FA L L 2 0 1 6
EVOLUTIONARY VISION
TAILWIND, WEGOLOOK EVOLVE INTO NEW MARKETS, NEW GROWTH
(NO) FEAR OF FAILURE
IT OFTEN LEADS TO GREATER SUCCESS
A NEW NAME FOR THE GOV CUP AND YOU’RE
GONNA LOVE IT!
EXPANDING INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITIES NEW OKLAHOMA ANGEL FUND CREATED TO SPREAD RISK, CREATE BIGGER RETURNS FOR INVESTORS
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OKLAHOMA GROW Comprised of over 150 Oklahoma corporations and business groups, the Oklahoma Business Roundtable serves as the state’s major economic development support organization. We are a collaborative non-profit group whose sole purpose is advancing Oklahoma’s economic development – through business start-up, expansion, recruitment and quality improvement programs.
During the past 25 years, the Roundtable has supported hundreds of state, national and international business promotion activities resulting in millions of dollars of new corporate investment throughout Oklahoma. Our members are committed to the growth and diversification of our state’s economy.
We invite you to join us in our efforts! Contact us today. CHAIRMAN Renee Porter, Chairman
Scissortail Community Development Corp. Oklahoma City
OklahOma Business ROundtaBle 655 ReseaRch PaRkway, suite 420 OklahOma city, OklahOma 73104 | 405-235-3787 www.okbusinessroundtable.com
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INSIDE i&E Profiles Hire360 6 Linear Health Services 8 Verinovum 10
10 8
16
i&E Updates Tailwind 12 Tailwind expands its virtual borders into Instagram social network WeGoLook 13 WeGoLook employs army of ‘Lookers’ to disrupt field inspection business
On the Cover: Signature Moment 16 Love’s Travel Stops sponsorship transforms Governor’s Cup into Love’s Entrepreneur’s Cup Home Run Derby 22 Angel investors can spread the risk and hit more ‘home runs’ in Oklahoma Angel Fund Failing to Win 24 Column series shows how entrepreneurs can learn from failure
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 405-235-2305. © Copyright 2016 i2E, Inc. All rights reserved.
i2E TEAM
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
The i2E management and staff is composed of professionals with extensive experience in technology commercialization, business development, venture investing, finance, organizational.
Howard G. Barnett, Jr., Chairman OSU-Tulsa, OSU-CHS
Scott Meacham President & CEO Rex Smitherman Senior Vice President, Operations Sarah Seagraves Senior Vice President, Marketing Mark Lauinger Senior Vice President, Client Services Tom Francis Director of Funds Administration Judy Beech Director of Finance Carol Curtis Venture Advisor
Richard Rainey Venture Advisor & Director, SBRA Program Kevin Moore Venture Advisor & Director of Angel Investments Claire Robison Venture Advisor
Stephen Prescott, Vice Chair OMRF Michael LaBrie, Secretary McAfee & Taft Leslie Batchelor Center for Economic Development Law Robert Brearton American Fidelity Assurance Company Jay Calhoun Cherokee National Businesses Michael Carolina OCAST Rita Combs REYAP Youth Programs Steve Cropper Carl Edwards Price Edwards Company Oklahoma Business Roundtable Presbyterian Health Foundation
Craig Shimasaki Moleculera Labs Brien Thorstenberg Tulsa Regional Chamber Roy Williams Greater Oklahoma City Chamber Richard Williamson T.D. Williamson Duane Wilson LDW Services, LLC
PA R T N E R S Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology (OCAST) U.S. Economic Development Administration Greater Oklahoma City Chamber Oklahoma Business Roundtable Presbyterian Health Foundation Oklahoma Manufacturing Alliance
Philip Eller Eller Detrich, P.C.
The Oklahoma Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR)
Danny Hilliard Chickasaw Nation
Oklahoma Department of Commerce
Joseph J. Ferretti James Lovely University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center Venture Advisor Stacey Brandhorst Brad Krieger Arvest Bank Venture Advisor & Director of Venture Assessment Philip Kurtz CareATC Scott Thomas IT Manager Hershel Lamirand III Capital Development Strategies Darcy Wilborn Client Engagement Director Merl Lindstrom Phillips 66 Cindy Williams Underwriting Coordinator & Investment Fred Morgan Compliance Officer The State Chamber Katelynn Henderson David Pitts Events Specialist Bank SNB Shaun Fair Mark Poole Underwriting Specialist First National Bank of Broken Arrow Zach Kinder Ryan Posey Multimedia Specialist HSI Sensing Jennifer Buettner Teresa Rose Crook Executive Assistant Oklahoma City Community Foundation Kate Nelson Meg Salyer Administrative Assistant Accel Financial Staffing Darryl Schmidt BancFirst
U.S. Department of Treasury State Small Business Credit Initiative
www.i2E.org
facebook.com/i2E
facebook.com/lovescup twitter.com/i2E_Inc
ABOUT i2E WE INVEST IN ENTREPRENEURS TO BUILD SUCCESSFUL HIGH GROWTH OKLAHOMA COMPANIES Over our 18-year history, i2E’s nationally recognized services have provided business expertise and funding to more than 650 of Oklahoma’s emerging small businesses. With more than $50 million of investment capital under management, we are focused on serving companies in all phases of the business life cycle, from startups looking for their first round of capital all the way to established businesses seeking funding to expand their markets or products. We also are helping lead new business developments into the marketplace more efficiently and more quickly while providing guidance to bring more funding to Oklahoma’s researchers and entrepreneurs. Through our proven business and venture development process, we turn ideas into successful enterprises ... i2E.
W H AT W E D O • Evaluate the market potential of new concepts • Assist with evaluation of business plans, marketing plans and raising capital • Provide guidance in building a management team, business structure and financial forecasting • Assist with developing an effective investor presentation • Assist in obtaining funding through federal grant programs • Work with research universities to encourage commercialization of research technologies • Provide grant capital assistance and equity investment
Welcome from Scott Meacham As the Donald W. Reynolds Governor’s Cup awards dinner concluded this past April, something remarkable happened. Governor’s Cup faded into history while a new name for the competition emerged: Love’s Entrepreneur’s Cup. Beginning on (page 16) , the cover story for this edition of i&E magazine tells the story of why Love’s embraced the entrepreneurial competition and stepped up to become Signature Sponsor and we get to meet the winners of the 2016 competition. This edition of i&E magazine also highlights three exciting startups that are advancing innovative concepts, as well as updates on two emerging Oklahoma success stories. Tulsa’s Verinovum (page 10) and Hire360 (page 6), along with Norman’s Linear Health Sciences (page 8) are all advancing technologies that promise to solve big challenges for companies that operate in the health care and employee recruitment industries. We also feature two companies in Oklahoma City, (Tailwind 12) and WeGoLook (page 13), that are further along the success pipeline. Our updates provide a snapshot of just how far they’ve come in a few short years. Elsewhere in this edition, you don’t want to miss the story on Oklahoma’s newest source of investment capital, the Oklahoma Angel Fund (page 14). i2E’s investment team created this new fund as a way for investors to expand the scope of their investment dollars and increase their odds of success. Finally, we’ve written about what every successful entrepreneur eventually learns to overcome: failure (page 15). Taken from a series of columns we produce for Oklahoma newspapers, the story outlines the oftenoverlooked lessons that entrepreneurs – and investors – can take from failure. I invite you to read this edition of i&E magazine from cover to cover. I’m confident you will gain insight into some of the exciting developments in Oklahoma’s startup community. – Scott Meacham President & CEO
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Profiles Hire360
THE SMART Hire360 puts artificial intelligence to work in assessing and ranking job candidates
As veterans of the corporate recruiting industry, Hire360 co-founders Ntuna Ekuri and Alex Golimbievsky saw opportunity in the mountain of resumes that managers must sort through in search of the perfect job candidate. So, they founded a company and created a high-tech solution to solve the recruiting headaches experienced by the companies. “Even companies with dedicated recruiters are affected. Most corporate recruiters don’t have the time to adequately review each resume because they work on 25 to 30 open positions at once” said Ekuri, Hire360’s chief operating officer. “The average recruiter spends 6 to 7 seconds per resume.” Hire360 began life in 2015 with a different name and different focus on serving job seekers and companies with positions to fill. Ekuri and Golimbievsky enrolled the company, then called Job Pact, LLC,
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in i2E’s Venture Assessment Program (VAP), and everything changed. The VAP challenges entrepreneurs to test their assumptions about their business by reaching out to potential customers. “We started off more as an eHarmony-type product in the VAP with the ability to match the job to job seeker based on interest, skills and all of that,” Ekuri said. “After we got feedback, people were saying ‘hey, this is great, but we would like to see more people, more candidates. It would be awesome if you were connected to all these sources online.’ That caused us to pivot and change to more of a full hiring solution.” So, they refocused the business by automatically delivering candidates to companies that need them and changed the company’s name to Hire360. Hire360 lifts the burden of analyzing stacks of resumes off the shoulders of managers. Using built-in artificial intelligence, the technology scores each candidate from among millions of resumes and ranks them according to the
skills that a company is seeking. “Literally, our product is thinking,” Ekuri said as he demonstrated the screening software during a recent meeting in an i2E conference room. Ekuri pasted a job description into the Hire360 software. In just a few seconds after he clicked on the button, the software went to work analyzing resumes. A list of dozens of top candidates appeared on the screen with a score according to how each matched his needs. “It’s just like a human,” Ekuri said. “We are actually scoring these for you. This person has 77 percent of what you told us you wanted. Our product also knows the meaning and the difference between words that are used.” The Hire360 software was developed in-house by Sergei Golimbievsky, Chief Information Officer and brother of CEO Alex Golimbievsky. Hire360 has its roots in the mid2000 staffing industry when Ekuri and Alex Golimbievsky worked together
“After we got feedback, people were saying ‘hey, this is great, but
Alex Golimbievsky, CEO
we would like to see more people, more candidates. It would be
Location Tulsa, OK
awesome if you were connected to all these sources online.
Employees 8 Year Founded 2015
That caused us to pivot and change to more of a sourcing tool.”
Product or Technology
for a corporate headhunter agency. Just out of college, their responsibility was to reach out to promising candidates, and turn their resumes over to managers who would pitch them to corporate clients. It was a lucrative business for the staffing agency because their corporate clients did not have the time to vet candidates themselves. Ekuri and Golimbievsky saw an inefficient market and decided there had to be a better way. So, they created it. Today, Hire360 has partnerships with some of the nation’s largest online resume sites, including Indeed.com and Beyond. com, Resume-Library.com, ZillionResumes.com. The deals give Hire360 clients access to more than 100 million resumes. “Landing the partnerships with Indeed and Beyond was a huge milestone for us to let us know that it’s possible,” Ekuri said. With virtually no marketing beyond word-of-mouth, Hire360 claims 30
mostly Oklahoma clients who pay a monthly subscription fee to use its hiring platform. Hire360 was supported by friends and family backers at its launch, and recently received a funding award through i2E. “i2E has been awesome,” Ekuri said. “We just received a $50,000 OCAST Technology Business Finance Program funding. We’re very excited about that.” Next on the horizon for Hire360 is fully automated messaging that takes the artificial intelligence of the system to a new level. Not only will the Hire360 software score each resume, but for those that achieve a certain level it will automatically reach out to them and invite them to opt in to consideration as a job candidate. “You might be a manager or a small business owner, put in your job description push one button,” Ekuri said. “Like a TV dinner.”
A hiring technology that helps businesses source the best job candidates from anywhere online. Markets Targeted Any large or small company challenged with sorting through hundreds or thousands of resumes in search of the perfect job candidate. Future Plans Automated messaging in which the Hire360 technology can communicate with candidates who are scored at a certain level by the software. Funding Started with friends and family support; recently received $50,000 OCAST TBFP matching award. Major Milestones Hire360 recently signed two large resume sharing sites, Indeed.com and Beyond.com that adds millions of job candidates to its sourcing and screening service. hire360.io
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Profiles Linear Health Sciences
T H E B R E A K- AWAY I V L I N E
OKC startup pioneers technology that prevents accidental disconnects for hospital patients
L
et’s say that you roll into the local gas station, insert the nozzle of the gas pump into your vehicle and begin filling the fuel tank. Just as the tank is topped off and you are about to take the nozzle out of the car, your phone rings with an important call. Distracted, you take the call, wander back to the driver’s seat, start your car up and drive off with the nozzle still inserted. Embarrassing, sure. But it’s not a total disaster because fuel pumps at the nation’s gas stations are equipped with breakaway valves that seal off on both ends. That ensures that a huge fuel spill doesn’t happen and guards against a possible fire. A similar scenario occurs every day in hospital rooms across the nation, says
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Ryan Dennis, M.D. Dr. Dennis works at an Oklahoma City hospital as a hospitalist, or a physician who specializes in caring for patients ill enough to be admitted. Dr. Dennis is founder and CEO of a company called Linear Health Sciences that has created patented break-away technology called the Orchid Valve to prevent accidental disconnections of IV tubing from patients in the hospital. The concept was conceived after Dr. Dennis saw repeated disconnections among his hospital patients. Statistics show that one in four IV lines is accidentally disconnected from patients, he said. It can be painful, messy, time consuming to replace. And costly. “We are trying to completely transform the way that patients are connected to their treatments,” Dr. Dennis said. “It’s costing the hospital about $50 every time one of these IVs is pulled out.” The company developed an initial prototype and recently closed a $1.25 million investment round led by i2E that Dr. Dennis anticipates will support
development of the Orchid Valve through the FDA approval process. “We are projecting FDA approval in about 12 to 16 months,” he said. Linear Health Sciences’ groundbreaking medical technology could have a major impact on an industry that inserts more than 1 billion IV connections annually. “If we can provide a $2 solution, and patients are pulling out 25 percent of their IVs, hospitals will be making a significant dent in the problem and actually saving money while they are adding patient savings, satisfaction and convenience for the nurses,” Dr. Dennis said. “The value proposition makes a lot of sense to purchasing directors.” A native of Macomb, OK, and graduate of the Oklahoma School of Science and Mathematics, Dr. Dennis earned his undergraduate degree at the University of Chicago before returning to his native Oklahoma to earn his M.D. at the OU. Dr. Dennis is currently an MBA candidate at the University of Oklahoma.
“We actually ended up making some key Ryan Dennis, M.D., CEO
pivots, like owning the manufacturing and
Location Norman, OK
getting away from a licensing-based model.
Employees 3 Year Founded 2013
That was huge.”
Product or Technology The company has developed a nonmetallic break-away connection for
The Linear Health Sciences team includes Adam Waters, Linear’s Chief Technology Officer, a Chicago based engineer by trade tasked with designing, developing, and scaling the spring-less, non-metallic break away device. Dan Clark, Linear’s Chief Marketing Officer, comes to the team having helped bring medical devices to market for major medtech manufacturers over the past 7 years in several product spaces including infusion disposables. Linear Health Sciences became an i2E client after a patent attorney at Oklahoma City’s Crowe & Dunlevy made an introduction for Dr. Dennis. The company enrolled in i2E’s Venture Assessment Program, which helped chart a direction for the startup. “It bought up several key points which really made us look back on things we thought were decided and set in stone,” Dr. Dennis said. “We actually ended up making some key pivots, like owning the manufacturing and getting away from a licensing-based model. That was huge.” In addition to receiving enthusiastic reception from potential health care industry customers, Linear Health Services was named one of 20 semifinalists out of 430 candidates worldwide for the 2016 Medtech Innovator competition. After working with Medtech Innovator’s virtual accelerator, the company will be featured at the nation’s
largest medical technology conference in Minneapolis this October. The top five Medtech semifinalists will be selected to present at the conference’s plenary session. Although the Orchid Valve is still in the prototype stage, medical technology industry leaders are already pursuing the Norman-based company with acquisition overtures. However, Dr. Dennis plans to build out the infusion disposables product line and follow it up with other innovations. “Our intellectual property spans across all medical tubing,” Dr. Dennis said. “I think we will probably get the nicest premium on an acquisition when we have proven out urinary catheters, chest tubes and portable insulin pumps. When we’ve proven that no patient should be connected to a catheter that’s not connected by a break-away valve, that’s when we are going to get the value that I think we deserve.”
peripheral IVs that connect hospital patients to their treatments. Markets Targeted Acute care hospitals that place more than 1 billion IV lines into patients annually. Future Plans In addition to peripheral IV lines, the company plans to apply its breakaway connection technology to urinary catheters, chest tubes and portable insulin pumps. Funding Linear Health Sciences recently closed on a $1.25 million seed round led by i2E through the Oklahoma Seed Capital Fund. Major Milestones The company has developed a functional prototype, closed on a seed round investment and has been named a semifinalist in the 2016 Medtech Innovator competition. linearhealthsciences.com
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Profiles Verinovum
I
f you are traveling far from home, there is one essential item that needs to travel with you, says Ryan Campbell, cofounder and CEO of Tulsa’s Verinovum, LLC. Your medical records. “If I have the unfortunate experience of ending up in an emergency room hundreds of miles from home, I would like to know the medical professionals caring for me have timely access to my medical history, as it could save my life,” Campbell said. Verinovum was founded in 2013 just for that purpose. Its innovative technology ensures that vital information from electronic health records (EHR) can be shared among health care providers. The Verinovum technology has the capability to take information stored in stand-alone EHR software and standardize it so it can be read and shared across multiple platforms. “As a patient, I would like to have a single place to view and manage all of my personal health information,” Campbell said. “If I move across the country, I would like my medical history to travel with me like my cell phone number does, but still remain in my control.” Verinovum was created to standardize health information so it can be shared among providers through Health Information Exchanges (HIE), enabling an easier way for information to flow from provider to provider. “The health care industry produces and transports an incredible amount of information,” Campbell said. “However, there is significant duplication of information and the information is scattered, hidden and locked up through numerous electronic health records systems throughout the industry.” The problem is that many developers of electronic health records build their technology to a minimal compliance to industry standards at best. That means that EHRs reside in diverse “silos” that
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YOUR HEALTH INFORMATION – DON’T LEAVE HOME WITHOUT IT.
“The i2E relationship has really forced us to step back and think more strategically. The i2E team believes in what we do and they have worked hard on our behalf.”
weren’t built to share information across health care providers or payers. “The industry has been clamoring about inter-operability for several years,” Campbell said. “We actually produce intelligent inter-operability, something that I believe is unique to Verinovum.” Campbell is a veteran software developer who built successful software platforms for the financial services industry. After working for an Oklahoma HIE called MyHealth Access Network, Campbell saw the obvious need for standardized information that could be securely shared with health care providers and payers, yet be controlled by the patient. So, he began discussing the possibilities with several colleagues. Chris McLean is a technology expert who worked with Campbell for more than two decades. Matt Clark brought experience in managing health care research and intervention programs. And Mike Noshay was director of business development and innovation for MyHealth Access Network. That quartet co-founded Vernovum and put together a team of software developers who built a suite of products that serve clients in the health care industry. The company offers software for health information exchanges, for population health management, and for public health reporting. Verinovum’s launched its business with an initial focus on serving health information exchanges. MyHealth Access Network was among its first clients. Verinovum also recently signed an agreement to provide its technology to Ohio-based Health Collaborative Partners. “We do have a number of paying customers at present, a number in contracting now and pipeline activity increasing each day,” Campbell said. “We continue to build out additional products based on customer requirement as well as enhancing the products already in a production environment.”
The company also plans to broaden its focus to include integrate delivery networks, which are systems of providers that provide both health care services and a health insurance plan to patients in a particular geographic area. Vernovium connected with i2E’s business advisory team in Tulsa and is positioning itself for an i2E-led seed round to facilitate its growth. “The i2E relationship has really forced us to step back and think more strategically,” Campbell said. “The i2E team believes in what we do and they have worked hard on our behalf.” As the nation’s health care industry of providers and payers continues to evolve, one constant that remains is the need to reduce costs while improving individual health. “Health information exchanges are the organizations positioned to advocate for and support patients, and Verinovum is providing technology to support the HIE mission,” Campbell said. “We believe we are poised to be the backbone to the new age of health care.”
Ryan Campbell, CEO Location Tulsa, OK Employees 19 full time and 2 contractors Year Founded 2013 Product or Technology Verinovum’s technology enables the standardization and normalization of health care data between systems, improving quality and eliminating duplication and transportation constraints. Markets Targeted The company’s primary market are regional health information exchange organizations across the country. Future Plans New markets are expected to come online soon in California, New York, Texas, Michigan and Montana, along with an enhanced notification and alerting platform. Funding
Tools for HIEs & Communities
Verinovum has been bootstrapped since its founding, although it is working toward a seed funding round led by i2E.
Tools for Population Health Management
Major Milestones The company already has a number of products in its software suite along with paying customers, with a growing pipeline
Tools for Public Health
of prospective clients. verinovum.com
Tools for Value Based Payment
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UPDATES THEORY OF EVOLUTION Tailwind’s evolving mission carries Oklahoma City-based business across virtual boundaries of online social media platforms
The evolution of Oklahoma City’s Tailwind has led the business to continue expanding its virtual borders. Once a Pinterest analytics platform, Tailwind has since grown into an endto-end visual marketing suite, helping marketers improve their results on visual social networks, including Pinterest and Instagram. “We launched our expansion into Instagram about a year ago,” said Tailwind co-founder and CEO Danny Maloney. “That’s going really well. Already nearly 10,000 or so of our member brands have started using Instagram-related features in Tailwind. But we’re about to take some big steps forward to drive that adoption even further.” Instagram is among the world’s largest social media platforms with more than 400 million active users, according to Google’s Social Media Ranking of 2016. The online photo and video sharing technology helps its users easily share moments in their lives with friends and family. Tailwind – tailwindapp.com – was founded by Maloney and New York-based business partner Alex Topiler after the pair began using Pinterest to market a prior business venture, BridesView.com. Pinterest is a photo-sharing site with 100 million active users, as well as thousands of brands and agencies who “pin” photos that represent their brand, product offering or personal tastes. Topiler developed tools that identified what styles and products most interested brides-to-be who were using Pinterest to plan their weddings. Using these insights to plan their content strategy, BridesView began to experience rapid user growth. The pair realized a huge opportunity was emerging when friends began asking them to generate similar insights for their businesses, across a wide array of geographies and industry segments.
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They decided to pivot into what became Tailwind, realizing that the opportunity to help millions of businesses worldwide connect with their target audience on visual social networks was far greater – and more interesting to them – than BridesView. Today, there are almost 100,000 “members” of the Tailwind family (as they call their users) across more than 5,600 cities worldwide. “On Pinterest, people are looking for inspiration for things they want to do in their life,” he said. “It could be recipes they want to make, places they want to visit. On Instagram, they are looking for an emotional connection – ‘I’m inspired by the images shared by friends, family and brands that I love.’ ” Tailwind was founded in New York City, but Maloney soon thereafter moved to Oklahoma for personal reasons. His wife, Megan McGinnis, was raised in Oklahoma City and today runs a fast-growing regional property management firm, Eucalyptus Real Estate, which she founded. Tailwind is now headquartered in Oklahoma City, but has its second core office in New York. The company established a relationship with i2E early in its existence, receiving more than $1 million in Seed investment through i2E, the i2E-managed SeedStep Angels group and other private investors “i2E has done a really awesome job of helping early stage companies get the money they need,” he said. “The question now is what happens when local startups reach to 10, 20, 50 employees with a lot of growth potential, but need a next investment of $5 million, $10 million or $20 million to catapult them to the next phase of growth? If we solve that problem, our local tech community will balloon in size and impact.”
The company’s employs 25 people, most of them in a location along Lincoln Blvd. north of the state Capitol. In addition to analytics, Tailwind now offers features such as helping marketers manage their editorial calendars, recommending optimal publishing schedules based on when engagement is greatest, and tools to help clients find visual content for their campaigns. “We grew from an analytics dashboard to a full visual marketing suite, but data is still at the core” he said. “Everything we build is grounded in data and best practices, observed across our many thousands of members.” Tailwind’s success on Pinterest led it to be one of the first companies recognized as an official Marketing Developer Partner by the platform. Pinterest works with Marketing Developer Partners to build tools that help businesses use the platform more effectively. Tailwind’s innovation in Instagram marketing has led to the company becoming an official Instagram Developer Partner, badged for Community Management. “The most significant thing that has evolved for us over the last year is our understanding of our own mission,” Maloney said. “Our mission now is to make world class marketing easy for everyone, and that challenge is big enough to guide our growth for years to come.” The evolution continues.
CROWD-SOURCED REVOLUTION WeGoLook’s army of ‘Lookers’ disrupting the world of field inspections, verifications Millions of consumers worldwide no longer hail a cab when they need a ride. They summon a crowd-sourced Uber vehicle. Maybe they are taking it to spend the night not at a hotel, but at their Airbnb crowd-sourced room. Welcome to the new world order in which whole industries have been disrupted by innovative, sharing economy technologies. Oklahoma City-based WeGoLook has also created a disruptive business model that is shaking up entire industries through its crowd-sourced, on-demand field inspection service. “We are disrupting the way traditional companies do business,” said Robin Smith, WeGoLook’s co-founder and CEO. WeGoLook was founded in 2009 by Smith, her husband, Mat, and attorney Mark Caywood after experiencing hesitation of purchasing a high end movie projector on eBay. Caywood thought the seller was misrepresenting the item and was not confident in bidding on an item sight unseen. Robin began building a platform, website and crowd-sourced community which could be dispatched “on-demand” by consumers wishing to have an item verified prior to purchasing. By 2012, WeGoLook employed four fulltime employees and 7,400 field inspectors it calls “Lookers.” Today, the workforce of 103 people at WeGoLook’s OKC headquarters near downtown supports a community of more than 26,000 Lookers nationwide. The company also has Lookers in U.K., Australia and Canada. WeGoLook has built its business model around an army of contract workers who accept and complete assignments through a mobile app. The Looker community is composed of mobile notaries, process servers, school teachers, retired veterans, pastors, mechanics and other persons seizing opportunities within the gig economy.
Among their many capabilities, Lookers perform property inspections for banks, scene inspections for insurance companies and property verification for online buyers such as car purchases through eBay Motors. They take photos, videos, provide measurements and file condition reports through the mobile app on their smart phone. “People are using our Looker community to augment, supplement and sometimes replace their own labor force,” Robin Smith said. “For example, insurance clients are able to replace their field assignment personnel by using an on-demand Looker to go out and capture photos, scene inspections, pick up documents, low-complex tasks, at a much lower cost and very quickly.” All Lookers must pass a background check, dress and appear professional, work with onsite contacts in a friendly manner and have the ability to perform their “Looks” via a smart phone. The company also is reaching out to veteran’s groups such as Soldier for Life, offering income opportunity to former and current military personnel. About 2,000 Lookers are recognized as “Pro Team” Lookers who offer specialized experience or skills. This upper echelon of community members may feature certifications in heavy equipment classification, notaries, bilingual talent, licensed drone operators and more. “We had a Pro Team Looker from Houston stop by our offices today,” Robin said. “She wanted to come see us. She was visiting family here and was very well dressed, very professional. She said she loves it because she can pick up jobs when she wants to and when they fit within her schedule.” WeGoLook has signed field inspection deals with some of the nation’s largest financial services companies, insurers and auto auction houses as clients such as Hyundai Motors, JP Morgan Chase, Ritchie Bros., eBay Motors, SwapaLease and more.
Robin Smith anticipates growing to as many as 145 employees by year’s end. WeGoLook’s emergence has generated plenty of attention along the way. It was recognized by Forbes magazine as one of “15 Technologies Bringing Innovation To The Enterprise,” and by Inc. magazine as one of 18 tech companies to get excited about this year. WeGoLook was also honored last year as the Journal Record’s 2015 Oklahoma Innovator of the Year. The WeGoLook founders established a relationship with i2E early in the company’s history, and benefited both by its commercialization services and by i2Eled investment rounds that have totaled almost $3 million. “Scott Meacham has been a tremendous help to us,” Mat Smith said of the i2E CEO. “I’m not sure we could have done this without him.” Built to have a disruptive impact, WeGoLook is living up to that mission by impacting whole industries through its mobile crowd-sourcing technology. “We are a mobile technology company, featuring this crowd-sourced platform, that is truly are enabling some of these large companies to offer services to their customers they really couldn’t without our national footprint,” Robin Smith said. ““It’s exciting that we are part of that process.” Call it a crowd-sourced business revolution.
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SPREADING THE RISK New Oklahoma Angel Fund spreads risk, increases potential of hitting big returns on investment There is a popular analogy to angel investing that equates it to the sport of baseball and the art of hitting a “home run” with an investment. The idea is to take your swings at a lot of investment opportunities instead of putting all your capital into one or two startups, says Kevin Moore, manager of the SeedStep Angels and a venture advisor for i2E. “Statistically, the evidence shows that if you invest in 10 companies you’ll get four that will give you your money back, four most likely will fail and two will be home runs,” Moore said. i2E has expanded the opportunity for Oklahoma angel investors to increase the likelihood of hitting an investment home run with the launch of the Oklahoma Angel Fund. This fund pools the collective capital of individual angels, Oklahoma foundations and investment organizations into a $3 million fund that will seek investments in 10 to 12 promising startups. That spreads the investment risk across many opportunities instead of a few. “We will never invest more than $250,000 in a company, but we can invest less than that,” Moore said. “That’s the goal, to diversify as much as possible.” For Oklahoma startups, the Oklahoma Angel Fund adds another source of potential investment for entrepreneurs who often site the lack of capital as the top challenge to growing a company in Oklahoma. The idea to establish a new fund began with conversations among i2E’s investment team on how to help members of the i2E-managed SeedStep Angels group and other Oklahoma investors diversify their investment capital across multiple companies. Moore was tasked with researching the investment landscape around the country to explore how funds and investments are structured. He talked with 25 different fund managers, read their documentation 14
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INVESTORS
COMPLETED INVESTMENTS
AVERAGE FUND COMMITMENT MAXIMUM INVESTMENT PER COMPANY
MAXIMUM FUND SIZE
$ 1 12000 $250000
FUND FOCUS HIGH GROWTH OKLAHOMA SEED TO GROWTH STAGE COMPANIES WHO IS INVOLVED FOUNDATIONS, FAMILY OFFICES, PRIVATE INVESTORS
and attended workshops on the topic. After gauging interest among potential Oklahoma investors, i2E begain putting together its first angel fund. The fund met its initial fundraising goal by the end of June. Moore believes there are plenty of opportunities out there for the Oklahoma Angel Fund to hit a home run. “Deal flow is improving in Oklahoma,” he said. “We are developing a lot of deals in Oklahoma City and Tulsa and across the state in general. Additionally, over the last several years we have built relationships with several regional angel groups.” While the 54-member SeedStep Angels group continues to offer investment opportunities to individual investors, Moore envisions some SeedStep Angels members investing both individually and through the Oklahoma Angel Fund. For institutional investors and Oklahoma foundations, the new angel fund has created a way to keep more of their investment dollars at home. “Many of them have said to us, we are a local foundation; however all our money is invested on the East or West coasts,”
Moore said. “This is a great opportunity for us to bring some of those dollars back to Oklahoma.” Oklahoma Baptist Foundation is a major investor in the initial Oklahoma Angel Fund. The Foundation, established in 1946 by The Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma to encourage Christian Stewardship and strengthen Southern Baptist ministries, has approximately $366 million of assets under management, said David Depuy, chief investment officer. “There’s no doubt that investing in Oklahoma is a priority for us,” Depuy said. “A strong Oklahoma economy with growing businesses and new, innovative startup companies is valuable for all of our constituents, including both donors and charitable organizations.” Bottom line, the Oklahoma Angel Fund increases the pool of investment dollars available for Oklahoma startups while spreading out the risk and increasing the potential for investors to hit the home run deal. “You need a lot of at-bats to increase your chances to hit the ball,” Moore said.
.ERULIAF
THE SECRET LEARNING TOOL FOR ENTREPRENEURS “Failure is so important. We speak about success all the time. It is the ability to resist failure or use failure that often leads to greater success. I’ve met people who don’t want to try for fear of failing.”
– J.K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter series of books Whoever said “failure is not an option” did not live in the startup community. Failure happens all the time to entrepreneurs. However, often it is only the successes that attract attention and are celebrated. i2E CEO Scott Meacham recently contemplated the subject of failure and what entrepreneurs can learn from it in a series of columns published in Oklahoma newspapers. “We write a lot about what people should do, and it occurred to me that you learn as much if not more through failure,” Meacham said. “I thought it might be valuable to communicate to entrepreneurs not just what they should be doing, but what they shouldn’t be doing and what they ought to be guarding against.” Below are key takeaways from Meacham’s five-part series on what we can learn from failure: The inventor or developer turned entrepreneur who falls in love with their product and won’t let go. The inventor may be a brilliant engineer or scientist, but often they don’t understand marketing, markets or strategy related to taking new products to market. They don’t know how difficult it is to figure out a go-to-market strategy and execute on that strategy. As we sometimes say, “they don’t know what they don’t know.” Startups sometimes falter and fail because those technical founders insist on continuing as the CEO and strategic lead for the Company instead of stepping back and bringing in an experienced chief executive with complimentary skills who can carry the venture forward.
Entrepreneurs who believe they are a proxy for their customers and, as a result, are on a bridge to nowhere. Entrepreneurs under-estimate and undervalue the importance and the benefits of gathering direct feedback from real customers on their problems and on their willingness to pay for alternative solutions. Once an entrepreneur grasps that future success of their venture depends on independent customer validation of whether the new business solves a big enough problem for the customer that they will pay for the entrepreneur’s product to solve it, then we can work with the entrepreneur to convert No. 2 on the checklist for failure into No. 1 in a game plan for success. Not Having enough Capital With only about 2 percent of all VC funds going to seed stage deals in the first place, and most of that in Silicon Valley and to a handful of other areas across the country, there is simply not enough seed capital in play. That’s a challenge, but not the whole picture. The other side to lack of capital is when companies fail because a founder is not willing to accept capital at the cost of dilution. Founders need capital to scale quickly in competitive markets. When investors are interested enough in a startup to put in that much needed, high risk capital, they deserve a larger share of equity to compensate them for the risk they are assuming.
Choosing the wrong path to market in commercialization There are various paths to markets. Many innovators don’t recognize that they are developing a product for some other company to buy rather than a product that a startup is going to move into the market. Some people think that they can build a company around one product that’s going to compete with Cisco, Microsoft and P&G, when their goal should be to sell to another company that already has the infrastructure to compete. Thinking You Have All the Answers Entrepreneurs who think they have everything figured out are riskier than any new technology. Entrepreneurs who are not coachable turn investors away from a deal faster than anything, no matter how great the technology or market opportunity. Investors seek coachable entrepreneurs, individuals who will listen to multiple inputs, thoughtfully weigh options, and then decide. Investors choose the jockey over the horse every time.
“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” – Thomas A. Edison Fall 2016
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Love’s Travel Stops steps up as Signature Sponsor of Business Plan competition
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veryone loves a surprise ending, which is exactly what the audience of almost 500 witnessed at the conclusion of the 2016 Donald W. Reynolds Governor’s Cup awards dinner in April. On a giant screen at the front of the Chevy Bricktown Events Center, the closing video showed the Governor’s Cup fading into history and a familiar bright yellow logo emerging. Beginning in 2017, the business plan and pitch competition will be sponsored by Love’s Travel Stops and its name will change to the Love’s Entrepreneur’s Cup. The audience cheered and applauded as i2E CEO Scott Meacham made the announcement that Love’s Travel Stops, perhaps the state’s ultimate entrepreneurial success story, had become Signature Sponsor of the annual event involving college students from across the state. The Donald W. Reynolds Foundation had sponsored the event for the past 12 years, underwriting the cash prizes annually awarded to winning teams of college students. The Foundation is set to dissolve at the end of this year and no
longer will be awarding grants. “My concern when I learned the Reynolds Foundation was liquidating was how could we keep this great resource for our state and its college students,” Meacham said. “The competition and the resulting experience our college students gain is too important and too valuable to lose.” Over its 12 year history, more than 1,700 students from campuses across Oklahoma have participated in the Governor’s Cup, earning more than $1.5 million in cash prizes and scholarships. And more than 200 students competed in the 2016 event, competing for $80,000 in prizes and scholarships. “That is why I am pleased and honored to share with you how fortunate we are to have found the perfect partner in Love’s Travel Stops to continue and build upon what we have been able to accomplish over the past 12 years,” Meacham said. Founded by Tom and Judy Love, Love’s Travel Stops operates fuel stations and convenience stores at more than 390 locations nationwide. It employs 15,000 people in 40 states and has annual revenue of $15 billion. Fall 2016 i&E
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The relationship between the competition and Love’s began in 2015 with a conversation between Meacham and Tom Love in which Meacham shared the purpose of the competition and its success in sparking entrepreneurship on college campuses across Oklahoma. “The promotion and development of the entrepreneurial spirit is a passion of Tom Love, and the Governor’s Cup seemed to be a great match,” said Tom Kirby, manager of Career Development for Love’s Travel Stops. “The competition is designed to encourage students to act upon their ideas and develop the skills to lead future new business opportunities.” Love’s executives witnessed key points in the 2016 competition, taking in both the enthusiasm of the students and the professional manner in which they presented their business opportunities.
“These students were prepared and buttoned up, and extraordinarily professional and creative,” said Ryan Welton, Love’s external communications manager. “Watching team presentations makes me excited for the future, just knowing how smart these students are.” Added Kealey Dorian, supervisor of media for Love’s: “Most of the teams I saw were very professional and polished, and I don’t mean professional and polished for their young age. Some of the students I saw could successfully present ideas in the professional setting today.” The final Reynolds Foundationsponsored competition revealed how deep the interest in entrepreneurship is embedded on college campuses across Oklahoma. Business plans were received from more than 13 state colleges and universities. In the end, teams from Oklahoma State University, the University of Oklahoma and East Central University claimed first place finishes in the High Growth Graduate, High Growth Undergraduate and Small Business divisions.
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The Awards Dinner was a transformational night for the business plan competition. One era passed and a new era dawned with Love’s as the Signature Sponsor. “With Love’s strong history of entrepreneurship beginning with a single startup location in Western Oklahoma and growing into a national market leader, theirs is a story that would inspire any entrepreneur,” Meacham said. “Thank you, Love’s, for accepting the role of Signature Sponsor; we look forward to the competition next year.” Now, all eyes turn toward the inaugural Love’s Entrepreneur’s Cup in 2017.
2016 AWARD WINNERS SMALL BUSINESS DIVISION First place – Air-EZ, East Central University Second place – Back Seat Hero, East Central University Third place – Pure Golf, St. Gregory’s University HIGH GROWTH UNDERGRADUATE DIVISION First place – Project Pediatrics, University of Oklahoma Second place – Heart Optic, LLC, University of Central Oklahoma Third place – KegSafe, Oral Roberts University HIGH GROWTH GRADUATE DIVISION First Place – MITO Material Solutions, Oklahoma State University Second Place – Nutripeutrics, University of Oklahoma Third Place – WoodPro, Oklahoma State University ROBERT E. CRAINE OUTSTANDING VENTURE AWARD Nutripeutrics, University of Oklahoma OKLAHOMA BUSINESS ROUNDTABLE PAULSEN AWARD SCHOLARSHIP WINNERS Small Business Division – Larisa Bolin, East Central University High Growth Undergraduate Division – Roberto Gallegos Castillo, Oral Roberts University High Growth Graduate Division – Amanda Curtis, University of Oklahoma IBM PITCH WINNERS Small Business Division – Austin McRay, Oklahoma Christian University High Growth Undergraduate Division – Morgan Timmons, University of Central Oklahoma High Growth Graduate Division – Anthony Purinton, University of Central Oklahoma INTERVIEW WINNERS AT&T INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY/ COMMUNICATIONS AWARD KegSafe, Oral Roberts University GREATER OKLAHOMA CITY CHAMBER HEALTHCARE AWARD Heart Optic, LLC, University of Central Oklahoma I2E STUDENT GENERATED AWARD ARdecor, University of Oklahoma OG&E POSITIVE ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL AWARD Cubby Connect, University of Oklahoma OKLAHOMA BUSINESS ROUNDTABLE MANUFACTURING, MATERIAL SCIENCE AND TRANSPORTATION AWARD MITO Material Solutions, Oklahoma State University Fall 2016
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Q&A As preparations begin for the Love’s Entrepreneur’s Cup in 2017, several Love’s Travel Stops executives shared their thoughts on the business plan competition and what led Love’s to become its Signature Sponsor.
How would you describe the students’ Governor’s Cup experience from what you saw in this year’s competition? RYAN WELTON, External Communications Manager: It was clear that the students recognized the competition as being an opportunity that was bigger than winning a contest. It’s an opportunity to create something from nothing, something perhaps that impacts the world in a positive way – and that the students recognized that the competition was both fun and potentially quite important, not only for their careers but also for society, depending on the product or service created. KEALEY DORIAN, Supervisor of Media: I imagine this process was as realistic as it could get for the students. Some students may not intend for their concepts to come to fruition, but the nature of the competition requires them to have reallife research. I was amazed by how seriously the students took the competition and by how prepared they were. LADONNA HORTON, Supervisor of Community Relations: I think it started out as a competition and became so much more to these students. They saw it as an opportunity to come up with an idea or product that could make a positive impact on society and when it was all said and done, no matter where they placed in the competition, they realized how empowering the process was.
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After seeing several team presentations during the competition; what impressed you about the process of pitching a concept to a team of judges?
What is your impression of i2E and the work it does to promote entrepreneurship and provide investment to Oklahoma startups?
KEALEY DORIAN: I was worried that the judges would be too critical, but they were quite the opposite. They were encouraging and offered constructive criticism, which encouraged the teams and challenged them to be even better. This was overall a great process to witness.
TOM KIRBY: i2E is a group of experienced business people who offer a great service by providing an outlet for entrepreneurs and new business opportunities to meet venture capital investors. It is a starting point for many new businesses and ideas to come and receive guidance and advice on how to create a business plan and take it to the market.
LADONNA HORTON: It would be too hard to choose just one thing. I was impressed with the quality of ideas, strength of the teams and delivery and thoroughness of their presentations. There was no doubt that these teams were 100 percent committed to the project and believed wholeheartedly in their concept. They had to come up with an idea they could sell, create a business plan that would convince the judges their idea/product was worth the investment and create a prototype – all in a matter of a few months! I enjoyed every minute of it and look forward to attending more presentations next year. How could you describe the state of entrepreneurship in Oklahoma, and what impact could this competition have on it? TOM KIRBY, MANAGER OF CAREER DEVELOPMENT: Oklahoma was founded on entrepreneurship from the land rush to the oil fields, and it continues to offer opportunities today. The venture capital community or “Investor Angels” are here and looking aggressively for the next great idea, and the Governor’s Cup competition offers a perfect vetting process for those new business ideas.
When Tom Love was founding his company back in 1964, how could it have benefited from programs like i2E and even the Governor’s Cup if they were around in those days? TOM KIRBY: I believe Tom Love would tell you that he built the business the hard way and made a lot of errors, but having a resource available may have minimized some of the mistakes. In those days, business success was based on who you knew and how to get things done -- and having the benefit of an entity like i2E may have made it easier in some ways.
technology. smarter.
Every day, millions of people do some amazing things with AT&T mobile technology. Like you, we want that technology to be used safely. Initiatives like It Can Wait educate students, parents and drivers about the dangers of texting while driving.
Connecting people responsibly. It’s what you do with what we do.
Š 2016 AT&T Intellectual Property. All rights reserved.
i2E would like to thank 2016 GOVERNOR'S CUP SPONSORS for making the event a huge success: INTERVIEW SPONSORS AT&T Greater OKC Chamber i2E, Inc. OG&E OKLAHOMA BUSINESS ROUNDTABLE E.L. and Thelma Gaylord Foundation PITCH SPONSOR IBM
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kc.BIZ recognizes contributions by companies and individuals that enhance and advance the business community in central Oklahoma. okc.BIZ endeavors to accomplish this through three annual programs: Best of Business, Best Places to Work in Oklahoma and Forty Under 40. All programs are available online at okc.BIZ.
Best of Business recognizes local businesses chosen by their peers in 24 categories. Votes are cast online throughout the year for their favorite suppliers and business partners. Best of Business honorees voted in the top five within each category receive an award at the annual awards luncheon.
SILVER SPONSORS Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology Oklahoma State Regents of Higher Education Oklahoma State University University of Central Oklahoma University of Oklahoma The University of Tulsa BRONZE SPONSORS Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation Presbyterian Health Foundation EVENT SPONSOR American Fidelity Foundation LUNCH SPONSOR Panera Bread TABLE SPONSORS Accel Financial Staffing Ada Jobs Foundation Bancfirst Center for Economic Development Law Cox Business Donald W. Reynolds Foundation East Central University Embassy Suites Downtown Medical Center First National Bank and Trust Company of Broken Arrow Foundation Healthcare McAfee & Taft Oklahoma Christian University Oklahoma State University - Oklahoma City Oklahoma Venture Forum Ponca City Development Authority Powerlift Foundation Repair St. Gregory’s University Southwestern Oklahoma State University Tulsa Regional Chamber
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Best Places to Work in Oklahoma recognizes Oklahoma businesses that represent ideal workplace environments through dedication, creativity and commitment to their employees. Through an employee participation survey, employers are graded and required to meet a minimum standard to be included in the honor. Companies that reach this benchmark are then ranked by Best Companies Group in large and small company categories. Information can be found at www.bestplacestoworkok.com
Forty Under 40 recognizes exceptional individuals who have made significant contribution to shaping the Oklahoma City landscape before reaching 40 years of age. The okc.BIZ Forty Under 40 program accepts candidates through a nomination process, with hundreds of potential honorees. After a stringent application, review and board-led deliberation, the honorees for each year are chosen and celebrated at an annual cocktail awards event.
3701 N. Shartel Ave. OKC, OK 73118 405.528.6000
YOU AND OG&E, THAT’S POSITIVE ENERGY TOGETHER . ®
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TOGETHER over 110,000 customers save money and energy each summer with SmartHours®. Just shifting a little more usage to off-peak hours has resulted in more than 154 MW of energy savings. What’s more, over half of the schools in Oklahoma have switched to SmartHours, saving over $2 million combined. TOGETHER over 100,000 customers have participated in energy efficiency programs and 310 Oklahoma schools have saved more than 11 million kWh—bringing our total savings to over 390 million kWh. That’s enough power alone to serve almost 27,000 homes. And now, OG&E’s Home Energy Efficiency Program makes saving energy easier, with a FREE online Home Energy Profile. You may qualify for a free In-Home Energy Assessment, including an analysis of your home, up to 10 LED bulbs, power strips and a custom Home Energy Report. We even have rebates on energy-saving projects like A/C tune-ups, insulation upgrades, air sealing and more. TOGETHER our customers and OG&E are driving the electric vehicle EVolution, from plug-in hybrid EV solutions, which run on electricity and gas, to all-electric cars.
TOGETHER we’ve made Oklahoma the electric energy model for the future, keeping rates among the nation’s lowest while delaying the need to build incremental fossil fuel generation. Working together, our potential is positively bright.
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Check out VeloCity, our digital magazine that gives a current portrait of Oklahoma City. Articles, videos, links and more will help you find out why Brookings called OKC a top ten city for economic growth and how our ingrained entrepreneurial culture and capability could help your business or project. The startup-focused edition is available at www.greateroklahomacity.com/startup. Read and share it with friends, colleagues and family. Read | Like | Share 24 i&Ewww.velocityokc.com Fall 2016