Innovation News

Moving for Love fuels those who move for passion, not profession

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January 8, 2013

Moving for Love harnesses a trend that arose from the recession’s rising unemployment and job dissatisfaction: people moving to follow their passions, rather than their professions. Owner Robin Sheakley, a third-generation member of the Sibcy family (her dad is Rob Sibcy, president of Sibcy Cline Realtors), created the company. She built on her own 15-year career in real estate and relocation, offering relocation assistance to people moving to follow a partner, a passion or favorite place. “When you deal with a family business, it’s fun to try to put your mark on it,” Sheakley says, citing the growth of super-specialized online dating sites (think dating websites for farmers, for example). “I started thinking there are all these people dating online who may say, ‘You know what, I haven’t found anyone here, but I’ve always wanted to live in Chicago or Miami.’ But what happens if they find someone?” She created Moving for Love to answer that question. The web-based service connects people ready to move with Personal Move Assistant and provides a secure online portal where both parties can upload documents and information from service providers, such as a moving company. The company’s services range from short-term rental assistance and realtor recommendations to moving estimates, cost-of-living comparisons and even personalized reminders, such as suggesting that it’s time to find a local physician to manage a medical condition in the new location. The company is separate from its parent, Sibcy Cline, but shares some resources. However, the marketing budget has been scant since the website launched last July, Sheakley says. “I always like to walk before I run, so we have done no paid advertising. We are strictly organically getting our message out there. It’s been a slow start that we’re going to kick in from the beginning of the [2013].” Moving for Love charges a flat fee, then provides services for up to 12 months, giving passion-prompted movers a chance to compare several potential locations before making their transitions. By Robin Donovan

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Openfield Creative keeps an eye on escalating mobile use

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Architecture + Design

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December 18, 2012

Brian Keenan can describe a lot of projects he’s willing to take on as co-founder of Openfield Creative, but traditional advertising isn’t one of them. With the various skill sets in the air at Openfield, it’s probably not because the team couldn’t tackle that type of project, but with a growing demand for mobile-friendly websites, he and his team focus on web and mobile design with an eye to brand identity. Like so many Cincinnati creative firms, Openfield was founded by DAAP grads; Keenans fellow co-founders are Josh Barnes and Brandon Blangger. The firm typically steps in once an overarching brand strategy has been defined and helps to roll out brand concepts across websites, mobile apps and more. That may mean crafting large graphics, video or digital design for landing pages or app interfaces, those so-called touchpoints consumers use to interact with a given company or brand. The Openfield team also creates logos and other brand-based design elements and design standards that define, for example, how photography is used with a particular brand, or specify unique design elements that set a company apart for a cohesive, branded look on company materials. “We’re not an ad agency,” Keenan says. “We’re a design partner who gets in with our clients at a high level, understand the nuances.” The company also offers staff-to-client interaction with anyone from their firm working on a project, rather than farming out interfacing to an account manager or other key staffer. Keenan says the company name draws on a core value: Anyone (and everyone) is a creative, no matter what their background. Whether it be working with a new client or casting an eye toward the future, each member of the staff is expected to be ready to brainstorm. “Immediately in front of us, we see a lot more mobile work as clients understand that their audiences are adopting global usage at an incredible rate,” Keenan says, noting that Openfield is creating more mobile apps than ever before. But he’s more proud of his company’s ability to learn and change than its current skill set. “For all we know, we may not design websites in the future, but we’re confident that there’ll always be a digital experience component. We’ll always have a place using design and smart technology to put together what our clients need.” By Robin Donovan

For-profit Vine Street Ventures to fund top Brandery grads

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Architecture + Design

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December 18, 2012

Graduates of The Brandery, Over-the-Rhine’s popular startup accelerator, have access to a new pool of potential funding with the recent launch of Vine Street Ventures Fund LLC, a venture capital firm created by Brandery co-founders Robert McDonald, Brian Kropp and Dave Knox. While Vine Street represents a for-profit reach by the nonprofit’s founders, some of The Brandery’s values have translated to the new firm. “The primary goal is making money for our investors," says McDonals. "That said, we expect that the fund will also help the Cincinnati ecosystem by drawing additional top-quality companies to Cincinnati and potentially encouraging them to stay." The fund raised just under $1.4 million, according to an amended U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing on Dec. 10. Vine Street Ventures reported participation by 42 investors, each with a contribution of at least $15,000. The fund’s initial offering was $2 million. Asked whether the recent addition of new venture capital agencies in Cincinnati made for a competitive atmosphere, McDonald expresses hope that investors would bolster startups at various stages of development. “To effectively fund a venture track business, we need to have a horizontal offering of funding sources. Vine Street Ventures focuses on the early growth companies coming out of The Brandery, but our portfolio companies will likely need funding all the way from Series A [the initial round of venture funding] through Series ZZ, as the case may be. We are thrilled with the current activity in Cincinnati and welcome any other funds that visit the region," he says. By Robin Donovan

UC, local industry partner for game-changer in solar-powered refrigerator

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Diversity

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December 18, 2012

A virtual trade mission taken by University of Cincinnati MBA students and local industries has turned into a very real product that could put a dent in food shortages across India. Next year, new solar-powered refrigerator products will be tested on an aloe farm in the developing country early next year. If successful, the SolerCool could be a reality for Indian farmers, just in time for summer. The product is a self-contained cooling unit that relies on the sun for power. It's a box that measures 10' x 7' x 11', and is topped by solar panels. SolerCool was developed through a collaboration between former and current UC students and local industries, including SimpliCool Technologies International LLC in Waynesville. The idea for the technology came after the MBA students and SimpliCool attended a "virtual trade mission" to India in July 2011. The mission was part of a Business Law for Managers class taught by Ilse Hawkins, an attorney and adjunct professor of accounting at UC. The mission virtually brought Cincinnati and Indian businesses together to find ways of partnering to better preserve Indian produce. Today, 30 to 40 percent of produce in India is lost to spoilage because of lack of refrigeration options, Hawkins says. India, with 1.2 million people, faces chronic food shortages. "While we were doing the mission, we had this tiny, insulated structure that kept audio visual materials at proper temperature," Hawkins says. "We thought, 'Why couldn't we create a structure powered with solar panels like that that could be put anywhere on a farm?'" Shortly after that meeting, Hawkins took a group to India where the idea was further flushed out. Eventually, a collaborative effort led to the creation of the SolerCool unit. MBA students worked on a business plan, helped with the initial feasibility calculations and networked with Indian businesses who might contribute to the product. Mohsen Rezayat, chief solutions architect at Siemens UGS PLM Software and adjunct professor in UC’s College of Engineering and Applied Science, primarily worked on the engineering of the solar panels in the SimpliCool-manufactured cooling cube. UC does not own the product, and therefore won't be profiting from its sales, Hawkins says. However, SimpliCool has vowed to contribute to UC's College of Business to fund further travel to India if the idea is successful, she says. By Feoshia H. Davis Follow Feoshia on Twitter

Inaugural UpTech class finishes successful Demo Day at NKU

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Education + Learning

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December 11, 2012

Eight Northern Kentucky startups were unveiled to a roomful of educators, aspiring entrepreneurs and potential investors at a Demo Day event at Northern Kentucky University. Following drinks, bites and conversation, each company's founder pitched their vetted and nurtured informatics-based idea. The companies came from a variety of places; some are still in the beta stage, while others are on the market with paying customers. All grew dramatically in six months as the first class of Northern Kentucky's UpTech superaccelerator. UpTech is a new business informatics incubator launched by several Northern Kentucky institutions, including Northern Kentucky University, Tri-Ed, ezone and Vision 2015. The intense, six-month accelerator program started in June and included $100,000 in funding. Companies selected to participate will also be working with students and faculty at NKU's College of Informatics. The organization plans to invest in 50 companies over the next five years. It’s funded mostly by private investors and some state funding. Many of UpTech’s mentors and support service providers are students and volunteers. Through a series of programs, Up-Tech guides participant startups through areas of business development that range from marketing and fundraising to market research and pitching the company to both investors and clients. Each company must stay in the Northern Kentucky region for two years after completing the program. During Demo Day, companies outlined their business ideas, their stages of business development and ended by asking for investment for continued growth. Each company had one-on-one coaching with mentors, in addition to the volunteer business team they were assigned. You can read about the UpTech companies here. Some companies made big changes in their business focus, names or even their business idea through the process. For example, Adam Treister came out of UpTech with a new company name, logo and revised direction. Student Source, formerly Student Designed, is an online student freelance work site. The company, which is working with local and other universities, matches students with businesses seeking contact work. Projects range from $50 to $5,000. Student Source has three partners and has raised $145,000 to date. Treister found the UpTech experience invaluable. "Working closely with NKU gave us an inside view of what universities are looking for, and how to better meet the challenges of partnering with a university," he says. While in UpTech, Triester also made a change in how businesses connect with students. Initially, company projects had to go through a professor who could use the idea as a class project. Now, companies can work directly with a student, speeding up the process. "We launched this version a week ago, and we're really excited," Treister says. By Feoshia H. Davis Follow Feoshia on Twitter

Architectural renderings add dimension to design

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Entrepreneurship

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December 11, 2012

Graeme Daley officially launched his business, Daley Renderings, two months ago, but says, with a laugh: “It’s not launched until somebody knows about it.” The Indian Hill native is offering estate, urban and graphic design with a focus on 3-D renderings. He first got into design and renderings playing a game on his grandfather’s computer. “At the time (1995) it was intensely crude, really just geometry," he says. "With technology over the past 10 or 15 years, you can now do almost anything you can imagine. The program I use is the same program Pixar uses to make their box office movies and the same program that’s used to make Halo." Daley focuses on architectural renderings and targets clients, such as architects and real estate agents, whose larger projects won’t find the expense of such a rendering prohibitive. “The ideal person for what I do could either be an architect that’s come up with a showcase design and wants a presentation that conveys that, say, if you’re proposing a new tower or university building and want something to roll out to the public.” The role of his renderings is to help take 2-D plans and drawings and enliven them. He illustrates with computer-generated videos of his 3-D renderings exactly how a project will look from various angles. Or, as in a recent case, in which Daley was hired by a local real estate firm, he can show different ways a project could appear. In this case, Daley created four potential uses for two adjacent lots, showing how driveways could be curved for privacy and even demonstrating how both houses could be replaced by a single mansion. Because Daley went through what he calls “the nine-year Bachelor’s plan,” he has some experience in mechanical engineering and industrial design, as well as architecture. (He eventually graduated from the University of Cincinnati's College of DAAP, by the way.) And while he says he might make more money in other states with more new builds, he’s sticking close to home, and enjoys watching Cincinnati grow and improve. By Robin Donovan

CrowdHall racks up funders, new political tool

By Newsroom

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Entrepreneurship

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December 11, 2012

Following the Brandery’s Demo Day, the rising social network CrowdHall has been developing new products and securing new investors. While CrowdHall developer and CTO Nick Wientge is currently working at the Brandery with marketing and design staff, Jordan Menzel and CEO Austin Hackett have been traveling for business development and fundraising. “We’re currently in due diligence process with a number of angel investment communities and institutional investment communities that span the Cincinnati area, Chicago, Utah and New York,” Menzel says. The company is also looking to move forward with Vine Street Ventures. “We’re also in the process of turning around a new product iteration, some of which has been added onto the site already,” Menzel says. “Another trunk will be coming out in January.” One of its newest developments, “CrowdHall for Politics,” is an initiative based on a set of principles that CrowdHall created for elected officials: accessibility, responsiveness and innovation. “We’re going to begin to highlight the elected officials that have committed to demonstrate those principles,” Menzel says. “We’ll be featuring a number of politicians from the federal, state and local level that are using CrowdHall to better keep an open door for decisions, now that the election is over.” The initiative will be under development through the new year. “If you’ve been looking for a place that provides you with the tools to be able to ask your questions, share ideas and your statement, and peer vote on the ones you would like to see rise to the top, CrowdHall is where you’re going to go to do that,” Menzel says. By Kyle Stone

Cincinnati entrepreneur’s BoojiBEE offers casual clothing for young women

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Architecture + Design

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December 11, 2012

When it comes to fashion for young girls and women, sometimes what's cool and what's appropriate aren't a match. Natasha Andrews, a native Cincinnatian with a passion for fashion, decided to build a new business dedicated to cute clothes for ladies. "I decided to do something in fashion because in this day, young women are so fascinated by new and different fashion styles," Andrews says. "So instead of the half shirts, the booty shorts and short mini skirts, I decided to focus on looking good, feeling comfortable and making a positive statement." That's the philosophy behind BoojiBEE, a casual clothing brand that carries Andrews' signature high-fashion bee logo. She created a rough sketch of the logo, which was polished by her uncle. He's a Cincinnati-based graphic designer and co-owner of Rare Earth Graphics, LLC. Andrews started the online boutique in 2011, selling T-shirts, totes and a myriad of custom jewelry. She attended the University of Cincinnati as a criminal justice student, but was inexperienced in running a business. She credits her aunt and uncle, as well as the Greater Cincinnati Microenterprise Initiative, with helping turn her idea into a viable startup. "When I first started out as a new entrepreneur, I didn't have a focus or a target market," Andrews says. "It took me a while to figure out 'what is BoojiBEE?' I started out blind with graphic tees. I thought I had the bomb site, but had no clue what a website should consist of. I changed it at least four times; it was a mess." She pared down the business this year, streamlined her site and now is exclusively focusing on her brand, the bee. "I'm no longer doing handmade custom jewelry," Andrews says. "I love it to death, but it's too time consuming and it moves really slow. And on top of that, I didn't feel it had anything to do with BoojiBEE and the message I was trying to get across." So who is a BoojiBEE? "BoojiBEE is a definition of a true hard worker. A girl who loves life, [is] inspired by great things and is pretty inside and out. The BoojiBEE has a positive image that is reflected in her style, her character and how she lives her life." The site features tops, hoodies, leggings, tote bags and yoga pants. She buys the clothing wholesale, presses her logo and works with a local business to add branded tags. Andrews has just relaunched her site, and is offering a $5 credit for new customers through the holidays. Her plans are to grow the brand and eventually open her own brick-and-mortar shop. "I'm getting my name out there, and pushing the business," she says. "My plan is to grow into multifaceted fashion company." By Feoshia H. Davis Follow Feoshia on Twitter

Simple Portrait Project captures personalities in 30-minute sessions

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Arts + Culture

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December 4, 2012

Commercial photographer Jonathan Robert Willis shares an almost stereotypical weakness with some fellow creatives: he hates artificial deadlines. “I’m really good with hard, fast, we-need-it-yesterday commercial deadlines,” he says, describing the focus of his self-named photography business. When friends and family nagged him for photos, he launched The Simple Portrait Project, which mixes the speed of commercial work with traditional group portraits. In sessions held once or twice a year, Willis gathers dozens of families or small groups, shooting each in the same space with the same prop. He spends just 30 minutes on each family from start to finish. “It’s great because it’s just enough time to get the best out of the kids before they melt down, and it’s short enough for the dad, who doesn’t want to be there to begin with in many cases,” Willis says. That means that the family comes in and is posed, photographed and advised about prints, all in a half hour. For the last few minutes, Willis turns a critical eye to each set of photographs, helping subjects select a handful of the best photographs. Still, he compares the sessions to a marathon, admitting: “It’s literally nonstop from about 9 am until 8:30 pm. I’m a little intimidated by it.” The project turns the angsty hair-pulling of traditional family photography on its head and, as it happens, yields eye-catching photos. The families don’t look like they're from a J.Crew catalog, but they don’t look scruffy, either. Not everyone beams, and not everyone is even looking at the camera; Willis says his goal is comfortable, natural poses. There’s one simple rule for participants: no matching clothes. “I can’t think of a single image where I’ve seen everybody in the same sweater where I’m like, ‘Wow, that was a great idea,’” Willis says. “You have to trust that I’m going to make something great, but you’ve also got to do your part, which is following that rule.” Willis’ final session for the project in 2012 is Saturday, Dec. 8, with the potential for Sunday sessions depending on demand. He hopes to schedule the first session of 2013 around Easter. By Robin Donovan

Business growth through diversity topic of local leadership symposium

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Diversity

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December 4, 2012

Job growth is looking up in Cincinnati, and the region is ripe for even more. "In the last year, we created 29,000 new jobs, ahead of the growth in most of our peer markets," says Chris Kemper, PR director at the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber. A host of variables have spurred our region's growth, including a talented workforce, a vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem, a reasonable cost of living and an innovative culture that permeates large institutions to small startups. But there's one area that's proven to boost the bottom line that more Cincinnati companies can tap into: diversity and inclusion. Companies that encourage diversity—in hiring, in suppliers, in board appointments and in investment—are among the world's fastest growing. In fact, a 2011 Forbes study found that 85 percent of 321 large companies (with at least a half-billion dollars in annual revenue) believed diversity played a vital role in fostering innovation. Cincinnati businesses will get a chance to learn more about the perks and importance of inclusion. The real dollars and sense of growth through diversity is the topic of The Diversity Leadership Symposium 2012. The morning event is co-hosted by Vision 2015 and Agenda 360, the region's strategic planning organizations. "Our overall goal is to discuss diversity and inclusion as a way to drive business growth," says Kemper. It's a timely topic as our country—and therefore consumers—becomes more diverse and our economy is increasingly global, with buyers and sellers connecting across countries. The conference's featured speaker is Andres Tapia, international thought leader on diversity and inclusion, president and CEO of Diversity Best Practices and author of The Inclusion Paradox. The symposium is Dec. 12 at the Duke Energy Convention Center downtown, registration starts at 7:30 a.m, and the symposium ends at noon. The cost is $110 per person, or $150 for a cocktail reception on Dec. 11 featuring Tapia. You can register on the Cincinnati Chamber website. Diverse by Design: Meeting the Talent Challenge in a Global Economy, a report commissioned by Agenda 360 and Vision 2015, will also be unveiled at the event. The symposium wraps up with simultaneous sessions. Attendees can pick one of the following: Workplace: Attracting and Retaining Diverse Talent Panelists will share best practices in creating and maintaining employee resource groups to engage and retain a diverse talent base.Marketplace: Minority Business Investment as a Strategy for Increasing Inclusion Learn how diversity spending can advance a company’s diversity and inclusion efforts while also having a ripple effect in the community.Marketplace: Creating a More Inclusive Community Panelists will share strategies for cultivating a welcoming community outside of the workplace to increase diverse talent retention for the region.By Feoshia Davis