Downtown : Innovation + Startup News

In December 2011, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services selected 73 individuals, including Margaret Namie, of Mercy Health, to the Innovation Advisors Program.

Namie works as divisional vice president of quality for Mercy Health, a network of  more than 80 hospitals, senior living communities, outpatient centers and physician practices based in Cincinnati. Mercy will receive $20,000 to help support Namie’s work as an advisor. Candidates range from physicians to nurses to allied health professionals to instructors. The CMS, created by the Affordable Care Act, looks at criteria, such as career achievements, the organization's commitment to their work and skill sets.

“I have long advocated finding and sharing best practices in patient care as a way for healthcare providers to improve the health of the communities they serve,” Namie says. “The opportunity to learn from and share ideas with healthcare leaders from across the country will help us improve the health of men, women and children throughout the United States and right here in Cincinnati.”

The program is part of CMS’s wider effort to transform the healthcare system both financially and operationally. Chosen from 920 applicants from around the country, advisors will go through an intensive orientation then test new models of care and build partnerships to share ideas and outcomes both locally and nationally. By attending in-person meetings as well as remote sessions, advisors can deepen their knowledge in health care economics and finance, population health, systems analysis and operations research.

In its first year, the Innovation Advisors Program hopes to appoint 200 people to create a network of healthcare professionals and organizations working towards the same goals.

By Evan Wallis

Editor’s note and full disclosure: This is the first in a series of posts from Megan McAuley, a participant in the current SpringBoard session at ArtWorks. Megan is also a former UC journalism student of Soapbox Managing Editor Elissa Yancey, who is one of those nagging, I mean, encouraging, voices in the customer line at Coffee Emporium.

I am a 24-year-old political science graduate from the University of Cincinnati. I live in Over-the-Rhine and work down the street at a coffee shop called Coffee Emporium. I, like many other 20-something’s with a liberal arts degree, am barely getting by as I ponder my next big move. In college, I wanted to leave the country and save the world, but somewhere between there and here, I fell in love with OTR and decided it needed some saving, too.

My job at Coffee Emporium was supposed to be temporary. An enjoyable one to two-year stint as I mapped out my future. A future that entailed things like law school, working for a non-profit in foreign country or moving to some progressive city like Seattle or Boulder. Nothing about my future involved opening up a rock climbing gym in Cincinnati or creating an outdoor educational program for inner-city youth.

My path to budding entrepreneurship has been oddly comparable to my first time driving around the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. It has been, at times, overwhelming, intimidating, and directionless, yet navigable, exciting and pleasantly challenging. A series of unforeseen events culminated in my participation in the SpringBoard business planning and development program. On the first night of class, when asked how why we had pursued the program, I responded, “Because ArtWorks put up so many flyers in my café.”

My idea was like a seed, tossed into the air, half-jokingly, where it landed in an environment unexpectedly conducive to its growth. Since day one, Coffee Emporium has been a wealth of information, encouragement, networking and motivation for me. In OTR, I have found a community of people who truly believe in the potential our neighborhood has to grow and flourish. I have made genuine friendships with my customers and co-workers who have continually poked and prodded me to pursue an idea I once considered laughable.

In Tony and Eileen, my bosses, I have found the inspiration to create a workplace where customers and employees flock because there are still people on this planet who value doing things the right way. And in SpringBoard, I have found a group of facilitators and co-entrepreneurs who are providing me with the tools to make my idea a reality.

I am immeasurably excited to see what happens over the course of the next 8 weeks as I glean every bit of information I can from the SpringBoard course to pursue my business idea. Please join me for the ride.

Cincinnati-based peer lending technology firm SoMoLend is up and running with a $1 million-minimum lending commitment from KeyBank.

The Web- and mobile-based service allows small businesses that are credit worthy but may not be eligible to receive traditional bank loans to borrow money today from corporations and lending institutions, and eventually from family, friends, customers and neighbors, at low rates.

“It’s exciting that Cincinnati small businesses will be the first that get to take advantage of the KeyBank loans,” says Candace Klein, CEO and founder of SoMoLend.

“With the launch of the beta version of www.somolend.com and actual money to borrow, small businesses no longer have to be intimidated by walking through the doors of a traditional bank.”

While Cincinnatians may be the first who get to take advantage of this money, the company has garnered a lot of press both locally and nationwide, including at www.americanbanker.com and the online Wall Street Journal.  

“We’ve gained relevance in the U.S. banking world recently, and we truly think we have the technology to change the way small businesses obtain capital,” Klein says.

And although other online loan facilitators have failed to truly change the market, she says, SoMoLend has unique features that will make borrowing and lending money much more personal.

“The mobile and local aspect of our service encourages borrowers and lenders in the same geographic area to connect with one another,” Klein says.

“We have worked hard to offer a service that complies with all current state and federal laws, but we also see significant opportunity for individual lending with legislation currently proposed in Congress,” she adds.

This federal legislation would allow individuals to lend to unrelated but attractive small business requests on the site.
Until that happens, SoMoLend has signed with a second institution, is in active conversations with two more and has begun conversations with local cities and chambers of commerce to lend money to SoMoLend borrowers, creating new revenue for them and also serving their constituents.

SoMoLend was founded in May 2011 with a $470,000 seed-stage investment from CincyTech, Queen City Angels and private individuals.

By Sarah Blazak, CincyTech

If you’re wondering where you can find some of New York’s brightest contemporary classical musicians, look no further than Cincinnati’s Contemporary Arts Center. Jan. 21, the CAC presents Future Shock, an evening of electro-acoustic chamber music featuring artists William Brittelle, Clarice Jensen and Nadia Sirota.  
 
Composed by William Brittelle for ACME, the American Contemporary Music Ensemble, Future Shock promises to enchant the ears and provoke the intellect of concertgoers. The music combines elements from conventional classical music with contemporary drum programming and synthesizers to create a futuristic sound for a new millennium.
 
“Future Shock is really a survey of the type of music that is being created and performed in Brooklyn right now,” says Brittelle. “The show features music you can think about and feel. It’s amazing to open the world to this type of music in a very exciting way.”

Set to make its New York premiere in spring 2012, Cincinnatians can take advantage of a special opportunity to see Future Shock in the backdrop of the Contemporary Arts Center.
 
\William Brittelle is a composer of “electro-acoustic art music” whose work on the albums Television Landscape and Mohair Time Warp has been the subject of critical acclaim in The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, NPR’s All Things Considered and more. Brittelle has performed all across the United States and is the co-director of New Amsterdam Records and New Amsterdam Presents, a recording label and presenting organization based in Brooklyn, NY.
 
Cellist Clarice Jensen holds both a bachelor’s and master’s degree from The Juilliard School and is currently the artistic director for ACME. She has performed with an impressive list of artists, including the New Juilliard Ensemble, the International Music Ensemble, the Avian Orchestra and Columbia Composers, in addition to pop and rock musicians such as The National, Grizzly Bear and Silversun Pickups. She has recorded with the likes of Arcade Fire, Ratatat and Hole among many others.
 
Violist Nadia Sirota also holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from The Juilliard School. She is a founding member of ACME, yMusic, and Wordless Music Orchestra, and has commissioned and premiered works by composers Marcos Balter, Caleb Burhans and Nico Muhly. Her impressive and extensive credits include performances with Max Richter, Johann Johannsson and Stars of the Lid among others. In addition to her classical performances, Nadia’s work can be heard on albums by The National, Grizzly Bear and Arcade Fire’s The Suburbs.
 
Future Shock features no vocal performances. The audience can expect to hear modern works by Nico Muhly, Missy Mazzoli, and Judd Greenstein, as well as a world premiere by William Brittelle.
 
Tickets are $10 general admission, or $8 for CAC members. To purchase tickets, visit www.contemporaryartscenter.org.
 
By Deidra Wiley Necco

Deaconess Medical Monitoring is marketing a suite of products designed to allow senior citizens to be more independent as they age.

These products, developed in partnership with Guardian Medical Monitoring, come as Deaconess continues to evolve from a hospital to a senior services and product provider.

Products currently available include the Personal Emergency Response System (PERS), which alerts a personal emergency responder if a person falls or faces a home security breach. Subscribers wear a necklace or wristband that they can activate in an emergency.

There's also the Medication Management System, an electronic medication dispenser that helps people manage multiple prescriptions or complex medication schedules. Users can load a month's worth of medication at a time, then be alerted when it's time to take correct doses. After they take their medicines, users hit a blue button on the device to signal they've taken the medications. If they don't hit the button after a certain time, the device withdraws the medicine and notifies a person identified as a first responder.

The goal of the new products is as simple as it is necessary. "We are trying to help people age in place and stay independent in their own homes as long as possible," says Deaconess Medical Monitoring Coordinator Holly Williamson.

Other products like internet video monitoring and GPS-powered personal location devices help seniors and caretakers transition from a hospital to home. Lack of a successful transition often means repeat trips to hospitals, which translates into seniors more likely to lose their independence while racking up higher healthcare costs.

Deaconess Medical Monitoring products are being marketed to individuals, hospitals and senior living facilities, and there are more products being developed, Williamson says.

Deaconess Medical Monitoring is an affiliate of Deaconess Associations Foundation. Deaconess Associations, Inc., the parent company for all Deaconess affiliates, owns and operates Deaconess Long Term Care facilities in Ohio, Kansas and Missiouri.
 
Deaconess Hospital closed in 2010, and has evolved into a  health care campus with health-oriented products, services and resources. The hospital building is leased to University of Cincinnati Psychiatric Services; Regency Rehabilitation Hospital ( a long term rehabilitation hospital); and other other private offices and research facilities.


By Feoshia Henderson
Follow Feoshia on Twitter

When he wasn't busy governing the city and country and practicing law, Cincinnati native David Pepper always wondered why people would spend an hour working out at the gym, only to grab a soda and candy bar on their way out the door. So the lawyer-turned-businessman decided to try his hand at social entrepreneurship.
 
“You've got these vending machines all over the place undermining the goals that people have set for themselves," Pepper says.
 
And in some instances, foods high in saturated fat, sodium or sugar are the only snacks available to children.
 
To provide a different option, Pepper, best known for his political career and his lineage (he is the son of former P&G CEO John Pepper and philanthropist wife Francie), began operating a chain of healthy food vending machines in Cincinnati last year.
 
“We thought it was a really interesting idea both as a business, but also as a part of a cause,” Pepper says.
 
Pepper started the business with partner Scott Stern, who lives in Denver, last April with a trial run at the Krohn Conservatory Butterfly Show. Their business, called Pepstern, now has about 50 machines in Cincinnati and Denver with plans to expand in both regions. Most of their machines are located in places like schools, gyms and corporate offices, and each location sells a mix of snacks custom-tailored to its clientele.
 
While it’s difficult to broadly define “healthy snacks,” some products available in the machines are all natural, low in fat or low in sodium, but all of them stand as an alternative to the classic snack items typically found in food vending machines. The machines, provided by a company called H.U.M.A.N. Healthy Vending, carry food like Stacey’s Pita Chips, Popchips and Pirate’s Booty, and drinks like Honest Tea.
 
Pepper says he and his partner spent the first few months figuring out what products work best in the different locations. The machines contain feedback mechanisms that update the owners every six hours with information about what items have sold in which locations.
 
“You learn quickly what sells and what doesn't sell,” Pepper says.
 
Pepper’s company installs machines in schools that enable the schools to be in compliance with healthy eating guidelines implemented by the Ohio state government last year. He said schools are by far their best-selling locations.
 
Pepper said a healthy vending machine located next to a pack of standard snack machines does not sell well. The success of a healthy food vending machine hinges on it being in the right location.
 
“We find locations that actually care about this issue,” Pepper says. “They need to be places that say, ‘Hey, we want our employees or our customers to have healthier options.' ”

By Henry Sweets

From the elaborate green roof garden to the high-powered vacuum toilets in the basement, hidden in downtown Cincinnati on E. Eighth Street lies a eco-friendly treasure.  

GreenSource Cincinnati, founded in 2008 by Ez Housh, showcases green technologies in a working restored home. What was built as Cincinnati’s mayor’s home now operates as GreenSource Cincinnati, a subsidiary of Monroe Mechanical, which promotes sustainability and produces certifiable energy savings for business and residential clients. Installation and maintenance for these technologies are provided by Monroe Mechanical and its residential “sister” company, and Ez’s namesake, HOUSH.
 
The driving force behind GreenSource Cincinnati is the growing need for less energy use. “The planet is growing and our resources are shrinking,” says Ez, whose father founded Monroe Mechanical in 1954. “America especially is about 5 percent of the world’s population but uses 60 percent of its resources. Let’s face it; we’re wasteful. If we conserve more, people less fortunate can have more.”
 
Housh, and his family, have big hopes for GreenSource. “With GreenSource Cincinnati, we plan to serve as a technology resource center for not only Cincinnati but all of Ohio and Kentucky,” says Elizabeth Housh Reynolds, Ez’s daughter who also works for GreenSource. “We plan to lead by example through our energy-efficient building practices, and influence architects and engineers who will then go on to build and design other energy-efficient buildings.”
 
Service is a family tradition for the Houshes, and Ez’s dedication is obvious when he talks about GreenSource and all that his family does in and outside of the community. “Our main goal is to keep people comfortable,” he says. “We are not here just to make money, but because we enjoy it. We are just like the guy playing music on the street.”
 
His daughter agrees. “I like what I do because it matters — it is a job that changes the way people think and act by encouraging environmental responsibility through building practices,” Elizabeth says.
 
The company is not only helping others stay green but they also practice their own methods. They run as paperless of a business as possible; employees actively recycle, shop local and use compost. “Day to day, everything in the building we use is recycled, and scheduled to turn off then the building is not in use,” says Ez.
 
Partner company Schneider shares the goal of staying green and promoting sustainability. Jim McCorkle, district manager of critical power and cooling services for Schneider Electric, is a good friend of Ez Housh and one of the original GS partners.
 
“I worked with Ez back at Monroe when he was still coming up with the concept of GreenSource,” says Jim. “It works out great for the both of us because Ez designs the work and Schneider Electric provides the resources to package everything together for the customer to provide a solution.”
 
Although the top technologies used at GreenSource are primarily European, Housh points out small changes people can make to save energy and money. “Insulation is the most important thing that people need to focus on first,” he says. “Tighten the envelope by sealing the cracks and keeping the bad stuff out and good stuff in.”


By Jasmine Evans

Evans, a winter 2011 graduate of the University of Cincinnati, wrote this story as part of her Journalism capstone seminar, Communicating Sustainability. Look for more Communicating Sustainability stories on Soapbox in coming weeks.

 

It's a tall order to create jobs, improve health and retain talent through a healthcare innovation challenge, but the new Innov8 for Health Challenge aims to do just that.

Designed as an annual occurrence, Innov8 for Health will hold three community-wide events promoting healthcare innovation to solve a specific problem. The initiative involves developing a solution, building a business plan around it, and a shot at receiving startup funding to make the idea a reality. The challenge is already underway, and Innov8 is currently accepting ideas that address "transitions in care" this December.

"We already have incubators and accelerators here in Cincinnati, and there is a lot of healthcare innovation going on. But we want to build on what is already here, and specifically help spur the healthcare innovation infrastructure," says one of the event's organizers Sunnie Southern, founder of ViableSynergy.

Criag F. Osterhues, health care manager for GE Aviation, is also helping organize the event. Other planners include reps from C-Cap, and Queen City Angels, Biostart, Taft law firm and the Health Foundation of Greater Cincinnati.

Innov8 hopes to uncover tech-based solutions to problems that arise when a person moves from one care setting to the next -- from a hospital to nursing home, from the hospital to home, from high school to college. They can include difficulties with cooking, medications or even personal safety. Lack of a successful transition often means repeat trips to hospitals, which translates into higher healthcare costs.

"It's a very big issue for the country,” Southern says. “A study in 2004 in the New England Journal of Medicine showed it cost Medicare $17.4 billion."

The Innov8 for Health Challenge is accepting ideas to solve transition to care problems through Nov. 28 at its website. Open to students and entrepreneurs, the best ideas will be part of a public Innov8 Idea Expo and contest Dec. 2. Winners will be selected to participate in a Business Concept Expo next spring. Finally, the top concepts will be pitched to a panel and potential investors during the Launch Pad event in summer 2012.

By Feoshia Henderson

CincyTech has invested $10 million in 28 local startup companies and helped its companies attract another $100 million in private co-investment since 2007.

CincyTech President Bob Coy announced CincyTech’s performance numbers at the venture development organization’s second Annual Big Breakfast Meeting and Startup Showcase Nov. 15.

More than 400 people registered to attend the meeting at Duke Energy Convention Center, and 35 startup companies and community partners participated in a Startup Showcase. CincyTech is a public-private partnership whose mission is to invest in high-growth startup technology companies in Southwest Ohio. Since it began its investment activity in May 2007, its 28 companies have created 207 jobs with an average annual salary of $63,000. CincyTech now has 167 active client companies.

Coy said CincyTech has led 50 percent of all venture capital deals in the region this year. “2011 was a year of tremendous momentum for us,” Coy says. “We had our first exit, with Blue Ash Therapeutics. We saw another of our companies, AssureRx, receive an $11 million funding round from major Silicon Valley venture capital firms Claremont Creek and Sequoia. We saw NanoDetection Technology, which moved here last year from Tennessee, oversubscribe its $2 million round by $300,000.

“We saw a cumulative total of $15 million invested in our companies from 35 individual investors. And we hit a major milestone by reaching $200 million in direct economic impact from those companies through investment capital, revenue, foundation and government grants and loans and corporate partnerships. At that rate, we will hit $1 billion of investment activity over the next five years.”

CincyTech partners participating in the meeting included Ohio Third Frontier, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, the University of Cincinnati and the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber.

“Our community outreach includes providing the grants behind the Brandery and Cincinnati Innovates, mentoring and assistance at the X-Lab at Xavier University and partnership programs and funding to encourage students at Miami, Xavier, UC and NKU to start companies here,” Coy says.

The other organizations that contribute financial support to CincyTech are the Carol Ann and Ralph Haile/U.S. Bank Foundation; the Castellini Foundation; the Circuit; the Cities of Blue Ash and Mason; Fort Washington Capital Partners; the Greater Cincinnati Foundation; PNC Financial Services; River Cities Capital Funds; the Health Foundation of Greater Cincinnati, Thompson Hine and Wood Herron Evans law firms, and many private individual investors.

By Sarah Blazak

Facebook. Twitter. LinkedIn. Pinterest. RSS. Blogs. News. Hulu. Flickr. NetFlix.Email. That other Email. That other Twitter account.

There's a lot of information out there and it's not easy to aggregate, organize or share it with the people who may be most interested in it. You have to log into and out of accounts and applications, scan various news feeds and spend precious time emailing, tweeting or sharing information with different people. It can be time consuming, inefficient and overwhelming.

But a group of Cincinnatians are working to change that through a new iPad app they're developing called Semblee. Semblee is being designed as an intuitive application that allows users to access all their social and other web-based accounts in one place, and with a swipe of a finger, share text, pictures, news or videos with individuals or groups.

"What makes Semblee different from other products is its unique User Interface (UI) and the way it displays information," says Semblee co-founder Geoff Stevens, also co-owner of Element SEO. "Semblee is a social combinator, meaning it brings together social media accounts, rss feeds, online coupons, email and more into a single UI. This unique UI makes content sharing both simple and fun."

Semblee is a creation of six partners with various backgrounds, from marketing and SEO and web design to business development and software design.

Rob Smith, Stevens' co-owner at Element SEO, came up with the initial concept of Semblee.

"It was kind of like a lightning bolt. He came up with the idea, and what it was going to look like," Stevens says.

Semblee is working with a contractor to develop the application with plans to unveil a demo at the CincyTech annual meeting Nov. 15 at the Duke Energy Center. Semblee and CincyTech are also working on an early stage financing deal that should be announced soon, Stevens says.

Current plans are for a limited beta launch; a fuller version for the iPad is planned for next spring, Stevens says. Later, Semblee will be available on other platforms. Interested in being a beta tester? Go to Semblee.com and add your email.

By Feoshia Henderson
Follow Feoshia on Twitter @feoshiawrites

After eight weeks of workshops and lessons from professionals, 11 entrepreneurs gave five-minutes pitches about their businesses—some starting from scratch, others refining and perfecting.

The second graduating class of ArtWorks’ Springboard program featured art studios, food delivery and music workshops. Once again, the eight-week course gave entrepreneurial hopefuls from many different phases of life chances to gain insights on their ideas and the know-how to write sound business plans.

De Stewart, owner of Colonel De Gourmet Herbs & Spices at Findlay Market, gave a keynote at the event. He urged SpringBoarders to hold onto their dreams and told them that passionate breeds possibility. After their presentations, every presenter thanked SpringBoard.

One presenter, Caitlin Behle, started SpringBoard without a clear direction. Eight weeks later, Behle plans on launching the Cincinnati Music Initiative next year, which will host workshops for musicians to talk about the industry, as well as develop a website that gives venues, bands and fans a place to find out everything about Cincinnati music. She also has a full five-year plan in the works.

Matt Anthony of Losantiville Collective, an artist workshop on Main Street, already has a growing clientele and group of artists who rent space and share tools in his studio-salesroom hybrid. With SpringBoard, though, Anthony wants keep more artists in Cincinnati by being able to purchase more tools and more space for the handcrafting details that Losantiville promotes.

With the second class now graduated, SpringBoard has launched 30 entrepreneurs into the world with more business expertise and the confidence to run a successful business. With the third class already in session and the fourth planned for 2012, Sarah Corlett, SpringBoard coordinator, needs more experts to help enhance the collaborative learning experience.

Also in the works is more space for SpringBoard classes. ArtWorks plans to create a workshop space in the place the current Secret ArtWorks gallery. With more room and the ability to hold more classes, SpringBoard can help and inspire a new generation of creative entrepreneurs looking to build their businesses, and their futures, in Cincinnati.

By Evan Wallis

As one of the world's most successful companies, Google allows its engineers to spend 20 percent of their time working on their own personal ideas.

But would that work for a small company in Cincinnati? Or would it be wasteful?

An upcoming innovation conference will help local business people find the best ways to promote new, fresh ideas in their company. While many people think innovation is a mysterious or even mystical talent, the presenters have a more concrete message.

“Innovation is a skill, not a gift,” says University of Cincinnati marketing and innovation professor Drew Boyd. “It’s not something that you’re born with, and that surprises people.”

Boyd is co-writing a book about innovation with a professor at Columbia's business school who has been researching innovation through thousands of years of human history. He said a few specific patterns of innovation have been repeated over time.

“It’s just a process that can be learned like anything else, like playing a guitar or speaking a new language,” Boyd says.

Boyd, along with directors from Procter &d Gamble, SunnyD and GE Aviation, will be speaking at the “Energizing Innovation” conference on Nov. 17 in the METS center in Northern Kentucky. The event’s organizers said the one-day conference will teach best practices of innovation and how to foster a culture of innovation.

"A big piece of this conference is about culture, and opening the door to allow people to think creatively inside a company,” the event’s co-creator Will Krieger says. “And allowing them to share ideas without thinking that they're taking too big a risk in doing so.”

Eight speakers, most of whom are based in Cincinnati, will draw from their experiences with innovation.

David Linger, a technology director for GE Aviation, will discuss ways to leverage in-house research with on-line communities and how to track and evaluate innovation initiatives. Cindy Tripp, a marketing director for Procter & Gamble, will discuss “design thinking” skills like “deep human empathy” and “collective curiosity.” She will also share case studies demonstrating simple ways to bring innovation to an office.

Krieger says that, according to his own web research, Cincinnati has more fortune five hundred companies per million residents than any other city in America. That means the town is thick with opportunities, but local businesses need to open themselves to new ways of thinking in order to capitalize on them.

"Ultimately there needs to be more risk taking happening,” Krieger says. “You can stick to doing traditional things, but eventually you've got to innovate, and in order to do that you have to take risks."

The conference will be hosted by the local chapters of the American Marketing Association and the Product Development and Management Association. Registration information is available at energizinginnovation.com.

By Henry Sweets