Investors Add Cash, but VC Firms Absent Just One Traditional Venture Capital Group Receives State Funding, Which Is Concern
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20160104-NEWS--1-NAT-CCI-CL_-- 12/30/2015 2:17 PM Page 1 VOL. 37, NO. 1 JANUARY 4 - 10, 2016 GOLF: Membership drive 35th Anniversary Business of Life Solon club tries to avoid shutting down P. 2 Source Lunch Anthony Margida dishes on HEALTH CARE: Biometrics the Akron tech scene Hospitals get better grip on records P. 17 P. 2 EDUCATION: Enrollment ACE Report Colleges adjust as prep numbers drop Area experiences slight jobs drop P. 4 CLEVELAND BUSINESS P. 6 Investors add cash, but VC firms absent Just one traditional venture capital group receives state funding, which is concern BY CHUCK SODER of the Ohio Third Frontier program. And JumpStart itself did extremely [email protected] well: It received $12.5 million that it @Chuck Soder will use to invest in high-tech start- ups via three separate funds. The list of tech investors that re- Still, Northeast Ohio needs a few ceived loans from the state of Ohio more conventional venture capital last month is telling. firms, given that they tend to make Only one classic venture capital somewhat larger investments, Leach firm made the cut. And that firm — said. NCT Ventures of Columbus — got in He posed a question, referring to by the skin of its teeth. all 20 applicants: “Who is the classic, Instead, almost all of the $60 mil- pure Series A venture investor that lion went to economic development invests in a broad range of technolo- organizations, groups of individual gies and companies that are pre-rev- “angel” investors and other organi- enue? Pretty slim.” Predictions 2016 zations that don’t fit the mold of a Here are a few insights that can be traditional venture capital. gleaned from the list of applicants as A Cavs title? Will the new hotels be ready for the RNC? And that’s not a good sign for well as the analysis that the state startups companies in Ohio, accord- used to pick the winners. We look at those topics, plus ask area leaders for their ing to Ray Leach, CEO of JumpStart, First off, JumpStart dominated. a Cleveland nonprofit that works The proposal for JumpStart’s Ever- forecasts for the year — Pages 11-15 with local entrepreneurs. green Fund was ranked first out of 20 Granted, he said the money will that were submitted. Proposals for still do a lot to spark the state’s high- two new JumpStart funds also were tech economy, which is the purpose SEE INVESTORS, PAGE 19 ‘Brutal’ times for shale likely will continue But experts say Utica remains the best play in the industry, and region can help pick up the slack in 2016 BY DAN SHINGLER It’s a slowdown that could last Bennett, executive vice president of people to realize it’s not a market the point that some wells are not at- well into this year, if not longer. But the Ohio Oil and Gas Association in correction — it’s the current state of tractive to drillers. The industry is [email protected] with three years of drilling under an interview in December. “And the economy and an attack on the cutting back, including in Ohio, @DanShingler their belts, leaders of the oil and gas 2016 is going to be a continuation of domestic oil and gas industry in the where the number of active shale industry say they’ve learned enough 2015,” he predicted. U.S.” drilling rigs dropped from about 50 Ohio’s Utica shale play had a about Ohio’s shale play to know it “When (the slump) came, in 2015, Bennett and other industry ex- to fewer than 20 in 2015. tough year in 2015, as low oil and gas will be profitable even when other there was a lot of uncertainty in the perts say low oil and gas prices, re- So what’s to like about Ohio’s oil prices forced drillers to cut back shale plays are not, and drilling here air,” Bennett said. “Was this a mar- sulting from production in the Mid- and gas prospects? The Utica is the their operations and the number of eventually will gain pace again. ket correction or was this something dle East as well as in other parts of best, most efficient and most working rigs in the state plummeted. “It’s brutal,” summed up Shawn larger? It took about six months for the U.S., have driven prices down to SEE SHALE, PAGE 10 Entire contents © 2016 by Crain Communications Inc. Business of Life — Fitness Orangetheory is spreading the word locally — Page 16 20160104-NEWS--2-NAT-CCI-CL_-- 12/30/2015 11:18 AM Page 1 PAGE 2 z JANUARY 4 - 10, 2016 z CRAIN’S CLEVELAND BUSINESS Accurate health records are at their fingertips Northeast Ohio hospitals join growing number of facilities using biometrics to register patients, track medication BY LYDIA COUTRE help ensure patients receive the correct medications, said Donald [email protected] Reichert, vice president and chief @LydiaCoutre information officer for Metro- Health. Each floor with in-patient With one touch, Akron General rooms has a unit for dispensing patients now can be connected to medications, where nurses and their electronic health records us- Hawthorne Valley Golf Club is a scenic course located at 27840 Aurora Road in Solon. (Contributed photo) other providers must go through a ing a fingerprint scanner. series of security measures, includ- In November, Akron General be- ing a fingerprint scan. gan installing SafeChx, a patient A thumb print and password identification technology, logs users into a screen that shows throughout its major registration only the patients on that floor. The Solon golf club aims areas. system links to a patient’s records, The fingerprint scanners aim to including any drug order from the prevent medical identify fraud, im- doctor. Once a medication is se- prove patient outcomes and elimi- lected, a drawer — divided into a nate duplicate records, which can series of individual compartments to stay the course be created with misspellings or ty- — will open. Only the door con- pos. Up to 10% of all medical taining what was ordered opens. records are duplicates, according to In a patient’s room, the bar- Hawthorne Valley will close if it doesn’t reach 300 members CrossChx, a Columbus-based com- codes on the single-dose medica- pany offering health care identity BY KEVIN KLEPS nior housing and commercial real done in June and July has resulted in tion packet and on the patient’s software including SafeChx. estate. Golf isn’t how he made his a 20% year-over-year drop in rounds wrist are scanned into the comput- “We want to make sure that we [email protected] money, which is a good thing, since played in 2015. er to ensure a match. Alerts will don’t have duplicate medical @KevinKleps he said it’s difficult to do so because The GM said that the number of flash on the screen if the drug or its of the proliferation of courses in rounds at the club was very consis- records either, because that also dosage weren’t ordered. The website for Hawthorne Valley Northeast Ohio, especially near tent in the four years prior. “This slows down the treatment of the pa- These measures, starting with a Golf Club in Solon proclaims the Hawthorne Valley’s headquarters at year, you saw a significant dropoff,” tient,” said Stacy Ickes, director of fingerprint scan, help prevent hu- Donald Ross-designed course to be 27840 Aurora Road. Zeman said. patient access for Akron General. man error and identify any inten- “one of the area’s best-kept secrets.” “Guys are getting a good deal (at And even though the weather was CrossChx, founded in 2012, of- tional abuses, Reichert said. Some- Bob Zeman, the club’s general $2,500), I felt,” he said. “I’m giving unseasonably mild for much of the fers SafeChx to hospitals at no cost, one overriding the alerts or manager for the last nine years, is them another chance to come in fall, Zeman said that, from his expe- including installation, training and repeatedly entering barcodes trying to change that. The message and be like a country club.” rience, once October arrives, many support. Since the state of Ohio manually instead of scanning is simple: Hawthorne Valley needs Zeman, the club’s GM, said Northeast Ohio golfers “put their provided funding for the pilot, could send up red flags. to increase its membership to 300, Hawthorne Valley’s membership clubs away and they’re not playing CrossChx has grown through ven- Similar measures are in place for or it will close its doors. reached 175 in 2013. But to trim ex- again (until the following spring).” ture capital investments and rev- breast milk and blood. Zeman said the club, which was penses, the club closed the locker Rzepka, who ended a successful enue earned from premium appli- “I think it improves certainly the private until 2009 and has been room in 2015, and membership 24-year run as a commissioner of cations, according to Brad Mascho, safety,” Reichert said. “If we’re ad- semi-private the last six years, is dropped to about 100. the Cleveland Metroparks at the co-founder and president of Cross- ministering drugs or blood, (we’re) about halfway to its membership “In the general scheme of things, close of 2010, said Hawthorne Valley Chx. making sure that we’re dealing with goal. Hawthorne Valley is asking it did work because we cut a lot of la- is an attractive piece of land for po- Ickes said there have been a few the right patient and giving them $2,500, a price that includes unlim- bor out,” Zeman said.