Fall 2009
Tulsa-Based Tornado Studios
Project Video Game
Cutting Edge R&D
On ConocoPhillips Bartlesville Campus
NASVF Investment
Professionals
Bring Stimulus Ideas to Oklahoma
A Nurturing Environment For New Business At Meridian Tech Center
What I Did This Summer:
i2E Fellows Contribute Talent to Companies
Tom Kudirka, founder and CEO of Tornado Studios
International Honor
i2E received the Best Practices Award for Technology-Based Economic Development from the International Economic Development Council.
“Furthering economic development is rarely a simple task in the best of times, and advancing the cause in the midst of a global financial crisis is nothing less than arduous.” — Council Chairman Ian Bromley Since 1999, i2E has interfaced with 1,817 COMPANIES, assisted 434 COMMERCIALIZATION CLIENTS through our staged access to capital program, and helped 257 CLIENTS to attract $354.4 MILLION of private capital.
2009 Highlights
• PROVIDED commercialization services to 114 Oklahoma technology-based start-up companies. • ASSISTED 32 companies in raising $25M in private capital. • AWARDED $1M in proof-of-concept funding to 10 Oklahoma start-ups. • FULLY COMMITTED the first series of the Oklahoma Seed Capital Fund • CREATED a fellowship program linking Oklahoma college students with technology start-up companies. • LAUNCHED the SeedStep Angels group and became accepted as a member of the Angel Capital Association. • INCREASED national visibility of Oklahoma entrepreneur infrastructure with Inc. Magazine profile.
w w w. i 2 E . o r g
C o n t e n t s
C O N T E N T S Introduction
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About i2E
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i & E Profiles BuzzVoice Digitouch Innovations
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Client Updates CreditPoint Software® Docvia
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Economic Development ConocoPhillips pursues cutting edge R&D
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Entrepreneurs Tornado Studio Launches Project Runway, the Game
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Outreach Meridian Business Center Offers Nurturing Environment
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Access to Capital NASVF Brings Stimulus Ideas to Annual Conference
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Educational i2E Fellows Contribute To Real-World Ventures
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2010 Governor’s Cup A Career Launcher
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Tornado Studios’ Project Video Game
Economic Development
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Innovators & Entrepreneurs
is produced by i2E, Inc., manager of the Oklahoma Technology Commercialization Center. For more information on any content contained herein, please contact i2E at 800-337-6822. © Copyright 2009 i2E, Inc. All rights reserved.
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A B O U T
i 2 E
a MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT
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n this issue of i&E magazine, we introduce you to Tom Kudirka, a Tulsa entrepreneur who is bringing talented people and revenue into our state.
Kudirka’s Tornado Studios has developed one of the first interactive video games for the Wii platform that targets a vast, underserved audience: adolescent girls. That’s an admirable accomplishment, but there is more to Kudirka than a bright idea for video game development. Tornado Studio employs some of the top game developers in the industry, bringing them Tom Walker into the state from traditional software development centers such as Seattle and Southern California. Wander through Tornado Studios offices in south Tulsa like we did and you will find about a dozen bright young game developers each writing software code on a portion of the project. These software professionals have found a home in Tulsa and are part of a team that promises to carve out a large niche in the game development industry. Also in this issue, we profile one of the most high-tech R&D campuses in the nation, and it is located here in Oklahoma. ConocoPhillips employs 600 people on its 400-acre Bartlesville Technology Center campus, where its cutting edge research is creating fuels from alternative sources, reducing pollutants from air and water, and making the drilling process more efficient and productive. Elsewhere in this edition, we profile the Center for Business Development on the Meridian Technology Center campus in Stillwater for insight into how a successful business incubator operates. We also report what the first group of i2E Fellows learned from their 10-week Fellowships this summer with five i2E client companies. Finally, don’t miss the profiles of Buzzvoice and Digitouch Innovations, two emerging i2E client companies that are pioneering new ways to deliver video and audio content, and Docvia and CreditPoint Software, two companies that have established themselves as leaders in the areas of financial services and health care delivery. As always, I’m proud to be able to provide a glimpse of some of the innovations developed by Oklahoma’s technology-based entrepreneurial community. Enjoy.
i2E TEAM The i2E management and staff is composed of professionals with extensive experience in technology commercialization, business development, venture investing, finance, organizational management, and marketing. Tom Walker
President and Chief Executive Officer
David Thomison
Vice President, Enterprise Services
Rex Smitherman Vice President, Operations
Sarah Seagraves Vice President, Marketing
Tom Francis Director, Investment Fund Administration
David Daviee Director, Finance & TBFP Administration
Richard Gajan
Director, Enterprise Services
Richard Rainey
Director, Enterprise Services
James Randall
Director, Enterprise Services
Jim Rogers
Director, Enterprise Services
Casey Harness
Commercialization Associate
Scott Thomas Network Administrator
Grady Epperly Marketing Specialist
Jim Stafford
Communications Specialist
Michelle Odom
Meeting and Event Specialist
Cindy Williams
Tom Walker i2E CEO and President
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Administrative Assistant
www.i2E.org
A B O U T
i 2 E
ABOUT As a single point of entry for technology commercialization services, knowledge and advice, i2E works with innovators and entrepreneurs on how to analyze risk, create business plans, pitch to investors, partners and network with business professionals. We strive to build a pipeline of young talented and skilled entrepreneurs through a statewide collegiate business plan competition that is based on innovation and technology, and we foster entrepreneurship by matching start-up technology businesses with college students to gain hands on experience and develop networks. Over the past decade, i2E clients received 90% of all venture capital invested in Oklahoma technology companies. This year i2E launched the SeedStep Angels as an independent manager-led angel group meeting the SEC’s qualifications for accredited investors. Our efforts were recognized when we were accepted as a full member of the Angel Capital Association.
Our Proof-of-Concept fund provides critical capital to support early product or business development. Managed as a revolving fund, it acts as a catalyst for additional private investment, and paybacks from entrepreneurs have funded nearly 30% of all proofof-concept awards. Awardees have gone on to raise over $210M in additional private capital, leveraging the state’s investment over 28:1. These clients represent 53% of all i2E client companies receiving true venture capital investment. The Oklahoma Seed Capital Fund was created to provide seed and start-up equity financing to Oklahoma advanced technology companies. In 2009, i2E concluded the investment cycle of the first Series of the fund with investments in 7 Oklahoma companies that attracted over $15m in co-investment. i2E has been acknowledged internationally for their success in helping Oklahoma entrepreneurs, college students and researchers turn their INNOVATIONS TO ENTERPRISES………i2E.
i2E BOARD of DIRECTORS Roy Williams, Chairman and Mike LaBrie, Secretary Robert Barcum
Steve Cropper
Merl Lindstrom, PhD
Craig Shimasaki, PhD
Unisource Program Administrators
Investor
ConocoPhillips, Inc.
InterGenetics, Inc.
Howard Barnett, Jr.
Philip Eller
Dan Luton
Sheri Stickley
TSF Capital, LLC
Eller Detrich, P.C.
OCAST
Sean Bauman, PhD
Marilyn Feaver
Michael Neal
Immuno-Mycologics, Inc.
Southwestern Oklahoma Impact Coalition
Tulsa Metro Chamber
D.C. Bass & Sons Construction Co.
Barbara Hisey
Stillwater National Bank
C. James Bode
David Hogan
Bank of Oklahoma, N.A.
Hogan Taylor, LLP
Michael Carolina
Philip Kurtz
Bob Berry
OCAST
Hiram Champlin Chisholm Trail Broadcasting
Bob Craine TSF Capital, LLC
Retired Executive
Benefit Informatics
Hershel Lamirand, III Oklahoma Health Center Foundation
David Pitts Amy Polonchek The City of Tulsa
Oklahoma Department of Commerce
Kay Wade
Logan City Economic Development Council
Rainey Williams, Jr. MARCO Capital Group
Roy Williams
Richard Rush
Greater Oklahoma City Chamber
The State Chamber
Dick Williamson
Darryl Schmidt
TD Williamson, Inc.
BancFirst
Duane Wilson LDW Services, Inc.
Don Wood NEDC
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Roy Georgia BuzzVoice Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer Year Started: 2007 No. of Employees: 2 Office Location: Oklahoma City, and Cincinnati, Ohio Product or Technology: BuzzVoice is a personalized mobile service that lets busy consumers listen to the Web’s top news and blog sites on the go. Market: 112 million Americans (37%) now read news and blogs on computers and mobile devices. BuzzVoice targets busy, mobile news consumers with a unique audio service that lets them listen to Web-based stories while multitasking on the go. Future Plans: BuzzVoice plans to expand its service to users of Blackberry, Windows Mobile and other smartphones, and rollout mobile audio-enabling solutions for publishers and other content producers. Funding: Initial funding came from company founders and “friends and family” investors. BuzzVoice is seeking $300,000 in seed funding. Successes: The service received the coveted Apple “Staff Pick,” was named a FastCompany “iPhone favorite,” and has been featured in more than 60 national publications. Web: www.BuzzVoice.com
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hen Roy Georgia created a “new media” service that gives consumers a voice in the way that news is delivered to them, he turned to i2E to assist in its growth. Through a company called MediaQuake, Georgia and co-founder John Atkinson launched a mobile voice service in 2007 that eventually became known as BuzzVoice. The application collects written news stories and blogs from more than 1,400 Internet sources and converts them to audio in real time, letting busy consumers listen on smart phones, MP3 players and iPods. So, BuzzVoice subscribers can listen to “BuzzCasts” that focus on technology, sports, politics, entertainment news, or most any subject they select. Since its inception, BuzzVoice users have used the service to stream audio versions of more than 500,000 news stories. “The idea behind it was that people are on the go, they consume lots of different content, but they don’t do it on their terms,” Georgia said. “Our vision is to become a platform that transforms content from publishers and other content producers to mobile audio in real time.” BuzzVoice is the second technology company founded by Georgia for which he has turned to i2E ’s unique commercialization and access-to-capital services. The success of Oklahoma City-based Medibis brought him back to i2E after the new mobile textto-voice technology was created. Medibis, which Georgia sold to California investors in 2008, provides financial performance data for ambulatory surgery centers around the nation. Medibis’ funding through the OCAST Technology Business Finance Program contributed to its growth and success, he said.
“When we successfully exited Medibis, we repaid the TBFP, so we had a success story with the TBFP program and with i2E,” Georgia said. “I’ve always been a proponent of i2E in terms of its goals to promote economic development in the technology sector for Oklahoma.” MediaQuake’s first generation service launched in 2008 as PimpMyNews, attracting rave reviews from technology analysts. The company upgraded its offering and morphed into BuzzVoice in September of 2009, as Georgia prepares to roll out a widget that content producers such as blog owners and news media companies can install on their Web sites to transform their content to mobile audio. “Our technology helps facilitate the flow of content between content producers and mobile consumers” Georgia said. “It gives content producers an easy way to offer a personalized audio solution.” Georgia picked up an iPhone sitting on a table at his downtown Oklahoma City office and touched an icon on the screen. In seconds, a male voice began delivering a 17-minute long technology “BuzzCast,” an audio news feed that was set up from written Internet newscasts that Georgia had earlier selected. “Driving into work yesterday, I listened to my BuzzCast of technology blogs that normally I have no time to read. By the time I got to work, I was up to speed on the news I care about,” he said. “We hope that consumers everywhere will find their new ‘voice’ in our technology.”
Image by Simon Hurst Photography
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Ashley Amend digitouch Innovations Chief Executive Officer Year started: 2007 No. of employees: 2 Office location: Oklahoma City Product or technology: Digierge digital touch screen device embedded with a PC, speakers and preloaded with the Digitouch software, plus an Internet-based open administration application called the Digitouch Network. Market: Restaurants, hotels, convention bureaus, airports, sports arenas, entertainment and retail locations that have digital signage needs. Future plans: Digitouch company plans to carve out a niche through convention and visitors bureaus nationwide and eventually sell through distributorships. Plans include hiring a chief operating officer. Funding: Initial funding was from an Oklahoma City-based angel investor, as well as an OCAST Technology Business Finance Award that carried the company through product development. Digitouch recently completed another round of funding. Successes: A major milestone was reached when Digitouch completed work on its Digitouch Network, a Web-based application that will generate advertising revenue for both the company and its clients. Initial sales of the Digierge touch screens began in the spring. Digigouch also participated in the i2E Fellows program this summer. Web site: www.digitouchinnovations.com
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magine walking up to a giant LCD screen in a hotel lobby, touching it and instantly seeing a list of all the nearby sushi bars. Or coffee shops. Or performance dates at a local concert hall. Ashley Amend did. The Oklahoma City native conceived the idea of placing touchscreens in airport terminals, hotel lobbies and popular restaurants, and then made it happen. The result is Digitouch Innovations, a company Amend founded in 2007. Digitouch has developed a customizable touch screen device called the Digierge and an Internet-enabled network called the Digitouch Network that allows for easy updates and maintenance of advertising content on the LCD screens. The digital touch screens offer calendars, information about where to eat, where to shop, what to do in a city, cultural information and much more. Amend envisions the screens being strategically placed in airport terminals, hotel lobbies and popular restaurants. The company also has developed proprietary, Web-based software that controls content to the screens. “We have developed two products for the Digierges,” Amend said. “One is a standalone network that is administered by the client company. We have another product for clients that don’t want to sell their own advertising for it, but want to generate advertising revenue. We drive advertisers who are looking for locations that have our digital signage product to our Web site. Then the advertisers upload and control all their ad content from our network, which generates advertising revenue for us.” Amend’s development of the Digierge and Digitouch Network began in 2004
when she discovered a digital screen that featured news and advertising in a Houston, Texas, elevator.Inspired by the screen, she created a company known as Captive Marketing Group, which placed screens in 38 metro restaurant and hotel locations, all manually updated. Amend eventually sold the screens and moved on to another venture. By 2008, Amend harnessed the power of the Internet to provide an avenue for constantly updating the screens, and Digitouch Innovations was born as her third startup venture. She worked with a software developer, Custom Consulting Associates, to develop the software that drives the network. In March, Digitouch was recognized with an On the Brink honor in the Journal Record’s annual Innovator of the Year awards. By midsummer it was producing revenues through sales of the Digierge touchscreens. Amend worked with i2E to develop her business plan and was awarded $100,000 proof-of-concept funding through the OCAST Technology Business Finance Program. Digitouch was among the first five Oklahoma’s to participate in the i2E Fellows program, providing a paid internship this past summer to Dustin McBride. “The consulting and advice given by i2E Enterprise Director Jim Rogers was the biggest benefit I received from the TBFP process,” Amend said. “The money is valuable, but more than money, the guidance leading us through the process was probably the most valuable. “Our position now is very different. Now our product is all about being customizable interactive software for the digital signage industry.”
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CreditPoint Software®
Brings Dollars Back to Oklahoma With Global Focus “We consider i2E to be friends, trusted advisors, and partners. They have been a capital partner for us and have continued to be a great sounding board as we expand our business.” — Kevin Murray, Vice President
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WASSO – CreditPoint Software® has developed a global niche for the financial risk and credit management software that companies use to assess the financial strength and credit worthiness of their customers and suppliers. That means that dollars are flowing into Oklahoma as the Owasso-based company expands its customer base around the world. “Our business is expanding nationally and internationally,” said Kevin Murray, CreditPoint Software® Vice President. “Last year, 99 percent of our sales were outside of Oklahoma. I would say that probably 70 percent was outside the United States.” Founded a decade ago by George Garner, President, CreditPoint Software® serves clients in the energy, manufacturing, distribution and wholesale industries. British Petroleum (BP), one of the world’s largest oil companies, was one of the company’s first customers. Many BP business units now use CreditPoint Software®, including one that manages thousands of suppliers through its system, Murray said. Other customers include:
• One of the world’s largest camera
manufacturers that uses CreditPoint Software® to assess credit risk associated
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with its customers and to minimize the possibility of bad debts; • A global manufacturer of high technology equipment with sales of more than $20 billion annually. “They are using our software to analyze their customers and manage the risk they are taking,” Murray said. • A large Australian manufacturer that is using CreditPoint Software® to manage credit risks associated with its sales. • A major Oklahoma manufacturer that serves the food service industry uses CreditPoint Software® to analyze the financial viability of hundreds of suppliers. “Given the business climate right now, it is more important that companies really understand who they are doing business with,” Murray said. “Having a better
knowledge of your customers and suppliers financially and having command of that information and those relationships are very important.” While retaining its Oklahoma roots, CreditPoint Software® has expanded its business footprint around the world and continues to focus on global markets. As a browser-based software application available via the Internet, CreditPoint Software® has benefited in the rapid growth in software being purchased as a Software as a Service (SaaS) product. “It’s a good industry, and there are always challenges,” Murray said. “We’re excited about the opportunity both nationally and internationally.” CreditPoint Software® long ago established a relationship with i2E, which Murray credits for helping it shape its early business plans. “i2E provided a vital advisory role and a sounding board for our business plans,” he said. “Our business plans are stronger because of our work with i2E and it has helped us to work more effectively with our board of directors. “I think companies that work with i2E have much better business plans, and if they do need to work with investors they will be more successful.”
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Docvia Has Global Vision for Medical Communications Technology
“i2E provided our start-up with two critical ingredients for success: early access to capital and market validation.” — Noah Roberts, President and CEO
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he co-founders of Tulsa-based Docvia envisioned a future in which patientdoctor relationships revolve around more than a traditional 10-minute visit in the physician’s clinic. Docvia created a Web- and wireless telephone-based application that provides secure patient-physician communication. The technology allows patients to renew prescriptions online and to consult with their doctors in a “virtual” office visit. “We are not an electronic medical record system or a personal health record,” said Docvia CEO Noah Roberts. “We are a group of practicing physicians, software engineers and designers who began by creating secure, HIPAA-compliant, electronic access between established patients and their health care providers.” Co-founded in 2004 by Tulsa physicians, Drs. Jon Cox and Mike Maxwell, the Docvia technology debuted with the St. John Health System in Tulsa and has since been adopted by other Tulsa health care providers. The company is exploring national and global opportunities that collectively represent more than 100 million potential customers. Docvia also deployed its Web application to South Africa where it was used to connect pregnant women who are HIV-positive via wireless telephone to a perinatal HIV research unit located inside the world’s
largest hospital in Soweto. The concept to take its technology to Africa earned Noah an invitation to speak at the second TEDGlobal conference, an annual meeting in which some of the world’s top innovators share their big ideas in a widely broadcast presentation. “The majority of the people on the African continent live on less than $3 a day, but they will put minutes on their phones; that is their lifeline,” Roberts said. “We thought, ‘What if we made this same service available around the world, not just in the U.S. health care system.’ That idea got us on the TED stage.” Two years ago, Roberts conceived yet another idea to improve communications between patients and health care providers. invisibleBracelet.org was born after Roberts realized the need to provide critical health care information to emergency medical personnel when the parent of a Docvia employee was unable to communicate with a medic during a medical emergency.
invisibleBracelet launched in 2008 and has since won agreements with the Tulsa-based Emergency Medical Services Authority (EMSA), the Grove Emergency Medical Service and the 37,000-member Oklahoma Employees Benefits Council. Docvia is pursuing deals with emergency medical services in all 77 Oklahoma counties with emphasis on those that surround the Oklahoma Turnpike system. Roberts has an even bigger vision for invisibleBracelet.org. “It’s always been our vision to establish a national registry,” he said. “Oklahoma is a microcosm of the U.S. To create a national service area, we must first understand how to connect our urban and rural communities with EMS providers.” A 2006 recipient of a $100,000 proofof-concept funding from i2E, Docvia since has grown to seven employees and a global vision for its technology. “I’ve said many times that if it weren’t for the $100,000 OCAST funding awarded Docvia’s co-founders, Drs. Jon Cox and Mike Maxwell, Docvia wouldn’t exist,” Roberts said. “It kept them in business long enough to build a team and secure their first great customer. “For Oklahoma to compete in the future, we need to increase these types of funding mechanisms 100 fold.”
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ConocoPhillips Pursues ‘Cutting Edge’ R&D on Bartlesville Campus
The ConocoPhillips Bartlesville Technology Center occupies about 440 acres on which 600 people conduct high tech research and development in more than 200 laboratories.
“We do cutting edge technology on a very mature business.” — Merl Lindstrom, Vice President, Research and Development Technology, ConocoPhillips
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ARTLESVILLE – Flanked by a curious contraption in the Rock Mechanics Laboratory on the ConocoPhillips Bartlesville Technology Center campus, Richard Treinen picks up a cylindershaped piece of rock off a nearby shelf. “This is a North Sea type chalk,” Treinen explains to a visitor to the lab. “You can see that it is a very fine grained rock.” Treinen, a staff reservoir engineer in ConocoPhillips Reservoir
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Technology group, holds a rock core sample taken from thousands of feet below the surface at a company well site. He sets the North Sea sample back on the shelf and picks up another sample with a very different look. “This is more of a sandstone right here,” Treinen said. “Every reservoir is a little different. So we go out and drill a well, cut out a piece of rock and bring it back here.”
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Reservoir Engineer Richard Treinen peers through a high tech load frame used to test strength of core samples in the Rock Mechanics Laboratory on the ConocoPhillips Bartlesville Technology Center campus.
Central to the Rock Mechanics Laboratory is the “load frame,” a sensorfilled machine in which the core samples are crushed and measured. It’s a hightech apparatus that is designed to help ConocoPhillips recover more oil from the fields in which it is drilling by facilitating the
fracturing of rocks deep within the wells. “This lab measures how easily those rocks can be fractured and if they have a preferential direction, what direction the fractures will run underground,” Treinen said. Welcome to the world of high-
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tech research and development at ConocoPhillips, where the Rock Mechanics Laboratory is but one of over 200 scientific laboratories located in 44 buildings spread across the 440-acre Bartlesville Technology Center campus. Research conducted by ConocoPhillips scientists covers a broad spectrum of technologies. That research ranges from use of nanotechnology and computer modeling to aid oil and gas recovery efforts to creating fuels from renewable sources such as soybean oil to exploring ways to clean impurities out of both the air and water. It is a high-tech center that employs 600 people, 223 of whom possess Ph.Ds in 20 academic disciplines from 95 schools. The Bartlesville center is part of the nation’s third-largest integrated energy company, which has operations in more than 30 countries worldwide and employs 30,000 people. “A lot of people say ‘refineries have been around for 100 years. What are you guys doing?’” said Merl Lindstrom, ConocoPhillips’ Vice President, Research and Development Technology and senior manager at the Bartlesville technology campus. “We do cutting edge technology for a very mature business.” Lindstrom, a member of i2E’s board of directors, has worked at ConocoPhillips and its predecessor, Phillips Petroleum Company, for 30 years. Despite the relocation of the company’s headquarters from Bartlesville to Houston in 2002 and general consolidation within the energy industry, the Bartlesville Technology Center continues to serve a vital role for ConocoPhillips. “We are one of the few oil company research facilities left,” Lindstrom said. “If you go back 15 years before all the megamergers, there were about 20 research organizations. Now there are about five.” The Bartlesville campus continues to add highly paid, highly educated researchers. “We’ve hired probably 55 to 60 Ph.Ds in the past two years,” Lindstrom said. ConocoPhillips also directs millions of research dollars onto college campuses in Oklahoma and beyond. The University of Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Tulsa University are among eight “core schools” that receive funding each year. Some of that is earmarked for graduate student stipends in chemistry and chemical engineering programs, Lindstrom said. “I think we’ve got a great relationship Continued on page 12. innovators
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with Oklahoma universities,” he said. “We have former employees at TU. We’ve got people at OU; their Dean of Geology is the former VP of Upstream Research at Phillips. We have had long-standing relationships with people such as Russ Rhinehart at OSU’s chemical engineering department, and we’ve been doing joint research with Dr. Daniel Resasco at OU for 15 years.” In fact, ConocoPhillips has an ownership interest in SouthWest NanoTechnologies, the Norman-based company that manufactures carbon nanotubes based upon a process created by Dr. Resasco in his OU laboratory. ConocoPhillips also contracts with universities on specific research projects. For instance, two years ago it announced a $22.5 million, seven-year renewable fuels research program that includes Iowa State University. Researchers are working to convert corn stover – residue such as stalks left over from the harvesting process – into an energy source. On the Bartlesville Technology Center campus, every corridor seems to be filled with researchers wearing lab coats and wearing protective goggles. Much of their work involves reducing carbon dioxide emissions from the refining process and purifying the air and water wherever it operates. Dewayne Black, Manager of Sustainable
Stephanie Compton, a staff technician in the Environmental Laboratory at the ConocoPhillips Bartlesville Technology Center, prepares equipment for a test run as Clint Aichele, associate engineer, looks on.
Technologies for ConocoPhillips, describes it as a corporate “responsibility to protect the communities and the environment we work in.” Lindstrom said most of the work done at the Bartlesville Technology Center could be described as “environmental research” because of the positive impact it has on the environment in terms of more efficient operations and reduced emissions. “We do a lot of work in our fundamental refining business to increase throughput, reduce energy costs and increase product yield,” Lindstrom said. “All of those things, on a per-gallon of product basis, lead to
reduced energy use and reduced CO2 emissions.” Another area of research concentration on the Bartlesville campus is that of renewable fuels. In the company’s biofuels labs, scientists have developed processes to convert animal fats, soybean oils and even wood chips to diesel and gasoline just like what is produced from crude oil. In fact, ConocoPhillips can produce a diesel product in the Texas Panhandle that uses tallow from cattle slaughter facilities. It has a plant in Ireland that uses soybean oil as the fuel source.
ConocoPhillips Retains Strong Ties to Bartlesville Community BARTLESVILLE — Phillips Petroleum Company was founded here in 1917 and grew into one of the world’s largest integrated energy companies. It employed thousands of people worldwide and in its hometown, as well. Through the years, Phillips Petroleum gained a reputation as a high-tech company with such a highly educated work force that a major national financial newspaper reported in the late 1970s that Bartlesville was home to more Ph.D.s per capita than any community in the nation. Then the energy industry was beset by a wave of consolidation, and in 2002 Phillips Petroleum
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merged with Conoco and the new ConocoPhillips relocated its headquarters in Houston. But it never abandoned Bartlesville. Today, ConocoPhillips operates a massive Technology Center in far western part of town and dominates much of downtown with several office buildings, as well as the Phillips Petroleum Company Museum. It still employs about 3,000 people in the northern Oklahoma community of about 34,000 people. “We’ve always had a good relationship with Bartlesville,” said Merl Lindstrom, ConocoPhillips Vice President for Research & Development who has
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Brian Dunn, production team lead in the Biofuels Laboratory at the ConocoPhillips Bartlesville Technology Center, pours synthetic diesel into a beaker that will separate out water from the fuel.
“Basically, we take bio-derived feed stocks, any type of naturally derived product, and turn it into something that looks like a petroleum-derived fuel,” said Brian Dunn, Production Team Lead in Biofuels. “It is chemically identical.” Added Scott McQueen, Director of Biofuels for ConocoPhillips: “We are learning more every day about how to take the sugars and starches from those products and use them in fuels. Algae is the big hot topic of the day -- using the oils from algae.” Down another corridor on the Bartlesville campus, researchers are working to create
technologies that will yield more oil and gas from drilling efforts in what the company calls its “subsurface” laboratories. Scientists in these labs are working with nanotechnology-based materials and other technology that can force more oil out rocks deep below the surface. “We’re looking at how the oil and gas is displaced and how new mechanisms perform in improving production.” said Jim Johnson, ConocoPhillips Manager of Reservoir Laboratories. “Our research focuses on enhancing production through traditional techniques such as waterflooding or gas injection, with an added emphasis on
worked for the company for 30 years. “If you recall when Carl Icahn and Boone Pickens tried to do a hostile takeover in the mid-1980s, the community center here was packed, standing-room-only, with people supporting the company.” With more than 220 Ph.D.s working on the ConocoPhillips Technology Center campus, Bartlesville can still boast of its highly educated workforce. “The impact that ConocoPhillips has on the City of Bartlesville is incalculable,” said Ann Gaines, Interim President of the Bartlesville Development Corporation. “It is our largest employer, providing
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techniques using new chemicals and the development of innovative technologies.” ConocoPhillips researchers are using computer modeling to unlock the energy potential of gas hydrates found on ocean floors and, of course, testing those core samples from deep beneath the earth’s surface. Back in the Rock Mechanics Laboratory, Treinen picks up a core sample of chalky rock taken from deep beneath the North Sea and contrasts it with harder rock taken from another part of the world. When crushed in the load frame, it will tell ConocoPhillips scientists how they can best unlock the hydrocarbons found below the earth’s surface and help meet the world’s energy needs. Treinen points to the load frame machinery located in the center of the lab. “A number of sensors are placed around the core of rock, and once it starts to deform we can capture that deformation and then see which direction it goes,” he said. “If we can figure out how to get hydrocarbon flowing through the well bore, we can make quite a bit of energy.”
thousands of quality jobs to our citizens. Its influence, however, goes far beyond employment. Corporate ConocoPhillips has always been a tremendous supporter of the city’s cultural events and non-profit organizations. “ “Similarly, ConocoPhillips employees are inclined to be very civic-minded and donate countless hours and dollars to various charitable and community causes each year. Every community would like to have a ConocoPhillips.”
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Project Runway
Takes Off For
Tornado Studios
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ULSA – Cheers and applause broke out as a fashion model with red highlights in her blond hair strutted down a catwalk to the beat of electronic music and posed for an enthusiastic audience at the end of long, sleek runway. Cameras flashed from paparazzi jostling for the perfect shot before she turned and walked off the stage.
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E n t r e p r e n e u r s
As the model disappeared from sight, a score flashed on the video screen on which she had appeared. The crowd was still buzzing. Then reality returned to the room. Kris Jackson, creative director at Tulsabased Tornado Studios, stepped off the plastic board on which he was perched and turned to a half dozen onlookers assembled in a Tulsa conference room. Turns out, the model was nothing more than an animated avatar whose actions were controlled by Jackson as he walked on the plastic Wii footboard. He was demonstrating a new video game called Project Runway created by Tornado Studios for the Nintendo Wii video game system. Developed by a team of 15 software developers and animators, the video game will be released in the first quarter of 2010 by industry giant Atari. And it will boast an official tie-in with the cable television hit Project Runway. Project Runway, the game, targets a vast underserved market for video games: adolescent females. It looks to be a mega-hit among female gamers, said Tom Kudirka, founder and CEO of Tornado Studios. “Doing a game of this magnitude, of this superior quality, on the Wii platform should take the industry by storm,” Kudirka said. “We really feel confident that it is going to be a big hit.” Before Project Runway, girls were little more than an afterthought to game makers who largely produced action-adventure games designed for males. “I have a 15-year-old daughter and a 14-year-old step-daughter, and there is nothing for them to play,” Kudirka said. “But girls are the fastest-growing segment of the market.” Tornado Studios was founded in 2007 to produce family-oriented games that expand the market beyond its traditional male audience. “I look at it from a business standpoint,” he said. “What’s the fastest-growing game platform? Wii, family-based games. What’s the fastest-growing segment? Teenage girls.” Photo courtesy of TulsaPeople Magazine.
Continued on page 16.
Tom Kudirka, founder and CEO of Tornado Studios.
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E n t r e p r e n e u r s
Continued from page 15.
Kudirka certainly knows the video game market. In 1997 he founded Tulsabased 2015, which created best-selling military action games called Medal of Honor: Allied Assault and Men of Valor, both of which targeted a male dominated action game market. After the success of those games, Kudirka moved on to other ventures and his team of developers drifted to other software companies in places like Dallas, Seattle or Los Angeles. But they didn’t forget their 2015 experience in Tulsa. Some of the old team got together and appealed to Kudirka to build another game development company. “They said, ‘Tom, I miss Tulsa, miss the no-traffic, miss driving 10 minutes to work,’” Kudirka recalled. So, Kudirka put together another team of developers, and Tornado Studios was founded to expand video gaming beyond the 2015 genre of bloody shoot-‘em-up games. The idea for Project Runway sprang from a client request that Tornado Studios create an avatar that could be used by the fashion industry. “I said, ‘gee, this would make a great game,” Kudirka said. “I talked to Kris, who is very creative and a very, very imaginative person and said ‘do you think we could
Images from Tornado Studios’ “Project Runway,” created for the Nintendo Wii video game system.
make a game out of this?’ Kris looked up at the ceiling and said ‘yeah, I’ve got one designed’ and came back to me in two days with the design.” With a working title of “World of Fashion,” the game was created by the Tornado Studio team of veteran developers — with help along the way from focus
TULSA – Tornado Studios negotiated a tricky challenge before it completed development of its Project Runway video game and signed a potentially lucrative distribution deal with Atari. It had to win investor financing to support the work of a team of 15 software developers and animators. So, Tornado Studios founder and CEO Tom Kudirka borrowed an investment model from the energy sector with which Oklahoma investors are familiar. Kudirka terms it “project-based financing,” similar to the way that oil and gas wells are individually financed. Under the Tornado Studios investment model, potential investors can invest only in specific games to be developed instead of buying stock in the whole company. The process provides for quicker return.
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groups of young females. The connection with the Project Runway television show came through discussions with Atari. “Atari got in touch with the Weinstein Company, which is Harvey Weinstein and his brother, who own the Project Runway franchise,” Kudirka said. “We
“We split our revenues totally with the investors from Box One,” Kudirka said. “They get money immediately from when it hits the retail stores. They get a return on their investment from the very start.” For Tornado Studios and its investors, that return on investment promises to start flowing in as early as the first quarter of 2010 when Project Runway hits retail shelves. Kudirka credits i2E and Enterprise Director Richard Gajan for helping him develop a professional business plan for Tornado Studios. “They were instrumental in working with me on what the investors are looking for when it comes to business plan proposals, return on investment and telling me everything that needs to be in my ‘pitch,’” Kudirka said.
Funding Oklahoma’s Technology-Based Companies met with the Weinsteins, and Harvey was very impressed by the game and said ‘let’s put the whole thing together, it looks like a fantastic idea.’” After three months of negotiations between Tornado Studios, Atari and the Weinstein Co., a deal was signed in late September that created Project Runway, the video game. Clips from the Project Runway stars were embedded into the game to provide timely commentary at key points. Players will hear host Tim Gunn’s motivational “make it work!” as they create fashion pieces and race against the clock. Project Runway, the game, will be released during the upcoming season of the show. The game is divided into several fashion studios. The first is a workroom where players actually create their fashions. Then players are directed to a hair and makeup room where they can choose the hair and apply makeup for their model. Then it’s on to the dressing room and finally to the runway where players use the Wii footboard to strut the catwalk and have their creations judged by the Project Runway judges. “The whole game takes you through the life of a fashion designer, and like that of a contestant on the Project Runway show,” said Scott Neumann, Chief Technology Officer. “All the characters from the Project Runway show are integrated; they talk to you throughout the course of the game, offering advice and motivation.” Back in the Tornado Studio conference room, Jackson mounted the Wii footboard and displayed his ability to walk in time with the music and create poses that ranked high with the computer judges. “We wanted to give the player the experience of what the model is doing,” Jackson said. “I will get scored based on how successfully I’ve followed the beat and how successfully I posed at the end of the catwalk.” As Kudirka watched the Project Runway demo, he noted the sharp contrast between the market to which Tornado Studios hopes to carve out and that of 2015, which still exists. “We look at Tornado Studios as being the vehicle for family-based entertainment,” Kudirka said. “When Mom and Pop see Tornado Studios on the package label, they are going to know it’s a family game.”
OCAST Technology Business Finance Program (TBFP) Provides proof-of-concept funding. At the end of FY 2009, the TBFP had awarded $1 million to 10 companies. Managed by i2E, Inc., the TBFP is funded by state appropriations through the Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology.
Oklahoma Seed Capital Fund (OSCF) Provides seed and start-up stage equity financing. At the end of FY2009, the OSCF approved and closed ten investments in seven companies. The Seed Fund is an innovative public-private partnership operating under the Economic Development Act of 1987 and is managed by a separate subsidiary of i2E. State funding is provided through the Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology and other co-investors.
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Meridian business incubator
offers physical and ‘virtual’ office space
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TILLWATER – As a recent graduate of Oklahoma State University, Brian Alford wanted to put a professional facade on the one-man, home-based digital media production company he started. It was natural for him to look to his local business incubator. So, after being awarded an E-BASIC program grant, he established his Dreamit Studios as a “virtual tenant” of the business incubator at the Center for Business Development at Meridian Technology Center on the far west side of Stillwater. Sponsored by a consortium that includes Oklahoma State University, the Stillwater Chamber of Commerce and the City of Ponca City, the E-BASIC program awards “micro grants” up to $5,000 as seed money for new entrepreneurs. As a virtual tenant at the business incubator, Dreamit Studios takes no physical space but has a business address and access to meeting and conference rooms. “When you first start up a business and you don’t have a lot, it really helps because it gives you a business front and a place to meet clients that is professional and not a restaurant,” Alford said. “It really provides a work environment and helps you to be taken seriously.” Dreamit Studios is one of seven virtual tenants who pay $150 a month to access the Center for Business Development’s facilities, as well as commercialization services provided by Director Ron Duggins and Assistant Director Brad Rickelman. The “virtual tenant” program was established in 2008 to complement the incubator’s 14,500 square feet of rentable office and laboratory space. There are currently six physical tenants who maintain offices there fulltime. “As we looked around the community we noticed there is a lot more entrepreneurial activity taking place than just within the walls of this facility,” Duggins said. “It’s kind of a natural progression to the way we have opened our doors to serve all entrepreneurs, which is to develop a program to reach people who would not normally be renters of space but still need the services we
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provide.” For Alford and his virtual tenant counterparts, business development consulting from Duggins and Rickelman also is part of the service. “Brad and Ron have sat me down many times to talk over things like marketing,” said Alford, who majored in marketing and MIS at OSU. “They have been very upfront about just checking in. They really want to help.” Rickelman also has developed other outreach strategies to reach Stillwater-area entrepreneurs. One of these strategies is a free, monthly Stillwater Entrepreneur Network breakfast that features a speaker with expertise on some subject of business development and a chance to network with one’s peers. “We’ve been getting between 20 and 30 business owners, entrepreneurs, each month,” Rickelman said. “The topics range from marketing to financials, whatever might be intriguing.” Business counseling is also provided to entrepreneurs who are neither physical nor virtual tenants of the center. Other outreach activities include a free monthly Business 101 class, a formal entrepreneurship course from The Kauffman Foundation known as Fasttrac®, as well as providing entrepreneurship and small business training for specific groups such as Technology Center students, Native American tribes, and the downtown businesses. As one of the state’s original certified business incubators (there are now 47 statewide), the Meridian Center for Business Development has operated for more than a decade and has about 50 residential “alumni” or businesses that have been served by the center. Once devoted exclusively to technology-based businesses, the Center has evolved to what Rickelman described as a “full-service entrepreneurship shop” for any entrepreneur. “If you need business plan development assistance but you have nothing to do with technology, we can provide that and want to provide that,” he said. The center also provides an extensive list
Ron Duggins, left, Director of the Center of Business Development at the Meridian Technology Center in Stillwater, with Brad Rickelman, Assistant Director.
of business service providers to its clients who may need such expertise. “We take seriously our mission of economic development at the technology centers,” Duggins said. “It’s very important for us to develop the entrepreneurial capacity of our communities because innovation and entrepreneurship are two of the most important drivers of our economy.” Physical tenants pay rent at Stillwater “market rates” but also gain a tax incentive from their status as a certified business incubator tenant. “If you reside in a certified incubator you can take advantage of a state incentive that exempts your business from paying state income tax for a minimum of five years,” Duggins said. “The extension may continue for a total of 10 years if after five years you can show that you sell at least 75 percent of your goods or services out of state thereby bringing wealth into the state.” Alford already has plans to move Dreamit Studios into the Center for Business Development’s physical incubator after his virtual tenancy ends. He attributes the center’s conference space and its video equipment for helping him land one of his first clients. “They have a wonderful conference room there,” Alford said. “We ended up meeting him several times there. We talked about his products and talked about visuals to demonstrate them. I can’t think of any place around Stillwater where we would be able to do that.”
O u t r e a c h
ABOUT BUSINESS INCUBATORS
What is a Business Incubator? Business incubators nurture the development of entrepreneurial companies, helping them to survive and grow during the vulnerable start-up period. Incubation goals include creating local jobs, enhancing a community’s business climate, retaining businesses in a region, commercializing technologies, accelerating growth in a particular industry, and diversifying local economies. Incubators offer their clients business support services and resources that are tailored to their needs as well as leasing space to the start-up companies.
What’s located on the Meridian Technology Center campus? In addition to the providing the Center for Business Development, Meridian Technology Center is also a partner in the Oklahoma Technology Research Park along with Oklahoma State University and The City of Stillwater. The goal of the Park, which is located adjacent to the Meridian campus, is to provide customized facilities for technology-based or knowledge-driven firms in all stages of development. Center for Business Development Director Ron Duggins also serves as the Director of the Tech Park. The newest building at the Oklahoma Technology Research Park is the 25,000 square foot Michael S. Morgan Business Accelerator Building, which is meant to provide new, young, or out-of- area companies a location in which they can accelerate their growth, add employees, and integrate into the technology and innovation based economy of the region. It also will be a certified business incubator.
Oklahoma’s Certified Business Incubators There are 47 certified business incubators in Oklahoma certified through the Oklahoma Department of Commerce. The certification means that business incubator tenants and alumni can receive up to a 10-year exemption from Oklahoma business income tax. Below is a list of the certified business incubators: ADA Pontotoc Technology Center Business Incubator
ENID Autry Technology Center Business Incubator
OOLAGAH Rogers County Industrial Authority Business Incubator
ALLEN Allen Community Development Authority Business Incubator Allen Community Development Authority Business Incubator II
FAIRVIEW Major County Economic Development Incubator
OWASSO Owasso Economic Development Authority Business Incubator
ALTUS Southwest Technology Center Business Incubator
GUYMON Artist Incubation, Inc.
ALVA Northwestern Oklahoma State University Business Incubator Northwest Technology Center Small Business Incubator
HOBART Hobart ED Authority Business Incubator
ARDMORE Ardmore Technology Transfer Center
LAWTON Center for Emerging Technology and Entrepreneurial Studies at Cameron University
BARTLESVILLE Tri-County Business Assistance Center Rogers State University in Bartlesville BENNINGTON Bennington Industrial Center BETHANY **Synergy Enterprise Development/Western Oaks CHELSEA Rogers County Industrial Authority Business Incubator
FREDERICK Tillman Producers Coop Business Incubator
INOLA Rogers County Industrial Authority Business Incubator
MIAMI Rogers State University/Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College Innovation Center
SALLISAW Sallisaw Improvement Corporation Business Incubator SHAWNEE **Acorn Growth Companies STILLWATER Meridian Technology Center for Business Development
MOORE Moore Norman Technology Center
TONKAWA Tonkawa Business Incubator, LLC
13101 South Pennsylvania
TULSA Greenwood Business Resource Center The Tulsa Enterprise Center
COALGATE Coalgate Business Incubator
OKLAHOMA CITY **Fred Jones Business Development Center Northeast Business Resource Center **Synergy Enterprise Development at Oakleaf Business Complex Presbyterian Health Foundation Research Park Incubator The Greater Oklahoma City Hispanic Chamber Foundation Business Incubator
DURANT Rural Enterprises of Oklahoma Incubator
PRYOR OSU-Okmulgee/MidAmerica Industrial Park Small Business Innovation & Incubation Center
STROUD Central Okla. Business & Job Development Corp.
NORMAN Emerging Technology Entrepreneurial Center (eTec)
DRUMRIGHT Central Okla. Business & Job Development Corp.
POTEAU LeFlore County Development Coalition
MIDWEST CITY **Acorn Growth Companies
CLAREMORE Rogers State University Innovation Center
DACOMA Dacoma Business Advantage Center
PONCA CITY Pioneer Technology Center Business Incubator
WARNER Connors State College Business Incubator WETUMKA Wes Watkins Technology Center Business Incubator WEWOKA City of Wewoka Business Incubator ** For Profit Incubators
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NASVF: Investment professionals bring ‘stimulus’ ideas to Oklahoma conference
The NASVF audience listens intently to the keynote speaker at a luncheon session.
The National Association of Seed and Venture Funds came to Oklahoma in midSeptember with its 16th annual convention and brought its own stimulus proposal for the lifting the nation’s troubled economy. The two-day conference at Oklahoma City’s Skirvin Hilton was wrapped around a theme of “Seed Investing at the Forefront of Economic Recovery.” About 300 commercialization professionals and investment fund managers attended the meeting that featured panel discussions on topics such as “Translating Science into Business When Funding is Tight” and “Encouraging Entrepreneurs in Difficult Times.” Alternative sources of investment capital to traditional venture funding emerged early in the conference and surfaced throughout the topical sessions. For instance, angel investors and state-funded investment initiatives were highlighted as growing in importance to both entrepreneurs and commercialization experts.
John Huston, chairman of the Angel Capital Association, provided some perspective on the role that angel investors play in the health of the nation’s cashchallenged early stage companies. “You have a few factors in play,” said Huston, who is founder and manager of the OhioTech Angel Funds in Columbus. “The first is that VCs are having trouble raising new funds, so they have less dry powder than ever. The second thing is that the dry powder that they do have is really needed for their portfolio companies, so there is less dry powder for others.” All of which creates the need for other sources of capital for early stage companies as VCs use more of their existing capital for follow-on funding in their existing portfolio companies. “The extent that venture capitalists dry up is the extent that angels have to fill that breach,” Huston said. Huston, ACA Executive Director Marianne Hudson and Darrin Redus, Chief Economic Inclusion Officer for
Cleveland, Ohio-based Jumpstart, Inc., offered their perspective in a panel discussion titled “Where are the Angel Investment Opportunities.” “With the economy you would think we would be seeing a downturn in the number of angel groups,” Hudson said. “But what we are really seeing is kind of a flattening out.” The ACA claims 160 member groups that account for 7,000 accredited investors in 44 states and five Canadian provinces. Hudson said she is aware of 15 new angel groups that have started in the past 12 months. Count the SeedStep Angels, an Oklahoma-based angel network that was formally launched in April and is managed by i2E, among those new 15 new angel groups described by Hudson. Angel networks differ from Angel funds in that each individual member makes his or her own decision on each deal rather than investing capital pooled from all members. Redus represents a not-for-profit company that looks very much like i2E. Continued on page 22.
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Look for us in the Best of Breed article in this issue
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INNOVATION TO ENTERPRISE Fall 2009
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Tom Walker, President and CEO of i2E, Inc., center, talks with Greg Knudson, Vice President of Technology for RocketVentures, left, and Richard Fox, Partner with Astralis Group, Inc. John Huston, founder and manager, OhioTech Angel Funds. Continued from page 20.
Jumpstart provides commercialization services and investment capital for Ohiobased entrepreneurs. It has made about 40 investments in little more than five years. “Angel investing has been a critical lifeline for Jumpstart,” Redus said. “We are really the money that comes in typically after friends and family. We are investing so early that without an angel bridge to move the company forward it is darn near impossible.” Later in the conference, the critical role played by angels surfaced in a panel discussion on seed investing that included Tom Walker, i2E CEO; Paul Batcheller, a partner with PrairieGold Venture Partners of Minneapolis; and Greg Knudson, Vice President of Technology for Ohio-based RocketVentures “I’m a believer in the angel market,” Walker told the audience. “I think you will continue to see growth in angel groups across the country. You have to remember that in the seed and startup stage of an
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entrepreneurial company, the capital has to come from their own regions. That type of venture capital isn’t traveling as much as it once was. “So, angels fill that gap.” Batcheller said he suspects that the economy has impacted angel investors, as well. “I’ve picked up a few anecdotal comments from friends of mine who are angel investors who are calling a big time out,” Batcheller said. The concept of co-investments with other angel groups, venture funds or state-funded investments also emerged among conference participants as a critical factor in providing capital to the nations’ entrepreneurs. “For us, it’s really important to have vibrant angel-group activity to co-invest with a seed fund,” Walker said. “In our region, we really don’t have a lot of venture capital. So, we have to have a network of investors, angel investors and angel groups that can co-invest with you at that seed stage level.”
Added Knudson, who directs an earlystage venture capital fund supported by the Ohio Department of Development’s $1.6 billion Third Frontier Program: “I think these early-stage funds will work more closely with universities and other institutions to go together because it’s so vital to keep earlystage investments moving forward.” Walker described Oklahoma’s stateappropriated proof-of-concept fund as critical to seed stage companies. “If you are not supporting these companies at that stage they are not going to attract money at other stages,” he said. “It’s all about the ecosystem.” For all the difficulty the nation’s economy has experienced, there is no lack of investment opportunities, Batcheller told the audience. “We have not seen a slowdown of deal flow,” he said. “The best and brightest entrepreneurs realize that things go in cycles and ‘I can’t put this effort on the shelf for 12 months because I don’t think things will recover in the next two years.’ “There are still seeds being planted.”
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Fellows 2010 Timeline February 5, 2010.......................... Student application form due February 15-19, 2010............. Fellowship candidate interviews March 3-5, 2010........................... Company interviews with Fellowship finalists March 12, 2010............................ Fellowships announced June 1, 2010.................................... Fellowships begin August 6, 2010............................. Fellowships end For more information, visit www.i2E.org.
Seed funds and angel groups are investing in start-up entrepreneurs. A study from the Census Bureau earlier this year found that firms less than five years old account for all net new job growth in the United States over the last five years. So we are doing some important work. — Marianne Hudson, CEO and President of the Angel Capital Association
The economy’s decline has significantly impacted early stage and seed venture capital availability. In a recent survey that NASVF did, we’ve found that providers of seed capital for both public and private funds have seen a huge decline in the availability of funding. Traditional programs are probably not going to fill the funding gap that our members see. — James A. Jaffe, President and CEO of the National Association of Seed and Venture Funds
Forget how to spell “I-P-O. Focus solely on an M&A exit.” — John Huston, Chairman of the Board of the Angel Capital Association
This is the time when opportunities abound. This is the time, as history has proven, that ideas are percolating, entrepreneurs are formulating ideas into value propositions and we are seeing more and more of these ideas coming across our desks. So, this is the time to be excited. — Wendy Kennedy, President, WendyKennedy.com
As I look at startup creation and value creation, it’s a matter of risk management. Uncertainty cannot be managed, whereas risk you can manage because you can look at probabilities of various events. It you have the ability to mitigate risk you are not as often blindsided. — Lee Herren, Commercialization Vice President, Georgia Research Alliance
What has happened to our association since our last summit in Atlanta? We have added 15 brand new groups. But 15 has just kept our overall membership flat, although as we all know in today’s market, flat is the new up. — John Huston, Chairman of the Board of the Angel Capital Association
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i2E Fellows Contribute to Real-World Ventures
T
he five Oklahoma college students who embarked on a 10-week i2E Fellowships this summer had a general idea of what they were expected to accomplish but no roadmap to get them there. Theirs were the first Fellowships awarded in this unique business project-oriented pilot program. When their Fellowships were completed, the students all reported a rewarding experience that helped refine their career goals. The i2E Fellowship program was underwritten with sponsorship from the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce and Fellows selected from participants in the Donald W. Reynolds Governor’s Cup competition. The participating companies were all selected from i2E clients that applied for the program. Students earned stipends ranging from $6,000 - $8,000 during their Fellowship. The pioneering first Fellows and their sponsoring companies were: Nicholas Harrison, University of Oklahoma
Avansic
Nathan Nelson, Oklahoma City University
Orbus Technology Group
Dustin McBride, Oklahoma State University-OKC Digitouch Innovations Ryan Reber, University of Oklahoma
Breeze Legal Solutions
Dawit Soparkdithapong, University of Tulsa
OrthoCare Innovations
Each of the Fellows carried specific skills to their posts that allowed them to tackle meaningful assignments. At the end of the 10 weeks, some of the students continued working as part-time employees of the companies, while others were inspired to consider entrepreneurship as a career option. All gained new-found respect for the ingenuity and work ethic that entrepreneurs showed in building their businesses. For instance, Harrison’s work at Avansic drew on skills he acquired in both disciplines because business provides digital forensic services that are in high demand from the legal industry. “My JD-MBA background was really a unique fit there,” Harrison said. “I assessed the legal environments in various cities, states and regions, estimated the market entry costs to set up new offices in various locations and helped decide what areas
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looked the most attractive for expansion.” Harrison’s work also helped Avansic refine its expansion goals as its adds new locations across the nation, said Gavin Manes, founder and CEO. “The information he provide has helped reshape our market expansion,” Manes said. “Nicholas Harrison was incredibly useful in targeted market research and assessment. Avansic benefitted tremendously from the program.”
Harrison is a dual-track graduate student in the OU School of Law and an MBA candidate in the Price College of Business Administration who has a new interest in entrepreneurship as a result of the Fellowship he served at Tulsa-based Avansic. “Putting together start-up companies seems like a really exciting field,” Harrison said. “It’s something I’d love to pursue. If I ultimately opt to practice law instead, the knowledge and skills I learned at Avansic will put me on the cutting edge as an expert in the field of electronic discovery.” Harrison’s counterparts in the Fellowship program reported similar impacts. Some of what they accomplished: Nelson: He completed a demographic study for Orbus Technology Group that identified potential school districts in four states for its managed IT infrastructure applications. He also developed a complete returnon-investment analysis for client school districts that revealed the total cost of using the services provided by Orbus. As he prepares for his senior year at OCU, Nelson said the i2E Fellowship provided him with skills to analyze business situations and to “see the bigger picture” of running a small, entrepreneurial business.
McBride: The 10week i2E Fellowship he served with Digitouch Innovations went so well that he continued as a fulltime employee when the Fellowship concluded – at least until the fall semester begins, when he will continue as a part-time employee. McBride developed standardized management operational procedures for Digitouch during the Fellowship, but also contributed to accounting, office organization and myriad other tasks. “This experience reaffirms the fact that I do, one day, want to be an entrepreneur,” McBride said.
Reber: He focused on developing administrative processes to enhance customer growth and services associated with launch of Breeze’s legal document management solutions. He also conducted market research for the company among other tasks during the Fellowship. The day-to-day experience of working with people in the industry helped him define the area in which he hopes to take his entrepreneurship skills after graduation.
Soparkdithapong: He developed financial modeling procedures and managerial reporting structures for OrthoCare Innovations during his i2E Fellowship. Soparkdithapong described the task as mapping the workflow at OrthoCare to see “where it is broken” and help create more efficiencies. Working at an early stage company such as OrthoCare allowed him to see how decisions are made and will spill over into his long-range plans to establish his own business. The Fellowship experience also brought the biosciences field into focus as a career possibility for him.
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Career Launcher:
2010 Governor’s Cup Offers Scholarship, Fellowship Opportunities
Governor Brady Henry presents Michelle Witt, team leader for RedVault from the University of Tulsa, her 2008 Governor’s Cup Award for Graduate Second Place.
I
n its first five years of existence, the Donald W. Reynolds Governor’s Cup collegiate business plan competition has impacted Oklahoma in ways that far exceed the event itself. New business ventures have spun out of the competition and careers have taken new directions in its wake. For instance, Michelle Witt was an Illinois native who attended the University of Tulsa with the full intention to return to her home state after graduation. Her plans were radically changed after she competed in the 2008 Governor’s Cup with a team called RedVault. The RedVault business plan claimed second place in the Governor’s Cup graduate division., and the experience eventually led Witt to a Tulsa start-up called Impact Technologies, where she serves today as director of business development. Intrigued by the career possibilities of working for an entrepreneurial venture, she stayed in Oklahoma after graduation.
“I’ve always been interested in entrepreneurship and always known that I would like to have a job like that rather than a typical 8-to-5 job,” Witt said. “But there was never a clear link to me. The Governor’s Cup was the clear link.” Witt’s story is shared by dozens of other Governor’s Cup alumni who stayed in Oklahoma to commercialize the technology outlined in their business plan or took their experience to other entrepreneurial ventures. Students compete for almost $200,000 in cash awards. That includes $90,000 that the top two teams in each division will compete for in the Tri-State competition held in Las Vegas, Nevada. Other rewards open to all participants include three $5000 scholarships and five paid fellowships. The Paulsen Awards, sponsored by the Oklahoma Business Roundtable, is a written essay application where finalists
participate in an interview process with community leaders to determine the three scholarship recipients. The $5000 awarded to each winner must be used for continuing education for the fall semester to any Oklahoma college. The i2E Fellowships provides a 10week paid fellowship at an Oklahoma entrepreneurial business. Students apply for the fellowship and go through a series of interviews to be matched with a start-up technology-based company to work on a key business project. More than 650 students have competed in the Governor’s Cup throughout its history, and more than three dozen teams from college campuses throughout the state are expected to enter the 2010 competition. When it is over, the possibilities of starting and growing an Oklahoma business will lure some students to consider entrepreneurship just as it did for Michelle Witt.
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P a r t n e r s P a r t n e r s
i2E: Turning Innovation into Enterprise
www.i2E.org
Our programs and services are possible because of the financial and in-kind support of our partners. These valued organizations are dedicated to the advancement of science and technology in our state and are strongly committed to Oklahoma’s prosperous economic future.
i2E SERVICES: Our services are designed to assist researchers and entrepreneurs in turning their innovations into exceptional home-grown business opportunities.
We do this by: • Providing hands-on product, market and business expertise designed to accelerate commercialization activities. • Attracting and investing risk capital in advanced technology-based businesses. • Promoting an innovation based economy and home-grown economic development. i2E delivers services statewide through operations in Oklahoma City and Tulsa. In 10 years of serving Oklahoma, 25% of the companies have been from rural Oklahoma and nearly 45% have been from areas outside of Oklahoma City and Tulsa.
Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology
www.ocast.state.ok.us
As the state’s only agency whose sole focus is technology, OCAST is a small, high-impact agency funded by state appropriations and governed by a board of directors with members from both the private and public sector. OCAST works in partnership with the private sector, higher education, CareerTech and the Oklahoma Department of Commerce.
Mission: To foster innovation in existing and developing businesses by supporting basic and applied research
and facilitating technology transfer between research laboratories and firms and farms, as well as providing seed capital for new innovative firms and their products and fostering enhanced competitiveness in the national and international markets by small and medium-sized manufacturing firms in Oklahoma by stimulating productivity and modernization of such firms.
OCAST Statewide Programs: Oklahoma Applied Research Support (OARS)
OCAST Inventors Assistance Service (IAS)
Oklahoma Health Research Program
OCAST Technology Business Finance Program (TBFP)
Oklahoma Nanotechnology Applications Project (ONAP)
Oklahoma Alliance for Manufacturing Excellence (The Alliance)
Plant Science Research Program
Oklahoma Technology Commercialization Center (OTCC)
R&D Intern Partnership Program
Oklahoma Seed Capital Fund (OSCF)
Small Business Research Assistance Program (SBIR/STTR)
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Oklahoma Alliance for Manufacturing Excellence, Inc.
www.okalliance.com
The Alliance is a not-for-profit organization providing a variety of support to Oklahoma industry. Through a network of Manufacturing Extension Agents and Applications Engineers, they provide hands-on resources for improving productivity, increasing sales, and reducing costs.
Mission: To provide strategic assistance to Oklahoma manufacturers to help them become successful innovators in the global marketplace.
The Oklahoma Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research
www.okepscor.org
Oklahoma EPSCoR’s central goal is to increase the state’s research competitiveness through strategic support of research instruments and facilities, research collaborations, and integrated education and research programs. They are funded through a three-year (FY2005-2008) $6M national Science Foundation Research Infra-Structure Improvement Grant matched by an additional $3M from the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education.
Mission: To contribute to sustainable research infrastructure with the purpose of preparing the state to compete nationally for large research center grants and form partnerships with business and industry.
Greater Oklahoma City Chamber
www.okcchamber.com
The Greater Oklahoma City Chamber works to create value-added membership opportunities and a business climate that attracts new businesses and enhances growth and expansion opportunities for existing business.
Mission: The Greater Oklahoma City Chamber is the voice of Business and the visionary organization in
Oklahoma City. Their goals are (1) To create a business climate that attracts new businesses and enhances growth and expansion opportunities for existing businesses, (2) To create a community with an irresistible quality of life and (3) To create value-added membership opportunities and benefits.
The Donald W. Reynolds Foundation
www.dwreynolds.org
The Foundation is a national philanthropic organization founded in 1954 by the late media entrepreneur | for whom it is named. Headquartered in Las Vegas, Nevada, it is one of the 50 largest private foundations in the United States.
Mission: The Foundation seeks to honor the memory of its benefactor by filling unmet needs and attempting
to gain an immediate, transformational impact of communities in Arkansas, Nevada and Oklahoma. In pursuing its goals, the Foundation is committed to the support of nonprofit organizations and institutions that demonstrate sound financial management, efficient operation, program integrity and an entrepreneurial spirit. In accordance with its articles of incorporation, the Foundation will cease to exist on or before June 30, 2044.
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The Greater Oklahoma City Chamber A Visionary Organization
AdvocAting And Working for You the greater oklahoma city chamber works tirelessly for the benefit of the entire community. The Chamber leads the way on groundbreaking measures like MAPs, the catalyst of the city’s renaissance, advocates for smart reforms to our legislative leaders, and markets Oklahoma City as a destination for tourism and economic development. Oklahoma City is a great place to live and the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber is a driving force behind Oklahoma City’s big-league ascension. ATTrACTinG invesTMenT TO Our COMMuniTy As the economic Development Organization for Oklahoma City, the Chamber has been actively working to secure new jobs since just one month after the Land run of 1889. With the significant investment and cooperation of the business community through our five-year Forward Oklahoma City campaign and the collaborative work of the Greater Oklahoma City Partnership, our 10-county economic development coalition, we are attracting new, high paying jobs to our region.
iMPrOvinG Our Business CLiMATe Making Oklahoma’s business climate attractive and competitive is vital to our economy. Advocating on behalf of businesses is our main goal. Maintaining our momentum, by improving our business climate and increasing the public and private investment in critical projects is vital to continuing our city’s great renaissance. We work to keep the business community and political leadership engaged in our community’s vision. KeePinG AnD ATTrACTinG TALenT Attracting and retaining college graduates to work in Oklahoma City is a key initiative of the Chamber’s Greater Grads program. By facilitating connections between students and employers, we can bridge the gap between Oklahoma City’s present and future workforce, keeping our best and brightest talent in Oklahoma City. MeMBers WOrKinG TOGeTher Join us! Become a part of Oklahoma’s largest business organization and put your support behind Oklahoma City’s legacy. Let’s keep working together to make Oklahoma City an even better place to live, work, play and visit.
123 Park Avenue • Oklahoma City, OK 73102 • P: 405.297.8900 • F: 405.297.8916 www.okcchamber.com • www.greateroklahomacity.com