i&E Love's Cup 2018

SUMMER 2018

SPECIAL DELIVERY SENDARIDE ENSURES THAT NO PATIENT GETS LEFT BEHIND

ENTREPRENEURIAL SPIRIT…

MEET THE WINNERS OF THE 2018 LOVE’S ENTREPRENEUR’S CUP!

LINEAR HEALTH SCIENCES IS A BREAKAWAY WINNER VERINOVUM IS THE CONNECTION POINT

TRY THIS HIGHLY iRECOMMENDED ONLINE RETAIL SOFTWARE

Comprised of over 150 Oklahoma corporations and business groups, the Oklahoma Business Roundtable serves as the state’s primary economic development support organization.

We are a collaborative non-profit group whose sole purpose is advancing Oklahoma’s economic development. We support programs that focus on business start-up, expansion, recruitment and workforce development.

Created in 1991, the Roundtable has supported hundreds of state, national and global business promotion activities – resulting in thousands of jobs and millions of dollars in 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.

PRESIDENT/CEO Ann Ackerman, Ph. D. OklahOma Business ROundtaBle 655 ReseaRch PaRkway, suite 420 OklahOma city, OklahOma 73104 | 405-235-3787 www.okbusinessroundtable.com

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BUSINESS LEADERSHIP ADVANCING OKLAHOMA’S ECONOMY

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INSIDE Special Delivery 6 SendaRide ensures that no patient gets left behind for critical health care appointments Connection Point 8 Verinovum technology facilitates free flow of health care information between providers

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Recommendation Engine 10 iRecommend software presents the right product at the right time to online retail customers A Breakaway Winner 12 Linear Health Sciences creates a breakaway valve to solve accidental IV disconnect problem that plagues hospital patients Interview Uninterrupted 14 Expert advice helps Love’s Cup small business teams excel in perfecting their plan and their future Last Call 20 University of Oklahoma's Lowell Busenitz concludes outstanding career as professor and team advisor with final Love’s Cup victory

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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 405-235-2305. © Copyright 2018 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.

Stephen Prescott Chairman OMRF Mark Poole Vice Chair First National Bank of Broken Arrow Michael LaBrie Secretary McAfee & Taft

Meg Salyer Accel Financial Staffing Claudia San Pedro Sonic Corporation Darryl Schmidt BancFirst

Craig Shimasaki Moleculera Labs Leslie Batchelor Brien Thorstenberg Center for Economic Tulsa Regional Chamber Development Law Rose Washington Howard G. Barnett, Jr. Tulsa Economic Development Corporation OSU-Tulsa, OSU-CHS Roy Williams Robert Brearton Greater Oklahoma City Chamber American Fidelity Assurance Company Richard Williamson Jay Calhoun T.D. Williamson Apis Holdings Duane Wilson Michael Carolina LDW Services, LLC OCAST

Scott Meacham President & CEO Rex Smitherman Senior Vice President, Operations Sarah Seagraves Senior Vice President, Marketing Mark Lauinger Senior Vice President, Client Services Ryan Cargill Vice President of Business Development Tom Francis Director of Funds Administration Steve Cropper PARTNERS Judy Beech Carl Edwards The Oklahoma Experimental Program to Director of Finance Price Edwards Company Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) Carol Curtis

Tom Evans Venture Advisor & Director of Encompass Financial Services, Inc. Cherokee Nation Academic Research Assessment Philip Eller Richard Rainey

Chickasaw Nation Eller Detrich, P.C. Venture Advisor & Director, SBRA Program Chris Fleming Malachi Blankenship

Choctaw Nation RECHO, LLC Business Development Manager & Venture Advisor Cheryl Hill Greater Oklahoma City Chamber Hill Manufacturing/Hill Equipment Darcy Wilborn Love’s Travel Stops Client Engagement Director Danny Hilliard Melissa Kempkes Chickasaw Nation Muscogee(Creek) Nation Investment Portfolio Manager Ronnie Irani Cindy Henson RKI Energy Resources Oklahoma Business Roundtable Underwriting Coordinator & Investment Joseph J. Ferretti Compliance Officer Oklahoma Center for the Advancement University of Oklahoma of Science and Technology (OCAST) Katelynn Henderson Health Sciences Center Events Specialist Brad Krieger Oklahoma Manufacturing Alliance Shaun O'Fair Arvest Bank Underwriting Specialist Presbyterian Health Foundation Philip Kurtz Kate Nelson CareATC Client Services Coordinator U.S. Economic Development Hershel Lamirand III Jennifer Buettner Administration Capital Development Strategies Executive Assistant Merl Lindstrom

Fred Morgan The State Chamber David Pitts Bank SNB Ryan Posey HSI Sensing Teresa Rose Crook Communities Foundation of Oklahoma

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ABOUT i2E WE INVEST IN ENTREPRENEURS TO BUILD SUCCESSFUL HIGH GROWTH OKLAHOMA COMPANIES Over our 20-year history, i2E’s nationally recognized services have provided business expertise and funding to over 700 of Oklahoma’s emerging small businesses. With more than $60 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 help 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 If you’ve followed our collegiate business plan competition over its 14year history, you know that one constant is that it is always evolving to offer a more educational, challenging and rewarding experience to student entrepreneurs.

This year’s Love’s Entrepreneur’s Cup offered two significant changes that heightened the experience for the teams. For the first time, we expanded the Interview portion of the competition to include the Small Business Division so all students could get the benefit of meeting with local entrepreneurial experts prior to finalizing their business plan.

Second, we offered a great networking opportunity at the conclusion of the competition, where we brought together winning teams, Oklahoma entrepreneurs working to make their ventures successful and potential investors. We were honored to have Tom and Judy Love attend.

After it was all over, we spoke with some of the students, advisors and judges to learn about their experiences in the 2018 Love’s Entrepreneur’s Cup, and we wrote about their reactions in the cover story found on page 14 for this edition of i&E magazine.

At i2E, we’re proud to support innovative entrepreneurs and ventures through our investment funds, venture advisory services and educational programs. In this edition, we profile four up-and-coming new ventures.

Oklahoma City’s SendaRide, on page 6, targets a problem that challenges health care providers – that of transporting fragile patients to and from medical appointments. So, to address this need, the founder created a ride-sharing platform that uses a fleet of on-demand drivers who ensure the patients make their appointments.

Tulsa’s Verinovum identified both a problem and an opportunity that “siloed” health care information presented to the medical community. On page 8, you can read how it created a platform that allows information from multiple sources to easily be shared and viewed.

We highly recommend that you read page 10. It profiles a unique business called iRecommend. This Tulsa-based company uses sophisticated algorithms to help shoppers discover selections that precisely match what they are seeking at online retailers.

Finally, a Norman company, Linear Health Sciences, identified a problem that has plagued the health care industry and devised a solution for it as a new medical device. Our story, on page 12, looks at what inspired the founder to create his solution and how close it is to reaching patients’ bedsides.

As always, I invite you to browse through this edition and see what all the excitement was about with our 2018 Love’s Cup, as well as catch a glimpse of some of the innovative technologies our entrepreneurs are advancing toward the market.

– Scott Meacham President & CEO

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Profiles SendaRide

NO ONE LEFT BEHIND SendaRide delivers patients to medical appointments with fleet of contract drivers

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s she rehabbed from a major back surgery a few years ago, Laura Fleet struggled just to make it to her physical therapy appointments. Transportation was a challenge.

“I wanted to be independent and find my own way to the therapy, so I tried an Uber and a cab and found that neither one worked,” said Fleet, an attorney who specializes in health care industry issues.

Under the effects of prescription pain medicine and still hobbled from surgery, the most difficult part of the trip for Fleet was from her front door to a waiting car.

“One car left before I could make it outside, and another dropped me off at the curb,” she said. “I thought there had to be a better way to help vulnerable, fragile and elderly people stay independent and make it to and from their medical appointments.”

The experience became the foundation for a medical transportation startup called SendaRide, Inc., which Fleet launched in 2017.

“I spent the next year designing a company and an app that met my three benchmarks,” Fleet said. “Those bench-

VETTED CARE PARTNERS

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marks are safety, patient-centric and compliant with the laws and regulations governing the health care industry.”

The result is a customized, concierge transportation service that provides health care access for riders and dramatically reduces patient no-show rates for health care providers. Rides to appointments are scheduled via a HIPAA-compliant web portal and paid for by health care providers and industry payers.

Today, SendaRide and its fleet of almost 50 contract drivers provide rides for patients traveling to medical appointments at hospitals, clinics, independent living centers and not-for-profits in both Oklahoma City and Tulsa. The service originally launched in the Oklahoma City market and expanded to Tulsa in March 2018.

Both riders and health care providers have given high praise for the pioneering medical transportation service.

“We ask the riders to rate their drivers at the conclusion of the ride, and on a scale of 1-5, we are at a 4.9 after almost 3,000 rides,” Fleet said. “I’ve had nurses who email me and say a patient’s come in and they are so pleased, so happy. It’s nothing they’ve ever seen before. The drivers are very personable, they speak with them, they walk them in. I probably receive one or more emails a week from nursing staff or family member of a rider who says this is unique and wonderful. Those stories are great.”

SendaRide drivers – known as “Care Partners” – are carefully vetted and drawn from a diverse pool to provide the level

TRACK RIDES

of concierge service expected. The driver fleet includes firefighters, EMTs, nurses, nurses aids and social workers.

“We have one individual who is trained in crisis management and we have a minister,” Fleet said. “Most of our drivers are retired and are doing this because they genuinely want to give back to the community in some capacity.”

SendaRide doesn’t require drivers to get into their vehicle until they have accepted an assignment. Drivers receive text notifications of available assignments and can choose to accept or decline.

“Those requests come through during the day, so drivers can be sitting at the breakfast table and get a few jobs for the day and decide which ones they want to take,” Fleet said. “We pay our drivers very well.”

Drivers are paid a percentage of every ride, with earnings dependent on how many jobs each driver accepts.

Before SendaRide became a working reality, Fleet brought her idea to i2E and enrolled in the Venture Assessment Program in which entrepreneurs assess the potential market for their concepts.

Originally, Fleet considered providing the service to the elderly and for parents with small children.

“After numerous customer interviews, i2E staff recommended that SendaRide fo-

"Thanks to i2E, we were able to launch an Oklahoma company with Oklahoma talent and prove to the world that technology can come out of Oklahoma."

– Laura Fleet

cus on the health care sector,” said Carol Curtis, i2E Venture Advisor.

Today, SendaRide provides its concierge transportation service to seniors in addition to patients needing rides to medical appointments.

“I found the Venture Assessment Program incredibly informative and eye-opening,” Fleet said. “Once we graduated from the program and applied the principles we learned, it allowed our company to narrow its focus and grow. When we were ready to accept investors we came back to i2E and now they are our lead investor helping us to scale to new cities.”

On the horizon for the company is expansion into other markets. Dallas, Houston and other cities surrounding Oklahoma are on the agenda. The company has demonstrated that its unique concept works well for both riders and payers.

In fact, SendaRide has been a key factor in lowering patient no-show rates for appointments from as high as 17-35 percent to less than 2 percent for those who use the

service.

“Thanks to i2E, we were able to launch an Oklahoma company with Oklahoma talent and prove to the world that technology can come out of Oklahoma,” Fleet said.

“The overarching goal is to generate a very successful tech company, second to WeGoLook, that has a very successful exit, that comes from a female founder in Oklahoma, because that’s rare.”

UNMATCHED SAFETY FEATURES

Laura Fleet Esq., CEO Oklahoma City, OK Employees: 4 Year Founded: 2017

Product or Technology SendaRide has developed an HIPAA compliant web portal for healthcare facilities to book and monitor rides, as well as an app for individuals to book rides; iOS and Android apps for drivers.

Markets Served SendaRide provides its unique transportation service to hospitals, providers, cancer centers, specialty hospitals, pain management clinics, orthopedic facilities, spine hospitals, outpatient surgery clinics, clinical trials, research organizations, independent living centers, cosmetic surgeons and dialysis centers.

Future Plans The company plans to expand beyond Oklahoma City and Tulsa into the Dallas and Houston markets next.

Funding The company is in the process of closing its first fundraising round, a $1.5 Million Series A Seed Round. The Round was led by i2E through the Oklahoma Seed Capital Fund.

Milestones SendaRide has launched in two cities and provided over 3,000 rides with a patient no-show of 1.7 percent.

ON-DEMAND OR SCHEDULED SERVICES

sendaride.com

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Profiles Verinovum

UNLEASHING THE INFORMATION SILO

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he potential of electronic health records to provide critical information to health care providers and payers travels only as far as the ability to share and read the data, says Mike Noshay, a co-founder and chief customer officer at Tulsa’s Verinovum, Inc..

Often, one medical provider stores information in a digital format that cannot easily be shared with another health care provider or payer who relies on a different format to store and read electronic medical records.

There’s a term for the dilemma. It’s called an “information silo.”

Verinovum is solving the challenge of sharing siloed electronic information across the health care industry.

Verinovum developed a software platform that ensures that health care data is no longer stuck in individual silos, thus enabling the interchange of information. The company serves a broad slice of the health care industry.

“Patients often seek care at multiple clinic locations,” Noshay said. “In doing so, their digital records end up fragmented. Verinovum’s tools present data to providers that they wouldn’t otherwise have access to, so they can improve point of care treatment.”

Founded in 2013 by Noshay, Chris McLean, Matt Clark and Ryan Campbell, the company has grown to 42 people. Most of the founders worked together at MyHealth Access Network, which links more than 4,000 providers and their patients in a community-wide health information system.

“At MyHealth, we were tasked with aggregating, normalizing and putting to use data from health care providers across the state of Oklaho-

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"Based on experiences of what didn’t work, coupled with my peers’ experience in more mature industries, we decided to venture out on our own and solve the biggest problems we encountered."

– Mike Noshay Mike Noshay Co-founder and Chief customer officer Tulsa, OK Employees: 42 Year Founded: 2013 ma,” Noshay said. “The technology solutions we had available during my tenure were inadequate to fulfill local stakeholders desires.”

For example, there might be 50 ways of reporting diabetes management from 30 contributing sites. That’s 50 incompatible ways of reporting the same information.

So, the Verinovum co-founders decided to create their own solutions.

“Based on experiences of what didn’t work, coupled with my peers’ experience in more mature industries, we decided to venture out on our own and solve the biggest problems we encountered,” Noshay said.

The MyHealth Access Network was among Verinovum’s first clients, and today it serves clients in Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Montana, Idaho and Kansas, as well as Oklahoma.

“We serve Health Information Exchanges, clinically integrated networks, payers and accountable care organizations across the United States,” Noshay said. “Our platform is used as an interoperability solution to standardize data across disparate institutions and locations for a number of different point of care and analytical uses cases.”

In late June, Mark McCurry was named President and CEO of Verinovum.

Prior to his role at Verinovum, McCurry served as CEO of Agilum. He has launched a number of successful startup ventures, including ProviderLink, where he facilitated the sale to Covisint, and subsequently served as an executive leader in the Healthcare division. McCurry is a well-recognized speaker, covering topics including mobility, analytics, interoperability challenges, and care coordination in healthcare.

“Verinovum has a solid data platform that provides immediate practical value for quality, cost, and revenue improvement,” McCurry said.

“Their strategy of turning data into actionable information to make more informed business decisions, combined with community-wide care coordination, is unique, and I look forward to being part of Verinovum’s continued success.”

Verinovum’s innovative platform facilitates health data exchange and coordination of community-wide care and decision support in pursuit of the elusive “triple aim” of health care: better results, better patient experience, lower cost.

Health care providers can use the innovative Verinovum platform to set alerts that signal events such as emergency room visits by a patient or lab results that are out of the range considered normal.

Or, if a physician is monitoring a cohort of patients with a specific disease state, they can be alerted to hospital admissions, lab results and other clinical information so they can more completely treat the patients.

“These alerts can send back to the doctor’s electronic health records, to a web portal or even to a fax machines,” Noshay said. “All the alerts are aligned to legal and ethical boundaries and can be transmitted across different electronic health records.”

The Verinovum team has found Tulsa to be a nurturing city in which to build a high-tech company, Noshay said.

“The Tulsa community has been a tremendous asset to us,” he said. “Tulsans exude a desire to make their community a better place, and we’ve been the fortunate benefactors of many amazing mentors and advisors, as well as an unbelievably talented team.”

Verinovum connected with i2E early in its life cycle and completed the Venture Assessment Program, which helps new ventures assess their markets and connect with first customers.

“The Venture Assessment Program provided early guidance on what to expect during the growth and fundraising process,” Noshay said.

Former i2E Venture Advisor James Lovely is Customer Success Manager for Verinovum.

So, what lies down the life cycle path for Verinovum? A lot depends on the health care industry. The Verinovum platform evolves as the health care IT landscap e evolves, Noshay said.

“We continue to grow and innovate with a morphing health IT ecosystem,” he said. “We aim to provide a robust interoperability platform enabling our stakeholders to leverage the most complete and timely set of information for point of care and operational improvement.”

That means that health care information silos are disappearing, and the industry is advancing toward the coveted triple aim of better outcomes, better experiences and lower costs for all patients.

Product or Technology A platform that facilitates the sharing of health care information that is often stored in electronic formats that are incompatible with one another.

Markets Served Verinovum serves health information exchanges, clinically integrated networks, payers and accountable care organizations across the United States.

Future Plans The company continues to grow and evolve to meet the changing demands of the health care market, and plans to expand its geographical reach in 2018.

Funding Verinovum was originally bootstrapped by founders before a Series A funding round that closed in December 2017.

Milestones Verinovum completed its initial pilot and secured its first contract in 2014. By 2017, it had 10 million people under coverage. verinovum.com

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Profiles iRecommend

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Artificial intelligence powers iRecommend ‘recommendation engine’ that anticipates products sought by online buyers

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W

hen John Morad’s daughter was 6 months old, he bought a dress for her from a popular online retailer.

As far as the retailer was concerned, time stopped for Morad and his family with the purchase of the dress.

“Until this day, I still get product recommendations for 6 months old even though my daughter is almost 5 years old now,” Morad said.

Time marches on, but the recommendation software that powers the retailer’s website doesn’t possess the intelligence to recognize it. So, relevancy of what it offers potential customers fades over time.

As the co-founder and CEO of Tulsabased iRecommend Software, Morad created a software platform that recognizes life changes and delivers more appropriate recommendations. iRecommend Software’s Recommendaton360TM Retail is a software product that uses artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to discover customer patterns, life events and behavior changes.

iRecommend provides retailers with an AI-powered personalization platform generating hyper-personalized product recommendations for their consumers.

So customers see recommendations that more closely match what they are seeking.

Although it was founded in 2016, the company has its roots in Morad’s concept of more than a decade ago to build a smart personal assistant.

“The vision was to have an intelligent personal assistant for everyone to help people one-to-one, providing recommendations and advice for shopping, career, education,

housing, entertainment, health care, finance and every other area of life,” he said.

A native of Cairo, Egypt, Morad began writing software when he was 8 years old.

His father was a software engineer, providing a young Morad with access to programming languages and technical books.

“This is where I started building a real passion for solving logical problems through software,” he said. “Thirty years later, this passion is still the main driver for me every day.”

Morad lived and worked in cities throughout Europe before moving to Tulsa in 2009, where he met his business partner and iRecommend President, Mark Allen.

The Recommendation360TM software began to emerge after Morad first developed an artificial intelligence software that grows smarter, “letting the machine build the machine,” he said. result is a personalized The recommendation platform that analyzes product features, market pricing and trends, consumer shopping habits, likes and dislikes and major life events.

“By analyzing in real time the three components (product, market and the consumer), iRecommend is able to provide 1:1 personalized product recommendations for what you need when you need it, as if you have your own personal shopper who’s working on your behalf 24/7,” he said. iRecommend targets retail, recruiting and real estate industries. The product roadmap also includes the entertainment, travel, health care and government services.

Recommendation360TM distinguishes itself because the software requires no

"Programs like i2E’s Venture Assessment Program taught iRecommend to explain its value proposition to a non-technical audience and create an initial customer list. We are grateful for this early support and hope to see the Oklahoma entrepreneurial ecosystem grow.”

– John Marad

John Morad Founder & CEO Tulsa, Oklahoma City, San Francisco, Dubai Employees: 14 Year Founded: 2016

Product or Technology Recommendation Engine – Recommendation360TM Markets Served iRecommend currently serves retail, recruiting, and real estate industries. learning period – commonly known as a “cold start” when a new customer signs up on a retailer’s website.

Morad contrasts iRecommend’s software with online industry giant Amazon.com. “iRecommend adapts to product changes, local market trends and changes in each consumer’s life,” he said. “Amazon doesn’t adjust product recommendations to all these events and changes in our life and in our local communities.”

All personal data about consumers are gathered from the public domain only and is never shared, sold or distributed to third parties, Morad said. Personal data is only part of the inputs the AI platform uses to deliver relevant shopping recommendations. patented recommendation

“Our platform takes a different approach to generate recommendations,” he said. “Most companies rely on user data 100 percent; our algorithm takes other major variables like market data, local microeconomic data and product trends.”

In late 2017, iRecommend closed a $1.85 million Series A investment round led by i2E through the Oklahoma Seed Capital Fund. Also participating in the funding were Tulsa’s Warren Foundation and other strategic investors.

“The investment round came at the right time while we landed our first retail client in Dubai with over 40 million users, which allowed us to finalize the commercialization of the product, implement full integration with our client, and build our leadership team.”

In recent months, the company has added industry veteran Joshua Hughes as Vice President of Business Development.

The company maintains offices in Oklahoma City, San Francisco, and Dubai, in addition to its Tulsa headquarters. iRecommend Software’s identity as an Oklahoma company has provided no roadblocks in its growth, Morad said.

“Tulsa has been an amazing place to start iRecommend; the local support is exceptional,” Morad said. “There is a lot of support for early-stage companies in Oklahoma. Programs like i2E’s Venture Assessment Program taught iRecommend to explain its value proposition to a nontechnical audience and create an initial customer list. We are grateful for this early support and hope to see the Oklahoma entrepreneurial ecosystem grow.” iRecommend is adding business partners and customers in the retail, recruiting and real estate spaces while charting a course into healthcare, education, financial, trading and other industries.

Morad has a clear goal in mind.

“With an early market like recommendation engines, while it’s very new, it has been growing at 400 percent a year with market size reaching over $440 billion in the next two years,” he said. “I personally look forward to when someone will think of iRecommend when you mention recommendation engines the same way you think of Google when someone mentions search engines.”

Future Plans The company plans to expand Recommendation360TM into healthcare, entertainment, education, and government industries.

Funding Total funding of $4.3 Million, consisting of R&D founder capital of $2.2 Million followed by Series A round led by i2E at $2.075 Million in late 2017.

Milestones The core engine that drives Recommendation360TM was released in beta in 2013 The retail module was released in the first quarter of 2018, and a sales office opened in San Francisco in the second quarter. irecommend.ai

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Profiles Linear Health Sciences

THE BREAK-AWAY IV LINE OKC startup pioneers technology that prevents accidental disconnects for hospital patients

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here is a disconnect that plagues the health care industry, costing time, money and potentially the recovery of hospitalized patients.

It’s not a payer issue or even one of adequate health care coverage.

We’re talking about an actual disconnect

of the IV tubing that connects patients with critical meds they are receiving. It happens with surprising frequency.

Statistics show that up to one in four IV lines is accidentally disconnected from patients, said Ryan Dennis, M.D, founder and CEO of Oklahoma-based Linear Health Sciences.

Linear Health Sciences created a patented breakaway technology called the Orchid Safety Release Valve (SRV) that prevents accidental disconnects of IV tubing from patients in the hospital.

The Orchid SRV concept was conceived after Dennis witnessed repeated disconnections among his hospital patients.

Dennis worked at an Oklahoma City hospital as a hospitalist, or a physician who specializes in caring for patients ill enough to be admitted.

As Dennis demonstrated the Orchid SRV, he described a nightmare scenario with one of his patients that the technology could have prevented.

“One night a patient had a chest tube for a collapsed lung,” he said. “She got up to go to the bathroom. But when she did the chest tube got caught in the bedrail and ripped the chest tube out, causing her lung to collapse again.”

The patient suffered a long, painful night with a partially collapsed lung before the situation was remedied the next morning.

“I thought it was ridiculous that we are relying on sutures or tape or other adhesives to hold in the very things that are connecting patients to life-sustaining treatment,” Dennis said. “Instead of applying more and more things to the patient, I said ‘why don’t we use a breakaway valve’ just like what you have on a gas pump or your Macbook.”

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Dennis assembled an all-star team to create the technology, which is composed entirely of silicon and plastic so that it can be used even when the patient has an MRI. Co-founder with Dennis in Linear Health Sciences is Dan Clark, a businessfocused engineer and veteran of the medical technology industry.

“This is the part that will get caught in bed rails or the patient will reach up and grab,” Dennis said, holding about six feet of plastic tubing as he demonstrated the Orchid SRV. “A lot of our confused patients will reach for anything nearby and in the middle of the night just rip these things out.”

As Dennis tugged on the line, the Orchid SRV broke away from the base as it was designed to do.

“It seals off, so there’s no blood getting back out into the system and nurses aren’t being exposed to all the blood you would have in a normal dislodgment,” he said. “The pump will alarm and let the nurse know that they need to come in. Now when they come in all that have to do is replace the Orchid, and they are back in business instead of re-sticking the patient.”

Reaction from both potential investors and the health care industry has been enthusiastic.

“It turned out that Silicon Valley loved it, and the large strategic players in the infusion space loved it, so we targeted infusion therapy first and found out we had taken a commodity and created a new value-based platform technology,” Dennis said.

“We are trying to completely transform the way that patients are connected to their treatments,” Dennis said. “It’s costing the hospital about $50 every time one of these IVs is pulled out.”

The Orchid SRV should receive FDA approval in the first quarter of 2019 with distribution ready through multiple channels, Dennis said. It has been easy to demonstrate the value proposition the technology brings to hospitals and health care providers.

“We’ve taken a three-tiered approach to the defining value for health care providers to

digest and make informed decision,” Dennis said. “Value for the practitioners, value to the patient, value for the hospital system with potential cost savings on average of $200,000-$300,000 annually.”

A native of Macomb, OK, and graduate of the Oklahoma School of Science and Mathematics, Dennis earned his undergraduate degree at the University of Chicago before returning to his native Oklahoma to earn his M.D. at the University of Oklahoma.

Dennis recently resigned his position as a hospitalist and launched a unique, private concierge hospital medical practice that may be the first of its kind nationwide.

Linear Health Sciences has accomplished

several critical milestones along the way. It created a working prototype of its device.

It closed a $1.25 million investment round and a follow-on round led by i2E, and was named in 2016 as one of 20 ventures chosen

Ryan Dennis, M.D. CEO Norman, OK

“It turned out that Silicon Valley loved it, and the large strategic players in the infusion space loved it, so we targeted infusion therapy first and found out we had taken a commodity and created a new value-based platform technology.”

– Ryan Dennis

Employees: 3 Year Founded: 2015

Product or Technology Linear Health Sciences developed a non-metallic break-away connection for peripheral IVs that connect hospital patients to their infusion

out of 430 candidates worldwide to become a MedTech Innovator company in Palo Alto, Calif.

“From the beginning, i2E believed in the team we assembled, the addressable market, and the fact that we were developing a solution for a true and costly problem,” Dennis said. “i2E helped us garner media attention and their institutional backing helped us become a MedTech Innovator company.”

“Our experience with i2E has been so successful that we have actually guided two other ventures to their offices that have gone

on to become portfolio companies.”

The Orchid SRV is a potential gamechanger for the health care industry and millions of hospital patients worldwide.

“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,” he said. “The Orchid Valve will add patient savings, satisfaction and convenience for the nurses.”

treatments.

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.

Markets Served Acute care hospitals that place more than 1 billion IV lines into patients annually.

Funding Linear Health Sciences closed in a $2.75 million seed funding, led by i2E through the Oklahoma Seed Capital Fund and a subsequent follow-on investment round.

Milestones The company has developed a functional prototype, closed on a seed round investment and was been named a semifinalist in the 2016 MedTech Innovator competition; was recipient of market-specific accelerator and associated grant funds.

In addition, the company has been issued 10 U.S. and global patents” for the Orchid SRV technology. linearsciences.com

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Interview Uninterrupted Love’s Cup expands interviews to Small Business Division competition The 2018 Love’s Entrepreneur’s Cup took a big step forward in its evolution. For the first time in the history of the competition, every team that competed in this year’s Love’s Cup had the opportunity to make a midcourse correction through a process known as “the Interview.”

A long-time component of the High Growth Division, the Interview was implemented for the first time this year for teams competing in the Small Business Division.

In mid-February, students from colleges and universities across Oklahoma sat down and discussed their concepts with business experts who offered advice to fine-tune their plans. Written business plans were submitted about three weeks later.

There were no presentations, handouts, guests or advisors during the Interviews. It was a back-and-forth conversation between student team members and an industry expert.

The S3 Composting team from Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College in Miami, pictured left, won the Small Business Division Interview award in the Service category at the Awards Dinner which was held on April 19 at the Bricktown Events Center in Oklahoma City.

“The students came away with great feedback and really enjoyed getting another person’s view on the plan,” said Calvin Becker, advisor for S3 Composting.

“They were all very pleased that the interview was implemented for the Small Business Division.”

Kendra Clements, a partner in the Mettise Group, an Oklahoma City-based business consulting firm, served as one of the Small Business Division Interview judges. She described it as an “incredible experience” for everyone involved.

“The students gain an amazing learning experience and opportunity as they are paired up with subject matter experts,” Clements said. “I wish a program like this would have been made available to me when I was a young business woman.”

For the Small Business Division team from Oklahoma Christian University, Impulsive Drive, LLC, the Small Business Division first place winning team, the Interview turned out to be a welcome step in the process, said Mark Ferringer, team leader.

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“The Interview was a great way midway through the planning process to make sure that our business plan was on the right course,” Ferringer said. “It was very helpful to hear from professionals in the entrepreneur industry, to get their perspective of ways that we could improve our business.”

Impulse Drive has pioneered a unique miniature wind turbine technology that drastically increases efficiency and power output of small wind generation. The technology makes wind power generation more affordable for individual homes and developing countries.

“Getting an extra pair of eyes from a different point of view was very beneficial for the preparation process,” Ferringer said of the Interview and its impact on the Impulse Drive business plan.

The Small Business Division Interview wasn’t the only new element added to the 2018 Love’s Cup competition. A Winners Reception was held April 26 at the Oklahoma City Golf & Country Club.

At the reception, winning teams from the 2018 competition had the opportunity to meet investors, entrepreneurs and Tom and Judy Love, founders of Love’s Travel Stops, underwriting sponsor of the event.

Students were provided a valuable networking opportunity, said Craig Wengierski, team leader of American Corn Husks from the University of Oklahoma.

American Corn Husks, pictured below, claimed this year’s Undergraduate Division first place prize with a business plan built around a concept to produced reengineered Americangrown corn husks into a product that is ideal in

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size and texture for the tamale industry.

“Hopefully, the cards or emails I received that night will lead to future opportunities,” Wengierski said. “I also would like to say how nice it was to meet Tom and Judy Love. They were both incredibly personable. It was great to speak with two icons of innovation.”

Tom Love was the featured speaker in a short program that highlighted the Winner’s Reception. Love told the audience that Oklahoma’s future is tied to the innovative spirit of the emerging entrepreneurs like the Love’s Cup competitors.

“Our economic fate really depends on the collective ingenuity and drive of budding entrepreneurs here in the state,” Love said.

“Oklahoma really needs this entrepreneurial spirit, there is just no two ways about it.”

The Chickasaw Nation was another Love’s Cup sponsor that came on board because it recognized the importance of building a deep pool of entrepreneurs and business leaders, said Bill Anoatubby, Chickasaw Nation Governor.

“We are pleased to sponsor the Love’s Cup business plan competition because it offers incentive and encouragement to budding entrepreneurs across our state,” Anoatubby said. “Small business has long been a significant part of economic growth and job creation in Oklahoma, and we believe this competition helps fuel the innovation and creativity that will ensure that continues for generations to come.”

The Love’s Cup creates ripples that go far beyond the competition, said Russ McGuire, advisor to Oklahoma Christian University’s Impulse Drive.

"Our economic fate really depends on the collective ingenuity and drive of budding entrepreneurs here in the state. Oklahoma really needs this entrepreneurial spirit, there is just no two ways about it."

– Tom Love

Energizing young minds for a

BRIGHTER ENERGY FUTURE We are proud to recognize the 2018 OG&E Positive Energy and Environmental Interview winner, Contraire from Oklahoma State University. The Contraire team developed a sensor-based control technology that reduces aeration costs at wastewater treatment plants by up to 45 percent for greater efficiency and cost savings.

These students are powering a brighter energy future, TOGETHER . ÂŽ

Š2018 OGE Energy Corp.

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The

CHICKASAW N A T I O N

BILL ANOATUBBY, GOVERNOR

www.CHICKASAW.net

Cup as a real-world experience that motivates participants to improve their business skills.

“It represents exposure to the realities of the entrepreneurship world,” Busenitz said. “It greatly helps our students work on their oral and written presentation skills; it provides a channel for our students to work on their professional skills; it facilitates ‘experiential learning;’ and it allows teachers to become mentors for their students.”

In remarks to the Winners Reception audience, Scott Meacham, President and CEO of i2E, said the Love’s Cup fuels an entrepreneurial spirit that has long driven Oklahomans to create innovative businesses and technologies.

“It is the spirit of entrepreneurism that has defined our state to this point and will define who we are in the future,” Meacham said. “What a great tool the Love’s Cup is for developing and rewarding emerging entrepreneurs in our state.”

“In the end, I think everyone wins – our local economy, the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Oklahoma and our students who learn things through this experience that they could never learn in the classroom,” McGuire said.

Impulse Drive was the second consecutive team from OC named first place winner in the Love’s Cup Small Business Division. The competition has inspired the university to offer a business plan class for the first time in the Fall 2018 semester.

“I know a class like this is a source of ideas for many other schools in the competition,” McGuire said. “So, I’m hoping we have some strong concepts and teams emerge from that class.”

“The Love’s Cup offers a unique learning opportunity, said David Thomison, advisor to the High Growth Graduate Division first place winner, Contraire from Oklahoma State University.

Contraire developed a sensor-based control technology that reduces aeration costs at wastewater treatment plants by up to 45 percent.

Municipal wastewater treatment plants can save up to $250,000 annually in utility costs using the process.

Thomison continued to say, “the Love’s Cup fully teaches the need to integrate diverse technical and business skill sets, demands the application of educational skills, demonstrates the importance of teamwork and enables the practice of managerial skills. The competition truly simulates a real entrepreneurial startup launch and that’s a worthwhile experience.”

In the case for Contraire, it not only simulates, but the competition has inspired one member of the team, now pursuing her Master’s in Civil Engineering at OSU, to remain fully engaged with the commercialization endeavor and transition into the student role of Lead Research. In addition, the team and support faculty have applied for a $195,000 in grant funding in order to advance and test the core technology as outlined in the submitted business plan. They are leveraging their Love’s Cup experience and the feedback they received to further refine their plan and compete in several other out of state collegiate business plan competitions.

Lowell Busenitz, PhD., Entrepreneurship Professor at the University of Oklahoma’s Price College of Business, also describes the Love’s SUMMER 2018 i&E

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TH E W I N N E R S

2nd Place Small Business Bright Eyed & Brave University of Central Oklahoma

1st Place Small Business Impulse Drive OKLAHOMA CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY

3RD Place Small Business FurryFloat East Central University

2nd Place UNDERGRADUATE FULLY COOKED University of Oklahoma

1st Place UNDERGRADUATE AMERICAN CORN HUSKS UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA

3RD Place UNDERGRADUATE STOP HACK The University of Tulsa

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THE SPONSORS INTERVIEW The Chickasaw Nation i2E, Inc. Greater Oklahoma City Chamber OG&E Oklahoma Business Roundtable Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology

PITCH IBM

GOLD E.L. and Thelma Gaylord Foundation

1st Place GRADUATE CONTRAIRE OKLAHOMA STATE UNIVERSITY SILVER The University of Central Oklahoma The University of Oklahoma The University of Tulsa

BRONZE Google Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education Oklahoma State University

2nd Place GRADUATE MULTIVATE Oklahoma State University

3rd Place GRADUATE Soundraiser The University of Tulsa

Small Business Interview Winners

OG&E Positive Energy and Environmental Product Category Contraire, Oklahoma State University FurryFloat, East Central University Oklahoma Business Roundtable ManufacturIT/APP Category ing, Material Sciences and Transportation Starla Cooper, East Central University Indra-Lighting Strike Mitigation, Retail Category Oklahoma State University Bright Eyed & Brave, University of Central Oklahoma Paulsen Award Scholarship Service Category Mackinsey Archer, East Central University S3 Composting, Northeastern Oklahoma Patrick Arney, OSU-OKC A&M College RabeccaWiseman, Oklahoma State University

High Growth Interview Winners OCAST IT/Communications Soundraiser, University of Tulsa Greater Oklahoma Chamber Healthcare Wal-Narrow, LLC, University of Central Oklahoma Chickasaw Nation Student Generated Technology Design Multivate, Oklahoma State University

IBM Pitch Winners Small Business IBM Pitch Winner Louden Johnson, Show Tricks Undergraduate IBM Pitch Winner Crystal Alkire, iTheater

TABLE Ada Jobs Foundation American Fidelity Foundation Dobson Technologies Lobeck Taylor Family Foundation McAfee & Taft Norman Economic Development Coalition Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation Presbyterian Health Foundation Triton Wealth Advisors, LLC Tulsa Regional Chamber

TEAM TABLE Oklahoma Christian University Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College East Central University Oklahoma State University-Oklahoma City

Graduate IBM Pitch Winner Ryan Bailey, SkillCred SUMMER 2018 i&E

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“Dr. B was an excellent guide on our journey to the Love’s Cup, navigating different rounds and really essential in pushing our preparation to the next step. It was special that we were able to achieve this accomplishment in his last year of teaching after a fantastic and storied career.”

– Chris Wengierski

Retiring OU professor Lowell Busenitz: Business Plan competition ‘credentialed’ OU’s entrepreneurship program Lowell Busenitz, Ph.D., set a perfect bookend to his career as a team advisor in the 2018 Love’s Entrepreneur’s Cup, just weeks before he retired as professor of entrepreneurship from the University of Oklahoma at the end of the Spring semester.

Busenitz, served as advisor to this year’s Love’s Cup High Growth Undergraduate Division first place winning team from OU, American Corn Husks.

Thirteen years ago, Busenitz advised a winning team in the first Donald W. Reynolds Governor’s Cup, which was the forerunner to the Love’s Cup. Busentiz-advised teams followed that debut by sweeping all three top Graduate Division prizes in the 2006 competition.

And again in 2007.

Before his career ended with retirement this spring, Busenitz had served as advisor for

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more than a dozen teams that claimed top three finishes in the competition.

So it was fitting that he felt a sense of nostalgia as he walked across the Love’s Cup awards dinner stage a final time.

“It was a combination of excitement, surprise and also some reminiscing of previous appearances on the stage,” Busenitz said. “It has been quite a run.”

The arrival of the Governor’s Cup on the Oklahoma landscape in 2005 “credentialed” the entrepreneurship program OU was building, he said.

“I just want to give a big thank you to i2E, the Reynolds Foundation, and now Love’s Travel Stops for all their support of entrepreneurship in so many ways,” Busenitz said. “The business plan competition brings together the who’s who of entrepreneurship in the state of Oklahoma and helps build the entrepreneurship

ecosystem. It’s a wonderful advantage to be able to nudge our student teams who want to launch after graduation in the direction of i2E. “Such ventures so need the support of organizations like i2E as they seek to move forward,” he said.

The fact that the 2018 Love’s Cup was Dr. Busenitz’s final competition wasn’t lost on American Corn Husk team members, said Chris Wengierski, team leader.

“It meant a lot, for sure,” Wengierski said.

“Dr. B was an excellent guide on our journey to the Love’s Cup, navigating different rounds and really essential in pushing our preparation to the next step. It was special that we were able to achieve this accomplishment in his last year of teaching after a fantastic and storied career.”

Now it’s on to retirement in Colorado for Busenitz, who plans a number of writing projects, including a book on entrepreneurship.

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FORTUNATE FUTURE

WeGoLook, Selexys and Oseberg are just a handful of homegrown Oklahoma City startups who are making national headlines. No matter if it is tech, bioscience, aviation, energy or everything in between, the entrepreneurial climate here is breeding big success.

Join us and put this unique spirit to work for you in Oklahoma City.

GREATEROKLAHOMACITY.COM

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