Innovation Awards - 2010

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IInnovation
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Business Weekly Business Weekly
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ASPECIAL PUBLICATION OF
GREATER FORT WAYNE
Business Weekly
826 Ewing St.
Fort Wayne, IN 46802
(260) 426-2640
Fax: (260) 426-2503
www.fwbusiness.com
Terry Housholder
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Publisher
Lynn Sroufe
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General Manager
Barry Rochford
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Editor
Linda Lipp
lindal@fwbusiness.com
Associate Editor/Reporter
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Reporter
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Reporter
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ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES
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President, CEO
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Chief Financial Officer
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Online Director
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a publication of KPC Media Group Inc.
2010 All rights reserved
E DI TOR S LETTE R
Five years of innovation
A
fter our first Innovation Awards competition in 2006, a
common refrain heard around the Greater Fort Wayne
Business Weekly office was, OK, that was a lot of fun.
But can we do it again next year?
Not only was the scale of the competition and the size of the
event daunting, we wondered just how many more innovative
companies and ideas we would find in 2007.
Turns out, there was no need to worry. Innovation surrounds
us. It permeates the entire region. Our difficulty now lies in
selecting seven category winners from the stack of applications
we get each year.
This years winners come from very different backgrounds, but
they all share one ideal: making life better for their customers and
the community around them by offering innovative products and
services.
These awards wouldnt be possible without the support of our
corporate sponsors, BKD LLP, Lake City Bank, NAI Harding
Dahm, Sperry Van Ness Parke Group, the Northeast Indiana
Innovation Center and PHP.
We also were fortunate to have a highly experienced group of
Innovation Awards judges select the 2010 Innovator of the Year.
The judges for this years competition were: Don Wood, presi-
dent and CEO, 80/20 Corp.; Don Willis, chairman, FourthWave
LLC; Dorian Maples, owner, Dorian Maples & Associates; Tom
Cottrell, managing partner, BKD; Lora Thrasher, COO, Briljent;
and Elton Bishop, founder, DigitalHydraulic LLC, which was the
2009 Innovator of the Year.
I hope the stories in this publication will inspire others to
create their own innovative products and services. And maybe
next year or in the years that follow, well be able to recognize
them, too.
Barry Rochford
Editor, Greater Fort Wayne Business Weekly
Innovation Awards 2010 fwbusiness.com Page 3
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TABLE OF CONTE NTS
Editors letter...............................................................................2
Innovation Awards judges......................................................4
Sponsors .....................................................................................5
EMERGING COMPANY
Honor Education LLC..............................................................6
2009 Innovator of the Year update.....................................8
HEALTH CARE
OrthoPediatrics..........................................................................9
MANUFACTURING & DISTRIBUTION
Whitley Steel Products & Fabrication.............................12
PROFESSIONAL SERVICES
Summers Sky LLC................................................................14
REAL ESTATE, CONSTRUCTION & DESIGN
Pathfinder Services Inc. .......................................................16
RETAIL
The Green ABCs..................................................................18
TECHNOLOGY
Indiana Metropolitan Area Network Inc. .........................20
Past winners ............................................................................22
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I NNOVATI ON AWARDS J UDGES
Judged by their peers
Wood Willis Maples Cottrell Thrasher Bishop
Judging for the fifth-annual Innovation
Awards competition was divided into two
rounds.
In the first round, representatives from
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:
Jim Brunnemer, PHP;
Remound Wright, Northeast Indiana
Innovation Center;
Drew Dunlavy, Lake City Bank;
Ed Baker, BKD LLP;
Linda Ritter, Sperry Van Ness Parke
Group; and
John Caffray, NAI Harding Dahm.
The first-round judges tried to deter-
mine if the company truly was innovative,
and they used a broad definition of innova-
tion. It could be an entirely new business
concept. It could be a business concept
new to this region, but one that exists else-
where. 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
and the founder of the 2009 Innovator of
the Year, DigitalHydraulic LLC. Each cate-
gory winner gave a short presentation
about the innovation, then answered ques-
tions from the panel.
Second-round judges were:
Don Wood, president and CEO, 80/20
Corp.;
Don Willis, chairman, FourthWave
LLC;
Dorian Maples, owner, Dorian Maples
& Associates;
Tom Cottrell, managing partner, BKD;
Lora Thrasher, COO, Briljent; and
Elton Bishop, founder, Digital-
Hydraulic LLC.
After all the presentations were
completed, the panel selected the 2010
Innovator of the Year.
FILE PHOTO
Elton Bishop, founder of DigitalHydraulic LLC, was named the 2009 Innovator of
the Year in Business Weeklys annual Innovation Awards competition.
SPECI AL THANKS TO
ALL OF OUR SPONSORS
BY LINDA LIPP
Sean, Jared, Alyssa and Tristan Dugan
are working hard to turn a concept their
mother dreamed up 10 years ago into a
successful, education-oriented software
business.
Honor Education LLC, a name mom
Lisa Dugan also came up with, moved
from the Dugan family home in August to
a cubicle in the Northeast Indiana
Innovation Center in Fort Wayne. The
Dugans also use an Innovation Center
conference room to teach the 22 middle
school children who have enrolled in their
Tech Academy, which launched in
September.
Sean, 24, and Jared, 23, both graduated
from Indiana Tech in the spring with
degrees in software engineering. Alyssa,
21, and Tristan, 19, are both seniors at
Indiana Tech majoring in elementary
education.
Like the majority of the children in their
Tech Academy classes, the Dugans were
home-schooled. The offspring of Steve and
Lisa Dugan have been working on
computers since they were tots.
Ive been programming since I was 8,
Sean told Business Weekly in March 2010.
The four began began seriously talking
about how to combine their interests and
talents to create a software business well
over a year ago; and both Sean and Jared
were able to arrange Indiana Tech intern-
ships during the 2009-2010 school year
that allowed them to put more time into
and get school credit for the project.
The Dugans also began participating in
a program, called BizWhiz, that they
learned of at Indiana Tech.
After a year of meetings with business
advisers and other students interested in
starting businesses, they won a $2,500
grant for approved business expenses and a
$6,000, in-kind award for a years worth of
From left, Alyssa, Tristan, Jared and Sean Dugan founded the software company Honor Education LLC.
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E ME RGI NG COMPANY
Students become the teachers
DOMINIC ADAMS
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See TEACHERS on PAGE 7
Company: Honor Education LLC
Founders: Sean, Jared, Alyssa and
Tristan Dugan
Website: HonorEducation.com
office space in the Student Venture Lab at
the Innovation Center. Alyssa also received
a $4,000 internship to work with the
siblings business.
Funding for the program is provided by
the Lincoln Financial Foundation, Grabill
Bank and the Edward M. & Mary McCrea
Wilson Foundation.
The Dugans also have begun to bring in
a little income of their own from their Tech
Academy classes, which they hope to
expand. Their younger sister, Michaela, 15,
already is pitching in to help teach.
But the real meat of the business, its
virtual and actual heart and soul, is Forge,
a virtual world creation kit that students
can use, independently or in school, to turn
things like mathematical equations, scien-
tific formulas and other abstract informa-
tion into tables, graphs and two- or three-
dimensional dynamic visualizations.
Forge also uses a graphics engine that is
used to make video games.
Wed like to think of Forge as the Lego
for gaming, where its constructive enter-
tainment for the next generation, Tristan
said.
In one of the classes the Dugans are
teaching, students are building their own
virtual Egypt.
Were helping kids to build it in 3D,
design temples and pyramids, and then
play a character to explore it, Alyssa said.
The Dugans also have a second product:
a visual version of the programming
language Python, which is extensively
used in professional scientific computing.
The visual version is a block-based
system. Instead of typing code, you can
drag and drop blocks to construct your
program, Jared said.
Theyre already done for you. You just
have to find the blocks you need.
The user-friendly programs also could
be marketed to certain people in profes-
sions such as advertising and architecture
who may not need to create models and
simulations very often and dont need a
higher level of programming expertise.
The Dugans havent yet begun to
market or sell their products. At this point,
we just need to finish everything, Jared
said.
The company also has a second
purpose: to support a school in Bangladesh
the family helped found about 11 years
ago. The Dugans and the nonprofit they
founded to raise funds for the school
provide about $1,500 a month to keep it
going.
The name of the business, Honor
Education, came from the familys experi-
ence with the school and the culture there
that truly honors and values education.
Continued from PAGE 6
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TEACHERS: Forge lets students visualize abstract concepts
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2009 I NNOVATOR OF THE YEAR
2009 E ME RGI NG COMPANY WI NNE R
BY DOUG LEDUC
Elton Bishop may develop a taste for
Scandinavian cuisine by the time the tech-
nology he has developed a digital
hydraulic transmission has revolution-
ized the hydraulic equipment industry.
The head of DigitalHydraulic LLC
presented a paper on the technological
breakthrough at the Scandinavian
International Conference on Fluid Power
in Sweden the summer before winning the
2009 Innovator of the Year Award at
Business Weeklys Innovation Awards last
November.
On Oct. 14, he gave a presentation on
The Linearization of Digital Hydraulic
Transformer Output at the Third
Workshop on Digital Fluid Power in
Tampere, Finland.
The (digital hydraulic transmission) is
now widely considered to be the most effi-
cient hydraulic drive technology in exis-
tence, he said in a recent e-mail on his
way home from Europe.
Fort Wayne-based DigitalHydraulic is
developing an advanced version of the
DHT that will be nearly production ready,
he said. We are in negotiations with
several of the largest hydraulics companies
globally.
Bishop invented the digital hydraulic
transformer in 2001 following three years
of extensive research. Ordinary hydraulic
equipment used for a lot of very heavy
work wastes about 65 percent of the energy
it consumes, on average, and Bishops
transformer is much more efficient.
In a demonstration, a test-phase DHT
prototype built in 2007 required 71 percent
less energy to perform a task than conven-
tional, valve-controlled hydraulic equip-
ment.
Conventional hydraulic equipment
could be retrofitted with the system Bishop
created, and by late last year he had started
on development of a version that could be
available for testing in the field. A number
of companies that use hydraulic equipment
had expressed interest in the testing.
Bishop expected to be able to develop a
version of the DHT within two years that
could be produced efficiently, with plans
for DigitalHydraulic to outsource its
production in northeast Indiana.
The company would set up regional
centers to retrofit hydraulic equipment,
including mining and construction equip-
ment that consumes millions of dollars
worth of oil every year.
Elton Bishop invented his digital hydraulic transformer in 2001 after three years of research.
Innovation keeps Bishop on the go
FILE PHOTO
Company: DigitalHydraulic LLC
Founder: Elton Bishop
Website: www.DigitalHydraulic.com
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HEALTH CARE
BY LINDA LIPP
Anyone who has ever had a cast
removed or has sat with a frightened
child having a cast removed knows
how loud and intimidating the traditional
oscillating saw used in the process can be.
In fact, the saws have a decibel level
similar to a lawnmower or chain saw,
generate considerable heat and airborne
debris and can nick the skin and cause
bleeding. The technology of the cast
removal saw, which actually was created
for use in autopsies, hadnt changed in
about 40 years, except for some minor
ergonomic accommodations and the addi-
tion of a vacuum to suck up the debris.
That is, until Warsaw-based
OrthoPediatrics tackled the problem.
The idea came from some of the early
discussions OrthoPediatrics, founded in
2006, had with pediatric orthopedic
surgeons and orthopedic technologists as
it worked to develop a product line of
tools, plates and other orthopedic
implants designed specifically to be used
in children.
We wanted to know where their frus-
From left, Bob von Seggern, vice president of marketing at OrthoPediatrics, Nick Deeter, chairman, presi-
dent and CEO, and Jeffrey Minaudo, vice president of devices and equipment, hold the companys cast
saw that was made for children.
Cutting-edge research
DOMINIC ADAMS
Company: OrthoPediatrics
Founder: Nick Deeter
Website: www.OrthoPediatrics.com
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See CUTTING on PAGE 10
2009 WINNER UPDATE
Since its inception
in December of 2008,
S t r o k e C a r e N o w
Network has grown to
include 21 regional
hospitals and two hub
hospitals in a 18-county
area of northeast
Indiana and northwest
Ohio.
Robotic camera
computer carts are
deployed in each of the
regional markets in the
emergency department
and the inpatient critical department at each location. Fort
Wayne neurology stroke specialty physicians have duplicate
camera and computer equipment at their homes, offices and
the hub hospitals to provide 24-7-365 capability to diagnose
and plan treatment for patients with strokes and other neuro-
logical conditions. Three helicopters stand ready to transport
the patients to Fort Wayne to receive treatment.
Results indicate that stroke patients seen within the
network will reach treatment in time to receive clot-busting,
stroke-reversing medications 17 percent to 18 percent of the
time. This compares to national averages of 3 percent to 4
percent. This indicates that a patient will benefit from SCNN
services at five to six times the national mean average. For
stroke patients, this means the difference between disability,
death or a meaningful recovery.
SCNN remains the only stroke telemedicine network
actively in operation in Indiana. It is the only one in the U.S.
that partners two competing hospitals in one network.
Steve Smith
Fort Wayne Neurological Center
trations were, where their unmet needs
were, said Nick Deeter, chairman, presi-
dent, CEO and co-founder of
OrthoPediatrics.
Finally, one doctor said: If you really
want to do something for kids, make a
quiet cast saw, Deeter recalled.
After discussing the matter with other
orthopedic specialists, they found the
suggestion had a lot of merit.
Some kids are more traumatized by
the removal of the cast than the breaking
of the bone, Deeter said. Orthopedic
technologists even referred to the task as
wrangling, because they had to chase
the kids down, calm them down and even
hold them down during the process.
The company decided to tackle the job.
We didnt know we couldnt do it,
Deeter said.
The companys product designers
decided not just to address the sound
problem, but examine other issues the
traditional oscillating saw presented: the
heat and risk of burns; the possibility of
cuts; the way the saw scattered the debris;
the heavy vibrations; and just the general
scariness of the large, open, furiously
rotating blade. They identified 10 issues,
prioritized them, and then set to work.
Working with a design firm in
Michigan, they came up with an innova-
tive approach.
Why not make it work a lot like a can
opener? Deeter said.
And in many ways, thats what the
Quiet Cast Removal tool they developed
resembles. Powered by a rechargeable
battery, the handheld QCR is affixed at
the opening of the cast and then guided
down and around, cutting cleanly and
quietly.
There is no vibration to hurt the users
hand and arm; very little heat is gener-
ated, and very little debris is shed.
The company spent about $4 million in
research and development money to
create the QCR, and I think there are
about 10 different patents involved,
Deeter said.
The QCR was extensively tested at 30
different clinical sites. At the Cincinnati
Childrens Hospital, its decibel level was
measured in comparison to a traditional
cast removal saw, and the audiology
department had to ask the observers
nearby to stay quiet because they couldnt
detect the QCRs whisper above the back-
ground noise.
Roderick Newbold, a certified ortho-
pedic technologist at Emory Orthopaedic
and Spine Center in Atlanta, has been
using the QCR since it went on the market
in July 2009.
He said it puts both parents and chil-
dren at ease when he shows them the new
device.
It truly has changed not only my life
less crying, less anxious patients and
parents but the lives of the children
who have already suffered a trauma in
which they had to get a cast in the first
place, Newbold wrote in a product testi-
monial.
In the United States, at least, casts are
not used often anymore on adults.
Surgical options are much more common.
But they are an accepted technique for
children, whose bones are shaped differ-
ently, heal differently and are still
growing.
OrthoPediatrics estimated there are
still about 175,000 traditional cast saws in
use in the United States. That gives the
company a huge base for its replacement
product, even if only 10 percent or so of
the old saws are replaced each year.
OrthoPediatrics, which currently
employs 50 people, moved into new space
on Nov. 8. The new location consolidates
the two downtown offices the company
had been using and is close to Symmetry
Medical, which is the companys design,
development and manufacturing partner.
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CUTTING: Company estimates 175K traditional cast saws still in use
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HEALTH CARE
FILE PHOTO
Steve Smith
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MANUFACTURI NG & DI STRI BUTI ON
BY RICK FARRANT
Tony Lytle is always working on one
invention or another, and hes got
another one in the works for pets. He
wont say what it is trade secrets and
all but hes tried it out on his own
two dogs and spoken with a patent
attorney.
If the new invention takes off like his
Doggie Fountain did, he may one day
be able to quit his day job as owner of
Whitley Steel Products & Fabrication in
Larwill.
Lytle, 52, has his daughter to thank
for the Doggie Fountain. In 2006,
Ginnie Galentine, now 27, asked her
father to develop an outdoor water
device for her dog that would be
healthier and more reliable than a water
bowl. Her dog, she told her father, often
knocked the bowl over during long,
unsupervised days outside in the
summer heat. And when the dog didnt
knock the bowl over, the water would
often become stagnant and slimy.
About a week after his daughters
plea, Lytle took a sip from a water foun-
tain in a store he was visiting and inspi-
ration struck.
I stopped, he said, and turned
around and looked at the fountain, and
thats when I go, If I can turn that into
something that can work for a dog
The result of the ensuing four years
of trial and error is a 6-pound, spring-
loaded steel fountain that can be hooked
on to a garden hose. In a matter of days,
Lytle said, most dogs can be trained to
step on the devices paw pad to activate
the fountain. When a dog takes its paw
off the pad, the fountain stops.
The Doggie Fountain received a
utility patent March 16, and Illinois-
based Allied Precision Industries, the
manufacturer and marketer, unveiled
the product March 23 at the Global Pet
Expo in Orlando, Fla. Two and a half
months later, Allied had received orders
from retailers for 15,000 units, which
can be priced for as much as $39.99.
Lytle gets 5 percent of sales to
retailers, and he said his first check for
six weeks of sales was about $3,900.
One of the retailers that placed orders
was farm and home supplier Rural King,
which has stores in Angola, Kendallville
and Decatur, and in Van Wert, Ohio.
In June, Allied National Sales
Manager Sal Occhipinti said:
Everybody wants this. Its the most
incredible thing Ive ever seen as far as
response. Weve yet to have anybody
Dogged pursuit of an idea
FILE PHOTO
Company: Whitley Steel Products
& Fabrication
Founder: Tony Lytle
Tony Lytles German shepherd, Boston, steps on the Doggie Fountains paw pad to
activate the water.
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See FOUNTAIN on PAGE 13
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MANUFACTURI NG & DI STRI BUTI ON
who weve made a presentation to say
they didnt want it.
Lytle, a welder by trade, has always
had faith in his ability to create
mechanical things, although hes not
sure where his passion for tinkering
comes from.
Even when I was 12 years old, my
moms mixer and toaster would break
and she would throw them out, he said.
Id go in the garbage and try to figure
out why they broke. Ive just always
liked mechanical stuff.
I used to play cowboys and Indians
and always tried to make a better bow
and arrow. You know, that doesnt shoot
straight. How can I make it shoot
straighter?
Virtually nothing Lytle does in
inventing or fixing things surprises his
wife, Charlotte.
Hes got, like, an Einstein brain,
she said. If he ever went to college to
be an engineer, he would be one of the
best.
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FOUNTAIN: Inventor has been tinkering with things since childhood
FILE PHOTO
Charlotte Lytle
holds a Doggie
Fountain
created by her
husband, Tony.
One of the first
retailers that
ordered the
product was
Rural King,
which has
stores in
Kendallville,
Angola, Decatur
and Van Wert,
Ohio.
2009 WINNER UPDATE
This has been a
very busy year for us
here at USCombatGear.
We focused most of our
energy this year on
completing all of the
items that were neces-
sary for us to get our
product into the inven-
tory of the Army Air
Force Exchange
Service.
We just recently
finished becoming elec-
tronic data interchange
compliant and setting
up our ordering inter-
face with our EDI soft-
ware firm and AAFES.
Our product is now in the inventory, and we will be receiving
orders shortly for our combat pack and M-16 magazine well
covers.
We are beginning work with the Navy and Marine Corps
base exchanges, or more commonly known as NEXCOM. With
completion of both of these contracts we will be working with
several thousand locations and we expect very good sales
from these locations. Once this is completed, we will then be
looking at new products to enter into our line for placement at
these locations.
We were awarded an EDGE Award at the Indiana
Statehouse, which was presented by Lt. Gov. Becky Skillman,
and also present was state Rep. Dick Dodge.
We will be aggressively marketing our product to civilian
marketplaces and have sent samples to Cabelas, Gander
Mountain and Dicks Sporting Goods stores.
We are keeping very busy and are focused on keeping the
momentum. I truly feel that we would not be as far along as we
are now if it was not from the assistance that we received from
the Small Business Development Center. I will be forever
grateful to its staff.
James Nichols
USCombatGear
FILE PHOTO
James Nichols
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PROFESSI ONAL SE RVI CES
BY DOUG LEDUC
If a society can be judged by the quality
of life possible for its most vulnerable
members, ours could be earning better
marks soon with the help of a service a Fort
Wayne couple is starting.
The business is Summers Sky LLC. It
was named after Summer and Skylar
Duggins, the 8- and 12-year-old daughters of
the founders, Bradley and Karen Duggins.
The younger daughter, Summer, was
born four months premature at St. Johns
Hospital in Springfield, Ill. Its neonatal
intensive care unit helped her survive insuf-
ficient lung development, two strokes and a
perforated bowl, but brain damage she
suffered left her with cerebral palsy.
Dealing with the condition has required
special care throughout Summers life.
There are plenty of programs to help, but
learning what is available in a given area and
what would work best for a particular case
can require a great deal of time and effort.
That is why the new service was started.
The service provides a navigator to care-
givers of children affected by disabilities,
said Bradley Duggins, who left a position as
people and training leader at Weaver
Popcorn Co. to found Summers Sky.
The navigation service will be available
in person and online. Individual consultation
will address caregiver questions specific to
each case, and a website will provide more
general information on a broad range of
conditions contributing to severe impairment
and on appropriate care.
The website also will provide informa-
tion about and links to other sites for
programs, agencies, support groups and
additional resources established to help
special-needs children and their caregivers.
There are virtual libraries of information
on the vast number of programs designed to
help serve the needs of impaired individuals,
but not anything that identifies the quality
of the source they are being directed to,
Duggins said.
There are many out there that do
wonderful things for these kids every day,
and they need to be lifted up, he said. This
is an effort to shine a light on what they do
with excellence.
We put the caregiver in control and
recognize that the family has needs also,
Duggins said. The whole family goes
through this experience The family needs
as much attention, if not more, at times, as
the child.
The level of expertise that goes into
collecting information for the Summers Sky
portal, the screening involved in compiling it
and the way it is organized and presented
will enable most caregivers to learn what
they need to know more efficiently than they
A helping hand in hard times
DOUG LEDUC
Company: Summers Sky LLC
Founder: Bradley and Karen
Duggins
Website: www.SummersSky.com
Bradley Duggins left a job at Weaver Popcorn Co. to start Summers Sky LLC,
which provides information and consultation services to caregivers.
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See SUMMERS SKY on PAGE 15
could plugging terms into a search engine,
Duggins said.
Through coaching and the information
available on its portal, Summers Sky will
help caregivers develop and carry out plans
to meet the education and therapeutic needs
of impaired family members and deal with
related costs through financial planning.
It also will help caregivers determine the
best course of action in matters requiring
advocacy and mediation, and will help them
prepare for changes that could take place in
their lives as a result of the responsibilities
they are handling.
The reach of the service will not be
limited to the area, but Duggins noted the
Northeast Indiana Advocacy Coalition
reported at a news conference this summer
there were 22,000 individuals with disabili-
ties in northeast Indiana.
Summers Sky will generate income with
its Web portal through advertising sales and
the sale of memberships to access the part of
it that is not operated for free as a public
service. It also will collect fees for the navi-
gation, training and referral services it
provides, Duggins said.
In addition to its sales to caregivers, the
business will sell its services to area
employers so they can offer them as a
company benefit, he said. It also will accept
donations. The web portal is under develop-
ment and will be operational within the next
12 months.
Duggins believes Summers Sky will
make enough money to contribute to
programs in the area that serve people with
disabilities and said he will find that very
satisfying.
The path taking him to the startup of a
business he hopes will benefit caregiver
families throughout the area hasnt all been
lollipops and rainbows; its been a chal-
lenging experience, he said. But its been
filled with joy.
We Take Fast and Make it Immediate.
8ill Gieger * 2o0.oo8.3111 * bgeiger@geIineI.neI
iMAN strongly believes that communities should play a role
in controlling their own broadband destiny. As the next
essential utility that helps retain jobs and attract new
business development, iMAN is committed to making sure
Northeast Indiana achieves intelligent status.
INDIANA METROPOLITAN AREA NETWORK
(STEUBEN COUNTY)
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Karen Duggins co-founded Summers
Sky LLC with her husband. The busi-
ness is named after the couples chil-
dren, Summer, center, and Skylar.
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SUMMERS SKY: Company will sell services to employers
PROFESSI ONAL SE RVI CES
2009 WINNER UPDATE
Financial Education Solutions is devel-
oping a financial literacy curriculum for
middle schools. Our curriculum is unique in
both its design and in its adherence to
Indiana financial literacy education stan-
dards.
The design of our curriculum is innovative
based on its use of videos and classroom
activities to teach financial concepts. Each of
the 15 lessons in our curriculum begins with
a short instructional video, which is followed
by a class activity designed to reinforce the
concept taught in the video. This format,
unique to our curriculum, makes it much
more effective than those currently in use.
Since winning the Innovation Award,
Financial Education Solutions has
completed the beta prototype of its
curriculum, tied it to Indiana standards and
successfully beta-tested it in two Indiana
schools. Based on the feedback from this
and feedback received from other educa-
tors, we are currently designing the final
production version of our curriculum, which
will be available in January.
James Langford
Financial Education Solutions
BY LINDA LIPP
It doesnt take too much to tip a
homeowner already struggling to keep
up mortgage payments into foreclosure.
And it doesnt take too many fore-
closed, vacant and decaying houses to
tip a stable city neighborhood into a
place that no one wants to call home.
At the beginning of 2010,
Huntington-based Pathfinder Services
launched an innovative program to save
neighborhoods at that tipping point by
rehabbing houses previous owners had
lost because they couldnt keep up their
payments or afford big-ticket repairs
like a new furnace or water heater or
roof.
The nonprofit agencys community
development arm, Pathfinder
Community Connections, finished its
first rehab project in July and hopes to
renovate as many as 15 homes over an
18-month period.
Pathfinder also offers programs to
help educate potential homeowners,
walk them through the loan process and
even provide down-payment assistance.
Ideally, as the residential rehab efforts
expand, that program will help match
potential buyers with affordable,
updated and renovated homes.
But the houses also may be
purchased by market buyers who
appreciate the value of an old home
rehabbed with the goal of being energy
efficient and maintenance-free for 10
years.
The first house, at 210 W. Sherwood
Terrace, in south-central Fort Wayne, is
located in the southwest portion of
Harrison Hills, a graceful, tree-lined
neighborhood characterized by solid
homes built in the 1940s. Although the
house, priced at $89,900, has yet to find
a buyer, it has generated praise of
neighbors pleased to see it repaired and
renewed.
The neighbors are thrilled to see it
loved again, said Laurie Mitchener-
Oncheck, Pathfinders real estate acqui-
sition manager.
The exterior of the gabled, two-story
home, once green and white, has been
repainted in a soft gray with black and
white trim helping accent the all-new
windows. The kitchen and upstairs
bathroom have been updated, a new
high-efficiency furnace and air condi-
tioning were installed and there also are
a new water heater and new appliances.
The three-bedroom, 1 1/2 bath home
has almost 1,300 square feet of space,
not including the attached garage and
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REAL ESTATE, CONSTRUCTI ON & DESI GN
Laurie
Mitchener-
Oncheck,
Pathfinder
Services
real estate
acquisition
manager,
stands in
front of a
house in
Fort Wayne
that the
Huntington-
based
nonprofit
has
rehabbed in
an effort to
improve the
overall
quality of
the neigh-
borhood.
Home sweet home
DOMINIC ADAMS
Organization: Pathfinder Services
Website: www.PathfinderServices.
org
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See HOME on PAGE 17
unfinished basement.
Preston Allen Homes worked with
Pathfinder on the rehab project.
Mitchener-Oncheck was a little
disappointed the home hadnt sold as
quickly as she thought it should, but
noted that the housing market is still
soft and the inventory of unsold homes
remains high.
The nonprofit already has another
home purchased with a donation
from a private benefactor targeted as
its second project. That house is in Fort
Waynes Renaissance Pointe neighbor-
hood. Once the Sherwood Terrace home
sells, profits will be invested to
purchase and rehab a third home, and so
on and so forth.
The word profit isnt necessarily a
dirty word, Mitchener-Oncheck told
Business Weekly earlier this year.
Obviously, if youre in the negative,
you cant keep it going.
There is a lot of interest and local
excitement about this program, so we
are very conscious of trying to do it
slowly, she added. We want to do it
right without holding a lot of inven-
tory.
Homes in Huntington and Wabash
also will be considered for the neigh-
borhood revitalization program.
The organization that became
Pathfinder was created in 1965 to assist
children with developmental disabilities.
It expanded its programs and services
through the 1970s and changed its name
to Pathfinder Services in late 1981.
Pathfinder Community Connections
was formed in 1997 to bring together all
necessary resources to allow its clients
to achieve the American dream of home
ownership and build to wealth through
home equity one household at a time.
It serves 23 counties: Adams, Allen,
DeKalb, Elkhart, Fulton, Hamilton,
Huntington, Jay, Kosciusko, LaGrange,
LaPorte, Marshall, Miami, Noble,
Randolph, Shelby, St. Joe, Starke,
Steuben, Wabash, Warrick, Wells and
Whitley.
It recently was honored by the Rural
Local Initiatives Support Corp. at its
national conference in Eugene, Ore., for
returning to basic community develop-
ment procedures through neighborhood
engagement.
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HOME: Pathfinder has purchased second home in Fort Wayne
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REAL ESTATE, CONSTRUCTI ON & DESI GN
2009 WINNER UPDATE
A year ago, we touted sustainable design and BIM as an
innovation and a focus of MSKTD. Since then, a lot has
happened. The construction market is actually slower than we
expected, and the tightening of money has hurt both private and
state-funded projects. That being said, we continue to focus on
the innovations from a year ago.
BIM (Building Information Modeling) uses software called
REVIT. We are now 100 percent REVIT users on all of our proj-
ects. We are now much smarter and proficient with the use. We
continue to purchase larger screens and more powerful
computers to make full use of the software. The ability to use the
three-dimensional aspects and the integration of all engineering
designs is working well. This is both costly and time-consuming
to implement and maintain. I think were becoming much better
and delivering a better design and final project to our clients.
Sustainable design is very important to our firm and the final
users of the facilities. We continue to utilize and expand our
designs with green in mind. Sustainable design is not unique to
MSKTD, but the amount of sustainable designs we have accom-
plished is leading this effort. We have two LEED-certified build-
ings and five in process for certification. All are major corporate
and institutional projects.
Last February, our own building became certified as a Green
City Business of Fort Wayne. At that time, there were only a
dozen or so businesses that worked to meet the requirements.
We think this shows our commitment of our efforts in designing
for the future of our environment starting in our own workplace.
For the upcoming year we fully expect to find more REVIT
functions we currently do not utilize and get even stronger with
that software engine. We expect to broaden our designs using
more and more environmentally conscious products and basic
planning approaches. We think were doing the right things in
these two areas of our business.
Jim Kratzat
MSKTD & Associates Inc.
FILE PHOTO
Jim Kratzat
n
There is a lot of interest and
local excitement about this program,
so we are very conscious of trying to
do it slowly. We want to do it right
without holding a lot of inventory.
Laurie Mitchener-Oncheck
Pathfinder Services
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BY RICK FARRANT
April Brewster Smythe had a defining
moment three years ago. A benign tumor
roughly the size of a baseball was discov-
ered in her brain. It was removed and she
survived, but it changed completely her
outlook on life.
It made me realize how mortal I was,
she said. I mean, it really came home to
me. I remember looking at my grandchil-
dren and thinking: I may not be here to see
them grow up. And so, I wanted to be able
to leave something that mattered and I
cant think of anything that matters more
than this.
The this is the Green ABCs, a fledg-
ling company that is producing a growing
series of products using the alphabet to
teach children about green technology,
practices, principles and lifestyles.
Smythe, 57, and her son Christopher
Langschied, 33, have spent the last three
years developing the Green ABCs and
have thus far created a website, a booklet
of flash cards and a coloring book. On the
horizon: prop boxes for each of the
alphabets letters that contain play items
connected to a letters theme and elec-
tronic geolocation that identifies places
related to green practices.
The Green ABCs recently made its
first sale: 15 flash card booklets at $19.95
each to a Fort Wayne parochial school.
Growing up green
BARRY ROCHFORD
Company: The Green ABCs
Founders: April Brewster Smythe,
Christopher Langschied
Website: www.TheGreenABCs.com
The Green ABCs mixes vocabulary with concepts concerning environmentally sustainable practices,
technology, principles and lifestyles.
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Smythe and Langschied are focusing
marketing efforts on schools and on home-
schooling parents. Eventually, they hope
to place their products with major
retailers.
They also are targeting consumers who
support industries in the so-called
lifestyles of health and sustainability
marketplace.
The Fort Wayne natives have gotten
assistance with their company from the
Northeast Indiana Innovation Center,
where the companys office is located. The
innovation center granted the company
$2,500. Smythe and Langschied, mean-
while, have put $1,500 of their own money
into the enterprise.
The Green ABCs also was assisted by
a class at Fort Wayne Community
Schools Anthis Career Center, which
produced the artwork for the flash cards.
Smythe, a freelance writer, and
Langschied, a former military weather
forecaster, chose the alphabet to focus on
green because, they said, language is a key
to learning.
When youre having new words and
new concepts added to language, its very
important for people to grasp those things,
whether you believe in them or not, said
Langschied. Its just to be conscious of
everything going on around you.
Said Smythe: The words begin the
process. So if these kids learn a word like
hypermiling, and theyve learned it from
early on, theyre going to think about
different ways to innovate as they grow
older.
Hypermiling, the act of using methods
that maximize fuel economy while
driving, was named 2008 Word of the Year
by the New Oxford American Dictionary.
Another word used in the flash cards,
locavore, was named 2007 Word of the
Year by the dictionary. A locavore is
someone who only eats foods grown and
harvested within a 100-mile radius of his
or her home.
Smythe said the flash cards and the
coloring book are foundational products
that hopefully will lead to more interactive
experiences such as field trips and creative
thought on the part of young people.
I think its important for children to
learn to create at an early age, she said. I
think our kids are losing that ability
because they arent doing creative things.
Theyre sitting around playing video
games.
These (Green ABCs) tools are things
kids are going to need to be able to survive
in our world.
n
GREEN: Teaching the words instills values for later on in life
DOMINIC ADAMS
The Green ABCs was started by Christopher Langschied and his mother, April
Brewster Smythe.
tell our readers how youll help their business grow.
If your companys goods or services can help another company grow, shout it to the hills. Or better yet, shout it directly at key
decision makers and business owners who are serious about, and successful at making their businesses grow. They are the
ones who need you and can afford you.
Since YOU are interested in growing your business, youll want to know that advertising in Business Weekly is THE place
to shout your message to reach your best prospect our targeted readers many, dedicated and smart enough to maintain
double-digit growth, even now. And, they didnt get there without partaking in what companies like yours offer to help busi-
nesses grow.
To find out more call 260-426-2640. www.fwbusiness.com Tell them. Theyre reading.
GREATER FORT WAYNE
BusinessWeekly
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TECHNOLOGY
BY BARRY ROCHFORD
barryr@fwbusiness.com
In urban areas these days, high-speed
fiber-optic networks are taken for
granted, with Internet service providers
seemingly leapfrogging one another with
pitches for increasingly faster broadband
capabilities.
In many less populated cities and
counties, however, there is a digital
divide. They lack a fiber-optic infrastruc-
ture because telecommunications compa-
nies have decided installing the miles
upon miles of glass cable isnt cost-effi-
cient.
Yet, businesses, hospitals, government
agencies and other organizations in rural
areas just like their counterparts in
urban areas need bandwidth to func-
tion in a technology-driven world.
Recognizing this, some bright minds in
Steuben County got together and decided
they couldnt wait anymore for someone
else to build a fiber-optic network.
So theyre building it themselves.
In 2001, Bill Geiger and Jad
Donaldson started Indiana Metropolitan
Area Network Inc., or iMAN, which is a
nonprofit supporting organization of the
Steuben County Community Foundation.
Their mission was simple: create a broad-
band network that was affordable to
connect to.
In the late 1990s, Donaldson owned
his own technology business, and he was
subcontracted by a telecom company to
install a fiber network for School City of
Mishawaka, which wanted all of its
buildings connected. He grew alarmed at
Jad Donaldson, left, and Bill Geiger, center, started Indiana Metropolitan Area Network Inc. in 2001. It is
building a fiber-optic network in Steuben County, and a portion of the connection fees generated
through iMAN support the Steuben County Community Foundation, led by CEO Oren Skinner, right.
DOMINIC ADAMS
Organization: Indiana Metropolitan
Area Network Inc.
Founders: Bill Geiger, Jad
Donaldson
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See IMAN on PAGE 21
Making the connection
how the company dealt with the school
district saying only it could build the
network and what it was charging. The
company wanted the entire cost to build
the network paid up-front, and there was
a monthly charge of $1,000 per building,
for the life of the building, to maintain
the network.
I didnt want to see happen to
Steuben County what happened to
Mishawaka, Donaldson said. So he
talked to Geiger, and the two began
formulating a plan.
We came up with a way to offer the
same kind of services to this community
that we did in Mishawaka, but to do it a
little bit differently, Donaldson said.
While cities have developed their own
fiber-optic networks, Donaldson and
Geiger chose to place iMAN under the
umbrella of the community foundation to
emphasize the projects goal of benefiting
all of Steuben County. It also provides a
fundraising source for the foundation, as a
portion of all connection fees goes back to
the community foundation.
The magic here is that whatever
money gets spent to build this fiber-optic
network from the funding side of
building it to the usage side of actually
using the services it all stays here in
the community. It all comes back to the
community foundation, Donaldson said.
Using $50,000 in grant funding, they
completed a feasibility study, which to
this day serves as a road map for the
build-out of the network. The city of
Angola, which initially contributed
$150,000 to the project, was the first to
be connected in 2003, Geiger said,
followed by Cameron Memorial
Community Hospital and the
Metropolitan School District of Steuben
County.
Steuben County government offices
are connected to the network, as are Trine
University, Tri-State Medical Imaging,
Vestil Manufacturing and Univertical
Corp. In the seven years since making its
first connection, iMAN has installed 10
miles of fiber-optic cable at a cost of
about $450,000.
To date, Angola has contributed about
$200,000 to iMAN, Fremont $10,000 and
the community foundation $200,000.
In October, Geiger said iMAN was
working to extend the network to
Fremont. The nonprofit estimates that in
2011, it will generate more than
$126,000 in connection fees; of that,
more than $82,000 would go back to the
community foundation to distribute
within the communities served by iMAN,
while about $44,000 would be used to
pay for the ongoing installation of the
network.
Geiger said iMAN will build the back-
bone of the network, but it is up to each
individual community to determine the
number of fiber connections it needs. The
more connections, the more funding the
community would receive through the
foundation.
So its kind of like the harder each
community would like to work on
building out and deploying the fiber and
making the connections, the bigger the
return it will be for each of the communi-
ties, he said.
Oren Skinner, CEO of the Steuben
County Community Foundation, said the
revenue iMAN has generated has helped
out during these difficult economic times.
Our community in the last several
years has really been hurting because of
the loss of jobs, and the human need has
been such that weve pretty much limited
our granting to those human needs. And
this helps carry that out, Skinner said.
Depending on a companys or organi-
zations needs, their connection could be
as little as 10 megabits per second or as
much as 10 gigabits per second. The
connection remains dark until the user
installs the necessary equipment to send
data, and the equipment governs how fast
data is sent and received.
IMAN doesnt provide Internet or
affiliated services, and there are no plans
to connect residences to the network.
Geiger said an Internet offer, however,
could use the system to provide residen-
tial broadband. And other companies
could take advantage of the iMAN
network.
It will allow for-profit service
providers to come to our communities.
We all know about the big three: Internet,
TV and phone. But in the technology
world, theres many more services to be
offered. Theres voice-over (Internet
protocol), off-site distance storage,
distance learning and various other things
yet to be developed, Geiger said.
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2009 WINNER UPDATE
In spring 2010, Fort Wayne-based TrustBearer Labs, which
developed the TrustBearer Access online authentication system,
was purchased by VeriSign Inc., which is headquartered in
Mountain View, Calif.
TrustBearer was started in 2004 by David Corcoran. Its
Access authentication system is used by health care providers
and government agencies, among other clients.
In August, Symantec Corp. acquired VeriSigns identity and
authentication business.
By Business Weekly staff
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
To date, iMAN has installed about 10
miles of fiber-optic cable.
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PAST WI NNE RS
The innovators
2006
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
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
2009
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
To nominate your company or organization for the
2011 Innovation Awards, visit www.fwbusiness.com.
2010 marks the fifth 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:
As an employer, you know that a happy, healthy workforce is a productive
workforce. And one of the keys to health and happiness is great health insurance,
which is exactly what PHP provides. We have an array of options that we can
custom fit so that the coverage you provide is exactly what your employees need
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lets get started on providing you with a more productive workplace.
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A healthy workforce.
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2010
Innovation Awards
PROFESSIONAL SERVICES
Category Winner
2010
Innovation Awards
EMERGING COMPANY
Category Winner
2010
Innovation Awards
RETAIL
Category Winner
Were especially proud of our three winners in this years Innovation Awards competition
because all three are based on innovations for children! While many people associate us
with biomedical, engineering, and hlgh-tech ventures, companies devoted to the young-
er generations are well represented on the Innovation Park campusin fact, two of this
years winners are products of our Student Venture Lab which ofers young people the op-
portunity to launch and run their own businesses. Congratulations to all our winners, and
thanks for making 2010 another banner year for the Innovation Park.
Creating jobs and companies
for future generations ...
For innovative solutions to your banking needs, it
pays to See Lake City!
Member FDIC
Fort Wayne North
302 E Dupont Road
(260) 490-1374
Fort Wayne Northeast
10411 Maysville Road
(260) 486-3944
Fort Wayne Southwest
10429 Illinois Road
(260) 625-6855
Fort Wayne Jefferson
6851 W Jefferson Boulevard
(260) 969-6996
It cures disease and advances technology and is always applauded and
awarded. Lake City Bank congratulates the nominees and winners of this years
Innovation Awards and thanks you for maintaining the American
entrepreneurial and innovative spirit!
Innovation
Fort Wayne
260.460.4000
experience guidance
experience
As proud sponsor of the 2010 Innovation Awards, BKD salutes this
years honorees for their outstanding creativity and business acumen. We
understand that innovation is crucial in this challenging environment and
are here to help.
Whats driving you? Improving performance? Reducing risk? Te list is
likely a long one if youre growing your business. You need ideas. With a
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the issues you face and experience practical direction. Learn more at
bkd.com.

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