Innovation + Startup News

Northern Kentucky University students across disciplines will come together for 24 hours to tackle a real-world business challenge during the first 24 Hours of Mobile Innovation Contest.

Up to 70 students are expected to collaborate in this fast-paced tech challenge, starting the evening of Feb. 8 at NKU's Griffin Hall in the College of Informatics.

The event is being organized by the College of Informatics and the Haile/US BANK College of Business in partnership with businesses TechAllies and MindCrate.

Without spilling the secret of the exact challenge, NKU Business Informatics Professor Teuta Cata says students will work to solve an actual business challenge that could be put into use. Students will get some guidance as they begin to create, design and code the mobile app. Broad guidelines for the app are that it will improve daily activity and business processes or develop a new game idea.

"There will be teams of students who are earning a lot of different degrees here at NKU, because we need a variety of skills," Cata says.

There will be a mixture of graduate and undergraduate students who'll work on everything from the back end to the interface to marketing and communications. Each team member should have the following technology skills: Microsoft Excel, Word and PowerPoint; and experience with the Internet and different mobile devices. Each team should have at least one team member with a basic understanding of project management, database and data communication, among others skills.

They'll have 24-hours to meet the challenge. The awards ceremony starts at 6 p.m. on Feb. 9.

Cata says she got the idea for the event after watching a Cincinnati Startup Weekend event, where local entrepreneurs work for 54 hours over three days to create a startup company.

"I thought this was a great idea for students to get involved with," she says.

Outstanding students will have the opportunity to interview with TechAllies for a chance at a paid internship with the consulting company.

By Feoshia H. Davis
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Candice Peters doesn’t reach for platitudes when asked what she wishes women knew about working out. Her goal is simple and straightforward: “That they can lift heavier!” The trainer and founder of Hyde Park Body Boutique has carved out a niche just a few miles north of downtown with her women-only workout facility.

Unlike the typical gym, there are no ellipticals and no treadmills; the primary services offered are various workout classes, as well as in-home personal training provided by Peters and her staff. It can be hard to identify the most popular class because they’re usually booked with young professionals in the evenings and, often, new or stay-at-home moms in the mornings, but Peters says TRX and Spincinnati (think of a spinning class with light weights and pumped-up music) classes fill up quickly.

“We cater to women of all ages,” Peters says, noting a concentration of young professionals ages 25-34, especially those who recently got married or plan to have kids soon. Still, she adds, “We have athletes, we have people who haven’t worked out in years and we have people who are looking to lose 150 pounds.”

Peters’ staff comprises an office manager and five part-time trainers who help local ladies get stronger. Peters isn’t a proponent of crash dieting or even protein powder in particular, and she says that she reminds all of her clients that 80 percent of their fitness is due to nutrition, not working out.

Another 80/20 rule she follows is her advice about effort levels. “In general, if you have to be doing great things 80 percent of the time, the other 20 percent of the time you can slack off. You have to give yourself a break.”

She should know; Peters works an 80-hour work week, and plans to launch Over-the-Rhine Body Boutique in June. Along with her training and teaching, she’s fundraising with SoMoLend and planning a social media campaign to raise crowdfunding for new equipment. For a woman on the move, it's just one more way to stay active.

By Robin Donovan

“Helicopter parents are very apparent—no pun intended,” says Jessica Donovan, founder of Red Brick College Consulting. “A lot of parents tend to be that way, but there are some on the other end of the spectrum as well. I get both.”

According to Donovan, anxious parents often relax once they see a plan and a timeline for their child's college planning. Once everyone is comfortable, she turns her attention to each student’s strengths and weaknesses, and helps suss out which college might truly be the best fit.

“A big part of consulting is getting the parents and the students to talk to each other,” she says. “Mom and Dad have an expectation and Sally or Joe has a different expectation.” In these cases, Donovan says she’ll help students identify their strengths and goals, then give them data to discuss with parents.

A former assistant dean at the University of Cincinnati, Donovan launched Red Brick last October to advise students and parents during their college search. Donovan, who is “part student advocate, part counselor, part admissions guru,” meets first with students and their parents to identify broad goals and gather ideas. After that, she keeps in touch with students in person or via Skype— and both parties leave each meeting with homework.

For Donovan, having an academic background sets her apart from her peers, many of whom have guidance counseling or psychology backgrounds. Her services range from evaluating academic records and course schedules to recommending co-curriculars and test-prep services. She offers services bundled as a package deal, a la carte or hourly, including timelines, preparation for college visits, essay critiques and even detailed lists of scholarships by institution.

Still, when it comes to completing applications, Donovan says she expects students to take the lead. “I don’t write the essays, fill out the FAFSA or fill out the application. The student owns that process.”

Donovan says students as young as middle school age can start taking the steps toward finding the right college for them. Although she says a student’s sophomore year is an ideal starting point for her services, she’ll work with students, including transfer students, at any point in the process.

Donovan is currently accepting students for her fall caseload and advises families to begin their work with her during the summer months.

By Robin Donovan

Riding a bicycle can be dangerous, especially when people increase their likelihood of injury with two habits:
 
• Not wearing a helmet
• Listening to music with earbuds
 
Bipo solves both of those problems.
 
By locking earbuds into the vents of a helmet, the music that plays through the tiny speakers creates non-distracting background noise. As a result, the tunes are not blasted directly into your eardrums, making you much more perceptive of potential peril on the road.
 
The device does not require you to alter your helmet in any way, and the earbuds are easily removed once your ride is through. Bipo is a simple, ingenious way to safely enjoy music while cycling.
 
Developed by Noel Gauthier of The Launch Werks, a member of the Losantiville Design Collective, Bipo was first developed as a personal life-hack.

?“The prototype was something I used for myself,” Gauthier says. “ But people kept asking me about it.”

?After mulling it over, Gauthier decided to capitalize on his creation and began to seriously design Bipo with his business partner, Matt Anthony. This resulted in a six-month creation phase, where the duo worked on the schematics and conceptualization in between other projects.

Gauthier found the best way to convince cyclists of Bipo’s merits was to simply let them try it. Every response seemed to be positive. Not loud enough to be a distraction, the Bipo enables earbuds to produce abundant audio for ideal biking enjoyment.  
?
Gauthier later realized he had unintentionally made a device that not only enables cyclists a safe means of hearing music, but also encourages more consistent helmet use. Guilty, like many cyclists, of not wearing his helmet every ride, there was an audible difference without his Bipo. ?Gauthier says, on the occasions he’d forget his helmet, “I’d be halfway down the road and think to myself, ‘Why is it so quiet?’”
 
By Sean Peters

With the explosive growth of the United States' Latino population, marketers can no longer think of Latinos as a niche market. If businesses want to grow, Latino customers must be integrated into all stages of marketing, not added as an afterthought.

That's the message Chiqui Cartagena, VP of corporate marketing at Univision, brought to the January luncheon of the Cincinnati Chapter of the American Advertising Federation. The luncheon was held at the Covington Radisson.

She brought a few stats to back her up:

• Latinos saw 56 percent population growth since the last census
• 1 in 4 births today is to a Latina mother
• 100 percent of population growth of adults 18-49 in the next 10 years will come from Hispanics

"There are 1.5 million new Hispanics joining the marketplace every year," Cartagena says. "Hispanics are now 17 percent of the population and soon will be 30 percent. The general market is the Hispanic market."

Univision, with major operations in New York and Florida, has the largest Spanish-speaking television audience in the world. The growing station often rivals the country's major television networks and is available by cable and satellite.

Cartagena is the author of "Latino Boom! Everything You Need to Know to Grow Your Business in the U.S. Hispanic Market." The 25-year marketing and media veteran has developed, launched and lead some of America's successful Spanish-language consumer magazines, including People en Espanol.

Instead of reaching out to Latinos at the end of the marketing process, successful marketing really integrates Latino consumers into all parts of marketing, including product development and messaging, says Cartagena. This is a major shift from the past.

Major brands, including Walmart, have dramatically shifted their marketing mindset, she says. Recently, the company said it expected 100 percent of its growth will come from multicultural markets, with plans to double its advertising spending in that area.

It takes much more effort than translating an ad or packaging into Spanish to create loyalty in the Hispanic market, Cartagena says. Among her recommendations were to:

• Examine if your products and services are culturally relevant
• Create culturally relevant themes in the marketing
• Support your efforts with sufficient and consistent funding
• Define and track success

"Embrace the similarities and the differences between the Hispanic and general market," she says. "It's really about growing your business. You need to present (products or services) that are culturally relevant to Latinos, then invite them in."

By Feoshia H. Davis
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Major regional job-creating organizations have come together to focus efforts on competing for one of the nation's fastest-growing job segments: information technology.

This collaboration includes the Cincinnati CIO Roundtable, a forum of IT leaders who are focused on improving the region’s overall IT ecosystem, along with the Cincinnati USA Partnership and the Partners for a Competitive Workforce.

The CIO Roundtable is led by co-chairs Piyush Singh, SVP & CIO of Great American Insurance, and Geoff Smith, former IT leader at P&G.

"Business leaders in the region are coming together with the common goal of talking about the importance of IT, and its role in the growth of their companies," says Tammy Riddle, IT economic development director for Cincinnati USA Partnership.

Just last week, the organizations came together for a half-day, invitation-only event —“Grow the IT economy in Cincinnati USA.” The event featured presentations from a variety of stakeholders, including the organizers, JobsOhio and CincyTech.

The group is working to meet a wide range of challenges, including creating high-paying jobs through public and private partnerships, creating a strategic plan to grow IT jobs in the region, attracting and training talent, and determining the role of startups.

"One of the key things we're going to focus on are trends that companies are seeing across the board, and how we can match those with Cincinnati strengths and build the street cred of the IT sector in Cincinnati," Riddle says.

Regional universities also play a role in talent creation. Northern Kentucky University's College of Informatics is a leader, as is the University of Cincinnati with its top-rated analytics graduate program, and the University of Miami's innovative digital media program.

Cincinnati has an emerging IT industry. There are about 30,000 Cincinnati residents who are employed in the IT sector, which has an estimated $2.5 billion impact on the country’s GDP. According to the 2020 jobs outlook, it’s also one of the four fastest-growing and best-paying employment sectors in Cincinnati, with an anticipated 10-year growth rate of 26.5 percent.

"We want to take a more proactive approach to growing jobs in this sector," Riddle says. "We want to make sure that our region has what we need to fill that demand, to be able to accomplish growth."

Next, participants will start working on what it takes to grow the IT sector, including conducting a comprehensive assessment of the current IT economy and developing strategies for talent attraction, greater awareness investment and startup activity.

By Feoshia H. Davis
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Nancy Trapp has very few excuses for not getting in regular workouts. The Pilates instructor and owner of Studio NT works from her home, which is equipped with mats, machines and plenty of space to stretch.

Trapp grew interested in Pilates after lower back and hamstring tension left her seeking a fix. Yoga didn’t work, but she found relief with classical Pilates. After six weeks, she says, “I was standing up taller. My husband didn’t have to remind me not to slouch anymore.”

Trapp’s typical session lasts 55 minutes and she recommends clients come twice a week. She offers group mat classes to supplement individual sessions. She earned her certification from the Pilates Method Alliance after completing a 600-hour training program in May 2012.

Pilates (and especially classical Pilates) is different from yoga in that it focuses not just on mat exercises, but also involves a range of equipment that facilitates exercises promoting core strength, balance and stability. Some modern Pilates instructors offer mat-based classes for practical reasons, but Trapp, who often works with clients one-on-one, prefers the mental work of figuring out which exercises best fit each individual.

“I have a client who is 75 and has never exercised in her life who comes two days a week," says Trapp. "Now, she says, ‘I can’t miss a day because I feel great.' "

And the senior client is not alone. “I’m loving my older clientele, my 60s, 70s and older. I’m getting some more referrals for people that age. I like to teach everybody, but they can feel the difference quicker than somebody who might be doing all different types of [exercise].”

For Cincinnatians looking to stretch themselves in a new way, Studio NT may be just the place to start.

By Robin Donovan

Although Inna Aracri describes herself as “a regular person” in her health coaching work—she is not a nutritionist or a dietician—her approach to coaching incorporates techniques that might puzzle a mainstream medical practitioner.
 
Ukraine-born Aracri is the proprietor of Inna’s Harmony LLC, a health consultancy that takes a holistic approach to improving people’s overall wellbeing. The bulk of Inna’s Harmony clients are looking for help with common problems such as losing weight or improving energy levels, but what sets Aracri apart is her approach, which mixes nutrition, general health counseling and spirituality.
 
So, while Aracri might spend the bulk of her time teaching people how to eat healthy and prepare nutritional meals, she also offers crystal healing and reiki along with raw food training, recipe tips and cooking demonstrations.
 
"If people are open to the alternative modalities, I always offer energy healing as a part of the package,” says Aracri, who offers package deals to encourage clients to try her other services. “People are more familiar with health coaches or food counselors versus energy healing. But by learning how to deal with their body—there’s more to it than muscles and tissues and bones—they open new doors to learn how they can help themselves through spiritual development.”
 
For Aracri, advising her clients means not only talking about healthy eating habits, but also teasing out the reasons they’re not thriving. For some, she advises more time outdoors; for others, she discusses the importance of healthy relationships.
 
And while she’ll work with people of almost any age, Aracri says she sees lots of people in their 40s. “They have family, career, finances, but they’re not happy because they don’t feel good,” she says. “They neglect their bodies because they feel fine when they’re younger, but when people reach their 40s, they may start not feeling good. The body can only serve so long without breaking down on the wrong fuel that you put into it.”
 
By Robin Donovan

Cincinnati's music scene continues its resurgence with new and growing festivals like last year's Bunbury Music Festival and the ongoing MidPoint Music Festival.

There are lots of details to keep in check when putting on a big, multi-day festival, and one local company has a hand in some of the most popular those music festivals and a wide range of events across the city.

Event Enterprises in Camp Washington is a full-service event production and management company for corporate communications and live events. The company's mission is to produce events that "entertain, educate and inspire."

Grant Cambridge started Event Enterprises in 2007. He was an intern, then freelancer for Backstage Backline, a local backline provider. After seeing growth in live events across the city, Cambridge began acquiring Backstage Backline, and building what is now Event Enterprises.

Cambridge, an Ohio University grad who majored in music and telecommunications, decided to create his own opportunity. "I thought it through, and it seemed like a potentially strong opportunity, and I had a background in the business," he says.

Event Enterprises has helped produced some of the city's big music events like Bunbury and MPMF. The company also has produced events for the Kentucky and Cincinnati symphony orchestras, Macy's, Over-the-Rhine Chamber of Commerce, Procter & Gamble and the Cincinnati Reds.

Cambridge has two employes, a warehouse in Bellevue and works with about seven contractors on a regular basis. He sees a great future for his business, as public events and development in the urban core continue to grow.

"In the past five or six years there has been an insurgence of events in the core, with the Banks development, Washington Park, the Fountain Square renovations and all the development in Over-the-Rhine," he says. "The casino is about to open, and people are really interested in visiting downtown. I see a lot of opportunities."

By Feoshia H. Davis
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Shelby McKee had had it with the bulky shoes and socks that cold Cincinnati winters require. Heading to a Bengals game one crisp evening, she reached into her husband’s sock drawer and nabbed a pair of dress socks. With a pair of cute flats in mind, she cut oblong holes in the tops of the socks that revealed just the tops of her feet when she slipped on her shoes.

Mike Crotty, a family friend who has been in the textile business for years, was able to source out Keysocks in China, and help McKee find the right factory. “We probably had 45 prototypes made in all, and all the factories were puzzled, wondering, ‘What do you mean? A sock with a hole in it?’” McKee says with a laugh.

Several years later, with her multi-talented family and friends helping out with everything from IT to PR to sourcing a manufacturer, McKee’s Keysocks—a name coined by her friends at the Bengals game—are hitting retail shelves.

The business earned an early, fortuitous bump in sales when the product was featured in Real Simple, a consumer magazine that offers hip ways to make life easier. Today, the product is in about a dozen retail stores, mostly small boutiques. “The reason why we didn’t go straight to retail like Target or department stores yet is because no one has ever seen this product before, and if it sat on a shelf, nobody would know what it is,” McKee says. “We started with the Internet and getting it out on social media.”

Although the socks were designed not to show, their open-foot design has spread in popularity from women, like McKee’s friends, to girls, who started asking for fun colors and patterns. Currently, Keysocks are available in black and nude hues. Brown is on its way, along with turquoise-and-gray stripes. Girls' socks in turquoise and a navy/raspberry stripe are also in the works.

Like some small businesses, McKee doesn’t take returns, but she doesn’t do it to save money. In fact, McKee says she encourages any unhappy users to pass along the product, figuring it will easily find a happy home. “I just want everybody to be comfortable.”

By Robin Donovan
 

Rachel Murphy grew a fan base by launching an Etsy store for her jewelry and décor, such as personalized wire letters, hair accessories and wedding favors while she worked full-time at a consuming nonprofit position. When she launched Rachel Lynn Studio, an event planning business, she decided to try to join the two customer bases.

“I don’t do catering, entertainment or photography, and I don’t rent out facilities,” she says, but it takes her a minute to come up with that list because there are so many services she does provide.

Unlike a typical event or wedding planner, Murphy will not only meet with individuals or groups to choose a theme, set colors, coordinate vendors and be there on the big day, she also makes many of the props and decorative elements these events require. Murphy offers her services a la carte—think bouquets or centerpieces—or at a flat rate for corporate events, weddings and other happenings.

Murphy says she enjoys working with couples who don’t want a cookie-cutter event. “I wish people knew that anything is possible,” she says of wedding planning in particular. “People get so nervous they’re not going to fit a certain mold of what they expect to see at traditional weddings.”

One tip Murphy says she offers for weddings and corporate events alike is to create a schedule that keeps moving and isn’t expected. Getting married at 6 p.m.? Offer a cocktail hour before the ceremony, or even some live music and dancing. “Make sure there’s not time when people are just standing around waiting,” she says.

To keep a wedding’s timeline flowing, Murphy advises couples to take pictures before the wedding, which she says limits the pre-dinner lull. “It can also take away some of the nerves to see each other beforehand,” she says.

And while she can craft invitations, bouquets and centerpieces, Murphy doesn’t shy away from special requests. For example, when a lesbian couple wanted a wedding with only vendors open to their relationship, Murphy vetted each one. Whether she’s designing earrings for the bride, running the show or tracking down vendors, there are few tasks this planner won’t tackle.

By Robin Donovan
 

Big, established brands can get stale, so in the fast-changing and hyper-competitive consumer products market, rapid, results-oriented market research is a real asset for large brands.

Olivetree Research in Hyde Park builds on founder Carol Shea's decades of experience in consumer marketing research to help brands shake things up a little. Olivetree helps find new answers to the perennial question: What do consumers REALLY want?

Shea started Olivetree Research about 11 years ago, not long after Sept. 11, 2001.

"It was the right time for me to make a split from my former company," she says. "I'd been in marketing research for 25 years, and had been thinking about starting my own business for a long time. Sept. 11 was a wake-up call for living every day the way you want."

Additionally, Shea served as adjunct faculty of the Williams College of Business at Xavier University as a former member of the Advisory Council to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Olivetree works with large and mid-size local firms that are looking to solve marketing and sales challenges that stunt growth.

"We're working with companies that are committed to positioning new product development that meets the needs of their consumers," Shea says. "We work with companies who want to spend time up-front on research, understand what positioning is and are willing to engage in that process."

Through her work, Shea has helped brand everything from pickles to neighborhoods, all by finding what customers want and what the company needs to do to market and meet those needs.

Companies often come to her when their marketing efforts are flagging, they have a decline in sales or a new competitor enters the market. With Olivetree, companies look to strengthen their brand, reinforce customer loyalty, expand into new markets or develop new products and services.

The market research process takes about three to six months, and can continue over years as a company evolves. In addition to consumer products, Shea often works with healthcare and financial services agencies.

This year, Shea is growing her own business by starting an online training company that will offer courses for new market researchers.

"It will help them understand what techniques work best in certain situations," she says. "The training will help them have confidence in their position. It can be very difficult for someone new in market research to speak with authority on how you should proceed based on the (research) results."

Shea plans to launch the new company sometime later this year.

By Feoshia H. Davis
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It’s a familiar struggle for those who lay down cash for season tickets to the Bengals or the Reds: trying to sell, donate or give away the extras when you can’t make a game.

Alex Burkhart grew up in Mansfield, Ohio, rooting for Cleveland sports teams. And while falling in love with Cincinnati as a student at Xavier may mean his love of Cincinnati sports is growing, he’s mostly impressed by the city’s budding startup culture.

A Macy’s employee by day, Burkhart won the Cincinnati Startup Weekend competition last November. During the event, individuals pitch startup ideas and form makeshift teams to develop them during a single weekend. Burkhart – who longingly noted that he missed a great Xavier game to do so – grabbed attention and a few helpful connections after he pitched his idea, which is now called Tixers.

Burkhart says the company will provide a new way to buy and sell tickets on an online platform. “Hypothetically, if you can’t go to a Reds game, you can sell the tickets on StubHub at a significantly reduced price, give them away or let them go to waste,” he says.

Tixers aims to even that exchange. Still in its early stages, the platform (likely to be web and mobile) will allow people who have tickets for sporting or other entertainment venues to exchange them for points, which can later be redeemed for other tickets. In other words, no more last-minute emails or tickets gone to waste.

But before all this can happen, Burkhart hopes to connect with a partner who can complement his business acumen with technical know-how. He won the competition just weeks ago, attracting attention from startup accelerators and investors, but cautions, “It’s not a working business yet.”

Still, Burkhart is optimistic that Cincinnati’s sustainable startup culture combined with his education, enthusiasm and upbringing – he’s from a family of entrepreneurs – will soon mean a successful launch for Tixers.

By Robin Donovan

Jazzberry Chauffeur is a street artist-inspired clothing brand that mixes quirky designs with a bit of youthful philosophy.

Xavier entrepreneurship and economics student Brandon Pindulic co-founded the company, which is named in homage to a friend's rich uncle who employed a chauffeur dressed in a jazzberry suit until the Great Depression, when he lost it all, according to the business' website.

The company sells T-shirts, caps and outerwear that nods to that rich uncle's past, while also looking toward a dream-fulfilled future.

Each design tells a story, outlined on the Jazzberry site, where the brand is sold. For instance, there's this purple T-shirt that features a sunglasses-wearing, saxophone-toting red berry. The story? "A literal creation of our name, Jazz-Berry-Chauffeur. This scenic tee is also reminiscent to the roaring '20s when jazz musicians dwelled in nightclubs introducing American culture to jazz music."

The black Chauffeur Your Dreams T-shirt is described this way: "Everyone has dreams, goals and desires. At first they seem quite plain and ordinary, hence the basic JbC orbit illustrated on the front of the tee. But as people begin to learn more about other individuals' dreams and dig a little deeper, an intricate image of their life goals begins to appear, hence the rocket-equipped limousine scorching around a metropolis that inhabits some of the wealthiest individuals and most prized possessions sculpted on the back of the shirt."

Prices for the clothes range from $20-22 for tees, and $35 for hoodies.

Pindulic, who came to Cincinnati from New Jersey for college, co-founded the company in 2011 while still in high school.

"We started by selling shirts," he says. "We had these fresh designs, and worked with friends who were graphic designers. We started by selling to friends and family. We financed it ourselves, we just put in a couple hundreds bucks of our own money and it grew."

The typical Jazzberry customer is male, 15-24 years old, and into the brand's bold colorful graphics and casual, steetwear style, according to Pindulic.

This year, the business is preparing to offer more products, while beefing up its marketing presence.

Pindulic creates some designs as well as tapping some friends' creativity. He has worked with manufacturers inside and outside the United States to make the shirt, but that will change soon, he says.

"We've decided we are going to make all U.S.-based products for our new lines," he says.

By Feoshia H. Davis
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