reXorce Thermionics, a tenant in the Akron Global Business Accelerator, just received a $5M deal with an European investor.

According to the article in the Beacon Journal, reXorce plans to use the money to hire up to 12 new engineers and locate a new base of operations.  While the Akron location has been “incredibly supportive in handling their growth” it simply isn’t big enough to handle the demonstrations systems reXorce plans to build.

reXorce is not looking for a new building however.   Their plan is to locate an old, unused building and renovate it into an advanced energy showcase.

COO Phil Brennan, as quoted in the article:

We are surrounded by resources we misuse.  The cost in energy to tear down a building and put up a new one is irresponsible. We’d rather bring an old building back to life.

Wait - an advanced energy company in Northeast Ohio gets a $5M investment and they not only want to stay in the region, but are socially responsible too?

NEOinc sure knows how to pick ‘em!

(Thanks to Paula Schleis, Beacon Journal business writer, for her continued focus entrepreneurial activity in the Akron area.  We need a few more Paula’s around the region!)

Knotice, a tenant in NEOinc’s Akron Global Business Accelerator, was profiled over the weekend by the Akron Beacon Journal.

Knoticedelivers integrated marketing communications across email, web, mobile and emerging digital channels and is a JumpStart portfolio company.  Knotice is adding customers and growing quickly.  The Beacon Journal story provides some background on the company founders, why they are here in Northeast Ohio, and how bright their future looks.  (This is a 3 page story - be sure to click the page numbers to advance and read the entire article).

Congratulations Knotice!

19 Action News recently featured MAGNET incubator tenant Torex, in their “Does it Work?” series.

The verdict?  It Works!

Torex makes a family of innovative hot and cold therapy products.  You can view the Does it Work? segment featuring Torex by clicking this link.  Of course, this is no surprise to us as the Torex team have been honing their products over the past few years, and are well on their way to graduating out of the incubator. 

We’ve written before on the Youngstown Business Incubator’s star tenant Turning Technologies.  They are a great example of the kind of companies NEOinc is nurturing throughout the region - high growth, scalable technology companies. They have received the coveted 4 Star Quality Award from PC Magazine. Inc. Magazine ranked them the fastest growing software company in the country last year, and that they topped the most recent Weatherhead 100 list.

But do you really know what they do?

You will now thanks to ABC News which recently featured the firm on their very popular Ahead of the Curve series.

Take a look here:

http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=4593319

Energy Technologies Inc., will be awarded the grant through the Ohio Third Frontier Fuel Cell Program, reports The Mansfield News Journal.

The 15-year-old company first applied last year, according to Tim Lowe, VP of Sales. In addition to a power line for the military, the company also provides products to telecommunications, industrial and medical sectors.  The power plant has been in the works for 2 1/2 years and was demonstrated in February at a large military show in San Diego. He offered the example that soldiers could place the power plant in the back of a Humvee to power computers.

Zethus Software, a portfolio tenant company of the Youngstown Business Incubator (YBI), has entered into a contract with Youngstown State University (YSU) for software development to support its CyberLabNet Project. The CyberLabNet system will allow people at multiple locations to remotely control analytical and testing equipment used to perform chemical analyses on a variety of materials, including pharmaceuticals, ceramics, plastics, and composites. The new software will improve the functionality and usability of the testing equipment.  In turn, this will decrease the per sample cost of operating the equipment by increasing the number of users that can remotely access the testing capabilities.

Dr. Allen Hunter, YSU Professor of Chemistry and principal investigator for CyberLabNet Project states “Zethus is the ideal collaborator as its underlying technology is aligned with the software needs for CyberLabNet.”  Hunter credits Jim Cossler, chief evangelist, YBI, for the introduction to Eric Parker from Zethus and Hunter and his YSU team are enthusiastic about the opportunity to collaborate with an YBI company.

In 2007, Congressman Tim Ryan (D-17th) secured a $911,000 Federal Appropriations through the U.S. Department of Defense to develop software, create workforce training modules and acquire robotics for CyberLabNet.  This summer, Hunter and Parker will travel to the Army Research Lab in Maryland to begin exploring specific applications of this technology in military settings that would benefit from remote testing capabilities.

About Zethus Software
Zethus Software is a privately-held software development firm focused on developing innovative solutions by using grid and cloud computing technologies to solve real-world business problems. Founded in 2003, the company’s customers include Fortune 100 companies as well as significant educational and institutional clients.  A portfolio company of the Youngstown Business Incubator, Zethus Software received the State of Ohio’s Edison Emerging Technology Award for its commitment to cutting-edge, emerging technological development. Visit http://zethussoftware.com/.

About YBI
The Youngstown Business Incubator is a 501 (c) 3 charitable, non-profit organization, with a primary mission to accelerate the start-up and development of scalable, technology-based companies in northeast Ohio. Located in Youngstown, portfolio companies have been awarded 17 intellectual property patents, developed 24 new commercial software applications and created over 230 high-skilled, technology jobs. YBI provides entrepreneurial assistance, facilities and technology support.  For more information about YBI, visit www.ybi.org.

YBI is also a member of the Northeast Ohio Incubator Collaborative, a group of five regional technology incubators, offering facilities and services to startups and entrepreneurs. 

IEEE is the world’s largest professional technology association. Their magazine, IEEE Spectrum, is a monthly magazine for technology innovators, business leaders, and the intellectually curious. Spectrum explores future technology trends and the impact of those trends on society and business.   Content from the magazine can be viewed online at their website, IEEE Spectrum Online.

One recent article caught our eye.  The article is a short interview of Zoltan Cendes on his experiences of starting a business while a professor of electrical and computer engineering at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  The interview is a brief yet interesting looking into the challenges of commercializing research technology.  Zoltan is now Chairman and CTO of Ansoft, the company he founded.

The interview is a quick read.  We like the reinforcement of several entrepreneurial traits we always stress:

1. As a professor, used to hard work and 60 hour weeks
2. Bootstrapped and self-funded instead of looking for outside investment
3. Focus, optimism and persistence

Innovative Process Administration recently outgrew its space in the MAGNET incubator and moved its 30 employees to its own building in Brecksville.  The company, formed in 2002, developed proprietary software to administer on-line enrollment and management of employee benefits programs.  During their stay in the MAGNET incubator, IPA enjoyed rapid company growth and after five years required significantly more space.  Since moving out in mid-2007, IPA continues to see strong growth.

Jim Zedella, president of IPA, was attracted to the MAGNET incubator primarily because of the wide array of entrepreneurial services, including management, marketing, networking and IT support.  These readily available services let IPA continue to focus on their core competency.  Marketing services in particular were extremely important in helping IPA build their brand and identity business coaching and networking provided by the program.    Another benefit was professional office space at a reasonable rate with a simple, no-hassle lease.  IPA’s incubator space was “turn-key” ready, with furniture, phone, voicemail and internet connectivity all in place and ready to go on day one of their lease.  This built-in functionality allowed IPA to immediately focus on building their business, not handling mundane office logistics.    The ability to focus on their core business and not worry about facilities issues was a key factor contributing to brisk growth.  The capital savings generated in the first 18 months allowed them to hire two staff members ahead of schedule; a critical accelerator for their business.    Zedella states that “MAGNET’s Entrepreneurial Services offer an environment that is financially attractive, and provides entrepreneurial camaraderie that contributes to enhancing the probability of making it through your first year and after.  It’s nice to know there are people there rooting for you and have the expertise to help you succeed.” Best of luck to Jim and his entire IPA team!

A couple posts ago, we gave you a video interview of one of MAGNET’s tenants: Aria Analytics.  We’ve got a couple more today, but first a short commercial on the man behind these videos.

Mike Gesing runs a video blog called NEOhio.org.  Mike’s stated goal for the site is:

“The site will initially focus on the Entrepreneurial & Innovation effort in NEOhio: a look at the many people, companies and organizations trying to grow our future economy. It’s quite a cast of characters we have from entrepreneurs, incubators, investors and the myriad organizations we now have to help. Our emerging clusters in fuel cells, alternative energy, liquid crystals, biomed, instruments and controls, nano tech and more are a great start. We’ll try to profile many of the people behind them here. “

Over the last month or so, Mike has been visiting all five of the business incubators that make up NEOinc, doing video interview of not only incubator staff but also tenants.  Over time, Mike will be posting the rest of these article on his website, and we’ll be sure to let you know when they are available.

Mike just got the interviews he filmed at the MAGNET incubator.  In addition to the interview of Aria Analytic’s Chris Vacca, Mike also had a chance to talk with Bob Panthofer of Stanton Advanced Ceramics, a company getting ready to crack a $500B market opportunity.  In addition to Chris and Bob, you can see interviews with Wayne Zeman, MAGNET VP of Venture Development and Director of the business incubator, and Dave Crain, Entrepreneurial Expert.  To see all these interviews in one viewer, click here.

Like that embedded video browser that Mike’s using?  The one where both MAGNET and Youngstown video interviews are available (and soon to follow tabs for the other three NEOinc incubators)?  That’s Brightcove, an online service that I was unaware of until Mike brought it to my attention.   Think of Brightcove as YouTube for business.  With it, after you upload your edited video, you can create embedded video players for your websites and blogs like the ones on Mike’s video blog.  If you’re a start-up business or entrepreneur and would like to use online video, check out Brightcove’s professional products and services.

To see Brightcove in action on another site, check out these overviews of classes offered by the Key Enterpreneurial Development Center at Corporate College.  You might even find a course of two that could help you out.

The 2007 NorTech Innovation Awards ceremony was held this morning at LaCentre.  The awards recognize an innovative product, a new procedure that improves productivity, or any concept that enhances a business’s value or a non-profit’s ability to carry out its mission.

From the awards agenda:

“The NorTech Innovation Awards honor breakthrough innovations in a variety of technical fields.  Each year dozens of individuals and organizations nominate outstanding inventions.  This year seven disruptive innovations have been selected that have exceptional market potential.  In addition, NorTech feels that these innovations and inventors will help fuel the region’s 21st century economy.”

NEOinc is proud to have two of it’s own amongst the winners:

• SpineMatrix Inc. – This spinal imaging company has developed a device that can pinpoint the source of lower back pain, called Computerized Electrophysiological Reconstruction of Spinal Regions, or CERSR. After the non-invasive diagnostic process, the patient can be directed to the appropriate diagnostic, therapeutic and surgical procedures.   SpineMatrix, Inc. is located in the Akron Global Business Accelerator.
• Nanomimetics Inc. — The Cleveland company created unique nanocoatings for a variety of medical and industrial applications. Its patented technology can improve medical device effectiveness by increasing compatibility with the human body.   Nanomimetics, Inc. is located in the MAGNET Business Incubator.

Congratulations to SpineMatrix, Nanomimetics, and the other winners.