Innovation Awards • November 2012 • fwbusiness.com • ©KPC Media Group Inc.
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A SPECIAL PUBLICATION OF GREATER FORT WAYNE
Business Weekly 3306 Independence Drive Fort Wayne, IN 46808 (260) 426-2640 Fax: (260) 426-2503 www.fwbusiness.com
E D I TO R ’ S L E T T E R
Terry Housholder terryh@kpcnews.net Publisher
Lynn Sroufe
Stories of innovation
lsroufe@fwbusiness.com General Manager
Barry Rochford barryr@fwbusiness.com Editor
Linda Lipp lindal@fwbusiness.com Associate Editor/Reporter
Rick Farrant rfarrant@fwbusiness.com Reporter
Doug LeDuc dougl@fwbusiness.com Reporter
Valerie Gough vgough@kpcnews.net Web Editor
Mary Schmitz ftwayne@kpcnews.net Graphic Designer
Lynette Donley ftwayne@kpcnews.net Sales Manager
ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES
Brenda McLay Kelly Bransteter
George O. Witwer Publisher Emeritus
Terry Housholder President, CEO
Ken Vance Chief Financial Officer
Bret Jacomet Interactive Director
ne of the great things about my profession is that I have a chance to learn something new each day. There are countless opportunities for me to take in new ideas, new concepts, new ways of doing things. Business, at its very core, is about ideas. Come up with a good idea and you’ll find an audience. Build a better mousetrap and the world — all except for the mice — will beat a path to your door. That’s why we at Business Weekly are honored to recognize the winners of our seventh-annual Innovation Awards competition. We sought out the best ideas from the region, and within this publication you’ll see examples of how northeast Indiana continues to be fertile ground for innovation. For example, there’s Michael Rusher, who literally dreamed up a device to help people breathe easier. There’s Renee Gabet, who leads visitors to her Annie Oakley Perfumery & Studio in Ligonier on “sensory tours.” There’s Ralph Marcuccilli, whose company, Allied Payment Network, has developed a smartphone app that lets users pay bills with just the simple snap of a picture. There’s more — but you get the idea. We are indebted to our sponsors, without which the Innovation Awards wouldn’t be possible. This year’s sponsors are ENS Group, Physicians Health Plan of Northern Indiana Inc., Sweetwater Sound, Lake City Bank and the Northeast Indiana Innovation Center. Our judges had the difficult job of hearing presentations from each of the Innovation Awards category winners, then selecting an overall Innovator of the Year. This year’s judges were: Keith Busse, chairman of Steel Dynamics Inc.; Brian Kyler, president and CEO of Be Adaptive Equipment LLC, which was the 2011 Innovator of the Year; Mike Landram, president and CEO of the Greater Fort Wayne Chamber of Commerce; Nick Busche, CEO of Busche; and Robert Clark, entrepreneur-in-residence at Elevate Ventures Inc. I hope you enjoy reading about this year’s winners, and I encourage you to submit your nominations for the 2013 Innovation Awards at FWBusiness.com.
O
Barry Rochford, Editor, Greater Fort Wayne Business Weekly Greater Fort Wayne Business Weekly is a publication of KPC Media Group Inc.
©2012 All rights reserved
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Innovation Awards • November 2012 • fwbusiness.com • ©KPC Media Group Inc.
TA B L E O F C O N T E N T S
Editor’s letter...............................................................................2 Innovation Awards judges......................................................4 EMERGING COMPANY
OFabz Swimwear.....................................................................5 HEALTH CARE
Rusher Medical LLC ................................................................7 2011 Innovator of the Year update.....................................9 MANUFACTURING & DISTRIBUTION
Mudd-Ox Inc. ...........................................................................10 PROFESSIONAL SERVICES
Lendingahand.net...................................................................13 REAL ESTATE, CONSTRUCTION & DESIGN
The Summit ..............................................................................16 RETAIL
Annie Oakley Perfumery & Studio ....................................18 TECHNOLOGY
Allied Payment Network.......................................................21 Past winners ............................................................................23
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I N N O VAT I O N AWA R D S J U D G E S
Judged by their peers Judging for the seventh-annual Innovation Awards competition was divided into two rounds. In the first round, representatives of the Innovation Awards corporate sponsors went through the applications that had been received. Several applications were submitted in more than one of the seven Innovation Awards categories: emerging company; health care; manufacturing and distribution; professional services; real estate, construction and design; retail; and technology. First-round judges were: • Tim Savage, ENS Group; • Jim Bentley, Northeast Indiana Innovation Center; • Carrie Marion, PHP; • Karrie Kitch, Lake City Bank; and • Jeff Osterman, Sweetwater Sound. The first-round judges tried to determine if the company truly was innovative, and they used a broad definition of innovation. It could be an entirely new business concept. It could be a business concept new to this region, but one that exists elsewhere. It could be a new product, service or business process within an existing company. It could come from a startup venture or a large corporation, as long as it is located within northeast Indiana and northwest Ohio. Category winners then appeared before a second panel of judges composed of successful entrepreneurs and executives. Each category winner gave a short presentation about the innovation, then answered questions from the panel. Second-round judges were: • Keith Busse, chairman, Steel Dynamics Inc.; • Brian Kyler, president and CEO, Be Adaptive Equipment LLC (2011 Innovator of the Year); • Mike Landram, president and CEO, Greater Fort Wayne Chamber of Commerce; • Nick Busche, CEO, Busche; and • Robert Clark, entrepreneur-in-residence, Elevate Ventures Inc. Page 4
Busse
Kyler
Landram
Busche
Innovation Awards • November 2012 • fwbusiness.com • ©KPC Media Group Inc.
Clark
E M E R G I N G C O M PA N Y
Quick-change artist BY DOUG LEDUC dougl@fwbusiness.com
Olivia Fabian had gone from designing and making one-of-a-kind figure-skating costumes to swimwear when she struck upon an idea she was convinced would appeal to a lot of women. “Customers came to us with their needs first, and we came up with the solution second,” she said. “My mom and I came up with it in the living room almost by accident. It was more of a mad-scientist process.” The innovation allows a sun bather in a bikini to quickly join in more athletic activities such as surfing, tubing, wakeboarding or parasailing without fear of a wardrobe malfunction. It is a sheer onepiece swimsuit that can slip over a bikini. “I call it the Whim Suit because you can change it on a whim,” Fabian said. “It provides women with comfort and confidence while they’re having fun in the sun.” She considered working with a moisture-wicking fabric used in competitive swimwear and jogging apparel for the Whim Suit, but found it more practical to work with a nylon and lycra spandex mesh. Fabian, 24, considers her vintageinspired swimsuit collection to be wearable art for swimming, sunbathing and other fun on the beach, poolside or in the water. She works with a variety of screen printing in which the prints are incorporated into the fabric rather than slicked onto it to make them more durable. “I made a swimsuit of the fabric for myself, and a friend saw it and wanted one. Her friends loved it and wanted one, too,” she said. “We started making the swimwear based on what people told us they wanted and found we could make it in a way that was more standardized, for a much bigger market,” Fabian said. For each new product, “we do the design work and contract with sewers in n
See OFABZ on PAGE 6
PHOTO CREDIT
Olivia Fabian founded OFabz Swimwear in 2010. It quickly went on to win the Launch: New Venture Competition held by Ivy Tech Community College-Northeast and Northeast Indiana Innovation Center.
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E M E R G I N G C O M PA N Y
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OFABZ: Next year, the company will promote suits at trade shows
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the Fort Wayne area,” she said. When a product tests well, a contract manufacturer in New Jersey handles its production. Fabian founded OFabz Swimwear in July 2010 and the next year she entered and won the Launch: New Venture Competition held by Ivy Tech Community College-Northeast and Northeast Indiana Innovation Center. She entered the contest to compete for close to $30,000 in startup funding and to fine tune a business plan for OFabz. Her winnings included a $2,500 NIIC cash grant, a $3,200 internship there and an inkind grant of office space for one year in its Student Venture Lab, valued at $6,000. While working out of the NIIC office this year she has greatly improved her company’s website and social-media marketing, which set the stage for more ambitious and effective online retailing this summer. OFabz also started selling in popup stores in June, which provided it with “several test markets in surrounding states to see what was going to work best,” Fabian said. “What worked best for us was an environment where a lot of women knew each other previously,” she said. “Our most successful ones were in a yoga studio and an art gallery because they already had a bond of community.” Next spring, OFabz will start doing trunk sales with sororities, and next summer it plans to start participating in trade shows. Fabian said she hopes to participate in some boutique retailing and eventually see her line of swimwear sold by some larger retailers such as Urban Outfitters, and by some e-commerce names in women’s fashion such as ASOS and Shopbop. Because of the seasonal nature of her business she said she plans to talk to some retailers in warmer climates, particularly in resort areas. ■ Company: OFabz Swimwear ■ Founder: Olivia Fabian ■ Website: www.ofabz.com Page 6
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
One of Olivia Fabian’s most recent creations is the Whim Suit, which can be worn over a two-piece swimsuit for more athletic activities. Innovation Awards • November 2012 • fwbusiness.com • ©KPC Media Group Inc.
H E A LT H C A R E
A breath of fresh air BY RICK FARRANT
â– Company: Rusher Medical LLC â– Founder: Michael Rusher
rfarrant@fwbusiness.com
The road to a beautiful mind is often paved with gravel, not gold. Michael Rusher knows this firsthand. For all of the challenges the Fort Wayne respiratory therapist said he’s faced in his life — the childhood abuse, the two bouts with cancer, the divorce — he now finds himself on the cusp of introducing to the world a simple little device called the Rusher Valve that he believes will significantly help people with breathing problems. “I know this would benefit people all over the world,� said Rusher, 42. “I know this would be a great device to have out
there. To understand how Rusher arrived at his invention — and how the invention works — one must wade through the vicissitudes of his mind. He neither thinks nor talks in a linear fashion. It is a characteristic he readily acknowledges: “My mind just goes so quick. I do get carried away with my thinking.� He said a professor of his at Ivy Tech Community College-Northeast once described his thinking patterns as finding n
See RISHER on PAGE 8
RICK FARRANT
Michael Rusher developed the Rusher Valve, which can be used as a portable breathing aid.
is proud to support the 2012 Business Weekly Awards, and we congratulate the winners for their remarkable business innovations. Thank you for joining us in supporting the Innovation Awards. At Sweetwater, we understand that innovation drives the economy in Northeast Indiana, creating jobs and attracting new investment, and making this region a great place to live. That’s why we’re proud to support the winners of the 2012 Business Weekly Innovation Awards.
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H E A LT H C A R E
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RUSHER: Device can be attached to an air source or nebulizer
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different ways of coming up with answers. Often good answers. But there was a time in his early childhood, he said, when those around him thought he had both coordination problems and a learning disability. “When (my parents) took me for testing, I couldn’t function, couldn’t listen, always had a stomachache and failed all my subjects,” he said. He said he felt inferior to his classmates because people called him stupid, “and my life was just over.” His lack of childhood self-esteem and his learning difficulties, he believes, were tied to abuse at the hands of baby-sitters. But uncoordinated he was not. His parents gave him drum lessons at 5 years old and he’s been playing drums ever since. He also began excelling in school, and in 2002 was named the top graduate at Ivy Tech. What drives Rusher, an employee of Parkview Health, is discovering the intricacies of how things work. The father of two has been flying radio-controlled helicopters since 1989, and he is an accomplished scuba diver who is fascinated by the physics of breathing underwater. His spring-activated Rusher Valve — something he describes in the most technical terms — came to him in a dream in March 2011. The first concept was a pressure-control safety device for people on ventilators. Then he showed his drawings for the device to longtime friend Kay McKenney and she had another suggestion. McKenney, a retired medical technician who has severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, wondered if the little plastic device could be turned into a portable breathing aid that could be used without a forced-air line or a medicinesupplying nebulizer. Something she could use at home. Rusher went right to work on it. “He brought me one to use, to test it out,” said McKenney, 74. “I think it’s good. Mike knows I’ll be honest with him and tell him the truth. If it makes other people feel better, then I’ll be happy.” Page 8
RICK FARRANT
Michael Rusher said the idea for his valve came to him in a dream.
Essentially, Rusher said, his valve has a higher pressure range than other portable devices on the market and doesn’t constrict flow when people use it to breathe in to open airways and breathe out to expel carbon dioxide. If need be, it can also be easily attached to an air source and nebulizer. In addition to assisting people with conditions like COPD and asthma, Rusher said the device could become part of a post-operative protocol for patients who’ve had certain types of surgeries. Using it, he said, would lessen the chances that those patients would come down with pneumonia. A utility patent is pending for the Rusher Valve. The next step, he said, is lining up investors to support the manufacturing of the device and sales to health-
care providers. He estimates it will cost $450,000 to take the product to market. Rusher admits there are moments, driven by remnants of his past and lingering twinges of self-doubt, when he wonders if that will ever happen. “Sometimes I feel really confident and other days it’s real hard,” he said. “It’s just up and down. I’m always asking myself if what I’m doing is really that good. I always question.” But the son of a physician and a nurse has his fair share of supporters. His now ex-wife Pam was among the first. She told him once: “You can do anything you want.” And McKenney said: “I’ve always been supportive of Mike. I always thought Mike had more potential than he used when he was in high school.”
Innovation Awards • November 2012 • fwbusiness.com • ©KPC Media Group Inc.
2 0 1 1 I N N O VATO R O F T H E Y E A R 2 0 1 1 H E A LT H C A R E W I N N E R
Aiming higher Since winning the Innovator of the Year award in 2011, Columbia City-based Be Adaptive Equipment LLC has continued developing and testing new products that help individuals with disabilities lead more active lifestyles. “We didn’t really start out to build a business out of it,” President and CEO Brian Kyler said of the company, which rolled out its first product in 2001. “We’ve gotten to touch more lives and situations that I ever would have dreamed I would be able to in my lifetime,” he said. Since 2001, Be Adaptive Equipment has developed a line of hunting equipment specially designed for those who have limited use of their arms or hands, or are paraplegic or quadriplegic. The various mounts and trigger systems allow individuals to use their own rifles, pistols and
bows without having to alter them. Kyler was inspired to start developing the assistive equipment by Eric Dirig, who became a quadriplegic in 1998 at the age of 21 after being involved in a dirt-bike accident. Dirig, a hunter, and Kyler worked together to create assistive equipment including activity trays and shooting rests for rifles, shotguns, pistols, crossbows and compound bows, and hand controls and lifts for all-terrain vehicles. Kyler said the company is developing and testing assistive fishing equipment, as well as developing equipment suited for other outdoor recreational activities. It’s also looking at designing assistive technologies for everyday activities. “We will probably start venturing outside the adaptive recreation equipment into more day-to-day products,” he said.
FILE PHOTO
Brian Kyler, left, founded Be Adaptive Equipment LLC and Eric Dirig helped him develop his assistive technology for disabled outdoorsmen.
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M A N U FA C T U R I N G & D I S T R I B U T I O N
FILE PHOTO
Mudd-Ox founder Matt Oxender stands in front of his company’s eight-wheel and six-wheel amphibious ATVs.
Strong as an ‘Ox’ BY RICK FARRANT rfarrant@fwbusiness.com
Matt Oxender lives by the adage that it’s better to walk before running. He’s about ready to start running. Oxender is the 38-year-old founder of LaGrange County’s Mudd-Ox Inc., a startup manufacturer of custom amphibious all-terrain vehicles. What began as a single sale in 2008 has blossomed into an enterprise that is expected to top the 1,000-unit mark at year’s end. He has expanded his rural pole-barn production facility at 8525 W. 750 Page 10
■ Company: Mudd-Ox Inc. ■ Founder: Matt Oxender ■ Website: http://muddox.net
North from 3,000 to 9,000 square feet; increased the testing grounds from 25 to 45 acres; and upgraded the company’s machine shop with new equipment. He also has been developing a global network of sales channels that includes distributorships in the United Kingdom and Canada, and dealerships in Alaska, Australia, Germany, Iowa, Minnesota, Russia, Scotland, South America and
South Africa. “With the expansions,” he said, “we are positioning ourselves to become the leader in the amphibious ATV world.” Mudd-Ox manufactures two types of eight-wheel ATVs: a 40-horsepower gas model that sells for $21,900; and a 45horsepower turbo diesel that retails for $26,900. In 2013, he expects to debut a six-wheel model and an eight-wheel handicapped-accessible ATV. Oxender, who formerly worked for an Elkhart County supplier of wire harnesses and dash panels for the recren
See MUDD-OX on PAGE 12
Innovation Awards • November 2012 • fwbusiness.com • ©KPC Media Group Inc.
Innovation Awards • November 2012 • fwbusiness.com • ©KPC Media Group Inc.
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M A N U FA C T U R I N G & D I S T R I B U T I O N
FILE PHOTO
Mudd-Ox workers assemble an eight-wheel amphibious ATV in the company’s pole barn near the Michigan border in LaGrange County.
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MUDD-OX: Adaptability helps set vehicles apart within industry
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ational-vehicle industry, had long thought he could build a better ATV than anyone on the market. He was drawn to that challenge through a love for all-terrain vehicles that began as a youth during rides on a six-wheeler with his grandfather in White Pigeon, Mich. He also knew that makers of amphibious ATVs had all but withered away, even though there were numerous uses for the utilitarian vehicles: among them, fishing, hunting, farming, searchand-rescue missions, surveying and fighting brush fires. Oxender said his vehicles have spanned those uses and then some. Neighborhood associations have used the ATVs for retrieving and servicing water-fountain pumps and filters, and Page 12
oil-field crews in Canada use the vehicles to reclaim the land. He said there are a host of attributes that set his steel-frame, impact-resistant polyethylene vehicles apart from the rest of the market, including unparalleled ground clearance and center of balance. He said his vehicles also have true six- and eight-wheel drives, can counter-rotate and possess instant forward-to-reverse capability. Mudd-Ox, he said, is the only manufacturer that also offers turbo diesel for both the recreational and industrial market. Oxender, who began the sixemployee business with money he had carefully saved, said it’s been a long haul growing the enterprise to this point. He routinely puts in 60 hours a week. “That,” he said, “is what it takes to be successful in business — to start a
business. You have to be all-in. You can’t give up. You can’t stop. To start your own company is not a 9-to-5 job.” Adding to the rigors of developing a business is that he and his production team are constantly working on improving Mudd-Ox products. “No matter how much testing we do here,” he said, “a customer can always find an improvement that needs to be made. We have made sure we have a good quality, reliable machine and that’s because we have continuously made improvements. We don’t wait until the next model year to make an improvement.” And that’s just fine with Oxender. The workloads and the gradual growth are precisely what he had envisioned. Said Oxender: “I would say the business is right on pace with what I expected.”
Innovation Awards • November 2012 • fwbusiness.com • ©KPC Media Group Inc.
PROFESSIONAL SERVICES
A desire to give back BY LINDA LIPP lindal@fwbusiness.com
When Julia Fiechter founded Lendingahand.net, she wasn’t just looking for a way to direct contributions to deserving local nonprofits. She wanted to do it in a way that also rewarded the businesses that were behind those contributions. “In the economic crunch, it was becoming hard for business to give back the way they used to,” Fiechter said. “And then I thought, ‘Did I give back to those businesses?’” A real-estate agent who also had been involved as a volunteer fundraiser for 20 years, Fiechter developed the nonprofit Lendingahand.net in 2011 as a way to accomplish both goals. Consumers obtain Lendingahand.net key-chain tags or use a smartphone app when they complete their purchases at participating businesses that have agreed to the donation program. The donation — which may be a percentage of the sale, a flat contribution or a gift in kind — is automatically recorded and funds are collected from participating businesses each month. The donation doesn’t add to the consumer’s cost; it comes from the business. In return, businesses will benefit from the marketing exposure and goodwill generated by Lendingahand, and perhaps build their base of loyal customers. There are no fees for either businesses or consumers to participate. Fiechter selected 10 charities to begin with, and has expanded to 12. Businesses can choose how much they want to donate per purchase and to what organizations, and keep those choices as long as they participate or change them as often as every month. Fiechter launched the program in Allen County, targeting locally owned n
See GIVE BACK on PAGE 14
Julia Fiechter founded Lendingahand.net, which raises money for nonprofits while also promoting area businesses. LINDA LIPP
Congratulations mudd ox on winning the Business Weekly’s 2012 Innovation Award
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PROFESSIONAL SE RVICES
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GIVE BACK: About 100 businesses take part in the program
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businesses. She started with businesses she knew or friends knew, and grew from there. “It’s not a competitive program. We have restaurants, car dealers, yogurt shops, banks, florists,” she said. About 100 businesses now participate, and Fiechter has begun to expand the program to neighboring counties, beginning with Kosciusko and then moving on to DeKalb, Huntington, Steuben, Wells and Whitley. As of the end of September, Lendingahand had raised about $24,000 for its list of charities. Participating businesses identify themselves with Lendingahand signs. As the program grows across northeast Indiana, money donated by businesses in each county will be used in that county, she promised. A number of charities have contacted Fiechter about the program, and eventually Fiechter would like to have as many as 30 benefiting from it. But she won’t add to the charity list again until there are enough businesses participating to support that. “We don’t want to dilute the impact,” she said. Fiechter also used to donate 10 percent of her real-estate commissions to charity, but she’s since given up her realestate job to focus on Lendingahand. “This grew so quickly, something had to give,” she said. Lendingahand has offices in the PNC Building. The design of the office suite, decorated in a striking combination of red and deep brown, was contributed by Design Collaborative, and its operating and administrative expenses also have come from donations. Fiechter plans to seek additional financial support as the program expands, but won’t compete for grants or funds from the same foundations that support the local charities. “The point is to help them, not hurt them, so we’re looking for different monies,” she said “It takes a lot of donations to keep an organization going and growing.” Page 14
LINDA LIPP
Julia Fiechter is expanding the Lendingahand.net program to Kosciusko, DeKalb, Huntington, Steuben, Wells and Whitley counties. ■ Organization: Lendingahand.net ■ Founder: Julia Fiechter ■ Website: www.lendingahand.net
The organization is also getting some help from college interns, who, among other things, will begin taking on increasing responsibility for the marketing and selling of the concept to potential business partners. “What’s been really exciting is seeking the college students taking part in our program,” she said. Lendingahand is also expanding to events: an Oct. 6 rape-awareness and self-defense program offered in partnership with the Fort Wayne Police Department, for example, raised funds for the Fallen Hero Fund. Participating charities are: Carriage House; the Rescue Mission; Erin’s
House for Grieving Children; the Fallen Hero Fund; Project Linus; Mad Anthonys Children’s Hope House; SCAN; Community Harvest of Northeast Indiana; Turnstone; Special Olympics Indiana Allen County; Cancer Services; and Lifeline Youth and Family Services. Lendingahand key tags are available through participating retailers and at special events, or can be obtained by filling out a form at the website, Lendingahand.net. The phone app also can be downloaded at the website. Consumers are not required to provide detailed information about themselves that can be used for marketing, just basics like name, mailing address, phone numbers and email address. “We’ve got thousands of (key tags),” Fiechter said. “It’s just a matter of getting them out there.”
Innovation Awards • November 2012 • fwbusiness.com • ©KPC Media Group Inc.
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R E A L E S TAT E , C O N S T R U C T I O N & DESIGN
BARRY ROCHFORD
The goal of The Summit and of its executive director, Larry Rottmeyer, is to foster personal and professional growth though its activities and tenants.
A place for growth BY BARRY ROCHFORD barryr@fwbusiness.com
Just as the former Fort Wayne campus of Taylor University is being transformed, backers of The Summit, which is the new name for the campus, hope it will be used so individuals can transform themselves. “This facility provides us a lot of flexibility. It really is a gift that we have — a gift we want to share with the community,” said Larry Rottmeyer, who serves as executive director of The Summit for Ambassador Enterprises LLC. Ambassador Enterprises acquired the 22acre former university campus at 1025 W. Rudisill Blvd. in 2011. Two years earlier, Page 16
■ Organization: The Summit ■ Founder: Ambassador Enterprises LLC ■ Website: www.thesummitfw.com
Taylor had ceased operations in Fort Wayne and hired Ambassador to assist with finding a buyer. Ambassador liked the campus so much, it decided to buy the campus itself. Ambassador was formed in 2008 following the sale of Auburn-based Ambassador Steel Corp. to Nucor Corp. for $185 million. Since then, the self-described for-profit, philanthropic equity firm has made investments in companies including
Wagner-Meinert in Fort Wayne and, most recently, Franklin, Tenn., conveyor-systems manufacturer Designed Systems. But one of Ambassador’s core missions is to promote the personal and professional development of individuals — particularly teachers and educators. With The Summit, Ambassador is striving to create an environment that accomplishes just that, while at the same time serving as a model that can be duplicated in other communities. For the past year, Ambassador has been steadily renovating the campus and preparing it for its new use as a place that n
See SUMMIT on PAGE 17
Innovation Awards • November 2012 • fwbusiness.com • ©KPC Media Group Inc.
R E A L E S TAT E , C O N S T R U C T I O N & DESIGN
VALERIE GOUGH
The Summit features a state-of-the-art learning lab. The tables and windows function as whiteboards.
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SUMMIT: Big Brothers Big Sisters to lease 20,000 square feet
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fosters collaboration and new ideas. “Our first year was to prepare for the next 10,” said Rottmeyer, a former Taylor University marketing professor and chair of the school’s MBA program. In just a short time, the campus has attracted several institutions and organizations that share Ambassador’s goal of personal and professional development. The Henry and Frances Weber School at Grace College & Seminary and Crossroads Bible College offer classes there, and Pathfinder Services Inc. and WBCL-FM have offices there. In addition, Upland-based Taylor University maintains its Fort Wayne Alumni & Friends Resource Center there. The Summit encompasses 14 buildings with a total of 267,000 square feet. While they once contained Taylor University students, the campus’ buildings now are used for meetings and events, training and retreats, among other activities.
In October, The Summit announced its newest — and biggest — tenant. Big Brothers Big Sisters of Northeast Indiana will move into 20,000 square feet of leased space by Jan. 1 and will sell its Fairfield Avenue facility. Ambassador renovated the campus’ Witmer Hall to accommodate Big Brothers Big Sisters. In addition to efficiencies the organization will achieve with the new location, “I think they’re going to benefit with also having the room and space for programming,” Rottmeyer said. One thing that has been somewhat surprising is the demand for use of the Gerig Activities Center. Youth basketball leagues and other sports groups have been lining up to hold tournaments and events at the center, which has attracted even more people to the campus. “Because of all the activity and interest we’ve seen (at the Gerig Activities Center), we’ve become more interested in aligning
The Summit with partners in health, wellness and fitness,” Rottmeyer said. But first and foremost, The Summit is a place for education. It offers a teacher development program and higher-education symposium, and nestled within the campus’ Calvin English Library is a state-of-the-art learning lab where technology and learning come together. “The most efficient education is not always the most effective education,” Rottmeyer said. The lab, which among its gadgets has tables that function as whiteboards, offers a glimpse of what education could look like in the future. Even as The Summit is just beginning, Rottmeyer said Ambassador hopes the model can be taken to other areas where similar campuses can be created. But the goal will remain the same. Rottmeyer said: “Our goal is to attract partners who take up residence and work together to build this learning community.”
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R E TA I L
LINDA LIPP
Renee Gabet, founder and president of Annie Oakley Perfumery & Studio, opened her studio in 2011. At the studio, she takes visitors on “sensory tours.”
The scent of success BY LINDA LIPP lindal@fwbusiness.com
Renee Gabet is an artist, and fragrance is her canvas. The founder and president of Annie Oakley Perfumery & Studio in Ligonier has been fascinated by perfumes since she was a young girl visiting the old Wolf & Dessauer department store in Fort Wayne. She gravitated toward the enticing scents, sparkling counters and beautiful perfume bottles every time she entered the store Page 18
■ Business: Annie Oakley Perfumery & Studio ■ Founder: Renee Gabet ■ Website: www.annieoakley.com
with her mother and grandmother, who warned her sternly not to touch. But the saleswoman at the counter saw her enthusiasm, “and she let me touch everything,” Gabet recalled. Fast forward to 1973. Gabet was then a single mother who desperately needed to
support herself and her child. “There were no jobs, and a friend of mine encouraged me to make jewelry. I took my only $25 and went to a bead shop and bought supplies.” Gabet quickly found a market for the jewelry she made in her home, first at a few boutiques, then arts-and-crafts fairs, and then more boutiques. She knew she was on her way when she sold $10,000 worth of items at an eight-foot table at n
See ANNIE on PAGE 20
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R E TA I L
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Glenbrook Square Mall during a six-week holiday shopping period. Sales at malls in Indianapolis followed, and Gabet moved to Noblesville to be closer to the business. Eventually, her jewelry was carried in hundreds of Paul Harris stores. Noblesville is also where she lived when she met and married Chuck Gabet, who had a full-time job with a railroad but pitched in to help with the jewelry making in his off hours. “I did hire people to help me when needed, but Chuck and I put together thousands of pieces,” she said. Eventually, Gabet worked her way into the western-wear market with a signature boot bracelet, signing up retailers after displaying her wares at a major western trade show. She’d never lost her interest in perfumes, so she also hit upon the idea of making scents with a western flair that would appeal to those same retailers. When Gabet discovered that the rights to the name “Annie Oakley,” which had been owned previously by old-time movie cowboy Gene Autry, were available, she snapped them up. Her first scent, made in 1980 with natural oils and other ingredients, was called “Annie.” She crafted the fragrance on her own, made it at her kitchen table and bottled it on her front porch. Rather than work through distributors, she sold it directly to the network of western-wear retailers she had already developed. Through a series of job transfers by Chuck’s employer, the Gabet family, which now included five children, had ended up back in Ligonier. The town became her laboratory as she worked to develop new scents and new products made with those scents — always using natural ingredients. “I’d take it to football games and pass it around the bleachers for the kids and their parents and their grandparents to try. The town of Ligonier was really my focus group,” she said. In the late 1980s, the business was big enough that she moved it to rented space at a building just a few blocks from her house. By 2009, the business had sold more than 2 Page 20
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Renee Gabet created her first scent, “Annie,” in 1980. By 2009, the business had sold more than 2 million bottles of perfume products.
million bottles of perfume products. Interest in old-fashioned, all-natural perfumes has grown rapidly in the United States in the last few decades, and natural perfumeries of various sizes now operate all over the country. What may set Annie Oakley apart is that everything — research and development, production, packaging and distribution — is done under one roof. The line now carries a variety of body products, as well as perfumes, for both men and women; and custom scents also can be created in the perfumery lab. Annie Oakley even makes a calming lavender scent that can be used by both horse and rider to help ease tension and improve training. Gabet decided in 2010 to add yet another component to the operation: a studio that would cater to both locals and tourists. The business had purchased the building at 300 Johnson St., and Gabet added another 1,700 feet that includes product displays and other tourist-inspired elements, as well as a gallery highlighting the story of the real Annie Oakley. The gleaming counters and colorful
perfume collections would do Wolf & Dessauer proud. The studio, which opened in 2011, offers “sensory tours” several days a week and by appointment. One of the things Gabet likes to do for her guests is design perfumes inspired by group members’ interests. On a recent tour by some senior “red hat” women, she elicited information on what each member enjoyed doing. One quilted, one baked cream pies and so on. Then she moved into her lab area and blended scents such as cotton and cream that represented each woman’s interest to create a scent just for them. “I weave it together. I knit it together,” she said. Like other artists, Gabet sometimes has trouble explaining her creative process because it’s as natural and intimate to her as breathing. Some of her skills were learned over years of studying and experimenting, but a lot of it comes down to personal preference. “It’s like anything else,” she said. “Do you like Boone’s Farm or Mondavi? It’s a matter of taste.”
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T E C H N O LO GY
Just aim, shoot and pay BY DOUG LEDUC dougl@fwbusiness.com
A Fort Wayne entrepreneur with decades of information-technology experience in the banking industry is set to make bill paying a little easier for smartphone users. His name is Ralph Marcuccilli. He’s a Star Financial Bank veteran who struck out on his own to start Allied Payment Network in 2010. The developer of online payment systems for the finance industry has its headquarters at the Northeast Indiana Innovation Center in Fort Wayne. Its latest product is called Picture Pay. The software automatically pulls all of the information needed to pay a bill from a picture taken of it with a smartphone, and then processes the payment with the user’s authorization via touch command. “You go into the app and say, ‘Make a payment,’ and it will come up with a camera,” Marcuccilli said. “We’re using the camera as an input device … like a keyboard. They snap a picture, and our system uses the picture to automate (the payment process). “We say it makes payments drop-dead simple … You just aim, shoot and pay.” The app includes options that allow users to specify an amount and a date for payment of a photographed bill. For bills that are paid in the same amount on the same date each month, there is an option that can use information from the photo to set up an automatic monthly payment. And the app can be used to make a deposit into an account by shooting a picture of a check. The app has been beta tested successfully, Marcuccilli said. “It really does make payments much easier and much faster. We’ve had customers tell us they can pay all their bills for the whole month in less than five minutes.” The Picture Pay app integrates well into the mobile-banking software n
See ALLIED on PAGE 22
DOUG LEDUC
Ralph Marcuccilli launched Allied Payment Network in 2010. The company’s newest financial-services product is Picture Pay, which allows users to pay bills with their smartphones.
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customers use to check their balance, transfer funds from one account to another, and complete a variety of transactions online. And Allied Payment Network is working on deals with a couple of mobile banking software developers to sell Picture Pay to their financial-service customers. “It’s a service we offer to financial institutions. It is something banks and credit unions could license from us,” Marcuccilli said. “A bank would license mobile-banking software from a vendor, and our product would be part of that software they would license. Allied Payment Network is applying for some patents on Picture Pay, and Marcuccilli, its president, said the
■ Business: Allied Payment Network ■ Founder: Ralph Marcuccilli ■ Website: www.alliedpayment.com
product could provide an opportunity for the financial-services industry because there is nothing in the United States that has made bill paying this simple for its customers. “Banks don’t really have high adoption rates for customers to use bill pay and … this really simplifies it a lot. You can make a payment in about 20 seconds,” he said. Only 25 percent of bank and creditunion customers use their online bill pay capabilities compared with 80 percent who avail themselves of the online banking services they offer, he said. Allied Payment Network has other
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Congratulations to Annie Oakley Perfumery winner of 2012 Business Weekly’s Innovation Awards, Retail Category Page 22
BARRY ROCHFORD
Once a user snaps a picture of a bill, the Picture Pay app collects all of the payment information from the photo and automatically sets up a payment.
investors, but Marcuccilli is its primary shareholder. He said the company plans to stay in Fort Wayne as it grows, partly because it received an economic-development incentive package worth $290,000 last year to keep it in the city. The Fort Wayne-Allen County Economic Development Alliance released information on the incentives in a May 2011 announcement on a $1.5million investment in the company’s software development projects — work it said would grow Allied Payment Network from seven to 29 full-time employees within four years. Picture Pay could contribute to that growth, and Marcuccilli said more information about the product could be getting out to banking customers soon. “We’ve got the first bank that’s going to be rolling the product out to its customers,” he said. “The institutions that we’ve got agreements signed with, they have marketing plans in place and the moment this goes live they’re going to hit the airwaves with it, saying, ‘Look at this! Look at how simple we can make paying bills!’”
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PA S T W I N N E R S
The innovators 2012 marks the seventh year that the Greater Fort Wayne Business Weekly has recognized companies and organizations from across the region for their innovative ideas, products and services. Past winners are:
2006
2009
Emerging company — SensoryCritters.com Financial services — BeniComp Group Inc.; Bank of Geneva Health care — Schwartz Biomedical Manufacturing and distribution — Rubber Innovators LLC Nonprofit — Foundation for Art and Music in Elementary Education; Science Central Professional services — Digital AV Real estate, construction and design — RealtyFlex Corporate LLC Retail — Stop & Shred Technology — Zoom Information Systems Innovator of the Year — Rubber Innovators LLC
Emerging company — DigitalHydraulic LLC Health care — StrokeCareNow Network Manufacturing and distribution — USCombatGear Professional services — Financial Education Solutions Real estate, construction and design — MSKTD & Associates Inc. Retail — Build A Computer Technology — TrustBearer Labs Innovator of the Year — DigitalHydraulic LLC
2007 Emerging company — Sorbashock LLC Financial services — HomeFree Systems LLC; Wells Fargo Health care — LacPro Industries LLC Manufacturing and distribution — Superior Manufacturing, a division of Magnatech Corp. Professional services — DeSoto Translation & Marketing Inc. Real estate, construction and design — NAI Harding Dahm Retail — Crazy Pinz Technology — Effect Web Media Innovator of the Year — LacPro Industries LLC
2008 Emerging company — NewsMogul LLC Health care — Solstice Medical LLC Manufacturing and distribution — Tippmann Industrial Products Inc. Professional services — Star Financial Bank Real estate, construction and design — Basic Elements Design LLC Retail — Fort Wayne Outfitters and Bike Depot Technology — Intrasect Technologies Innovator of the Year — Solstice Medical LLC
2010 Emerging company — Honor Education LLC Health care — OrthoPediatrics Manufacturing and distribution — Whitley Steel Products & Fabrication Professional services — Summer’s Sky LLC Real estate, construction and design — Pathfinder Services Inc. Retail — The Green ABC’s Technology — Indiana Metropolitan Area Network Inc. Innovator of the Year — Honor Education LLC
2011 Emerging company — PYPline LLC Health care — Be Adaptive Equipment LLC Manufacturing and distribution — Tippmann Engineering Professional services — Cirrus ABS Real estate, construction and design — Commercial Filter Service Inc. Retail — Average Joe Artisan Bread LLC Technology — Group Dekko Innovator of the Year — Be Adaptive Equipment LLC
To nominate your company or organization for the 2013 Innovation Awards, visit www.fwbusiness.com.
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Innovation Awards • November 2012 • fwbusiness.com • ©KPC Media Group Inc.