Innovation + Startup News

Sarah DeMoss’ Etsy startup story is almost too simple. She created a quilt for her living room, but found that it didn’t quite fit her décor once it was sewn. Because so much work had gone into the piece, she couldn’t bear the thought of not using it, and decided to post it on Etsy. DeMoss Designs was born.

The first quilt sold quickly, so DeMoss began creating new quilts and other items on request. Each time an item was requested, she’d add it to her store, figuring that what one customer wanted might please another, too.

Two years later, DeMoss still sells lots of quilts, but you can also find flag banners (photographers love them for birthday photo shoots with kids), pacifier clips, headbands, coasters and onesies for infants.

Quilts remain at the heart of the business, however. “Every time I make a quilt, it’s my favorite,” DeMoss says. “I have stacks of unfinished quilts. It seems like every time I list one, I sell it.

DeMoss watches changes to the Etsy site closely, tracking forum conversations to keep up with changes that might influence when and where her products show up in site searches. The site frequently changes the way products are emphasized, she says.

“Right now I’m selling a lot of quilts and pacifiers clips; six months ago I was selling a lot of baby lovies and headbands. I don’t know why it happens the way it happens. I think a lot of it has to do with Etsy and how they emphasize items … A lot of it has to do with search engine optimization and just keeping yourself relevant.”

She also reports a fair amount of direct traffic, or site searches for her shop name as her wares become more well-known. And even her husband has jumped into the Etsy shop recently, pairing with her to sell woodworking items.

By Robin Donovan

“People always say, ‘Be careful working with your best friend,’ but we’ve never had those negative experiences. Our relationship and the way we know each other has been such a strength,” says Lisa Mills, a psychologist, and co-founder of research consultancy Sprout Insight, of her 22-year friendship with co-founder Kathy Burklow.

Mills and Burklow became friends as graduate students in psychology, working together first at the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. In 2006, frustrated by the disconnect between scientific advancement and community engagement, they left Children’s to launch Harmony Garden, a nonprofit community research center focused on improving the health of Cincinnati girls.

Building on the idea of helping community members be heard and understood, the duo pivoted last February, launching Sprout Insight, a market research and insight consultancy. These days, the leverage decades of clinical and research experience while work closely with companies, hospitals, nonprofits and branding firms that target African American, Latino and Asian shoppers.

“Unless [companies] get better at collecting information about racial and ethnic minorities, they’re going to continue to miss opportunities in their industries,” Mills says. “There are a lot of consumer insight and market research companies, but very few are looking at consulting with businesses and corporations about gathering insights from racially and ethnically diverse populations.”

Accordingly, the women help organizations identify what types of data they need and how to gather it, both quantitatively through customized surveys and qualitatively, often through focus groups that allow the pair to gain deeper insight into consumers.

In practice, that might look like tweaking an existing survey to avoid leading questions or to gather more specific data. It could also mean setting up focus groups at a church or recreation center (rather than the typical observation room) to allow meaningful feedback and insight to flow. “Taking [people] out of their community, you may get answers, but they may not be relevant answers,” Mills says.

And so Mills and Burklow keep bringing new voices to the conversation between companies and consumers, hoping for the same goal sparked their friendship decades ago. “Kathy and I are really about the bridging of the gaps,” Mills explains.

“For our society to work together, everybody needs to be knowledgeable on some level so that they can sit at the table, and communicate.”
 
 By Robin Donovan

It would appear that not all native Ohioans dread the scorching summers typical in our region. In fact, members of UC’s biology department recently identified two plants that thrive under the same conditions that send humans running for air-conditioned shelter.

A pilot study conducted by UC biology student Jill Bader and assistant professor of biology Ishi Buffam found that of four native Ohio plants tested, the nodding wild onion (Allium cernuum) and a European sedum (Sedum acre) are particularly well suited for the vegetated roofs becoming increasingly common—and which the pair hope to help popularize even further—in local green building practices.

Green roofs have been utilized in many cities to address environmental issues, from air pollution and street noise to excess stormwater runoff. According to Buffam, however, most of the plants currently used on green roofs are not native to the region.

“We aim to help inform policy and details of green roof construction and implementation by increasing the knowledge base,” Buffam says.

The results of the study, which Buffam and Bader presented earlier this month at the CitiesAlive 2012 conference in Chicago, confirm earlier studies which have found the nodding wild onion to be a successful green roof plant.

“It was exciting to see everyone coming together to share research data, case studies and ideas for increasing green roof adoption as a solution for the environmental issues created by urbanization,” Bader says.

“In order for green roof installations to become more widely adopted in the region, more guidance supported by research data is needed,” says Buffam. “Especially as it relates to the selection of green roof plants and the ecosystem services they provide. [Such research] is extremely important to the efforts of municipalities, businesses and environmental agencies who utilize green roofs in their efforts at reducing stormwater runoff and protecting the quality of our surface waters.”

Buffam and Bader direct those interested in learning more about green roofs to the Civic Garden Center’s Green Learning Station, a roundup of  “…responsible methods to grow gardens anywhere and everywhere: yards, rooftops, walls, patios, driveways and parking lots.”

By Hannah Purnell

By now, most people have heard about "cloud," or web-based computing, which has made collaboration, innovation and efficiency easier.

A Cincinnati tech entrepreneur, Larry Carvalho, is taking his expertise in cloud computing to large companies across the country through his business, RobustCloud.

"I have a mechanical engineering degree, and have helped businesses learn how to use IT to improve their business," Carvalho says. "I took my experience to large enterprises by helping tech companies in the adoption of cloud computing."

Carvalho, a native of India, lived in New York before coming to Cincinnati for work in the late 1980s. He started RobustCloud in 2009 after his job with IBM was relocated.

"For most companies, there is a dearth of knowledge about what they can do with could computing," Carvalho says. "As a result, they look for experts to advise them on what steps to take."

The main areas in which he consults are social networks, mobile computing and analytics.

"That is really what is driving the need for cloud infrastructure," he says. "The bottom line benefit to business is business agility. They are able to react to market changes faster."

Though based in Cincinnati, many of Carvalho's clients are on the East and West coasts. However, he is looking to expand his footprint in Cincinnati and will be among those presenting at the Digital Non Conference this Wednesday at 11:15 a.m. on "Data and Digital Marketing."

"I'm really eager to help local companies adopt cloud computing," Carvalho says. "I want to make a difference in Cincinnati."

By Feoshia H. Davis
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SocStock, a web-based company that lets people fund their favorite small businesses in exchange for double the amount back in products, services or experiences, is set to relaunch today.

SocStock, a graduate of the latest Brandery accelerator class, will officially be back online today. On Oct. 25, the company will hold a launch event, SocStock Community Pitch Night, at the Know Theatre in Over-the-Rhine. SocStock and Cincinnati businesses that use the platform will be there to talk about the creative financing option.

"This is a way for small businesses to raise zero-interest cash by reaching out to customers and community members for a cash advance to help their business grow," says SocStock Senior Associate Jillian Zatta.

SocStock allows businesses to raise funds quickly from people who truly support them. At the same time, it gives customers a buy-in through investments in a favorite local business.

"It's a very good consumer engagement tool, and it makes customers feel more connected to the small businesses they frequent," Zatta says. "It's also a way for customers to really help a business by doing more than buying from them."

For every $1 invested, the business will pay back $2 in a combination of company products, services or experiences.

SocStock also can serve as a valuable marketing tool.

"They can give customers access to a special collection, invite them to a fashion show, a personal styling session or discounts," Zatta says.

Zatta and SocStock's founder Jay Finch have finance backgrounds and relocated to Cincinnati from New York, where they worked at Goldman Sachs. They plan on making Cincinnati SocStock's home.

"We want to stay here. We want Cincinnati to be our home. There's definitely a place for us here," she says.

By Feoshia H. Davis
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There’s something decidedly sci-fi about digitizing green plants, but that’s what a new partnership between the Cincinnati Park Board and local tech startup QuipTV hopes to achieve.

This month, the duo launched a pilot project that allows Ault Park visitors to access informative videos about specific plants, the community and the park by using smartphones or handheld devices to scan QR-tagged plants. 

So far, 87 specimens have been tagged with another 40 to be added in the coming weeks, according to the Parks. Plans are also in the works to extend the project to Krohn Conservatory in time for its 2012 holiday exhibit, “Trains, Trestles & Traditions,” which runs Nov. 17-Jan. 6.

“We would like to expand the program to more locations in the future, but we will wait to see some of the responses from the pilot projects at Ault and Krohn,” says Deborah Allison, business services manager at the Parks.

You don’t have to visit the sites to learn about the plants, either. The informative videos can also be accessed remotely via the Cincinnati Parks’ YouTube channel and its mobile app, which was launched in July.

According to Kris Kubicki, co-founder of QuipTV, the videos also direct users to local vendors that sell the featured plants.

“We own a small nursery and were trying to figure out a way to generate enthusiasm for plants and let people know that we exist,” says Kubicki. “Recognizing that many small businesses are struggling and need the support of their community, this project helps them, too. In this technology-driven culture with smartphones in the hands of many, we can take a moment of curiosity and educate with a 20-50-second video.”

Organizers hope the project will help people connect more with the outdoors and interact with other Cincinnatians through existing groups like the Greater Cincinnati Master Gardener Association and the Civic Garden Center.

“This project engages people with their surroundings and provides options for citizens to be more proactive,” says Kubicki. “We all need each other. Supporting our local communities is where we start fixing the future.”

By Hannah Purnell
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Ethan Snider has had a love affair with food for nearly a quarter of a century. Raised on Cincinnati’s west side, he worked up through the ranks at Macaroni Grill, and eventually became an executive chef. In short, it was a dream come true.

Until he hated it.

“The corporate stuff just did not appeal to me,” Snider says. “I was there for less than six months.” He ended up at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y., where he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in 2004. After that, Snider moved around a lot. He worked at a tiny Batesville, Ind., restaurant that was run out of a three-car garage and after that, at a fine-dining restaurant in Boca Grande, Fla.

Moving around was great for a while, but Snider eventually grew homesick. “I liked it a lot, but I started to miss being here; I always wanted to make a name for myself in Cincinnati because this is where I’m from,” he says.

After moving back to Cinicnnati, Snider got started with his own food venture at local farmers’ markets because they have low overhead and a home-grown touch. With an eye toward the need for more locally sourced vegetarian and vegan options, Snider launched Summuh (pronounced “SOU-mah”), a specialty hummus shop, first at a farmer’s market in Madeira and, then in Northside and Hyde Park. Most recently, he joined Findlay Market, where he plans to weather the winter months.

Snider calls his wares “the Ben & Jerry’s of hummus,” and promises that “you’ve never had hummus like this.” Two of his core flavors are a chickpea hummus with lemon and rosemary and one spiced with cumin, coriander and cilantro and topped with red onions. There are also 12-15 seasonal flavors, including “Squashbuckler,” which features a butternut squash and navy bean base with ancho chili powder, garlic and a spicy black bean relish on top.

Though his hummus is organic and local, Snider says he’s no food evangelist. “I’m not trying to convert anyone to what I believe in or change the world." he says. "I just feel that if I believe in something, other people will start to believe in what I’m doing, too.”

By Robin Donovan

Imagine the work that goes into a batch of cookies: mixing, rolling, baking, decorating and washing. Now imagine baking 1,000 cookies per month. That’s how many Debbie DeGeer typically creates at Mt Lookout Sweets, a bakery she runs from her Mt. Lookout home – complete with a commercial kitchen in the basement – each month.

That’s 12,000 cookies a year, but DeGeer isn’t counting. Baking helps keep her hands busy and her creative mind active while she cares for her aging mother, who helping instill in DeGeer a love of floury hands and blustery ovens. DeGeer’s mother lives with Alzheimer’s, and the duo spends their share of quiet nights at home. 

Baking started as “a kind of therapy,” and DeGeer often arrived at Comey Shepherd, the real estate agency where she works, laden with cookies. Her creations with the company logo on them were particularly popular for the company’s open houses, and from there, the requests grew.

DeGeer specializes in hand-decorated sugar cookies that are part art and part dessert, and she has a design for everyone. When Keidel, a Cincinnati-based plumbing, cabinetry, appliance and lighting contractor, celebrated its 100^th anniversary, DeGeer created confections in the shape of bathtubs, light bulbs and even toilets.

“I never thought in my life I would make a cute toilet, but I did,” DeGeer says.

Active with other cookie pros, dubbed “cookiers,” on Facebook, DeGeer has about 1,200 Facebook fans for her business, and says it’s a top source of referrals, along with word-of-mouth.

Mt Lookout Sweets averages three to four orders per week, with DeGreer's capacity filling up quickly around the holidays and in late spring or early summer as couples plan their weddings. DeGeer typically requests a week’s notice for each order and more during busy seasons.

By Robin Donovan

In Ohio's historic manufacturing industry, savvy leaders are increasingly turning to innovation to grow their businesses.

Hello New Products, which is headquartered in Cincinnati, helps established small- and mid-sized manufacturers develop and get new products to market.

"A lot of our clients come to us just frustrated out of their minds," says Chuck Libourel, Hello New Products' director of business services. "We usually meet with a CEO or board of directors that just can't make things happen. We help them get the right tools in place and execute a plan to get new products to market."

Hello New Products works with some startups, but it generally works with established companies that already have manufacturing experience.

"One thing most of our clients have in common is they lack the business process to bring new products to market," Libourel says. "They're doing it all in marketing and engineering. We do that, plus engage all the business elements of getting a product to market." 

Often these companies have outdated products that need a refresh, have brought unsuccessful products to market or are having trouble innovating quickly.

Many manufacturing companies are running lean and mean, and today many don't have the in-house resources to quickly bring new products to market, Libourel says. That's where Hello New Products steps in.

"We advocate for American small- to mid-sized companies that don't have the resources, and have to compete with bigger companies," Libourel says.

They do this by helping companies:
• Improve their market position by introducing new products
• Increase both revenue and profitability from new products
• Reduce product development costs
• Accelerate product development timing

Hello New Products tailors its New Product Development system to individual manufacturers several ways, including sharpening product definitions, focusing on business metrics, building customer needs into products and creating clearly defined tasks and processes for development.

By Feoshia H. Davis
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When Josh Fendley and four tech-savvy friends left their digital agency to launch a smaller venture, they were looking for a business name that would convey their small staff’s concentrated experience. Ample fit the bill, and is still a point of pride because one of the firm’s selling points is its size.

"Clients realize that if I’m the one selling them on doing the work, they’re going to be working with me the entire time if they choose to engage us," Fendley says. "When we left our last agency, we were all directors of this and that, but decided we wanted to get back to doing work instead of just managing it."

Fendley says the trick of being small is to carefully select experienced employees, with an eye to maintaining company culture. “We have only one relatively young employee, and we belabored on whether or not we should do that,” he says.

Recently, Ample has been pivoting away from marketing to focus on building websites and developing strategic, creative digital projects, including video and websites that easily scale down desktop applications for mobile interfaces and apps.

"All the sites we create automatically scale and reformat," Fendley says. "Not a lot of people are actually doing that."

Ample also developed its own content management system.

Along with size and experience, Ample’s culture is shaped by its brainy core. "We love being presented with something we don’t know how to get through," Fendley says. "We love to figure out how to do it."

Ample is primarily a Ruby on Rails shop, but it also offers help with strategic planning.

So, when Ample got a call from a New Jersey nonprofit that was seeking to outfit students with disabilities with human-read audio books, its developers created an iTunes-like app compatible with a variety of devices.

"A lot of our long-time clients pay us to think for them, and I think that’s where we’re most successful,” Fendley says, noting that new business largely comes from referrals, and the team is turning away prospective clients.“Clients are your best salespeople. If you do well by them, them will typically give you some good karma back."

By Robin Donovan

Terrible first dates come in many flavors. There are bad friend dates, bad blind dates and the ever-unpopular no-show. And then there are internet first dates, those frustrating, sometimes creepy, sometimes fun meetups that – almost impossibly – seem to lead to marriages more and more often.

But what if you could take the creepy factor out of online dating? What if there were no detailed online profiles, no website-based inboxes, no carefully arranged you-might-be-an-axe-murderer first dates?

The founders of WooWho – Andy Zhang, George Lin and Sean Wen -- say they’re offering just that. A trio of bilingual kids who met in the '90s, they combined backgrounds in C++, JavaScript, server-side work, Python and Ruby on Rails with some graphic design thrown in to launch the online dating site, starting with individually approved participants.

WooWho, a new graduate of The Brandery, started a private alpha two months ago and launched a private beta a month or so ago. With feedback from a few early users, the trio is currently refining the final site. Users who accept an invitation (available upon request) submit a biographical blurb and small photo, then submit an age range, gender preference, location and scheduling availability.

People are matched based on basic preferences, not availability. Like Amazon’s recommendation engine, WooWho suggests matches based on the preferences of users who have similar interests. This technique, loosely deemed “clustering,” is different from basic categorization.

“If you ask people what they like [in a potential match], they don’t tell you very accurately," says co-founder Andy Zhang. "What we’ve learned from observing other sites is that categorization is exceptionally difficult for these types of things…clustering tends to be more reliable in real life; it’s also something that machines are really good at."

So, rather than creating a complex profile and emailing a potential fit, users simply select a friendly looking local and request a date. If the person accepts, WooWho automatically sets up a time and local business based on scheduling preferences.

The site is free to join, and there is no cost for the first three dates, with a $5 charge per set-up after that. The idea is not to have folks linger on the site, Zhang says. “We want to get people off their computers and out meeting people. We think a great way to do it is to discover and enjoy the other local small businesses out here.”

By Robin Donovan

The Network of Executive Women, or NEW, reached out to Cincinnati area students with a real-life story of leadership by bringing a history-making general to Villa Madonna Academy.

U.S. Army Gen. Becky Halstead (retired), spoke to 7th through 12th graders this month at the Northern Kentucky school, sharing her experiences as a military leader in Iraq, highlighting discipline, service and higher education.

Gen. Halstead, who retired in from the Army 2008 after 27 years, was the first women in U.S. history to command in combat at the strategic level. As the senior commanding general for logistics in Iraq, she lead more than 200 multi-disciplined units across 55 bases, providing supply, maintenance, transportation and distribution support to more than 250,000 personnel serving in Iraq.

She also coordinated directly with high-level organizations such as the Office of the Secretary of Defense, Joint Chiefs of Staff, Department of State, U.S. Congress, U.S. ambassadors and equivalent foreign military and civilian organizations.
The crucial message she wanted to get across to the students is that self-discipline is a must for strong leadership.

"They must lead themselves first before they can lead others, and they only way they can truly accomplish that is if they discipline themselves," she says.

Halstead is a West Point grad, and credited her academy experience with developing her early leadership abilities, based on personal discipline.

The Greater Cincinnati Chapter of Network of Executive Women, a consumer products and retail industry professional organization, says Halstead's perspective on leadership meshes with its core mission to educate and develop future industry leaders.

"We want to plant those seeds about leadership, and to make that connection about going to college," says Amy Armstrong Smith, NEW chair and national account manager at Brown-Forman.

The Villa Hills event is just one of others planned to reach out to students at area high schools and universities, Smith adds.

Gen. Halstead is a nationally known motivational and leadership speaker who's worked with organizations including Procter & Gamble, Lead America and Columbia University.

Though she has been in command of thousands during her career, she says it's important to serve first to become a great leader.

"That's what trains you to be obedient, and also really indicates that you care about others. If you don't care about others, if you're not willing to serve other people, then how can you expect them to follow you?" she says.

By Feoshia H. Davis
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A month into her new job as director of the Small Business Development Center at NKU, Rebecca Volpe wants to expand the center's outreach and talent.

"I want to get out there and engage the businesses and community stakeholders who can use SBDC's services to meet the needs that they have," says Volpe, former business retention and recruitment specialist for the city of Covington. "I also want to really utilize contracting with professionals who are experts in their fields. I think the SBDC can be a hub to bring people together."

Volpe comes to SBDC with a wide range of business development experience. A Michigan native, she earned both a BS and MPA from Northern Kentucky University and is a certified economic development finance professional. Among her skills are credit analysis, grant writing and strategic planning. In the last four years, she helped businesses and real estate developers attract $30 million in capital.

Volpe wants to bring that grassroots business development experience to her new work with small businesses in Northern Kentucky.

"I have an understanding of the basics of community development, and the need to create a place where people have access to economic prosperity," Volpe says. "I want to help create that opportunity for business owners. I want to be engaged with fearless people starting businesses, or [those] who have an existing business."

SBDC offers free, one-on-one business services to small businesses and entrepreneurs in Boone, Campbell, Gallatin, Grant, Kenton and Pendleton counties. SBDC focuses on getting businesses ready for market, or expanding existing businesses by helping with market research, competitive intelligence, market validation, market segmentation and more.

Find out more on the Northern Kentucky SBDC website.

By Feoshia H. Davis
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Tech powerhouses Dell and Microsoft give Northern Kentuckians a sneak peak at upcoming products at the locally organized "Growing IT in Covington" showcase.

C-Forward Information Technologies, a 14-year-old Covington IT firm, organized the event with support from area community sponsors and other city IT companies.

Growing IT is from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 19, in Covington at the Raddison Hotel, 668 W. Fifth St. It's free, and lunch will be provided.

C-Forward has 21 employees and provides IT services for small- and medium-sized businesses. Those services include networking, communications, security and desktop and mobile computing support.

"People will get to see a preview of the new Windows 8, Microsoft Windows Server 2012 and Microsoft’s new Surface tablet," says C-Forward sales manager Brian Ruschman. "Dell is one of our main suppliers and they are coming out with a new line of tablets and computer as well." Windows 8 launches Oct. 26.

Other featured local companies include Tier 1 Performance Solutions and 3z.net. Along with C-Forward, all have "grown up" in Covington.

TiER 1 once had three employees and two desks; it’s now based at the RiverCenter in Covington and has 100 employees with multiple locations across the country. 3z.net has 10 employees and provides hosting and data center solutions.

"We are going to talk about five minutes about what we do, and people can touch and see the new technologies that can help their businesses," Ruschman says. "It's sort of like an open house. There is very little organized structure as far as talking goes."

Event supporters include Gateway Community and Technical College, Covington Business Council/Urban Partnership of Covington, the city of Covington and the Northern Kentucky ezone.

By Feoshia H. Davis
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Heads up, foodies. The Spicy Olive, a new olive oil and vinegar shop in West Chester, is not a café. 

“A lot of people poke their head in the door and think that we’re a restaurant,” says Melanie Cedargren with a laugh. She co-founded the specialty shop with two friends, Theresa Banks and Lynn Altonen, after a 2006 trip to Italy introduced fresh olive oils and flavored vinegars to her palette.
 
Today, a step into the store reveals a row of 15-liter, stainless steel fusti, or tanks, which hold olive oils. Shoppers browse among them, stopping to taste and match oils and vinegars from among the more than 40 olive oil and vinegar varieties. 

“When they find something they like, we bottle it up fresh for them to take home," Cedargren says. "It’s fun to taste and try before you purchase; a lot of people have never tasted an olive oil like this before.”

Cedargren admits she’s surprised that The Spicy Olive already has a handful of repeat customers after opening in early September. She points to Bad Girl Ventures – The Spicy Olive was a recent finalist – and the trio’s SCORE mentor, Jim Stahly, as instrumental in their early success. 

While completing a brief course at BGV, the women created a business and marketing plan, as well as projected financials for BGV judges to review. At Stahly’s urging, they cleaned up their documents, choosing bigger, bolder headers, adding charts and images and cleaning up dry prose.
 
Current products include 10 varieties of fresh olive oil alongside 15 flavored varieties, including organic Tuscan herb (a favorite), organic Persian lime and blood orange. Vinegars include a white balsamic aged 12 years, and 18-year aged balsamic and a range of flavors, such as chocolate, espresso and pomegranate.

By Robin Donovan