Design : Innovation + Job News

Flying Bytes is innovation nuggets from around the region:

CALLING ALL FRANCOPHILE JETSETTERS
Get your beret and cafe au lait. This summer, US Airways starts direct flights from Philadelphia to Quebec City. The daily, year round service begins June 2 and offers three nonstop round trip flights. The quick trip to the Quebec capital is under 2 hours each way.

THE LONG AND $HORT OF IT
Turner Investments of Berwyn announced the launch this week of three alternative mutual funds that employ hedge fund strategies. The Medical Sciences Long/Short, the Market Neutral and the Titan Fund all rely on diversified long and short investments. Matt Glaser, who manages the Market Neutral, says the funds seek to deliver superior risk adjustment return for clients. "Post financial crisis investors are looking for ways to mitigate risk and lower volatility, so hedge funds, and mutual fund vehicles are here to stay."

EARLY TAKEOFF
Drexel University engineering students will be working on Boeing projects, thanks to a long term agreement signed this week between CDI-Aerospace and Boeing. Through the school's co-operative education program, students will be working on structural designs, software conversions and stress analysis for the CH-47 military helicopter, the V-22 Osprey vertical takeoff and landing aircraft and the Boeing 787 commercial transport aircraft.

STEAMPUNK ACTION
The Kensington Kinetic Sculpture Derby is back for its 5th year, and organizers have put out a call for entries. Last year, participants crafted a bicycle powered steam engine, a conveyance that catapulted paint filled balloons onto a canvas, pirate ships and dragons, all foot powered. If your passion lives at the intersection of biking and art, visit the Sculpture Derby's home page for guidelines and registration forms. The event takes place May 21, and submit your entry form by April 15 to get free T-shirts for your team.

Source: USAirways; Henry Pyatt, Kensington Kinetic Sculpture Derby; Matt Glaser, Turner Investments, CDI
Writer: Sue Spolan

JJ Tiziou wants to share. And he wants you to share too. "You have to give people a voice," says Tiziou, a Philadelphia photographer and all around activist for the arts. "Everyone has a voice, but TV and billboards have such louder voices." Tiziou is the force behind the massive public art project How Philly Moves, the 50,000 square foot Mural Arts Program gateway project for the Philadelphia International Airport, scheduled for completion this June. Philadelphia's dancers are the subject, and everyone gets involved.

Tiziou is all about the crowd. As a community photographer, he's taken tens of thousands of pictures of Philadelphia residents. Some will end up in the airport mural, and some will grace the facade of the Kimmel Center as part of a projection project that will run during the Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts.

Tiziou's passion is crowdsourcing: getting lots of citizens to contribute a little bit of time and and a little bit of money. People still want to express themselves as artists, and for that matter, says Tiziou, as investigative journalists, but these days major funding is scarce on all creative fronts. Who will pay for materials, or for the electric bill at the studio? "It used to be that there were gatekeepers," says Tiziou. Magazine editors did the selection, but also paid contributors. With the web, explains Tiziou, there is no formal exchange. A photographer can self-publish thousands of images, and people have come to expect all kinds of content without the price tag. "I want good stuff to be out there," says Tiziou. "That's the challenge. And an audience can be a powerful thing. The crowdsourcing component is key to the new paradigm. People need to be paid for their time in a sustainable way."

Tiziou cites Kickstarter and spot.us, two thriving examples of crowdsourced funding for creative projects. If each person contributes just a few dollars, the collective can provide money for major endeavors in both the arts and journalism. Tiziou also runs community supported house concerts out of his rowhome in University City. He asks the audience to make a donation to support the musicians as well as the venue.

Right now, you can stop by temporary studios set up in empty retail space on the top floor of The Gallery at Market East to see the How Philly Moves project in progress. And you can join the project's final Community Paint Day at The Gallery on Saturday, March 12.

Source: JJ Tiziou
Writer: Sue Spolan
Photo by Danilo Balladares

Love to love ya, baby, when we're talking about Philadelphia. The official LOVE gift shop is now open seven days a week at the Visitors Center on JFK Boulevard at 16th. On offer are 3 kinds of Valentine's gift baskets, plus miniature replicas of the famous LOVE sculpture, mugs, umbrellas, coasters, T-shirts and more. All items are gift wrapped free. There's also an online gift shop if you want LOVE delivered to your door.

Here's a look at other Valentine's Day finds around town:

VOWS, NOT VOWELS
Urban Outfitters launches a much anticipated wedding line this Valentine's Day, but what's up with the brand name? BHLDN does not trip easily off the tongue, or the page. Jennifer D'Aponte, BHLDN's marketing manager, explains that it's pronounced 'beholden.' Heirloom quality wedding gowns, bridesmaid ensembles, party dresses, jewelry, headpieces, footwear, and lingerie are curated to reflect the whimsy of Anthropologie with the modern styling of the Urban brand. Pop the question or say yes on Feb. 14, then head over to BHLDN and pick your entire outfit. The brand's first physical store opens in August. No word yet on where.

IT'S ONLY A LITTLE KINKY
Rittenhouse Square's Terra Mia bills itself as "the nation's only true organic nail spa," and offers reasonably priced thrills with the Blindfolded Manicure for Two. Or pedicure, or both, if you're nasty. The salon, which was built with recycled and sustainable materials, uses water based polish, so there's no unpleasant odor. Terra Mia is also offering half off taking it all off: from Feb. 11-14, get 50 percent off Brazilian or bikini waxing.

DEFLOWERED
Love the earth and love your lady with organic, sustainably grown blooms. Hana & Posy is Philadelphia's "eco-friendly florist" and won Philadelphia Magazine's Best of Philly 2010. The Old City shop is run by Kayo Higashimura, a former veterinarian who infuses bouquets with the style of her native Japan. Hana & Posy also sells gifts. You can shop for flowers and more online, and be sure to order early for the best selection. For last-minute shopping, call the store to arrange same-day delivery.

Source: LOVE Gift Shop, BHLDN, Terra Mia, Hana & Posy
Writer: Sue Spolan

Forty eight pitches. That's how StartUp Weekend Philadelphia began this past Friday. The majority were riffs on already popular sites: Groupon plus GPS. Craigslist for skill bartering. Priceline for retail shoppers. From the start, there were a few standouts. The top prize, sponsored by the Philadelphia law firm Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, was $2,500 in legal resources, and second and third place were in line for $1,000 in credit at the firm. StartUp Weekends happen all over the globe and Clint Nelsen, one of the directors of the Seattle-based nonprofit that bears their name, says that up to 20 StartUp events might happen simultaneously worldwide. The entrepreneurial incubator approach is gaining momentum. This week, President Obama announced the launch of the StartUp America Initiative, "a core component of President Obama's national innovation strategy for achieving sustainable growth and quality jobs."

While the most compelling ideas at StartUp Philly would make mincemeat out of an average person's brains, the gathered crowd of developers, MBAs, designers, coders and hackers went wild. A couple of pitches received laughs but were nonstarters, like 8sOrBetter, a dating website for highly rated singles.

You never saw so many tabs open on browsers. Laptops and caffeine: check, check. The soaring three story Solmssen Court at the University of the Arts held clusters of coders, some working straight through to dawn. From the initial 48 pitches, participants voted to continue with 13. Two projects garnered much peer praise: Git Hacking, a service designed to add a social layer to GitHub, a popular website which pairs developers with projects, helmed by Chris Baglieri with team members Josiah Kiehl, John Bunting and Aaron Feng; and LaunchRock, a simple "coming soon" web page design with a viral twist, asking for user email as well as social media participation, from Jameson Detweiler and Stephen Gill.

Sunday afternoon, just 48 hours later, it was pitch time. In a room crowded to capacity with startup teams and venture capitalists, most pitches followed standard protocol: identify the need; provide industry stats; and offer the solution. In the case of both Git Hacking and LaunchRock, which were designed and went live over the weekend, presenters were able to produce impressive real time stats: within a matter of hours, both sites had drawn hundreds of participants, and Git Hacking made the top of Hacker News headlines.

Judges deliberated briefly and the crowd-pleasing Git Hacking won first prize, followed by LaunchRock. Coming in third was Artwork Evolution, a collaborative iPhone/iPad app to create art without advanced skills. StartUp Weekend judge Stephen Goodman, an attorney at Morgan Lewis and Penn Law professor, said that the top two were clear winners, and there were five or six others vying for third place. Paul Solt's Artwork Evolution clinched the title because it offered a clear profit structure, according to Goodman. All three of the winning projects are now live, and you can follow their progress on Twitter: @githacking, @getlaunchrock and @artworkevolve.

Source: Clint Nelsen, StartUp Weekend, Stephen Goodman, Morgan Lewis
Writer: Sue Spolan

In addition to its catchy name, Philadelphia's SUMO Heavy Industries also has a catchy concept: Select just one vital piece of web development and turn that expertise into a whole company. Bart Mroz and associates Robert Brodie and John Suder focus strictly on digital commerce. In just eight months, SUMO is doing brisk business, marketing through word of mouth, relying on social networks, skype and blogging instead of office furniture and overhead.

There's a little bit of bad boy in the ring, as evidenced by a recent blog post titled "Why We Choose Not to Be a Certified Magento Partner," giving the company a line in the sand quality reminiscent of a certain local jeweler's hateful billboard ads.

Chat with Bart Mroz, founder and partner of SUMO Heavy, and find that indeed Magento, boasting $25 billion in transactions, is SUMO's primary eCommerce platform. The line of independence is drawn like this: "Magento is a framework. If you become a partner, you are obligated to sell a certain number of licenses," says Mroz. "Sometimes we don't use Magento."

SUMO Heavy wants the flexibility of customizing client solutions via service providers including Rackspace, hosting.com, and Amazon Web Services (AWS). That way, says Mroz, "If a framework or technology changes, we can change with it."

To sell the full service eCommerce package, the trio provides branding, design, development and marketing. Their latest projects include a total redesign for Robinson Luggage, and they've just signed with a "huge automotive products distributor;" details of the deal to be divulged upon launch.

Source: Bart Mroz, SUMO Heavy Industries
Writer: Sue Spolan

When treating ventricular fibrillation--a condition causing the lower ventricles to contract rapidly, pumping little or no blood--time is of the essence. Without immediate medical attention, collapse and cardiac death can occur within minutes. But until late November, doctors treating this fatal disease were still mixing the effective anti-arrythmic agent amiodarone IV by hand, wasting precious seconds. Now, doctors treating ventricular fibrillation and other dangerous heart malfunctions have a better alternative, as King of Prussia pharmaceutical firm Prism Pharmaceuticals announces FDA approval for Nexterone, a premixed, intravenous bag that overcomes the shortcomings of previous treatments.

"Until now, amiodarone IV required admixture at time of use," says Prism CEO Dr. Warren D. Cooper. "Nexterone Premixed Injection overcomes the need to admix, thereby eliminating the potential for medication admixture error."

Prism created Nexterone as a response to organizations like the Joint Commission, the United States Pharmacopeia and the American Society of Health System Pharmacists who all recommend using pre-mixed ready-to-use products. Nexterone is available in several dosage strengths and is also a preferred treatment for rapid heart rate condition ventricular tachycardia.

"The ready-to-use packaging is designed for the storage of Nextarone premixed injection at the point of use in automated dispensing cabinets and crash carts, and offers a two-year shelf life," says Cooper.

Source: Dr. Warren D. Cooper, Prism Pharmaceuticals
Writer: John Steele

This holiday season, commercial building owners in the Philadelphia area will be receiving a gift that they would love to return. This January, PECO is set to announce its first rate hike in 14 years. This expiration of the rate caps is likely to mean big increases for commercial buildings, where utilities are often the biggest expenditure. But one Glenside company wants to replace this lump of coal with energy savings, connecting cutting edge technology with complex building systems.

In 2009, long-time business owner and entrepreneur Tony DePaul created Wireless Energy Solutions (WES) as a marketing and distribution agency for Bulogics, the Philadelphia-based energy monitoring technology firm. Bulogics has created smart plugs that monitor energy usage for each device and transmit that information wirelessly. Partnering with Bulogics, DePaul's team has created an internet-enabled network allowing business owners to control energy usage and monitor devices from an iPhone or laptop off-site and from any computer in the building. This solution has helped commercial buildings across the region reduce usage before the rate caps expire.

"There are three major areas impacted: HVAC, lighting, and parasitic power," says DePaul. "By keeping your building the appropriate climate, managing the parasitic power and the lighting, it comes up to anywhere from 15 to 30 percent of the energy bill each year. And depending on where the power companies are, some offer rebates for these devices. And we do all the applications. These things pay for themselves in a very short period of time."

WES promises a 100 percent return on investment within three years through savings and rebates. In Pennsylvania, while rates may be going up, PECO offers a 21-cent-per-square-foot rebate, helping building owners avoid the rate-cap woes.

"There is nothing else like this on the market," says DePaul. "The alternative is dumb, low-tech devices. Or you can use this, a wireless capability that is highly intelligent, programmable and reports and monitors the site completely."

Source: Tony DePaul, Wireless Energy Solutions
Writer: John Steele

Monetate has what many in the web marketing industry would call a good problem. With rapid expansion of the young company's website optimization tools and new private financing from First Round Capital, Monetate has too much going on for its small, limber staff to handle. So the company is doing a big hiring push, looking to fill 20 positions before the end of the year. The company is now offering $500 or a new iPad to anyone who refers a successful job seeker to Monetate.

"Our need for these new positions is driven by a lot more demand in the marketplace," says Monetate VP of Marketing Blair Lyon. "We have had a tremendous amount of growth in just the last six months. Now with this new funding, it all coincides really well. As we expand the product, we want to be able to add a lot of new features our clients are asking for."

Monetate is set to release an update to its flagship software in early 2011 and hopes to make it easier for self-service clients to run their own campaigns. They are also experimenting with not only updating text and ecommerce offerings but also helping website owners test other features like video or images or copy to see if they make a difference. As soon as they can get a staff back to full strength, Monetate hopes to continue expansion in 2011.

"The hiring is centered around being able to aggressively add a lot of new features that our clients are asking for," says Lyon. "But also being able to expand our service and support capabilities, so that we can continue to help these customers through this change of being able to easily test and target and personalize their site."

Source: Blair Lyon, Monetate
Writer: John Steele

You may imagine successful technology entrepreneurs helping build innovative platforms, selling the company and then sipping a drink on a sunny beach somewhere. Not Fred Allegrezza. After selling AnySource Media--the video software firm he and his partners sold to Divx in 2008--Allegrezza returns with Telikin, the Linux-based PC platform he created to battle the big guns at Apple and Microsoft and make personal computing easier for users 55 and older.

Telikin combines today's most popular features--email, internet access, games, photo sharing, social media--and combines them into a more intuitive, touch-screen design. On November 26, the Telikin hit stores, showing up in eight Philadelphia Clear Wireless locations just in time for Black Friday.

"Telikin is right in this mix between people who are frustrated with Windows computers and all the problems and Apple might be a solution but it is still a lot more expensive" says Allegrezza. "We are not the computer you use if you want to design a house or manage your accounting systems. But it does come with preloaded applications, they all work and they all play nice together."

Telikin was born three years ago, when Allegrezza's mother entered an assisted-living facility. He created a modified Mac computer that would auto-answer Skype calls and manage pictures more easily so that she could stay in touch with her family. The name Telikin comes from the combination of telecommunications and kin, or family. But what started as a device for seniors has become something Allegrezza believes can really challenge America's PC giants.

"What we found, as we were working with customers looking for their senior parents, many were saying 'I want one of these for myself,' says Allegrezza. "It had a broader appeal than we had anticipated so we added in word processing and printing to make it a full-blown computer that even power users can enjoy."

Source: Fred Allegrezza, Telikin
Writer: John Steele

In 2009, Tampa, Fla., experienced the worst drought in its history, causing quite a stir in the city's water department. From January to March, water enforcement officials had issued six citations a day for improper water usage. The situation became so dire that the city issued a ban on sprinkler systems, until the drought was under control.

King of Prussia sprinkler firm UgMo Technologies is helping Florida business and home owners protect against drought without throwing the baby out with the lawn water. They created ProHome, a wireless soil sensor that detects when soil has been adequately saturated and automatically shuts the water off, saving customers an average of 53 percent on water bills. Along with Florida, the company has sales teams in drought-plagued areas in Texas, California, Florida and Georgia. This week, Ben Franklin Technology Partners announced $500,000 in investment to help UgMo expand ProHome to larger, more commercial projects across the country.

"This is a true green product that allows you to cut down on your water usage and provides real savings," says UgMo CFO Joe Cahill. "That is something you don't see much in the green tech market."

After launching in 2004, UgMo began developing ProTurf, a version of ProHome marketed to sports facilities and golf courses. After releasing ProTurf in 2009, UgMo was well along developing its second product, ProHome. The Ben Franklin investment will help UgMo launch a new commercial version of its technology. The company looks to expand drastically in the next year, hiring in every department and expanding into home and commercial markets.

"The next generation of UgMo will address larger irrigation systems; everything from office parks to municipalities and strip malls," says Cahill. "As we spend the next year developing this product, the investment will help us continue our growth."

Source: Joe Cahill, UgMo Technologies
Writer: John Steele

Leversense CEO Pete Nagy doesn't have a particular affinity for fluids like blood or urine. But after selling his fiber-optics business to a Fortune 100 company, Nagy was looking for his next project and found himself in the laboratories of Drexel University's Dr. Raj Mutharasan. Mutharasan was working on a testing technology that could remain sensitive in dirty, unprocessed materials. Nagy, a career tech entrepreneur, immediately saw the commercial applications and decided to seed fund Leversense, making blood and urine testing his mission.

"The sensitivity we have is pretty extraordinary," says Nagy. "Most products out on the market require a lot of steps, a lot of processes in order to get samples to testing. It is usually very expensive and requires you do it in a lab and not in a practical setting."

This week, the company announced a new Ben Franklin Technology Partners investment of $300,000 for continued development efforts, getting Leversense ready to approach a waiting market with its biosensor diagnostics. In the months spent testing the technology, Nagy has been telling everyone who will listen, drawing attention from markets he didn't expect. One market has been food testing. The average food sample is much more complex and much dirtier than the average human fluid sample so they are much harder to work with. Leversense maintains its sensitivity in milk, which Nagy hopes will give the product great potential in the food-testing market.

"One of the things that attracted me to the technology is how much commercial interest there was," says Nagy. "We have had people approach us about food testing and bio-processing, so we are pursuing those things now as well."

Source: Pete Nagy, Leversense
Writer: John Steele

With social networking tools like online chat and photo sharing becoming more common, many employers have begun protecting against the use of these platforms at work. But the software developers at WizeHive in Bryn Mawr are working to bring these traditionally fun tools into the professional fold. Their online collaboration platform, utilizing many of these sharing tools, received a Ben Franklin Technology Partners investment earlier this month, which will help the company expand in the new year.

"When we started, the focus of the platform was around sharing: sharing documents, sharing tasks, managing projects, having online conversations," says CEO and Co-founder Mike Levinson. "As the product matured, it has become more about helping people automate business processes and about helping them make better, faster decisions whether they are sitting across the room from each other or across the world from each other."

This online collaboration has taken WizeHive beyond the workplace, partnering with universities on managing scholarship applicants and helping media companies like TechCrunch manage contests and competitions. With the Ben Franklin funding, Levinson and company hope to expand staff, increase sales and continue working together on working together.

"We have been very successful at building the sales channel and bringing the platform into different arenas," says Levinson. "What we are really trying to do now with the funding is expand that. The plan is to continue building out what we are doing, just doing a lot more of it in the new year."

Source: Mike Levinson, WizeHive
Writer: John Steele

Any runner who has ever bought a bottled water with the fiver in their shoe can understand VitaBand, the new product from Philadelphia entrepreneurs at VitaProducts that allows athletes to carry the contents of their wallet right on their wrist. But in fact, the VitaBand started from a much scarier place.

One day in 2007, co-creator Jason Brown was on a 10k run when a car nearly clipped him, sending him diving onto the shoulder. He made it home safely but what if he hadn't? He hadn't left a note, no one knew where he was and he didn't have his wallet. How would medics locate his medical information? How would they contact his family?

"Had I been hit, I wouldn't have been found for days," Brown says. "Being the type of guy I am, I got home and started to look around for products that might be used for identification purposes for athletes and found that this might be a good business opportunity."

Company co-founder David Waxman looked beyond the bracelet, which is not unlike existing medical ID bands. Along with bringing a point-of-sale payment option to the VitaBand, allowing users to swipe their wrist to pay for that bottle of water, he began licensing the technology to manufacturers of everything runners use: cell phone cases, exercise gear and other proprietary partners. Waxman and Brown hope this bifurcated strategy will give the Vita technology life as both a product and a platform. After completing a first angel investment round last year, the company has received a second round of investment and looks to launch its pilot product, the original VitaBand, in January.

"When we came up with the concept, we wondered how to make this into a mass market product without a $200 million marketing budget," says Waxman. "We looked at the Intel Inside model or the Dolby Digital model, creating a bracelet to jumpstart the market for the licensing component of our business so we can focus on the payment and medical records and let our partners do the heavy lifting getting the products out in the marketplace."

Source: Jason Brown, VitaProducts
Writer: John Steele