chalmers and Cleveland Clinic’s Maciej Zborowski. Cancerous cells can be tagged, separated and gathered for further study in a method that is more effective than current protocols. The tool can also tell how many circulating tumor cells are in a blood samples which can then guide researchers on best treatments for the patient.
“This new technology will give clinicians another piece of information they can use to more accurately predict the future and prescribe treatments,” says Tom Ward, president of PreCelleon.
The new technology will be incorporated in test equipment that will be built in Columbus.
For more details, see the story in MedCity News.
-Relocation assistance is not available
-Work Visa Sponsorship is not available
For prompt consideration submit resume to jowens@dawsoncareers.com
July 6, 2009 - From TechColumbus
Central Ohio startups with an idea for a new technology-enabled Web solution or mobile application are encouraged to apply for acceptance in the 14ninetytwo project – a pilot program including an early-stage virtual incubator providing business formation, mentoring and coaching resources as well as access to pre-seed capital for selected deals. Deadline for application is July 31, 2009.
Central Ohio entrepreneurs with an idea for a new technology-enabled solution, especially in the Web and mobile applications space, now have an avenue for exploring the steps for bringing that idea to market through a newly launched initiative known as 14ninetytwo.
14ninetytwo was formed in response to the need for an early-stage virtual incubator that could help web and mobile startups investigate the viability of their idea, gain insights into the fundamentals of starting a business and, for selected entrepreneurs, transform their idea into a working prototype.
Willie Neumann, local entrepreneur, is the program manager for 14ninetytwo, which is supported through funding and business coaching resources from Ohio’s Third Frontier and TechColumbus. The program is specifically for those entrepreneurs who believe they have a strong, marketable concept for a technology-based solution, but who may not have the technical expertise, business acumen and financial resources to bring that idea to fruition.
“In Central Ohio, we find that most of the great innovations are coming from people who are employed, especially within larger corporations,” says Neumann. “They may have very promising ideas – especially as they relate to Web-enabled solutions and mobile apps – but many of these innovators are not programmers or business startup experts.”
Neumann says the goal of 14ninetytwo is to connect these would-be entrepreneurs with the resources they need to rapidly transform their idea into a viable, profitable company within the region. Entrepreneurs interested in participating in 14ninetytwo must complete an online application at www.14ninetytwo.com. They will be asked to describe (in confidence) their idea, its potential market and other key factors. From these applications, Neumann, TechColumbus and a team of proven successful entrepreneurs from the community, will select around a dozen ideas whose creators will be asked to participate in a “Weekend of Discovery” in early fall 2009.
The 14ninetytwo Weekend of Discovery will be an intense business coaching and mentoring boot camp. Over the course of the weekend, participants will learn from a host of industry leaders and experienced entrepreneurs. They will be exposed to issues faced in every phase of business formation including legal, finance, staffing, sales and all other key considerations involved in launching and growing a startup.
Out of this weekend, three entrepreneurs will be selected for further assistance and funding in developing their concept into a viable business proposition. They will have direct access to coaching and mentoring services as well as other resources necessary to graduate from the program with a working prototype and comprehensive business plan – all within an accelerated 90-day timeframe.
Applications for the program will begin being accepted July 1, 2009 with deadline for applying August 7, 2009.
Anyone wishing more details on the program should visit www.14ninetytwo.com
Or you can contact Willie Neumann at willie@14ninetytwo.com
- http://bit.ly/njomkI'm asking for your support as I prepare to ride 328 miles across the entire state of Ohio – all to help people who are battling cancer right now, and make sure others don’t face the same dilemma.
On July 28th, I’ll embark on a bike tour called the American Cancer Society Pan Ohio Hope Ride – www.panohiohoperide.org – which will take 4 days and cover 328 miles. As you might know I rode in this amazing event last year and became even more convinced how great a cause this is.
Check out some pics from last year's ride: http://www.flickr.com/search/show/?q=panohio08&s=int
The tour’s goal is to raise awareness about, and funds for, the American Cancer Society’s Hope Lodges. These facilities are essentially massive “homes” that are open to anyone who is fighting cancer but is struggling financially, logistically, or in any other way. The Hope Lodges give these fighters, and their families, everything they need so they can solely focus on getting better. I encourage you to read up on what these facilities are – and read the testimonials. While there are many cancer-fighting fundraisers, the Pan Ohio Hope Ride is the only one I know of where you can directly meet the people benefitting from your donation. It’s an incredible feeling! You can share in the experience by following me on twitter @bblanquera as I "tweet" from the open road.
Please click on the link below to help make a difference. Any amount helps me reach my fundraising goal and helps provide services to cancer patients and their families.
My wife Sandy is also riding - (I'm very proud of her) - if you'd like to help her out pls go to her site: http://bit.ly/sandyb
I greatly appreciate your willingness to read this blog posting and do hope you will donate what you can. My total fundraising goal is $2500 – easily attainable through a volume of small donations
Thank you and wish me luck – I’ll need it!
Ben
P.S. If you or someone you know has cancer, please encourage them to call the American Cancer Society toll free at 1-800-227-2345. Live, trained cancer specialists are standing by 24 hours a day, seven days a week with information and support. The service is free – thanks to donors like you!By: Kristi Tanner, Brand Manager, Ohio Business Development Coalition
The polymer industry is no stranger to the state of Ohio. From its early roots in tire production and the auto industry, Ohio has always been at the heart of America's polymer industry. And today, polymers is one of the state's largest industries.
Ohio leads the nation in the production of polymer products, machinery for the polymer industry, motor vehicle components, and more than 100 other industrial products. Employing more than 140,000 workers, the Ohio’s polymer industry generates nearly $50 billion in annual sales revenue and pays its workers $5.6 billion in wages.
More than 200 Ohio companies produce equipment for the polymer industry, including many world leaders, ranging from the global plastics equipment supplier, Milacron, to the specialty inspection equipment manufacturer, Pressco Technology. Another 200 materials suppliers also include many world leaders. Their proximity saves Ohio businesses time and money in the manufacturing process.
And this is just the beginning. The Ohio Third Frontier is catalyzing innovation to transform Ohio’s economy for future generations. The Ohio Third Frontier is a $1.6 billion investment in targeted industries and technologies to help create new technology-based products, companies, industries and jobs. Investments in the polymer industry alone are well over $100 million.
One example of a polymer start-up success supported by the Ohio Third Frontier is Akron Polymer Systems Inc. (APS), a spin-off from the University of Akron, founded in 2002 by two professors, Frank Harris and Stephen Cheng. APS is focused on developing high-performance polymers and advanced materials commonly used in liquid crystal display (LCD) technologies, as well as in aerospace, medical, and fuel cell applications.
Ohio's large concentration of polymer companies has resulted in a number of essential assets already in place for companies joining Ohio's polymer community, including a highly skilled, quality workforce and rapid development of new technologies, as well as valuable industry relationships that promote collaboration in business development.
Ohio polymer companies also benefit from PolymerOhio, an Ohio Edison Technology Center that is focused on enhancing the industry in Ohio one company and one connection at a time. The PolymerOhio team has deep industry expertise across the industry supply chain and a firm grasp of available resources. They provide industry leaders with valuable business connections and industry know-how.
In addition, seven of Ohio's universities have polymer research programs, placing best-of-class research at these emerging businesses’ fingertips. The state also is home to federal research and several private research organizations, including Battelle.
As Ohio continues its focus building up 21st-century industries, the visionary leaders of polymer-related businesses are not only reaping the benefits of the state’s business-friendly environment so that they can achieve business and professional success, but also the ability to achieve their personal aspirations as well.
614-481-8050, extension 105614-481-8050, extension 110
By Angelo Mazzocco - CIO Progressive Medical
All boostrappers have at least one thing in common: it’s really tough to get (and keep) your products and services in front of your customers. So, in our upcoming monthly peer meeting, we’ll be talking about field-tested Sales and Marketing techniques geared specifically for bootstrappers. What Sales and Marketing challenges (and solutions) have you faced or are currently facing? To get your juices flowing, here a few challenges we’ve heard from other bootstrappers:
Geeks give backLocal developers, dbas and designers will be giving up some of there time over the weekend of July
17-19 to help develop and maintain software for non-profit
organizations.
The website with the details is here:
http://www.columbusgivecamp.org/GiveCamp/Home/About
They are currently looking for volunteers to help work on the software projects, and charities to submit project requests.
The email address for talking to the organizers is info@columbusgivecamp.org
Thanks for your time!
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