Emerging Technology : Innovation + Job News

Minnesota companies account for one-fourth of the start-ups that will advance from the North-Central region and hope to compete on the national stage in this year's Cleantech Open.

The 20 semi-finalists from the 10-state North-Central region include five Minnesota companies in three of the six categories. A Cleantech Open news release describes the companies:

Green Building category
Supreme Energy Products of Lakeville--Seamless building envelope systems to enable 50-70 percent greater energy savings

Renewable Energy category
Atmosphere Recovery of Eden Prairie--Dramatic energy output increases from gas or liquid-based renewable energy processes
INVELOX of Chaska--Technology for safe, silent, low-cost and high-efficiency wind power generation

Transportation category
CleanTrack of Plymouth--Fleet fuel consumption and hydrocarbon emissions reduction system.
RoutePerfect of Minneapolis--A new fuel optimization technology for the transportation industry

In October, finalists will be chosen from the regions to compete nationally for up to $250,000 in investment and services and an opportunity to present in front of 2,000 attendees at The Cleantech Open's Global Forum in November.

Perhaps more important is the advice, education, and access to investors that each semifinalist company will receive in the coming months, including coaching from a network of business mentors, one-on-one consulting with specialists, an intensive "boot camp," and other local supporting events and training.

Win or lose, it's an opportunity to develop or perfect business plans and showcase ideas in search of capital to get a start-up off the ground

This year marks the second year of participation for the North-Central region in the competition, which began nationally in 2006. Illinois, new to the region this year, also sends five companies into the semi-final round.

In total, 163 start-ups made the semifinal round nationwide.

Source: Cleantech Open
Writer: Jeremy Stratton

After picking up speed over the last month, Minnesota's first tech accelerator is set to cruise with its first class of companies.

Following a weekend-long "bootcamp" June 10�12, Project Skyway chose eight "Skywalkers" from the field of 25 semi-finalist companies. Over the course of the weekend, the companies pitched their own and each other's ideas to fellow entrepreneurs, Project Skyway organizers, and the public. They attended roundtables with lawyers, investors, accomplished tech and software entrepreneurs, and others, and they met potential investors and customers.

"They certainly got a lot out of it," whether they moved on or not, said Project Skyway founder Cem Erdem of the 25 bootcampers. Project Skyway asked many of those not selected to apply for the next round after fine-tuning their ideas, adding a business partner, raising capital, or otherwise advancing their businesses.

After the bootcamp, the companies were rated by all involved, including each other and members of the public. In the end, eight were chosen:

COR² Technology--The company offers a cloud-based business-process and work-flow automation service to help organizations with 5 to 500 co-workers eliminate piles of paper by integrating simple applications with unlimited user licenses that power the whole organization.

Naiku--Naiku creates an affordable Software-as-a-Service that K-12 teachers use to easily individualize learning with a dashboard created by its proprietary analytics model.

Nitch--Nitch is an online platform for B2B collaboration and commerce.

Paypongo--Paypongo's service is a secure mobile payment solution that allows consumer-to-merchant transactions; consumer-to-consumer transactions; and merchant-to-merchant transactions, all through mobile devices. Transactions can originate from banking accounts or credit cards.

Qualtrx--Qualtrx is a new healthcare sales channel--an online solutions marketplace where healthcare providers publish patient-care needs, goals, and priorities, and where pharma and device vendors purchase these needs as "keywords" to make targeted needs-based proposals via the Qualtrx platform.

Telementry Web--TelemetryWeb helps makers of Internet-connected sensors and industrial devices build a new class of innovative, data-centric solutions by leveraging a ready-to-use, scalable Software-as-a-Service platform to secure, store, process, and integrate sensor data in novel ways.

Vanquish AP--VanquishAP is developing a real estate management platform that connects property managers, building owners, and tenants by creating local social communities while automating redundant tasks and centralizing logistics.

UHungry--UHungry is developing a social networking site to help college students save money and time by making it easy for them to place orders online at quick-serve restaurants with a group of friends while earning points to spend on future orders by completing tasks. This company, hailing from Long Island, was the only one not from Minnesota.

Erdem notes that the Skywalker companies are all early-stage companies, beyond the more basic start-up level.

Erdem and Casey Allen's video run-down of the eight Skywalkers gives an inside look not only at each of the companies, but at the Project Skyway decision process and model.

Cem and Casey Play-by-Play Skywalker Commentary from Casey Allen on Vimeo.

Although the accelerator class was intended to begin Aug. 1, Erdem sent an email this week informing the finalists that they would move forward now with the momentum of the bootcamp.
 
The class, and Project Skyway in general, will be based out of the tech accelerator's new shared space (with the co-working organization CoCo) in the Grain Exchange building in Downtown Minneapolis. Project Skyway plans a 'big party' at the end of July after the move in mid-July.

Erdem's personal email to each of the eight finalists reflects the tenor of his passion, and it sets the bar high for the participants:

"I bought into your vision," he writes, "but more importantly I bought into your purpose, your character, who you are. Our entire community will be watching you every step of the way. They are thirsty to see you succeed and bring the long lost entrepreneurial fame back to our region."

Source: Cem Erdem
Writer: Jeremy Stratton
 

A total of 51 companies have moved into the semi-final round of the 2011 Minnesota Cup, which is now in its seventh year.

The list of companies includes two, Naiku and Qualtrx, that were also selected for Project Skyway's inaugural tech accelerator.

The Minnesota Cup is also similar to the national Cleantech Open, which also announced semifinalists last week-- companies compete for divisional and grand prize money (a total of $185,000) but also receive invaluable mentoring and exposure to investors, entrepreneurs, and other business experts.

Companies fall into six divisions: Clean Technology and Renewable Energy, BioSciences, High Tech, Social Entrepreneur, General, and Student.

Matt Hilker, director of the Minnesota Cup, who is in his second full cycle of the competition, says this is where the value starts for the semi-finalists--with "the validation and the exposure they get for their idea, whether it's potential advisors or even customers, that's huge," says Hilker.

"Just the process itself is good, because they're given deadlines of when they have to turn in a business plan," says Hiler. "It's motivation."

Over the next month-and-a-half, each company will be paired with at least one mentor while they write their business plans. In mid-August, three finalists will be chosen from each division, with the winners of each collecting $25,000 and moving on to the final round in September.

The Minnesota Cup's program background and details page gives a good explanation and a timeline of the competition.

Source: Matt Hilker, Minnesota Cup
Writer: Jeremy Stratton

Two University of Minnesota researchers have developed technology that solves one problem--the proliferation of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2)--to work improving another: how to more efficiently tap the heat inside the earth for geothermal energy systems.

Earth sciences faculty member Martin Saar and graduate student Jimmy Randolph have applied for a patent and plan to form a startup company to commercialize the technology, according to a press release.

The CO2-plume geothermal system (CPG) uses high-pressure CO2, rather than the conventional water, to carry the heat from deep in the earth. CO2 travels more easily through porous rock and can extract heat more readily, according to the researchers. The research was published in the most recent issue of Geophysical Research Letters.

The technology was "born in a flash of insight on a northern Minnesota road trip," according to the release, as the two conducted separate research on geothermal energy capture and geologic CO2 sequestration.

"We connected the dots and said, 'Wait a minute--what are the consequences if you use geothermally heated CO2?'" states Saar through the press release.

The consequences, according to Randolph, include being able to capture heat "in areas you couldn't even think about doing regular geothermal for electricity production," Randolph says in the release, stating that the technology could double efficiency in some areas.

The research was jump-started with a $600,00 grant in 2008 from the university's Institute on the Environment's Initiative for Renewable Energy and the Environment (IREE).

The grant came from an annual pool of $5 million from Xcel Energy's Renewable Development Fund. IREE disburses a number of grants each year through a competition, says Rod Larkins, IREE's associate director.

That funding leveraged another $1.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy, and the researchers are hoping to receive an even larger grant, says Larkins, which would require a 20 percent match, of which IREE would cover half (10 percent of the grant amount). That funding would help move the technology into the pilot phase, according to the release.

Saar called the IREE grant "really critical" in the release. "I think it's fair to say that there's a good chance that it wouldn't have gone anywhere without IREE support in the early days," he says.

Larkins says IREE's interest in funding the research stems from the fact that the technology reduces a waste stream in achieving its main objective of capturing heat for geothermal energy.

Source: Rod Larkins, Initiative for Renewable Energy and the Environment
Writer: Jeremy Stratton

If you're keeping track of the changes at Code 42, make sure to backup the files, because the updates are coming quickly.

Advancements in the past three months alone include the release of the company's third major product, the acquisition of mobile-app developer Recursive Awesome, and a 10,000-square-foot expansion of its headquarters in near-Northeast Minneapolis.

With the growth and increasing popularity of its backup software Crashplan, the firm is adding employees weekly, says co-founder and CEO Matthew Dornquast.

The addition of Recursive Awesome brings that company's 15 engineers into the fold, and Code 42 has a North American core team of around 75 people. The company has been doubling in size, says Dornquast; it ended last year at around 50 or 60 and should end the year at 100, he says.

With the employee growth and acquisition, Code 42 has also doubled its physical space as well at its headquarters at 1 Main Street along the Mississippi River opposite Downtown Minneapolis. Code 42 moved to the 10,000- square-foot space about a year and a half ago, and added another 10,000 square feet earlier this year, with room to grow again, if necessary.

Like Code 42 itself, Recursive Awesome has moved from Downtown proper to the new offices. Dornquast said the two companies have "familial business DNA" in a press release last week about the acquisition.

Code 42 followed that news this week with the release this week of its third major product, a small-business focused backup solution in between the tiers of its original home/consumer and large-enterprise products. "Several years in the making," according to Dornquast, the mid-tier product will take the Crashplan PRO name of the existing larger-company product, which will be repositioned with the more-apt name of Crashplan-PRO-E.

The new product will support companies with up to 200 computers, and it will make use of Code 42's existing cloud backup capabilities.

Dornquast notes that Code 42's backup capabilities are multi-destination. "Even in the � 0�200 product, you'll be able to do direct to attached storage, onsite to other computers, and then direct to our cloud."

The cloud option works well for small businesses with fewer computers, he notes. "The user's story is being able to rapidly deploy your computers to the cloud; you can turn on backup through your whole company in less than 15 minutes," he says.

That user-friendly experience--"easy on-ramps, easy-to-understand"--belies the reach and power of the company's product. "The same engine that's powering this 0�200 product is running our cloud, for everybody," he says. "In real time, we're monitoring, managing, maintaining these data streams for everyone around the world."

"Everyone" refers to the millions of desktops and laptops Code 42 backs up globally, and the addition of Recursive Awesome will open Code 42 to the mobile market--devices that are emerging as endpoint data destinations--as well, says Dornquast.

"The ability to create mission-critical information on mobile devices is a relatively new thing," Dornquast says. He expects to release products in that vein late this year or in the first quarter of next year.

Source: Matthew Dornquast, Code 42
Writer: Jeremy Stratton

Roseville-based AbleNet last week announced the acquisition of TeleConcepts, a local company that provides telemarketing services, largely for the hard-of-hearing market.
 
AbleNet designs, develops and manufactures more than 800 products for people with all kinds of disabilities, "from a switch that enables a person to use a computer, to classroom curriculum for special-education students, to environmental controls for Afghan war veterans," says Jason Voiovich, vice president of marketing for AbleNet.
 
"Our products are really designed to improve quality of life," he says.
 
The acquisition of TeleConcepts will improve AbleNet's ability to follow that mission and market its products, and it allows AbleNet access to the hard-of-hearing market, says Voiovich.
 
TeleConcepts will continue its work with its existing customer base, as well as take on new work for AbleNet.
 
Both companies have been in business for 25 years. AbleNet will operate TeleConcepts as a wholly-owned subsidiary at its new corporate headquarters, just west of AbleNet's previous offices in Roseville.
 
AbleNet has been growing in terms of revenue at about 20 percent per year for about five years, says Voiovich. AbleNet, now with 50 employees, has been growing in terms of employees as well, adding six in the past three months, says Voiovich. The new space is "quite a bit larger" and allows the company to as much as double in size in the future.

Source: Jason Voiovich, AbleNet
Writer: Jeremy Stratton

When it comes to medical diagnosis and treatment, one generally doesn't want the doctor to "phone it in."

That is changing with the advent of companies like Zipnosis. The St. Paul-based firm facilitates online diagnosis and treatment of common health needs like colds, flu, allergies, common infections, tobacco cessation, and more.

For a $25 fee, registered patients can complete an "adaptive online interview" about their ailment. The information is sent digitally to a local, board-certified and licensed clinician, from whom the patient receives a diagnosis, treatment plan, and prescription if necessary, within an hour, between the hours of 8 a.m. and 8 p.m.

Zipnosis was co-founded in late 2008 by CEO Jon Pearce, then an MBA student at the University of Minnesota.
The company now has six employees, including corporate officers with experience at notable local health care and IT organizations.

Zipnosis completed a year-long, local pilot in early May, partnering with Park Nicollet to provide diagnosis and treatment to approximately 3,500 patients--about 30 percent of them in rural Minnesota.

Pearce says the pilot answered the questions: "'Can we deliver the care effectively? Can we deliver it safely? What sort of marketing responses work?' You get a really good idea for how the business works," he says.

Both clinical quality and patient satisfaction were high, says Pearce--in the mid-to-upper nineties (in terms of percentage) for safe and effective treatment and in terms of positive patient responses to a survey. More than 30 percent of patients served have used Zipnosis more than once, Pearce notes.

With the success of, and lessons learned from, the pilot, "We said, 'OK, we think it's ready to move into multiple states at this point,'" says Pearce. They wasted no time; Zipnosis expanded its services to two other states, Colorado and Washington, on May 15. Pearce expects to add others by the end of the year. Zipnosis has even drawn international interest, which they have had to turn down in this early stage. "We're not quite there," says Pearce. "[With] six people [it's] a little hard to tackle some of the other countries."

Here at home, Pearce anticipates Park Nicollet will remain a long-term partner in Minnesota. The company will similarly partner with local clinics and practitioners in other states, he says.

Pearce said he expects Zipnosis to add employees as the company grows and expands its reach.

Zipnosis can offer two types of service in partnering with providers, according to Pearce: practitioners can use the company's online "turnkey solution, right out of the box," he says, or it can "help them create an identity for their system" using the platform and technology.

"So far most people � have used the off-the-shelf product, because it seems to work fairly well," says Pearce.


Source: Jon Pearce, CEO, Zipnosis

Writer: Jeremy Stratton

Mobile Technology: Adoption, Design, and Sustainability Lessons
Friday, May 6, 8:30 a.m.�11:!5 a.m., Room 2-206, Carlson School of Management
321 19th Avenue South, Minneapolis
registration required

Alina M. Chircu, associate professor in the Information and Process Management department at Bentley University, will present at this U of M MIS Research Center seminar. Chircu will discuss mobile technology adoption and usage patterns; related mobile phone design practices in developing and developed countries; recent research on sustainability principles employed by top phone manufacturers; how these principles impact business processes for new mobile products design, production and distribution; and more.


MinneBar
Saturday, May 7, 9 a.m.�5:30 p.m.
Best Buy headquarters
7601 Penn Ave. South, Richfield
Free, register online

Registration is open for the "(un)conference" that brings Minnesota's tech and design communities together. Sign up to attend or lead a discussion. Sessions will run throughout the day, and light breakfast and lunch will be provided. An after-party with beer and wine will follow.


Living Green Expo
May 7�8
Minnesota State Fairgrounds
Creative Activities, Education, 4-H, Fine Arts and Progress Center buildings
Free

The 10th annual expo will feature dozens of workshops and presentations on green topics ranging from energy efficiency and sustainable design strategies to the soybean--along with an actual "green wedding." Take a look at the full list.


MedTech Investing Conference
May 18�19
Graves 601 Hotel, Minneapolis
$895�$1,395, registration limited to 300

The 10th annual  MedTech Investing Conference will bring together medical device investors, entrepreneurs, and corporate business development executives to network and foster the development and financing of companies. This year's event, with the theme "The New Era of Innovation," will feature more than 45 industry experts as well as clinical specialty sessions.


Mobile Twin Cities
Tuesday, May 17, 7�9 p.m.
Refactr Offices, 11 NE 4th St., Suite 300, Minneapolis

The May installment of this monthly meeting, sponsored by Recursive Awesome, LLC, will feature review and   topics from the Mobile March Conference. Contact Justin Grammens at [email protected] for more information.

After a decade as Vital Images' largest customer, California-based Toshiba Medical Systems Corporation (TMSC) plans to take the local visualization and analysis software company into its fold. 

Through a $273-million cash tender preceding a merger, a TMSC subsidiary will acquire all of the outstanding shares of Vital Images common stock for $18.75 per share--a 39 percent premium over a recent volume-weighted average, according to a press release.

Executives of both companies applauded the pending merger, which they believe will strengthen their longtime partnership. "This transaction means we can now accelerate our global presence with the strength and backing of TMSC," says Michael Carrel, CEO of Vital Images, in the release.

Toshiba plans to continue to build the Vital Images business locally at its Minnetonka headquarters, where 175 of its 245 employees work, says Nancy Johnson, account supervisor for Padilla Speer Beardsley, which handles press relations for Vital Images. The company expects that the merger will lead to the hiring of more employees in the future, she says.

Vital Images' software allows doctors to non-invasively examine internal organs and more easily make diagnoses and plan for surgeries. The software takes two-dimensional, black-and-white images of internal organs through CT scan, MRI and other formats, then "stacks" them to create more complex imagery.
 
Doctors can navigate through the images, removing layers for a clear examination and "internal accounting without going through a physical operation," says Johnson.

Originally used in radiology departments, the software has been extended in recent years for hospital-wide accessibility by numerous physicians, she says, and it is accessible beyond the hospital via the Web, according to a product description. Vital Images software also serves as a data-management and work-flow tool.

Sources: Vital Images; Nancy Johnson, Padilla Speer Beardsley
Writer: Jeremy Stratton

Last week, Digi International reported its 33rd straight quarter of growth, dating back more than eight years to early in the last decade.

And while that success is built on more than 25 years of experience, the Minnetonka-based wireless machine-to-machine (M2M) device networking company is seeing major growth in the emerging energy sector, especially with its smart-grid technology and cloud-computing platform.

Digi has begun partnering with companies to build end-to-end energy monitoring and management solutions around the company's X-Grid, says David Mayne, Digi's director of business development.

Under that "extended" grid umbrella is the iDigi Device Cloud--"the embedded industry's first ready-to-use cloud computing platform for device networking and management," according to an online description. The cloud service allows remote metering and management of energy use through communication with devices "beyond the meter," Mayne says.

"The thing that is really driving the growth is the ability to utilize iDigi to provide connectivity from an application down to a device," he says. The smart-grid platform also drives sales of other Digi products like gateways and radio modules, "so we kind of get all the different pieces that become part of this end-to-end solution," he says.

It also puts Digi at the forefront of energy-management innovation that is in its early stages globally, according to Mayne. In January, Digi announced a major partnership with Green Energy Options to develop a real-time, web-based energy management system, based on iDigi and the Digi X-Grid, for the European utility market.

Meanwhile, here in the U.S., Digi and its partner Itron have introduced "Smart Grid Now" bundles that enable utilities to conduct energy-management pilot programs. The cloud-based bundles can be deployed on a small or large scale, Mayne explains.

"For as little as a few thousand dollars, [utilities] can get customers engaged by using smart phones to look at thermostats and get metering information," he says. "Because we're offering this as a cloud service, there's little upfront investment and there's proven capability to expand to millions of devices."

Digi also announced a partnership in January with Calico Energy Services to offer an integrated smart-grid technology solution for energy and demand management.

Mayne notes that while most think of the smart grid in terms of the energy sector, Digi is also seeing business growth beyond energy management and services. Other high-growth areas include the medical device industry and fleet management--trucks and other large mobile assets.

Mayne notes that smart-grid applications can be applied to water conservation and gas utilities as well.

"As new services evolve, things we haven't even thought of yet, we can plug them into iDigi," says Mayne of the "flexible technology," an open platform that he says is ready to handle future innovation--an important point for Digi and its 600 employees, more than half of whom work in Minnesota.

"That's really helping to build or reinvent people's careers as we continue to evolve the organization," Mayne says. "Future-proofing is key. This is something that is new, and this will create innovation."

Source: David Mane, Digi Intrernational    
Writer: Jeremy Stratton

Dgimed Ortho, Inc. has double the reason to celebrate, with the near-completion of a $2.5 million equity round and a medical device industry award too boot.

By mid-April, the Minnetonka-based early-stage medical device company had sold $2,124,780 of a securities offering, according to an SEC filing. It is the company's fifth offering a various type since its first $3.4 million initial round was completed in 2009.

In 2008, founder and chairman Dan Gladney acquired the rights to technology for a proprietary system to assist orthopedic surgeons in the delivery of long-bone intramedullary nail implants, according to an Orthopedics and Spine News Blog entry that year.

The product Dgimed Ortho developed is the DISTALOCK Intramedullary (IM) Nail and Drill System, which last week received a 2011 Medical Design Excellence Award.

The system offers surgeons the ability to treat long-bone fractures with better clinical outcomes, lower surgery costs, and little or no need for x-rays, according to a press release about the award.

"Our team has worked hard to develop a world-class system to benefit patients and hospital staff," said Dgimed Ortho President and CEO Mark McMahan through the release. Award winners will be honored at a presentation ceremony in June in New York City.

Source: Dgimed Ortho
Writer: Jeremy Stratton

Local custom manufacturing company Stratasys stands alongside some pretty big names on Fast Company's Transportation Top 10 list this year: names like Boeing, GE, and IBM.

Eden Prairie-based Stratasys was included on the strength of its work with Canadian company Kor Ecologic on the Urbee hybrid (pictured), a futuristic automobile that can run on free electricity from a garage-mounted solar panel and achieve 200 miles per hour using ethanol or gasoline.

The car's exterior body components were created using Stratsys' Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) technology, which creates thermoplastic prototypes, manufacturing tools, and parts directly from computer-aided designs (CAD). The patented technology was invented by Statasys CEO Scott Crump.

While the technology has generally been used to make models, companies also use it to "build real parts that go into their end products," says Joe Hiemenz, public relations manager for Stratasys.

Stratasys' technology eliminates the need to build tools needed in traditional methods like injection molding, says Hiemenz The technology is cost-effective for limited-amount or high-end custom production; should the now-prototype Urbee go into mass production, however, traditional manufacturing techniques would likely be used, says Hiemenz.

Stratasys employs 400 people. Its products are used in the aerospace, defense, automotive, medical, business and industrial equipment, education, architecture, and consumer-product industries, according to a press release, in which Crump gave credit to KorEcologic for the recognition by Fast Company. Crump called the "groundbreaking car �a foreshadowing of the future" and "what transportation will look like 100 years from now."

Source: Joe Hiemenz, Stratasys
Writer: Jeremy Stratton

A small Minneapolis design firm has been named winner of a big industry award.

Sevnthsin was selected last week as an honoree of the 15th annual Webby awards in the Mobile category of "Shopping--Tablets & All Other Devices" for the digital creative agency's iPhone, iPad, Android, and mobile internet applications for JCPenney.

Now 12 people strong, Sevnthsin began as a moonlighting freelance effort for owner and creative director Jamey  Erickson, who in June of 2006 quit his day job to form the firm as "literally just me and an intern," he says.

In 2007, Sevnthsin moved to its current Northeast Minneapolis location with six people and has experienced slow growth in the years since.

Among the firm's larger and national clients like JCPenney, Target, and Pabst BlueRibbon, some local favorites can be found, including hip-hop outfits Rhymesayers and Doomtree and local fashion designers.

"We still love to work with all of our small, hometown things that we care about," says Erickson.

Sevnthsin worked with The Nerdery Interactive Labs to develop JCPenney's Weekly Deals mobile applications.

Source: Jamey  Erickson, Sevnthsin
Writer: Jeremy Stratton

"The only way that someone can come and license [technology or intellectual property] is if they know that it's there," says Darren Cox, founder and chief evangelist of Commerce and Search for Technology Transfer (CaSTT).

CaSTT is an online licensing tool that Cox developed to solve that problem for the University of Minnesota's Office for Technology Commercialization. It's working; In the past 12 months, Cox reports, the university executed more licenses online for a single item than all the other Big Ten schools did for all of their technologies combined during the year 2008.

"We built it just for our own office; we never intended any one else to use it," says Cox.

Seeing an opportunity, he spun CaSTT out of the university and hired a development team to write a new version of the software, which will debut later this month.

Cox and the U of M finalized a licensing agreement last week for the CaSTT trademark, says Cox. The U of M will receive a free license and will continue to use the upgraded software service, he said.

The commercial version facilitates licensing similarly to the original version--fully online, in some cases--but goes further into marketing, primarily through search engine optimization of technology descriptions.

Research-level communication, for example, is often very technical, "and they don't actually ever say what the thing does, and what you get when you license it," says Cox. "Part of our process is training people on how to figure out what it is people are actually searching for, and then our software takes that information and mechanically optimizes it in such a way that it is very, very easy for search engines to index that information and drive it to the top of search results."

Cox hopes the tool will expand tech transfer beyond its traditional arena to "the other seven-and-a-half billion people in the world.

"There are literally millions of pieces of intellectual property sitting on shelves at universities, national labs, research hospitals, and corporations all over the world that no one knows are available," says Cox.

A subscription to the software-as-a-service platform is $500 per month.

Cox was not able to divulge his list of potential clients, but CaSTT was close to signing a major local corporation in early April, and he said other companies and 150 universities are waiting for the debut of the new software.

Cox expects to close an equity round in June, at which time CaSTT will have been backed by $700,000 in post-university investment, for which Cox credits his connections and colleagues at tech accelerator Project Skyway.

Virteva CEO and Project Skyway mentor Tom Keiffer was CaSTT's first investor and now chairs its board. Virteva has provided development, hosting, and other infrastructure to the project, says Cox. Joy Lindsay, president and co-founder of StarTec Investments, is also an investor.

Source: Darren Cox, CaSTT
Writer: Jeremy Stratton

While web developers were burning the midnight oil, Overnight Challenge hosts The Nerdery were putting the finishing touches on an expansion that will more than double its Bloomington headquarters.

The 8-year-old web development firm is growing like crazy; the employee count stood at 205 last week, but don't blink.

"We're pretty much adding staff all the time," says Nerdery Communications Manager Mark Malmberg. "Almost every Monday new people are starting."

The buildout will bring the headquarters to 44,625 square feet, about half of which was being occupied in daily phases this week. The rest will be ready around the turn of the year, says Malmberg, likely just in time for the approximately 100 employees they expect to add by then.

New hires have mostly been developers, but The Nerdery has also seeing smaller departments expand--both its user experience and quality assurance departments have grown from a just one or two to 10 people. The company has also been adding account executives; two-thirds of its business is for more than 200 agencies in 30 states.

The expansion includes the addition of a 220-seat theater, in which the "big hive mind" will congregate on Friday late-afternoons for its weekly Bottlecap Talk, a "peer-to-peer with beer," as Malmberg puts it--a company tradition of sharing work from the week before.

The Nerdery will also let other organizations from the web development community, such as iPhone developers and PHP and Wordpress user groups, use the space, Malmberg says. "We like to be the hub for that sort of thing," he says.

The physical and staffing expansions reflect revenue growth, of course; The Nerdery "is tracking to $30 million" this year, says Malmberg.

Source: Mark Malmberg, The Nerdery
Writer: Jeremy Stratton