Innovation + Job News

In these challenging economic times, it's increasingly difficult for entrepreneurs to find needed funding to launch start-up businesses or expand an existing business. Private financing, such as venture capitalists and angel investors, can be one viable solution for entrepreneurs looking for business funding. The trick is how to find those funding sources that might be interested. A newly launched online platform has entered the financial scene with the goal of bringing together entrepreneurs seeking funding and lenders, venture capitalists, and other investors, as well as firms that specialize in providing business services.

Columbia based Venture Funding Network provides a place for entrepreneurs, investors, and business service providers to get connected online at its new website, VentureFundingNetwork.com. Registration is free and membership allows businesses to access an array of tools designed to promote customized connections.

"In today's business climate, it's the connections you make that open doors and help you succeed," says Phillip Bradford, Founder and CEO of Venture Funding Network, LLC. "Venture Funding Network offers our members the opportunity to make those door-opening connections that can lead to business and job growth."

Venture Funding Network offers entrepreneurs the opportunity to post investment-grade business plans and specialized profiles outlining their business funding needs. Entrepreneurs will also have access to a searchable database of lenders, venture capitalists, angel investors, and other financiers looking to make new investments. Business service providers will have the opportunity to post profiles to the site that help them connect with entrepreneurs looking for needed specialized services such as accounting and business plans. Financiers can use the searchable database of entrepreneurs to find the kind of loans or funding that fit their interests. The website also promotes opportunities for buying and selling businesses, as well as finding new business partners, joint ventures, or other collaborations.

"I'm excited about the opportunities for development and growth that Venture Funding Network provides for Maryland and D.C. area businesses." says Bradford.

As Venture Funding Network continues to grow, the Columbia firm looks to expand its national reach. The company will begin rolling out a national affiliate marketing program in the next few weeks.

Writer: Amy McNeal
Source: Phillip Bradford, CEO, Venture Funding Network, LLC

Veterans of military service often have the kind of specialized skills and security experience that defense contractors, manufacturing companies, and services companies are searching for. As today's veterans finish their tours and return to the civilian world, the companies that need their skills are seeking to attract their attention through job fairs.

On Thursday, May 5, 2011, the Military.com/NCOA Baltimore Military Career Expo will take place at the Sheraton Four Points BWI from 10 AM to 2 PM. The Expo is free for job seekers and will feature informational booths and recruiters from organizations looking to employ and educate veterans upon the completion of their military service.  

The Baltimore Military Career expo is a yearly event designed to help military personnel explore the options that are offered to them at the end of their active duty service period and beyond. The event features sponsors that offer a wide variety of opportunities. Defense contractors and government service agencies will be sending recruiters to the Expo looking for retired military personnel and those who are soon to complete their service to fill jobs that have specialized requirements. Some of the available positions, especially those working with defense contractors and in government service, may require a security clearance. In addition to recruiters looking to fill jobs, other exhibitors will be on hand to provide attendees with information on the education and training programs available to veterans.

Defense contractors including Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, ManTech International, and Bartlett Nuclear will be on hand looking for new talent. Organizations such as Troops to Teachers, Helmets to Hardhats, and Military to Medicine will also be on hand at the event. Job seekers will also have the chance to explore available career opportunities with manufacturing and services firms. Johnson and Johnson, Wells Fargo, Lowes, and Waste Management will be represented. Representatives from colleges will also be present to inform attendees about their available options for continuing education.

Writer: Amy McNeal
Source: Military.com, Ensign Katherine Boeder

BRAC has created many new job opportunities in Baltimore and the metro region. The Base Realignment and Closure Program, first implemented by the Department of Defense in 1999, is designed to streamline the military's base expenditures by consolidating operations into some bases while closing others. The program is designed to produce more efficient facilities and promote better use of resources through all branches of the military. The final phase of the most recent mandates of the BRAC program has begun and is scheduled to be completed by September 2011.

Fort Meade, Aberdeen Proving Ground, and other military facilities in Maryland have seen an influx of new personnel and resources as the BRAC program has progressed. The program has created thousands of jobs in Maryland, both on and off base. As the program enters its final phase of implementation, area economic development agencies have hosted several information sessions for Maryland job seekers.

This week the Howard Country Office of Workforce Development, in conjunction with the Anne Arundel County Workforce Development Corporation, will be holding their fourth and final workshop on the job opportunities that have been created by BRAC. The event is intended to provide participants with the most up to date information about job growth and opportunity as the final phase of the BRAC program is implemented in Maryland. Organizers have been careful to market the event as an informative presentation and not a job fair.

At the workshop, representatives from federal agencies and private companies will be on hand. Discussion will focus on the types of job opportunities that this phase of the program is creating, the location of those jobs, and the application process that job seekers will be undergoing. Since many of the jobs created by the BRAC program involve applicants possessing or obtaining a security clearance, a representative from the Defense Information Systems Agency will also be available to explain the security clearance process.

"This is our chance to provide job seekers with the most accurate, up to date information on BRAC related jobs in our area," says Francine Trout, Director of Howard County's Office of Workforce Development.

The final free workshop outlining the job opportunities created by the BRAC program will be held at the Arundel High School auditorium, 1001 Annapolis Road in Gambrills on Tuesday, May 3 from 7 � 8:30 pm.

Writer: Amy McNeal
Source: Jeryl Baker and Francine Trout, Howard County Office of Workforce Development

Maryland's got Seoul. Governor Martin O'Malley inked a memorandum of understanding (MOU) Thursday, April 21 with the mayor of South Korea's capital city that focuses on bilateral cooperation between biotechnology institutions and companies.

Seoul mayor Oh Se-hoon visited the State House with a delegation of Korean business and government officials to sign the MOU, and O'Malley will see Oh again during his 10-day, junket to China, Korea, and Vietnam in late May and early June.

"Korean companies invested around $5 billion in the U.S. last year, and that number goes up every year," says John Brinkley of the Embassy of the Republic of Korea in Washington, D.C.

As the research commercialization process ramps up at Maryland institutions like the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda and Baltimore's Johns Hopkins and University of Maryland labs, Korean biotech companies are raising their sector's own profile in a national economy dominated by conglomerates like Samsung, Hyundai, and LG.

The Korean Biotech database counts over 20,700 biotech enterprises in South Korea, and Brinkley adds that Maryland's high concentration of biotech companies and research dollars is a major attraction for emerging life-science businesses from around South Korea, including the financial and political center Seoul, to establish connections to the state.

Writer: Sam Hopkins
Source: John Brinkley, Embassy of the Republic of Korea

Baltimore is a center of the for-profit education sector as headquarters to Laureate Education and Sylvan Learning, and the city is a base of major operations for other companies such as K12 and Connections Education, but startups based in the city's Emerging Technology Centers (ETCs) are also looking to make their mark in the multi-billion dollar education products and services industry.

A handful of small education innovation companies are working on web-based tools at the ETC in Canton. They want a piece of the market being stimulated by President Obama's Race to the Top and i3 (Investing in Innovation) initiatives, which are working their way from the U.S. Department of Education into state and local school boards and districts.

Khalid Smith is one of those ETC entrepreneurs. He says i3 and Race to the Top are in some ways connected to George W. Bush's No Child Left Behind, which itself was a modification of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965. However, Obama's investment initiatives are rooted in the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act--the federal stimulus of 2009.

"They are related in that they build off of the same idea that -- although the federal government is not constitutionally empowered to dictate educational policy -- it does provide huge sums of money to the states to assist with large education problems, and it theoretically can attach whatever requirements it likes to say what a state needs to do to qualify for these 'additional' funds," Smith says.

Through i3, the Department of Education and the administration aim to spur collaborations between non-profit organizations and school districts, with enterprises watching carefully to see what market segments they can serve. Locally, Maryland schools are ranked highest in the nation by The College Board and Education Week magazine, and on April 15 the Maryland State Board of Education announced that it would hire a search firm to find its next superintendent after Nancy Grasmick ends her 30-year tenure at the post. Maryland's record of high achievement sits alongside a history of challenges in Baltimore City schools, which now include 34 charter schools. Khalid Smith adds that it is still difficult for for-profit education innovation companies to work their products into school systems, but the overall promotion of educational innovation in Baltimore and nationwide is encouraging for emerging companies in his sector.

Writer: Sam Hopkins
Source: Khalid Smith, Emerging Technology Center - Canton

Baltimore's Downtown Partnership is featuring innovation in transit-centered building development and improvements to the city's actual public transportation systems as critical factors for the city center's success. The 2011 Downtown Baltimore Strategic Plan includes Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) district plans for the area surrounding Lexington Market, and prioritizes the elimination of surface-level parking lots.

"Surface parking lots are huge impediments to Downtown progress," says Downtown Partership head Kirby Fowler. "They are unattractive, blank spaces, and they eat up areas that could be thriving open spaces or key development areas. We propose that surface parking be discouraged through the possible imposition of fees that would be refunded to the property owners once the site is developed."

Technological advances that ease access to public transportation, like the Charm City Circulator's NextBus web feature, could ease the transition to mass transit for many who would otherwise use existing surface-level parking lots. In Boston, Circulator operators Veolia Transportation have rolled out open-source tracking data for buses and trains that allow software developers to deliver accurate information to transit riders. Veolia already uses its Taxi Magic website and Apple device apps to allow cab customers in Baltimore to connect directly to Yellow Cab dispatchers.

"The greatest Downtowns in the country have great public transportation," Fowler continues. "A Transit-Oriented Development District would help us work towards a Downtown that's even more interconnected, populated, and dynamic."

Writer: Sam Hopkins
Source: Kirby Fowler, Downtown Partnership of Baltimore president

Now that Maryland legislators have approved the $70 million InvestMaryland initiative to spur venture capital flows in the state, Baltimore-area institutions that are engaged in bringing institutional research to market are working the new money from Annapolis into their outlook.

Aris Melissaratos, Johns Hopkins University Senior Advisor to the President for Enterprise Development, is optimistic about the impact of InvestMaryland, which passed on April 11, on the commercialization process. Yet, he cautions that the funds need to be managed well to have a maximal impact:

"It is a great program assuming that the insurance companies are willing to pay their taxes up front at a discount," says Melissaratos, who spent decades as an executive at Westinghouse and has also served as head of the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development (DBED). InvestMaryland funds will come from rebate incentives to Maryland insurance companies that pay their taxes in advance.  "It is also imperative that the funds be managed wisely by both DBED and the private sector," he adds. In the end, Melissaratos says, "InvestMaryland will make start-up capital more available and, therefore, accelerate the discovery to market process as well as the technology transfer process."

Writer: Sam Hopkins
Source: Aris Melissaratos, Senior Advisor to the President of JHU for Enterprise Development

Dave Troy is a busy guy. He's been engaged in a "code sprint" with his 410 Labs team at Baltimore Startup Weekend, he's a key planner of the upcoming TEDx Baltimore on May 15, and his startup company 410 Labs just secured over half a million dollars in Series A venture capital funding from high-level investors associated with LivingSocial and Twitter, among other strategic investors.

All of that activity is intended to help build Baltimore as a global technology hub. At Startup Weekend, 410 Labs created Mailstorm, a management and analytics system for multiple email accounts. That will add to its product portfolio, which already includes Replyz.com and Shortmail.com.

"We're really excited to be breaking the mold and showing that you can build a tech company here in Baltimore," Troy says. He adds that many local software developers tend to doubt the ability to raise money for expansion locally.

"Really what it shows me is that it's not just about your location or even necessarily about your ideas," the entrepreneur an investor continues. "It's about your ability to build a network that can make what you're trying to do succeed."

Writer: Sam Hopkins
Source: Dave Troy, 410 Labs

As participants in the Baltimore area economy at all levels -- consumers, producers, and workers -- continue to explore what manufacturing means in the 21st century, one of the world's foremost experts in industrial profitability and growth will hold a free talk at the Community College of Baltimore County on Thursday, April 14 to share his insights. Dr. Eliyahu Goldratt, an Israeli citizen with a Ph.D in physics, has made a name internationally with his Theory of Constraints, which hinges on operational expense, throughput, and inventory as key factors that businesses need to weigh to ensure expansion.

Goldratt will come to CCBC's Catonsville campus on April 14 from 9-10:30 am to discuss his seminal 1984 book The Goal and take questions. Goldratt's visit to CCBC is primarily the result of work by the Regional Manufacturing Institute of Maryland, which encourages growth in the state's industrial economy and workforce through educational initiatives and networking events. RMI head Mike Galiazzo says Goldratt has "transformed many companies to be more competitive. He's really known for his no-nonsense approach, saying basically, 'we're gonna figure out what's holding your company back from growing.'"

"This is a great win for Maryland to have someone of his international stature come to town to do a free presentation for business leaders," Galiazzo adds.

The event is free to the public, but registration is required via www.rmiofmaryland.com.

Writer: Sam Hopkins
Source: Dr. Michael Galiazzo, Regional Manufacturing Institute of Maryland

General Motors is still recovering from its declaration of bankruptcy in June of 2009, and reorganization across the company is now resulting in increased community outreach at GM's transmission production facilities in White Marsh, north of Baltimore.

Allison Transmission/GM Powertrain of White Marsh was selected in early 2010 as the site of its electric motor production plant, with the first electric vehicle and hybrid transmission hardware set to come off the line there in 2013. In advance of groundbreaking on the $246 million, 40,000 square-foot building in May of this year, employees and executives including plant manager Bill Tiger are taking part in activities like a wildlife habitat cleanup that took place near the existing plant on April 7. Fifth-grade students from Chapel Hill Elementary School in nearby Perry Hall learned about hybrid and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles under development by GM as well as GM-Baltimore Operations (GMBO) efforts to reduce energy intensity through efficient lighting and waste-to-energy conversion systems.

As Bill Tiger observed after the event, "It went really, really well -- we got 200 trees planted for a wildlife habitat and the kids worked their way through some recycling exercises seeing what you can and can't recycle. They seemed really excited and really engaged."

In addition to wanting to come back to see the trees grow, Tiger says the students displayed an impressive understanding of advanced propulsion technology, which includes electric vehicles, hybrid EVs, and fuel cell vehicles. "They had a good grasp on it -- I asked, 'Who knows what biofuel is?' and they said, 'French fry grease!'"

Baltimore-area residents will be able to get a look at the existing plant and see the groundbreaking of the hybrid drivetrain facility, as well as the cars and trucks slated to be produced there, at an open house at GMBO in White Marsh on May 18.

Writer: Sam Hopkins
Source: Bill Tiger, Plant Manager, General Motors Baltimore Operations/Allison Transmission

Can you build a booming business in a couple of days? The organizers of Baltimore Startup Weekend think it's possible. Over the weekend of Friday, April 15 to Sunday, April 17, more than a hundred business-types of all stripes -- programmers, designers, number-crunchers, and marketing gurus -- will assemble in small groups of five to ten each and seek to launch a business in one weekend.

Everyone starts on Friday at the Emerging Technology Center in Canton with individual ideas, and that evening teams start to coalesce around the best kernels of a company that are pitched to the group. By Saturday, work begins in earnest. The majority of that day is devoted to setting up enough of a company that by Sunday night each team can present a fully-formed enterprise to the plenum at the University of Maryland BioPark.

Aside from the knowledge that you've got what it takes to go through a 54-hour entrepreneurial gauntlet, successful participants will also compete for a piece of a cash prize pool estimated at around $10,000, in addition to non-cash prizes like workspace and free legal advice.

Organizers of Baltimore Startup Weekend include Sunrise Design founder Mike Brenner, Monica Beeman of Funding Universe and Startup City, Fulya Gursel of the Emerging Technology Centers in Canton and on 33rd Street in Waverly, and Edcosystem.com founder and CEO Khalid Smith.

"You don't have to know anybody. Just bring an idea or even just your talent," Brenner says.

"Startup weekend was an original concept developed by entrepreneur Andrew Hyde who lived in Boulder, Colorado and then New York, and sold the concept," Brenner explains. Startup Weekend now unfolds in 5 cities each weekend. With funding from the Kauffman Foundation of Kansas City, which promotes entrepreneurship, and sponsors like Red Bull, which promotes staying awake, Startup Weekend participants are provided with enough resources to allow them to focus on developing ideas into products. What follows the weekend can quickly become a real market force: within weeks of formation at a recent Startup Weekend in Los Angeles, Zaarly raised $1 million in venture capital funding.

Brenner is optimistic about what could come out of Charm City's Startup Weekend.

"I think it's great proof that we can do something in town in a weekend that can be viable, and that we can rapidly prototype it in the week or so after the event." When asked what kind of person might be attracted to such a short-term business incubator, he adds, "It's people like me that think they can spend a weekend dedicated and work their asses off and make something cool."

Writer: Sam Hopkins
Sources: Mike Brenner, Baltimore Startup Weekend

The Maryland-Asia Environmental Partnership will build on a multilateral relationship between the Far East and Mid-Atlantic on April 13 during MD-AEP's Clean Water Summit at Baltimore's Center Club. Chesapeake Bay stakeholders and water management experts will assemble to prepare a Maryland delegation for the Singapore International Water Week conference this July.

As MD-AEP head Peter Gourlay explains, "The genesis goes back three years to our Asia Water Management Forum at the Center Club in 2008, where we invited Singapore's National Water Agency chief executive to give the keynote speech." That was a major draw for experts and officials from around the Mid-Atlantic. The 2011 Clean Water Summit will use the Chesapeake Bay as a backdrop for exploration of water-related issues, since it is a symbol of health for the tourism industry and a source of drinking water for 16 million people. Real estate, fisheries, port management, and energy will all be discussed during the summit.

Gourlay adds that subjects that may seem tangential to water management issues are a critical part of the forum: "We're breaking down this Clean Water Summit to: food safety; the water-energy nexus, which involves efficient water usage and efficient energy use in pumping water to different locations; potential for sustainable agriculture and poultry cleanup in Maryland," and other areas where attendees can share concerns and best practices.

"Very often you'll hear that we get a very bad grade in terms of the health of the Chesapeake Bay, but in fact it's probably more scrutinized than any other water body on earth because Washington sits right on top of it." Asian countries and companies are interested in how Mid-Atlantic governments balance enforcement and economic growth, in Gourlay's experience.

The Clean Water Summit will feature participants and speakers from the Chesapeake Bay Commission, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the U.S. Geological Survey, the Maryland Bureau of the Environment, the World Bank, and even Coca-Cola, whose management views water as a sustainability and commodity pricing concern.

"I think we can turn water practices into an advantage from a tourism standpoint and also science and technology solutions being implemented in the Bay." Gourlay says.

Source: Peter Gourlay, President, Maryland-Asia Environmental Partnership
Writer: Sam Hopkins

Tidal TV, a Baltimore-based web video company with about 70 employees nationwide, is looking to expand its local workforce by up to 60 as it prepares for a move into a 16,000 square-foot facility in the new mixed-use McHenry Row development in South Baltimore. Tidal TV was one of the first tenants in Tide Point, the rehabbed industrial building on the Locust Point side of the Inner Harbor. Now Under Armour is taking over all of Tide Point and driving many tenants to seek new digs nearby.
 
Tidal TV was started in 2008 by Scott Ferber, who with his brother John founded Advertising.com, which is now a division of AOL. Vice President Rich Morrissey says that the company is drawing in new talent to help it continue to compete in the fast-growing online video advertising sector, including mobile video advertising.

"The online video market space is exploding," Morrissey says, with 40% market growth forecast in each of the coming three years. Morrissey adds that the Baltimore employment scene is highly competitive, citing job search site Indeed.com, which ranks Baltimore as one of only four metropolitan areas with a 1:1 ratio of job seekers to positions (the others are Washington, DC, New York, NY, and San Jose, CA). Some Tidal TV employees currently commute from as far as Bethesda, MD and Erie, PA, but more than doubling office space in its move, Tidal TV will begin close to home to occupy more positions with Baltimore-based talent while drawing out-of-towners with experience monetizing web video content closer to headquarters.

"As a startup we always look for the best and brightest," Morrissey says.
 
Writer: Sam Hopkins
Source: Rich Morrissey, Tidal TV

On April 11, TowsonGlobal, the business incubator at Towson University, will bring finalists for its Business Plan Competition before a panel of six judges, four of whom are Towson University alumni. The competition winner will receive a free three-month residency at TowsonGlobal as well as a cash prize. The judges' panel includes executives from branding and communications agency Planit, Paypal and eBay subsidiary Bill Me Later, IT developer G.1440, investment firm Evergreen Advisors, and M&T Bank.

By focusing on early-stage local innovation companies and involving successful area entrepreneurial innovators and Towson University alumni, TowsonGlobal Director Clay Hickson says the competition will serve "to strengthen long-lasting entrepreneurial spirit and support innovation across the Greater Baltimore Region that ultimately create a more vibrant economy. The judges panel for this first competition embodies that vision by providing today's innovators with real and useful input from successful entrepreneurs and other business people."

The TowsonGlobal Business Plan Competition's six finalists are:

Women's apparel company Hem of HIS Garment, security service provider Knight Protection, Inc., web learning management system Mocha, infertility treatment online assistance platform My Hopeful Journey, mobile phone technology developer PubRaiders.com, and Facebook game developer Pure Bang Games.

Writer: Sam Hopkins
Source: Clay Hickson, Director, TowsonGlobal

Among many employer-oriented job search firms in the Baltimore area, there are few that name job-seekers as their exclusive clients. Joblink of Maryland operates on a different model from headhunters and many online services that provide access to job-seekers but depend on large companies for revenue. Executive Director Elliot Lasson says, "Joblink is important because it's a resource available to job-seekers who may not have experience looking for a job in 2011, or 2010, or 2009." These past few years have created major waves in the Maryland job market and dislodged many career employees from positions they held for decades -- dating back to before Monster.com was a glint in anyone's eye.

Joblink is staffed by people with master's degrees and above in fields related to human resources, and they provide personal services to job-seekers at no cost. Joblink draws its resources from donor and grant support, because it is a non-profit organization. In the course of assisting candidates with online tools and offline connections, Joblink has developed a broad picture of the local employment scene that includes the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) program that is expected to draw 16,000 jobs to Maryland.

Writer: Sam Hopkins
Source: Elliot Lasson, Joblink Executive Director