NEOinc

CONTACT: Julie Michael Smith
Chief Development Officer, Youngstown Business Incubator
330-259-7644; jmsmith@ybi.org

May 14, 2008

FORMER GOVERNOR TAFT RETURNS TO YOUNGSTOWN
FOR GRAND OPENING OF TECH CENTER

Former Governor Bob Taft will join elected officials, the Youngstown Central Area Community Improvement Corporation (YCACIC), Youngstown Business Incubator (YBI) and Turning Technologies for the grand opening of the facility that bears his name-the Taft Technology Center-at 10 a.m. on Monday, May 19.

The celebration, to take place in front of the center, at 255 West Federal Street in Downtown Youngstown, will include comments from Taft, as well as U.S. Congressman Tim Ryan; Youngstown Mayor Jay Williams; G. Richard Pavlock, chairman of the YCACIC Board of Directors; Garry Mrozek, chairman of the YBI Board of Directors; and Michael Broderick, CEO of Turning Technologies, the first tenant of the new facility. The event will conclude with a ribbon cutting ceremony. 

Pavlock stated that the construction of the Taft Technology Center is part of a multi-phase, joint effort by the YCACIC and YBI to create a technology campus downtown and foster an environment for technology companies to share ideas and resources with one another, as well as institutions such as Youngtown State University.

In addition, Mrozek said, “In a great partnership with the YCACIC, the development of Taft Technology Center expands YBI’s presence, allowing it to retain successful companies while supporting the revitalization of the downtown. YBI looks forward to continuing this revitalization partnership and expanding this technology environment.” 

The Taft Technology Center boasts 30,000 square feet. While the YCACIC developed the project with contractor Mike Coates Construction Co., ownership will soon be turned over to the YBI.

 The center cost approximately $5.8 million to build; $3.5 million was targeted for this project from Taft, whose administration championed support for technology-based business development and entrepreneurship. 

Turning Technologies moved into the facility earlier this month, establishing its global headquarters where approximately 130 people are currently employed.

Contact: Julie Michael Smith
Youngstown Business Incubator
330-259-7644 office
330-727-6292 mobile

For Immediate Release: May 9, 2008

Youngstown Business Incubator Hosts Innovation Series

On May 15^th, Youngstown Business Incubator will welcome Dick Wilk, President, Suhas Patil, Vice President of Engineering and Market Development and Domenico Sciaretta, Product Manager, Refractory Specialties, Inc, who will discuss RSI’s evolutionary and extraordinary transition from a basic manufacturer to a leading edge visionary. RSI has developed innovative applications of industrial insulation components in automotive, appliance, HVAC, metals, fuel cell, solar energy and petrochemicals industries as well as industrial process furnaces, solid fuel appliances and high temperature gaskets.  It recently was awarded a $400,000 Third Frontier Grant from the Ohio Department of Development for its High Purity, Robust Kiln Furniture for Low Cost SOFC Manufacturing project. 

They will also discuss the opportunities for international trade for small and mid-size businesses.  Wilk states, “You must be willing to take calculated risk and you must dream big.  Be willing to tackle nearly any problem or opportunity that comes your way.  Our entire organization believes good things happen when you’re in front of the customer.” Wilk led the management acquisition of this former division of Ferro Corporation in 1992 and will share his insights on business succession opportunities. 

Third Thursdays at 3 pm is a networking and educational forum that brings together innovative and progressive people with a vision - to create and sustain an innovative and entrepreneurial environment in the Mahoning Valley.  TH3 events are for local companies to showcase new technologies, for technology organizations to share their resources, for entrepreneurs build relationships, for educators to highlight their initiatives. The forum provides a place for innovative talk, robust debates and inquiring minds. 

All programs are held at Youngstown Business Incubator, 241 W. Federal Street, Youngstown.  The programs are free but reservations are required at 330-259-7644 or jmsmith@ybi.org as space is limited.

Much of NEOinc’s management is in San Antonio this week at the National Business Incubation Association’s Spring conference.  In our absence, we leave you with April’s recap of positive regional change, and look forward to publishing next week. 

There is a lot of positive change happening in the region, particularly around entrepreneurial activities and economic development.  NEOinc follows several regional blogs reporting on these topics.  Sometimes the posts shine a spotlight nationally (or internationally) on the region.  Every month we publish a short list of some of the stories we’ve noticed that embody the spirit of achievement, growth and change in our region.

Here is NEOinc’s April recap of the articles we feel speak to the growth and positive change that is happening quietly, every day, in our region.   Read the full article

Contact: Mike Ferranti
eGolfShow LLC
330-519-3934

For Immediate Release: May 1, 2008

Local Firms Develop High Tech Golf Website for PGA Professionals

World’s first online searchable golf products catalog 

Perkins Communications, Inc., and eGolfShow LLC today announced the launch of eGolfShow.com, an interactive web site for use by PGA golf professionals.  The two Northeast Ohio firms partnered to create this business-to-business site for premier golf equipment manufacturers to market and sale their products to PGA Professionals and other golf industry retailers. 

eGolfShow.com features a searchable database offering “one-stop shopping” to PGA professionals and retailers. “This is the world’s first online searchable catalog allowing golf professionals to search for their business needs and to see side-by-side comparisons of manufacturers’ product lines,” said Mike Ferranti, PGA Professional and President of eGolfShow LLC.  Ferranti continues, “This revolutionizes the golfing business by giving PGA professionals a direct link to a vast array of the products they need at www.eGolfshow.com.” 

The web site was developed by Perkins Communications, a Youngstown Business Incubator portfolio company, and part owner of the eGolfShow.com web site.  “We are extremely excited about the potential of the eGolfShow.com web site,” said Joe Perkins, president of Perkins Communications.  “Before we even finished writing the software, golf manufacturers from around the world began signing up for the site and uploading their product listings to our database.  Apparently there is pent-up demand for just such a service and we anticipate a lot of PGA professionals will visit the site on a regular basis.” 

eGolfShow.com allows PGA professionals to do “Google” type searches for golf-related items such as golf clubs, bags, carts and even logo imprinted golf balls.  The search results display a picture and description of the item along with a listing of the suppliers. The purchaser can then directly contact the manufacturer of their choice to place an order or get further information, all from the eGolfShow.com web site.

 The partnership seeks to do for golf what Amazon.com did for books and to bring the world of professional golfing to Northeast Ohio.  “I am personally watching the server logs to see if Tiger Woods signs up for a web account”, said Perkins.  “To me, that will indicate more than anything that our region has the power to reach out to the whole world in a powerful way.”

We’ve mentioned Anita Campbell before.  A resident of the Akron area, Anita writes an extremely popular blog entitled Small Business Trends.  While not focused exclusively on entrepreneurs or technology, Anita regularly has information than any start-up or entrepreneur would find useful.

Anita recently posted on the topic of online communities and provided some brief insight as to why these terms have become so popular, and why they are becoming more important to small business (actually businesses of any size).

If you have an online component to your marketing plan and would like a starting point for understanding why online communities are becoming an increasingly important facet of that plan, read Anita’s article.  With over 160,000 subscribers to her blog, comments to her articles tend to be just as insightful as her articles.  Don’t hesitate to comment or ask a question yourself - Anita does read comments left and will respond to questions.

As reported this week in the Plain Dealer, the Ohio Capital Fund, a “fund of funds” established to help increase private investment in Ohio companies, has committed $25 million to four VC funds.  The funds focus on early stage life science and IT companies.

The four funds are Arboretum Ventures out of Ann Arbor, MI; Radius Ventures in New York; Charter Life Sciences in Cincinnati and Palo Alto, CA; and Fletcher Spaght Ventures in Boston.

Arboretum Ventures and Radius Ventures recently opened Cleveland offices because of the investment.  Fletcher Spaght opened a Columbus office.

The Akron Global Business Incubator (AGBA) recently acquired two new tenants:

• MAR Systems has a proprietary process using recycled materials to remove heavy metals from water and gas
• InSeT Systems uses inertial guidance technology to track personnel in underground mines - a mandate now required by federal law

AGBA is also playing a key role in the City of Akron competing as a finalist in the All American City competition. The city of Akron selected three of its programs as the basis for its application, and the Technology Initiative of the Akron Global Business Accelerator was one of those elements. Mike LeHere, AGBA CEO, will be representing the Accelerator in early June when the City makes its formal presentation to the review committee.  NEOinc wishes Mike and The City of Akron the best of luck!

If you are a technology entrepreneur that could benefit from learning more about the supercomputing resources available through The Ohio Supercomputer Center (OSC),  NEOinc suggests you strongly consider attending this event.  Not only is OSC making it’s supercomputing facilities available to a widening audience, the presenter, whose bio is below, has an entrepreneurial background and could be a valuable contact for your startup. 

CIO Luncheon

The Mansfield Richland Chamber of Commerce and the Northern Ohio IT Alliance invite you to join other Chief Information Officers, Chief Technology Officers, and Information Technology Managers as we bring together IT leaders from throughout the area.  Our guest speaker will be Ashok K. Krishnamurthy, Ph.D., Senior Director of Outreach at The Ohio Supercomputer Center.  Mr. Krishnamurthy will be discussing the Blue Collar Computing Initiative and the Ralph Regula School of Computational Science programs.

 MONDAY, May 19, 2008
11:30am to 1:00pm
Downtown Holiday Inn Hotel & Suites
116 Park Avenue West
Mansfield, OH 44902 

This luncheon is being offered free-of-charge to CIO and CTOs to make it easy to interact with other IT professionals to promote our area’s technology resources and infrastructure.  Please RSVP to the Northern Ohio IT Alliance by May 13, 2008 at 419-525-1614 or by email at bleach@braintreepartners.org.

How is NEOinc Involved?

The Northern Ohio IT Alliance (NOITA) was formed out of desire to provide an IT organization to represent the areas of northern Ohio not represented by NEOSA and not actively engaged by OhioITA.  NOITA is sponsored by NEOinc incubator Braintree and Bob Leach, Braintree’s Director of Operations, serves as its Director. 

The Northern Ohio IT Alliance sponsors several types of events each year to promote networking and interaction between IT companies and individuals in IT departments.  NOITA has been the organization facilitating Richland County’s interaction with the Ohio Broadband Council for expanding broadband services within the area.  NOITA also works with several technology entities as board members and on steering committees.  

About the Presenter 

Ashok K. Krishnamurthy, Ph.D. is the Ohio Supercomputer Center’s Senior Director of Research and is an associate professor in The Ohio State University (OSU) electrical and computer engineering department.  Krishnamurthy conducts research in signal/image processing, high performance computing and computational models of hearing.  He serves as the academic lead for the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) High Performance Computing Modernization Program in the area of integrated modeling and test.  Ashok has designed and provided numerous training courses for the DoD User Groups on all aspects of the MatLab programming language.  

On an entrepreneurial leave of absence from OSU, Krishnamurthy started a design center in Dublin, Ohio for Ecrio Inc., a Silicon Valley startup.  He led a team of engineers at the design center developing wireless and handheld communication applications.  As a consultant, he has worked on the development of micro-controller and microprocessor based products, and has assisted in the development of strategic plans to introduce Application-Specific Standard products for multimedia and telephony applications such as speech coders, caller-ID receivers etc.  He earned his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology in Madras, India in 1979.  He received his master’s and doctorate degrees in electrical engineering at the University of Florida in 1981 and 1983, respectively.

Do you need funding to help develop a new product?

If so, MAGNET has loan funding that helps entrepreneurs or small businesses bring their ideas to reality.

MAGNET administers the New Product Development and Entrepreneurship Program, Product Innovation Loan Fundon behalf of the Cuyahoga County Department of Development.  In the last three years, the fund has provided over $3 million for new product development in Northeast Ohio and additional funds are now available.

The process is competitive.  Applicants will have their submissions reviewed and approved by a committee consisting of local business leaders, venture capitalist, designers, entrepreneurs and representatives from Cuyahoga County.  Applications for the current funding round are being accepted with a submission deadline of NOON EDT on Friday, April 25, 2008.  Loans of up to $115,000 can be made in phased increments ranging from $15,000 to $60,000 depending upon how much development has already been completed and what remains to be done.

The loans have an interest rate of 3.5%.  There are no interest or principal payments for the first three years after disbursement.  Small companies of less than $50 million in sales as well as entrepreneurs can use this money to fund their product development process for such activities as market research, patent services, industrial design, engineering and prototyping efforts.

Full details of the program along with application forms are available at http://www.magnetwork.org/programs/cuyahoga-loan-fund.htm.

If you have further questions you can contact Barbara Paul by phone at 216-432-5322, or by email at barbara.paul@magnetwork.org