Regionalism : Innovation + Job News

They might not reinvent the light bulb, but with any luck, they’ll cost less to use.

The Opportunity Research Fund of the Greater Philadelphia Innovation Cluster announced $1,327,253 in grants to seven research projects on Monday, all aimed at improving energy efficiency at the Philadelphia Navy Yard-based cluster.

The grants, which ranged between $100,000-$250,000 and were announced in a news release, "support research, development, demonstration and deployment of technologies, policies, business models and training programs that advance GPIC goals." GPIC is one of the nation’s three energy hubs working toward reducing American energy use in buildings by 50 percent and stimulate private investment and job creation in our region and beyond.

"The selected projects reflect the priorities and areas of need for GPIC where additional research will contribute significantly toward meeting GPIC goals and spurring innovation," says Henry Foley, executive director of GPIC and VP for research at Penn State University.

GPIC’s 24 member institutions were eligible to apply, but had to partner with a non-member on their proposals. Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania managed the proposal review process. The funded projects include:

- Integrated Lighting Controls with Hybrid Connectivity for Energy Efficiency and Easy Retrofit, $200,573: Penn State University and Phillips Research North America

- Beta Testing, Validation and Manufacturing of Low Cost Next Generation HVAC Energy Efficiency and Smart Grid Retrofits for Commercial and Residential Applications, $146,692: Penn State University Center for High Performance Buildings and Pace Controls

- Demonstration of Modelica-Based Tool Chain for Rapid Prototyping and Evaluation of Integrated Business Controls, $233,000: Purdue University and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

- The Sustainability Workshop, $200,000: Drexel University, Penn State University, Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory

- Electro Chronic Glazing for Improved Performance of Commercial Buildings,$200,000: Penn State University and Sage Electronics

- Navy Yard Operations Center: An Innovative Energy Management, Workforce Development and Education Opportunity for Greater Philadelphia, $161,487: Drexel University, Penn State University, Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation, University of Pennsylvania, and Viridity Energy

- Construct Baseline Commercial Building Envelope to Evaluate Energy Retrofit Strategies, $185,501: Bayer MaterialScience and Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Source: Christine Knapp, GPIC
Writer: Joe Petrucci

Giant koi swimming up 13th Street? Believe it. The Favela Painters are coming to Philadelphia. In mid-September, Jeroen Koolhaas and Dre Urhahn, better known as the team Haas&Hahn, arrive here for a major public art project that spans three Philadelphia neighborhoods, trains countless new artists and brings a bit of Brazil to the city.

Favela is the term used for the slums of Rio de Janiero, lawless places ruled by criminal syndicates. Over the past five years, Haas&Hahn have transformed the walls and streets of these mountainside neighborhoods that loom over downtown Rio. Outrageous color and imagery, visible from all parts of the city, have transformed trash strewn chaotic areas into internationally renowned public art galleries.

Now the Favela Painters are set to transform Philadelphia, and the location of their work will be in some pretty high profile places: the 13th Street corridor owned by Goldman Properties in Center City; in North Philadelphia at Lehigh and Germantown Avenues, near The Village of Arts and Humanities (where Haas&Hahn will reside during the project); and in Manayunk, on old industrial buildings facing Interstate 76.

Funding, which is budgeted at just under $500,000 for the three-part project, comes from The Knight Foundation, The U.S. Department of Commerce, Goldman Properties and The Manayunk Development Corporation.

The teams that will work on the project will be trained by the Haas&Hahn guild. "People who don't have a lot of opportunities will be able to work with international artists," says Golden, who describes the artists' philosophy as a model for passing knowledge on. "What's the test of a good project? The shifting perspectives of people who made the art and people who live with it."

This will be the first permanent U.S. project for Haas&Hahn, who also created an installation for Art Basel Miami in 2010. Jane Golden, Executive Director of the Mural Arts Program in Philadelphia, met the Favela painters through hip hop art consultant Todd Bressi, who brought Haas&Hahn to Miami. Bressi is a lecturer at The University of Pennsylvania and also worked on the Philadelphia Airport Gateway Project.

Golden says Haas&Hahn are on MAP's dream list of artists. "We're philosophically aligned. They're colorists with a background in architecture," says Golden. Kickoff is September 27 with a welcome reception. The entire project is set to last 18 months, including training and pop-up studios throughout the city. At its conclusion, a major exhibition is planned, which will also span Philadelphia and is slated for late 2013 to early 2014.

Source: Jane Golden, Philadelphia Mural Arts Program
Writer: Sue Spolan

The Philadelphia Mural Arts Program is once again reinventing itself, this time through its special muraLAB initiative and with Breadboard, the hybrid program out of the University City Science Center that explores intersections between contemporary art, design, science and technology.

The partnership has formed a joint artist residency and exhibition opportunity that explores the intersection of muralism and technology. Last week the groups announced a request for proposals to established and emerging artists--or interdisciplinary teams of two--with priority given to those having a strong Philadelphia connection. Four selected artists or artist teams will be given access to NextFab Studio's high tech fabrication equipment and staff from November through March, 2012 to produce public art project concepts and models ad prototypes for exhibition in April and May at Breadboard's Esther Klein Gallery. Projects will also be considered for full-scale public art projects produce by Mural Arts in 2013.

Artists and teams will earn a stipend of $2,000 and a $500 credit toward workshop and machine time fees and staff consultations. Deadline for submissions is 4 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 3.

There are two upcoming open houses at NextFab for interested artists--not mandatory but definitely encouraged--on Wednesday, Aug. 31 (5-7:30 p.m.) and Saturday, Sept. 10 (1-3:30 p.m.). RSVP here.

Source: David Clayton, Breadboard
Writer: Joe Petrucci

There is no shortage of groups and events geared toward Philadelphia's still-fertile startup community. One new group, which is still figuring out how it fits in, is sure of one thing: its members will be active participants.

Startup Therapy, founded by Jeff Deville and supported by a group of six to 10 active participants, has met for lunch on three recent Fridays. Deville is working on a pair of soon-to-launch ventures: WishGenies is a platform that uses social media to deliver gift ideas for your family and friends and MixMeUp is an app that helps you choose an appropriate cocktail. Earlier this month he made his first visit to Independents Hall, the Old City-based co-working space that turns four years old on Thursday and is home to many of the city's most active and influential entrepreneurial types, and his subsequent blog post imploring Philly startups to unite became the initial framework for Startup Therapy.

Through three sessions, the group has worked to develop its tone and structure while aiming to establish an exclusivity not yet present in the local startup community, which appears to be its niche.

"There are a lot of groups in the area that let anyone in who has an interest," says Brian Glick via email. He's an active founding member of the group and president of logistics software startup Aspect 9, which has developed a customizable supply chain platform for businesses of all sizes. "The problem is, having an interest is not the same as doing something about it. The groups become too big to deliver focused value for their members.

"We think that with a smaller group of engaged people who you know and trust, opportunities for sharing and leveraging each other's resources are much more plausible."

Glick added he sees the group as "open source in the real world." Other early discussions centered around the need for higher level, focused learning sessions (something deeper than Marketing 101).

If you want in and are willing to be a fully engaged member, the group meets at Indy Hall (20 N. 3rd St., Suite 201) every Friday just before noon and leaves for its lunch session promptly at the top of the hour.

Source: Brian Glick, Aspect 9
Writer: Joe Petrucci

Massive construction projects need a specialized kind of management to avoid pitfalls, and that's where Talson Solutions steps in. "For most of our clients, construction is not their business. When we work for a hospital, health care is their business, not building a new hospital." Ditto other massive undertakings like Citizens Bank Park, the Comcast building and the Panama Canal, just a few of Philadelphia based Talson Solutions' clients.

Robert Bright, President of Talson, sees these multimillion dollar efforts as jigsaw puzzles. With nearly 20 years experience in construction litigation and management prior to founding Talson, Bright found an opportunity to build a business overseeing projects at risk. Talson has grown 371 percent in the past five years, according to Bright, and doubled its staff, now employing 12 people at its Old City headquarters.

Leading up to Talson, Bright spent seven years as an expert witness in construction litigation for Price Waterhouse and a dozen years working for Exxon, building large capital projects around the world. "Exxon does it well. They might spend 15 to 20 billion dollars on a capital project. I enjoy that. One might say I have an owner's perspective. It's a different mentality than a contractor. With these types of construction projects, there's a way of doing it right, to identify and anticipate risk." Bright says his strength is letting people know where concerns may lie, whether it is in the design, the quality of materials, or leadership. "We identify the missing pieces, support that effort, and drill down from there."

Talson's largest project right now is auditing the $7 billion expansion of the Panama Canal, but Bright stresses that every project, no matter what the cost, represents risk. Because of Talson's involvement in the Canal project, Bright is likely going to open a satellite office in Panama, and is also considering expansion to New York as well.

Talson just celebrated its 10th anniversary this June. Bright reflects on the past decade, during which his two children, for whom the company is named, grew proud of their father's legacy. Bright's daughter, Taylor, is a rising star in her own right, a promising singer/songwriter who recently toured the US as the star of the musical Annie.

Source: Robert Bright, Talson Solutions
Writer: Sue Spolan

The appreciation of coffee has risen to an art form, following the path of fine wine and craft beer. And while the city is dotted with culinary coffee establishments, most are serving products shipped in from distant locations. A new company, inspired by single origin roasters like Stumptown and CounterCulture, brings craft roasting to Philadelphia. ReAnimator Coffee was founded in April by Drexel University grads Mark Corpus and Mark Capriotti.

Corpus says that while coffee has been his stimulant of choice for years, visits to New York's Cafe Grumpy and 9th Street Espresso changed his opinion about how a cup of joe should taste. "These were coffees that were not only roasted to perfection, but were selected purposefully. At the time, there weren't many places in Philadelphia doing this type of coffee so I began looking into home roasting," says Corpus. "It was an interesting hobby that appealed to my nerdy tendencies and produced super fresh and delicious coffee with relative ease."

It was only through conversations with partner Capriotti that Corpus looked at his hobby with an eye toward a business. Using personal savings, the java-jolted duo took on the purchase of a roaster, which can run upwards of $8,000 for a starter model, and purchased  inventory. Coffee bean prices are now at an all time high, according to Corpus.

Both partners are still working day jobs, but have been pleasantly surprised by growth in sales during a hot summer. It's no surprise to anyone who tastes ReAnimator, which goes down easy, lacking the acidity and charred taste of the big name brands. "When you roast a coffee until it's burnt, all of the oils that hold all of those interesting aromas and flavors are lost. You see them on the outside of a greasy burnt bean where they do not provide any additional flavor to the brew," says Corpus. "When you take the time to figure out what roast level makes the coffee flavor best, you get the full potential of a bean."

ReAnimator has relied almost entirely on social media marketing using Facebook and Twitter, and they can almost always be found on Saturdays at Greensgrow Farmer's Market, just blocks from ReAnimator world headquarters in Fishtown. In addition to online sales, Quince Fine Foods and Green Aisle Grocery both stock the local roast, and Circles restaurant sells it by the cup.

As far as the name? "We wanted something that sounded different, not so burlap baggy wholesome. I had been reading HP Lovecraft's ReAnimator and it struck me as a great, unique term, and in my own experience reanimation and coffee go hand in hand," says Corpus, whose name, fittingly, translates as "body" from Latin.

Source: Mark Corpus, ReAnimator Coffee
Writer: Sue Spolan

There's a whole lot of hiring going on in Zone 7. Lest you think you've slipped into a science fiction world, Fresh From Zone 7 is the name of a fast growing company that's, well, all about growing. Founded in 2008 by Mikey Azzara, the Cranbury, N.J.-based farm-to-table distributor serving Pennsylvania and New Jersey has doubled in sales every year.

Right now, there are five job openings for energetic people who are committed to providing local food to local eaters: sales, warehouse crew, warehouse crew leader, drivers (multiple) and a sales team intern. While the positions are primarily part time, the right candidate could combine several to create a full time gig. Currently there are 9 people on staff, and the new hires would represent about a fifty percent increase. The company began with just two employees in 2008.

Azzara reports that each week of the 2011 season, Zone 7 has been adding deliveries at an almost explosive rate and at this point is maxed out in terms of staffing.

"On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, all three of our trucks are out," says Azzara of the fleet that picks up from all over New Jersey and Pennsylvania, delivering to over 80 establishments, including The Farm and Fisherman, Southwark, Garces Trading Company, Weaver's Way, Greensgrow and the Fair Food Farmstand in Philadelphia. The New Jersey territory stretches from Atlantic City to West New York, NJ.

The 40 farms that supply Zone 7 include Blooming Glen, Jah's Creation Organic, Griggstown Farm Market, and Branch Creek, where the original seed for Zone 7 was planted.

Azzara had been working for the Northeast Organic Farming Association of New Jersey for five years when he sat down at the table of Mark and Judy Dornstreich, pioneers of the local food movement and founders of Branch Creek Farm, which has been growing and delivering organic produce to Philadelphia restaurants since the 1970s. "They supplied me with the truck, the name and the idea," says Azzara.

Zone 7, named for the USDA Hardiness Zone in which we live, is a 52-week-a-year operation, says Azzara, and its busiest months, surprisingly, are November and December. "Our time to catch our breath is January, February and March." Starting in April, asparagus and swiss chard are the first crops to harvest.

Source: Mikey Azzara, Zone 7
Writer: Sue Spolan

The Laurence A. Baiada Center for Entrepreneurship at Drexel University's LeBow College of Business is about to expand, taking up residence in the soon to be constructed LeBow building at 32nd and Market Streets. Currently tucked away in a former industrial space at 32nd and Arch, the Baiada Center has been physically separate from LeBow, but that's all about to change. The business school's former home, the Mathieson Building, is now in the process of being demolished to make way for a 12 story state of the art structure. The new Baiada Center will have a light-flooded open floor plan, and will add a behavioral lab where entrepreneurs can conduct focus group tests.

A division of LeBow, Baiada has long offered full support for entrepreneurs, from office and conference space to mentoring, training and promotion. "A lot of what we do is built around the presumption that most entrepreneurs know their space, and need help building and selling their companies,' says Mark Loschiavo, Executive Director and Senior Executive in Residence. Startups, which range in specialty from transportation to medical devices, also receive a small amount of seed capital.

The current space is currently home to ten companies, notably CityRyde, which just received $345,000 in funding for its bike share technology, as well as current undergrad Bradley Ericson, whose company 3 Second Receipts earned him the title of Entrepreneur magazine's College Entrepreneur of 2009.

Loschiavo says that the vast majority of Baiada's tenants are Drexel alums, and all have had some affiliation with Drexel. The center chooses two to three companies each year, negotiates a competitive one-year lease, and reviews the startup's performance at the end of the initial contract.

While residence is open ended, Loschiavo says companies must show movement in the right direction to remain in the center. One Baiada business, Drexel Drinks, is something of an incubator within an incubator. The on-campus beverage delivery service has become a model for succession, providing turnover and training as students graduate and move on.

Founder and primary funder Mel Baiada is a Drexel alum and serial entrepreneur who credits a successful exit in the software industry. He also founded Basecamp Business, a networking tool for entrepreneurs. "The Baiada Center established a culture of entrepreneurship at Drexel, and helps the university maintain an entrepreneurial focus," he says. Mel's brother, Mark, who founded Bayada Nurses, is also an investor in the incubator, which is named in honor of their father. The new LeBow building should be complete in 18 months.

Source: Mark Loschiavo, Mel Baiada, The Baiada Center
Writer: Sue Spolan

Agriculture wasn't in Dean Carlson's original plan. "I was a bond trader working in derivatives," says the owner of Wyebrook Farm, a 355-acre spread in Chester County. Carlson is now offering sustainably raised chicken and eggs, with beef and pork on offer this fall. "We have two full time employees, three summer employees and two chef interns," says Carlson of the Honey Brook operation.

Carlson left Susquehanna International Group in 2009, hoping to take time off in a bear market. "I came across the idea of sustainable agriculture and became captivated by it," says Carlson, who explains that conventional agriculture, with its dependence on cheap oil, cannot last forever. "Five to 10 years years from now, it will be obvious. Food will become higher priced and more scarce. You see it already."

Carlson purchased the foreclosed 200 year-old farm from a bank for $4.25 million, and has invested over $750,000 in improvements, which include solar power and renovations to three existing 18th century stone buildings. "The previous owner was going to develop the land into a 100 house tract," says Carlson.

"I looked at the business of conventional farming and didn't like it," explains Carlson, who refers to standard practices as the definition of a bad business -- capital intensive and fraught with variables. "With sustainable agriculture, you are minimizing your input cost. Instead of machinery and hay in a barn, animals are out in the field, harvesting the grass themselves. Our input costs are sunshine and rain."

Wyebrook Farm's first product, Freedom Rangers Chicken, is now available for $4 a pound direct from the farm. Carlson is transforming the old stone barn into a store where customers will be able to purchase chemical-free grass fed meat and poultry directly. It's just a 45 minute drive from Philadelphia, and not much farther from New York.

Carlson draws inspiration from billionaire financier Jim Rogers, who, when asked by a room full of MBA finance students for advice, replied "Quit school and go work on a farm."

Source: Dean Carlson, Wyebrook Farm
Writer: Sue Spolan