Entrepreneurship : Innovation & Job News

In the 21^st century, there is social networking, there is e-learning and now there is Eduplanet 21, a Mechanicsburg startup – and mashup – that blends the two to deliver a new approach to professional development for teachers.

The young company, founded in 2011, offers an alternative to what CEO Jeff Colosimo calls the "obsolete professional development" mandated for teachers. Eduplanet21 offers a software platform, K-12 education-specific content and ongoing services by subscription to school systems and educational consortiums.

Paired with traditional physical sessions, or fully virtual, the package offers teachers ongoing and sustained access to state-of-the-art educational practice and theory, information sharing and collaboration with colleagues around the world. For the client school systems, it offers a cheaper, faster and better way to sustain professional development.

Colosimo compares the model to buying content on an e-reader, paired with facilitated comment threads. Eduplanet21 provides its content in the form of "social learning institutes," web-based, multi-modal learning opportunities on K-12 education topics including curriculum development and teacher evaluation, "some of the most challenging and pertinent issues to education today."

Eduplanet21 recently received a $150,000 investment from Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Central and Northern Pennsylvania. Colosimo says the company has about 100 customers so far and projects about $300,000 annual revenue this year as it continues to seed the market and test its product.

So far, the company has six full-time employs, which Colosimo hopes to double by the end of the year as Eduplanet21 gears up to accelerate its sales growth.

Source: Jeff Colosimo, Eduplanet21
Writer: Elise Vider
 
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For everyone who has ever fumbled to unlock the front door or garage or to disable the alarm -- you know who you are -- a Lancaster startup is offering its patented technology to come to your rescue.

ECKey turns any Bluetooth-enabled cellphone into a secure device to unlock the car, house, garage door, gate, office, alarm system, or access control system without the need for keys, fobs, cards or remote controls. 

Nick Willis, an inventor in New Zealand, founded the company there in 2005, and has sold about 2,000 units. The company moved to Pennsylvania last year and is now ramping up to begin domestic production and distribution this fall, says President and CEO Paul Bodell. 

There will be two products for starters. One is a complete stand-alone system in which the phone becomes the keypad and proximity reader. The other is an enterprise-wide system that can be used to retrofit large systems like those found in universities and office campuses.

ECKey is on track to raise about $1 million, including a $150,000 investment from Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Central and Northern Pennsylvania, says Bodell. He's working on building a distribution and dealer network and is assembling a small staff  for sales, marketing, customer and technical support, says Bodell. Within a year, he expects to have about five on the payroll altogether.

Source: Paul Bodell, ECKey
Writer: Elise Vider

John McElligott and Mike McHenry had more in common than names that start with "Mc" when they met in 2005: both played in rock bands in and around York and both were struggling to pay for creative services like photography, videography, mixing, mastering and graphic design or "do a mediocre job of it ourselves" at the expense of their music, says McHenry. 

With a third partner, Dan Thompson, they're addressing the problem with The Usic,  a startup, co-op web marketplace for artist-entrepreneurs. "We've realized that not only have we created a way for musicians to band together to get all the services they need, but we've stumbled on to something much larger," says McElligott. "Imagine if there was a place that you could go to find a moviemaker that would jump at the chance to shoot a short documentary on your grandfather at a price you could afford? …  Or a local musician that would love to come and perform at your BBQ? …  Or a new photographer who would kill for the chance to get paid while they build their portfolio?"

Since its soft launch in the York-Lancaster-Harrisburg market in May, the site is growing fast, with most metrics up 150% in August alone, The Usic reports. The company currently employs six, including two web developers hired this summer, and plans to bring on Internet marketers. With private investment and a boost from Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Central and Northern Pennsylvania, "We've validated much of our business model," says McHenry. Next, The Usic plans to expand into the Baltimore market and from there, he adds, "we tackle Philadelphia, New York City, and the rest of the nation."

Source: John McElligott and Mike McHenry, The Usic
Writer: Elise Vider

Evolve IP, the Wayne-based cloud services company, is paying it forward, establishing an Innovation Center to aid startups. "The idea," says Guy Fardone, Evolve IP's chief operating officer, "is to give startups access to the office space, location, world-class technology, and other business resources that will give entrepreneurs and startups a competitive advantage to start growing their companies."
 
But how does this benefit Evolve IP? "Successful companies will boost the local economy. In turn, more businesses, jobs and increased regional revenue will at some point equate to more IT dollars spent, and more opportunities to implement our cloud solutions. The Innovation Center is also a very good thing to do from a goodwill perspective that will in time create a halo effect for our organization," Fardone adds.
 
The Innovation Center at Evolve IP is a partnership with the Chester County Economic Development Council's Ideas x Innovation Network (i2n) and GPX Realty Partners. It is located in Chester County's Keystone Innovation Zone, making startup tenants eligible for resources including up to $100,000 in KIZ tax credits each year. Targeted companies are early-stage technology, smart energy, non-lab biotechnology and life sciences startups. Mary Fuchs, i2n's co-director, estimates the center will generate five to 10 new, full-time jobs annually.
 
The center is just one aspect of Evolve IP's growth. The company just made the Inc. 500 as one of the fastest growing companies in the country, has launched its newest product, a full production desktop hosted in its nationwide private cloud, and is planning to announce several acquisitions in the coming weeks.
 
Source: Guy Fardone, Evolve IP and Mary Fuchs, i2n
Writer: Elise Vider

Last month, Keystone Edge reported on an online survey of robotic startups in Pennsylvania. Now, a young graphic designer with an entrepreneurial bent has undertaken a similar project with Represent PA, an online map of tech startups around the Commonwealth.
 
Jordan Coeyman created the interactive site as a way to draw attention to Pennsylvania as a startup location and, frankly, to himself. "My goal was to connect the PA startup community visually, and to spread my name across the Internet. I was looking to gain some credibility, as I get ready to launch my own startup, Crowd Engage."
 
Crowd Engage, to launch in the next three months, is a web-based host for video-based reward business campaigns, Coeyman says, "a way for brands and businesses to engage their existing customers, get incredible content in return [and benefit from] the power of word-of-mouth advertising."
 
Coeyman built Represent PA with the open source tool Represent Map, which also is responsible for Mapped in Israel  and Represent LA.  He spread the word on social media via posts on Hackernews, Reddit and Twitter, inviting companies to add themselves to the site. As of this writing, it counts 90 startups, three accelerators, five incubators, six co-working spaces, three investors and 18 consulting firms.
 
Coeyman is a recent graduate and a self-described "born entrepreneur." One of the biggest challenges for young entrepreneurs, he says, is connecting with like-minded people, especially in rural parts of the state. "We built this map to connect and promote the tech startup community in our beloved Pennsylvania," the site urges. "Let's put PA on the map together!"
 
Source: Jordan Coeyman , Represent PA
Writer: Elise Vider

Shawn Warner was watching his two-year-old daughter drawn irresistibly and dangerously to the plugs in an electrical outlet. Failing to find a product that made it easy for adults to plug and unplug items, but was still safe from tiny fingers, Walker started tinkering.
 
The result is "Secure Connect," which is being manufactured for Warner at Erie Molded Plastics in Erie. Now Warner is applying the knowledge he's gained about taking a product from concept to manufacture with Warners Innovation Solutions  in Altoona, his "invent help company" for other inventors and entrepreneurs.
 
Electrical engineer by education, landscape company owner by trade, Warner says "the hardest part is to get [a product idea] out of your head and make a prototype. It has to be designed in a way that can be mass produced, a feat on its own."
 
Warner sold shares of stock to raise money and worked with a number of local businesses and resources to develop Secure Connect, including ABCD Corp., Ben Franklin Technology Partners, the Small Business Development Center at St. Francis University  and Actuated Development. 
 
Along the way, Warner applied for and won the coveted Good Housekeeping Seal and is actively working on distribution of Secure Connect, which will surely get a boost when it is featured on Lifetime Network's "Designing Spaces" on Oct. 5.
 
In short order, his company has acquired 18 patents and will be launching Umbbies, a full line of electrical products for contractors in the next 60 days. The company already has seven full-time employees and Warner's business plan is to have his own factory up and running in five years.
 
Source: Shawn Warner, Warners Innovation Solutions
Writer: Elise Vider

Waiting to enter combat in Iraq, Aaron Lewis distracted himself by thinking about automotive brakes. "We had about two weeks to get acclimated, so instead of worrying about what could happen in combat, I focused on developing a brake shape that could harness a lot of torque," he says.
 
He used his deployment in 2009-2010 to save money and file a patent for his design for a brake system that could be integrated into vehicle drive trains. Now, Lewis Designs, the startup he established in Waterford upon his return, has received an investment from Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Central and Northern PA to support continued product development.
 
Lewis says he's been encouraged at every step about the commercial potential for his design, which dramatically increases vehicle performance, stability and control. Lewis is targeting the medium-to-heavy vehicle market and he says that the design might make it possible to eliminate the need for brake systems at each wheel, reducing overall weight and boosting fuel efficiency.
 
Over the next year, Lewis plans to complete virtual modeling and testing at the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center. The next step will be to build prototypes for testing. Within three years, he hopes to employ at least 50 at a manufacturing facility in Northwest Pennsylvania.
 
"While I served in Iraq …  I learned a lot about economic development," he says. "These same principles and practices that were proven to work in Iraq will be applied through my business to facilitate change in our economy."
 
Source: Aaron Lewis, Lewis Designs
Writer: Elise Vider
 

Four years in development, and 10 months before the Food and Drug Administration, TubeClear, a new medical device developed and manufactured in Bellefonte has won FDA clearance for U.S. sales.
 
Maureen Mulvihill, president of Actuated Medical, says the product is the first that the company has brought to market.
 
TubeClear removes clogs in medical feeding and decompression tubes using reusable control boxes and single-use cleaning stems that mechanically clear clogs without the need to remove and replace the tube and with minimal disruption in the  delivery of nutrition and medication.
 
With FDA approval, a domestic distribution deal in the works and a distribution agreement in place for Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, Actuated has added four new positions to produce TubeClear. The company now has 17 employees total, Mulvihill says, including its research and development team, which has more products in the pipeline, including surgical devices.
 
Actuated was founded in 2006 as Piezo Resonance Innovations, drawing on a physics term. Last year, the company became Actuated Medical, which means motion in medicine. "We wanted a name that describes what we do," says Mulvihill.
 
Having cleared its first commercialization hurdle and attracting capital from private investors, "it all looks positive" for Actuated, says Mulvihill, who expects to add jobs as the company grows. But she worries about drastic cutbacks in federal research grants to small business, which were critical in getting Actuated to this point. "If this had happened four years ago to us, we wouldn't be in this situation," she adds.
 
Source: Maureen Mulvihill, Actuated Medical
Writer: Elise Vider

International trade would seem to be limited to businesses big enough to handle complex language and cultural barriers, currency risks and unfamiliar logistics, legal, regulatory and financing issues.
 
But 95 percent of the world's population lives outside the United States. As Christian Conroy, Pennsylvania Small Business Development Centers (SBDC) director, points out with understatement, "That's a pretty significant potential market for businesses to consider."
 
So it is that Analytical Graphics Inc. in Exton, which worked with the Wharton SBDC in Philadelphia during its early growth, has grown its sales outside the U.S. by about 40 percent. A trade show in Peru led to a trailer contract for Rogers Brothers Corporation in Albion. Solar Technology of Allentown sold $230,000 of its solar traffic-control systems to the U.K. And Bassett's is shipping America's oldest ice cream from Philadelphia to China.
 
Now the Pennsylvania SBDC has a new working agreement with the U.S. Commercial Service (CS), an arm of the U.S. Department of Commerce, aimed at generating more export opportunities for Pennsylvania's small companies and helping to reverse the balance of trade by generating more referrals, information sharing and cross promotion.
 
The 18 SBDC offices around the state will do the necessary groundwork – helping small businesses, for example, with quality control, business and financial plans – before referring them to CS centers in Philadelphia or Pittsburgh for help with export strategies.
 
The CS notes that export can help Pennsylvania companies ride out fluctuations in the domestic economy, that exporters realize higher employment growth than non-exporters and that export wages are typically 13 to 18 percent higher than non-export wages.
 
Source: Christian Conroy, Pennsylvania SBDC
Writer: Elise Vider

Steve Cygan is something of a modern-day Johnny Appleseed, roaming Pennsylvania and other mid-Atlantic states buying apples for his fast-growing company, Appeeling Fruit.
 
Cygan founded Appeeling in 1991 as a supplier of fresh, peeled apple slices to bakeries. In 1998, a USDA/pharmaceutical research team tested a new technology for extending the freshness and shelf life of sliced apples at Cygan's company using a bath of ingredients including calcium ascorbate.  "When it was commercially released, we were in the driver's seat," says Cygan. 
 
Still, in 2009 when Cygan moved his plant to Dauberville in Berks County, there were only about 15 on the payroll. But shortly afterwards, Appeeling was approached by a huge West Coast company interested in private-label retailing of fresh-sliced apples that don't brown and stay crisp and flavorful for 14 days.
 
Since then, Appeeling has tripled its revenue and grown its workforce to about 100 year-round employees, plus some seasonal help. Its products -- some private label, some branded -- can be found at Giant and Wegmans supermarkets, Target, Sam's Club and convenience stores
 
Cygan says that private-label packing has been the company's single biggest driver of growth, aided by a strong consumer demand for fresh, convenient, pre-cut produce. Other strong growth areas, he adds, are food service and school lunches.
 
Now, Cygan is experimenting with different packages to best capture the "grab and go" market, new cuts (think apple chunks for Waldorf salads) and even new fruits such as fresh-sliced peaches.
 
Source: Steve Cygan, Appeeling Fruit
Writer: Elise Vider

An array of firms across the commonwealth, mostly startups, are beneficiaries of investments made in the last week by The Ben Franklin Technology Partners, Pennsylvania's venerable technology-based economic development programs.
 
BFTP of Central and Northern PA (BFTP/CNP) announced investments totaling $1.8 million in 11 firms. In Northeastern Pennsylvania, BFTP/NEP announced nearly $560,000 in investments in six early-stage companies and six established firms working with academic partners on technology-based manufacturing innovation. And BFTP of Southeastern PA is making $1.375 in new investments.
 
The companies funded by BFTP/CNP are:

• AgIntegrated Inc.,  State College, a tech consultant to the agriculture industry;
• BRL Solutions, Kane, for a new lubricant for use on boats;
• Conduit Marketing, Girard, software for purchase of in-home medical equipment;
• Dataforma Inc.,  York, web-based business management software;
• ECKey, Lancaster, turning Bluetooth-enabled cellphones into access keys;
• Eduplanet21,  Mechanicsburg, a social learning platform;
• Flashpoint Informatics, Bellefonte, cloud-based computing services;
• Lewis Designs LLC, Waterford, innovative brake designs;
• Strategic Polymer Sciences,  State College, animation for mobile devices and smart phones;
• TM Filtration,  Erie, systems to serve the shale gas industry;
• USIC LLC,  York, a web-based marketplace for artists/entrepreneurs.

The early-stage companies funded by BFTP/NEP are:

• A Sound Strategy,  East Stroudsburg ($30,000), to roll out a national sales effort on software-as-a-service products;
• Cernostics, Danville ($100,000) to validate tests for risk of esophageal cancer in certain patients;
• Micro Interventional Devices, Bethlehem ($100,000) to develop a new, minimally invasive heart repair product;
• OPTiMO Information Technology,  Bloomsburg ($25,000) for sales and marketing of IT products and services;
• Pivitec, Bethlehem ($70,000) design and commercialization of hardware and software products for audio streaming;
• Walton Motivation,  Allentown, ($20,000) sales and marketing of cloud-based employee recognition system.

BFT/NEP is also investing in these established manufacturer/academic partnerships:

• Crispin Valve,  Berwick and Bloomsburg University ($18,302) for an enterprise resource planning system at this maker of valves for the municipal water industry;
• Fidelity Technologies Corporation,  Reading and Northampton Community College's Emerging Technology Applications Center ($50,000)  power systems for military field applications;
• Georg Fischer Havel, Easton and Lehigh University, ($50,000) to cut energy use in manufacture of PVC piping;
• Longo's Bakery, Hazleton and Lehigh University's Enterprise Systems Center,  ($25,000) for an enterprise resource planning system;
• Medico Industries, Wilkes-Barre and Northampton Community College's Emerging Technology Applications Center, ($26,500) to cut energy use in manufacture of machined metal components;
• Sharp Corporation,    Allentown and Lehigh University's Enterprise Systems Center, ($45,000) to cut energy use in packaging for pharmaceutical companies.

In Southeastern PA, the recipients are:
 
• ARB Geowell, West Conshohocken ($125,000): The company uses a unique design to promote heat transfer for its geothermal heating/cooling platform, which offers higher energy efficiency and eliminates significant construction costs for commercial buildings, schools and developments.
 
• Brad’s Raw Chips, Pipersville ($100,000): Founder Brad Gruno wants others to discover the benefits of eating raw food like he did. He uses an advanced dehydration system to keep raw chips crunchy and tasty.
 
• Drakontas, Glenside ($250,000): The company provides mobile collaboration software solutions for police, military, fire, emergency response and public service teams. Its flagship DragonFroce product utilizes geo-tracking and shared media and files to help those teams act faster and enhance public safety.
 
• Kerathin, Chester ($200,000): The company previously received $150,000 from Ben Franklin for its PodiaPro nail debridement system for the diabetic population.
 
• OneTwoSee, Devon ($150,000): Formerly Mobile Reactor, the company targets television broadcasters and producers to help them deliver interactive TV experiences through connected devices.
 
• S4 Worldwide, Doylestown ($250,000): The company provides a variety of safety, security and regulatory solutions for drilling companies working in the Marcellus Shale.
 
• Tangent Energy Solutions, Kennett Square ($300,000): Commercial and industrial companies can save up to 20 percent on energy costs thanks to Tangent’s grid optimization technologies.

Source: Ben Franklin Technology Partners
Writer: Elise Vider