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Southern Tier Dermatology expands to Elmira area
Opens new office in Big Flats that employs 8 people BIG FLATS — Vestal–based Southern Tier Dermatology & Aesthetics has opened a new medical-practice location at 950 County Road 64 in Big Flats. “Our move to Big Flats gives us the chance to bring our brand of care, expertise, and individual attention to the residents […]
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Opens new office in Big Flats that employs 8 people
BIG FLATS — Vestal–based Southern Tier Dermatology & Aesthetics has opened a new medical-practice location at 950 County Road 64 in Big Flats.
“Our move to Big Flats gives us the chance to bring our brand of care, expertise, and individual attention to the residents of the Elmira area,” Dr. Colleen Crandell, who co-owns and operates Southern Tier Dermatology & Aesthetics with Dr. Curt Fenkl, said in a news release announcing the new location.
Crandell and Fenkl began looking for a location in the Elmira area last spring due to a lack of such care in the region and requests from patients who live in that area but were visiting the Vestal office, says Stephen Donnelly, president of Dynamic Innovation Group, and the medical practice’s public-relations spokesman.
“We are so glad we’ve opened our clinic in Big Flats and have been able to make a difference already,” Fenkl said. “There’s a definite need.”
Southern Tier Dermatology & Aesthetics, headquartered at 200 Plaza Drive, Vestal, has a practice diagnosing pre-cancerous moles, particularly in teens and young adults, using dermoscopy. Dermoscopy gives visibility to the skin underneath a mole to help determine whether a biopsy should be performed. The process can help doctors detect melanoma in 65 percent to 80 percent of cases, the release said.
According to the American Cancer Society, about 76,250 people will be diagnosed with melanoma this year, and 9,180 people will die from it. Melanoma accounts for fewer than 5 percent of all skin cancers — with skin cancer being the most common of all cancers — but melanoma causes the majority of skin-cancer deaths. The risk of getting melanoma is about 1 in 50 for whites, 1 in 1,000 for African Americans, and 1 in 200 for those of Hispanic descent.
More than 2.2 million cases of basal- and squamous-cell skin cancer are diagnosed each year, according to the Cancer Society. The organization believes fewer than 2,000 people die each year of non-melanoma skin cancer, with that rate declining from year to year.
“In dermatology, you need to evaluate each patient individually and give them systemic and systematic treatment,” Fenkl said. “We at Southern Tier Dermatology & Aesthetics are very aggressive in our treatment to get them better. It is easy to treat serious concerns in dermatology once patients are properly seen and properly diagnosed.”
Crandell and Fenkl worked with realtor Trisha Ackerman of Pyramid Brokerage to find the 1,600-square-foot office, Fenkl said. The practice spent about $200,000 to renovate the space and acquire equipment. The Big Flats office employs eight people with plans to add staff as the number of patients grows. Southern Tier Dermatology & Aesthetics currently has 25 employees companywide, including several that work at both the Vestal and Big Flats offices.
Along with the new Big Flats office, Crandell and Fenkl have plans to open an office in Utica later this year as well. Southern Tier Dermatology & Aesthetics (www.stdermatology.com) also plans to eventually expand into a new, larger building in Endwell, the release noted.
The goal with all the locations, Donnelly said, is to provide patient care, create jobs, and offer a dermatological resource for primary-care physicians to which they can refer patients.
Guthrie Health adds mobile doctor search tool
SAYRE, Pa. — Guthrie Health recently launched a mobile-search tool that allows patients to find information on Guthrie physicians from their mobile devices. To access the search, patients and others need to use the browser in their smart phone to visit www.guthrieproviders.org, where they can launch a mobile-friendly search of Guthrie physicians by name, specialty,
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SAYRE, Pa. — Guthrie Health recently launched a mobile-search tool that allows patients to find information on Guthrie physicians from their mobile devices.
To access the search, patients and others need to use the browser in their smart phone to visit www.guthrieproviders.org, where they can launch a mobile-friendly search of Guthrie physicians by name, specialty, or location, the organization says.
The application serves as a companion to eGuthrie, a secure patient portal used by more than 24,000 Guthrie patients to track test results, request prescription refills, and communicate with their health-care provider. Patients may enroll in eGuthrie with an authorization code from their physician’s office, Guthrie Health says.
Guthrie Health includes Guthrie Healthcare System and Guthrie Clinic. Guthrie Healthcare System provides inpatient, outpatient, and home-based services through Corning Hospital, Troy Community Hospital, Robert Packer Hospital, Guthrie Home Care, and Guthrie Hospice. Guthrie Clinic provides primary and specialty physician care at 25 regional clinics. Guthrie Health says it provides care for 200,000 patients annually within an 11-county area of service in northern Pennsylvania and across the Southern Tier.
Binghamton kicks off annual business-plan competition
BINGHAMTON — Entrepreneurs have a chance to win a $5,000 prize as the fourth-annual BLDC-EAP Business Plan Competition is under way. The city of Binghamton, Binghamton Local Development Corporation (BLDC), and Broome Community College’s Broome Triad Entrepreneurial Assistance Program (EAP) sponsor the program, which awards the prize to the best plan for developing a business
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BINGHAMTON — Entrepreneurs have a chance to win a $5,000 prize as the fourth-annual BLDC-EAP Business Plan Competition is under way.
The city of Binghamton, Binghamton Local Development Corporation (BLDC), and Broome Community College’s Broome Triad Entrepreneurial Assistance Program (EAP) sponsor the program, which awards the prize to the best plan for developing a business in the city of Binghamton.
“The BLDC-EAP Business Plan Competition is another way we’re encouraging entrepreneurs to take a stake in our increasingly dynamic local economy,” Binghamton Mayor Matthew Ryan said in a news release. “This competition helps grow our small business community by providing the winner not only with a cash prize but also helpful training for all those who are starting a company or are interested in doing so.”
The competition seeks to cultivate local business development, highlight BLDC financing programs, and raise awareness about community resources for small-business growth. Participation in the contest gives entrepreneurs access to training, networking, and start-up capital opportunities. New to this year’s competition is the addition of professional consultation with both the law firm of Levene Gouldin & Thompson, LLP and the accounting firm of Piaker & Lyons.
In order to be eligible, entrepreneurs must plan to base their business within the city limits, must have plans to start a business or have an existing business no more than five years old, and must have been a client of the EAP at some point since September 2005 or attend a free one-day workshop on business-plan development. The workshop is March 24 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. in room 201 of the Decker Building at Broome Community College. To register, call (607) 778-5012. Seating is limited to 40 people.
Contest participants must submit their application, and register for the workshop if necessary, by March 15. Contest organizers will announce the finalists on April 11. Finalists must submit a written business plan by May 24 and make oral presentations regarding their plans on June 19 or 20. Contest organizers will announce the winner on June 28.
For more information about the contest and an information packet, visit http://www.cityofbinghamton.com/viewarticle.asp?a=3728.
Contest judges will include three representatives from the BLDC and three from EAP with experience and expertise in entrepreneurship, finance, and business education. The BLDC provides the prize money from its marketing and outreach committee budget.
Tech Garden startup, iMuzik, targets launch this year
SYRACUSE — A startup company based in the Syracuse Tech Garden is developing a digital music stand with a 20-inch touch screen. The product will allow musicians access to a library of scores and sheet music. The stand will also be WiFi capable and allow collaborative networking with others. The company will start by offering
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SYRACUSE — A startup company based in the Syracuse Tech Garden is developing a digital music stand with a 20-inch touch screen.
The product will allow musicians access to a library of scores and sheet music. The stand will also be WiFi capable and allow collaborative networking with others. The company will start by offering music that’s now in the public domain, which includes thousands of pieces.
The sheet music will be uploaded to the device, known as the MyMuzik stand, via the company’s website. It will be displayed as a digital image.
The stand will include a foot pedal that will allow for hands-free page turning. The software powering the device will also include features like zoom, rotation, scrolling, and allow for annotation.
A conductor of a full ensemble using the product could even send messages and notes to all the devices at once, according to the company.
The stand is aimed at organized ensembles and professional musicians, says Alice Yu, interim director of marketing and development at iMuzik, LLC, the company developing the stand.
While there are plenty of iPad apps available to handle digital sheet music, iPad screens are small. Musicians are accustomed to having full-size sheet music spread across a stand, she notes.
The MyMuzik product seeks to replicate the same dimensions as an actual, physical page of music. IPads, Yu says, are more suited for hobbyists or traveling musicians.
Professionals, she adds, never asked the iPad question.
“Serious musicians get it,” she says. “An orchestral score is huge. It’s tough to shrink that down.”
The hardware for the product is ready now, produced by computer manufacturer Seneca Data of Cicero. The software should be ready to go in about a month, iMuzik CEO Robert Jandura-Cessna says.
IMuzik plans to test the product with musicians of Symphony Syracuse — a group of musicians that formed after the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra suspended operations and filed for bankruptcy in 2011. He is hoping to organize a concert using the MyMuzik stands this summer.
Jandura-Cessna founded the company in March 2011 after working on the idea for several months. After studying abroad and running a small business in Poland for more than two years, he says he returned to the U.S. and founded iMuzik to unite two of his passions.
“Business is something I’ve always done and I know it’s something I’m going to pursue for the rest of my life,” Jandura-Cessna says. “Music is also.”
He funded the startup of iMuzik with money left over from his business, a lingerie shop he started in Krakow. The company has also received some financial support from family.
IMuzik is now working with CenterState CEO in a new program aimed at helping the business find debt and equity financing, Jandura-Cessna says.
IMuzik held an event at the Tech Garden in December to help develop its software. About 20 coders, software developers, and designers came together for the two-day event, Hacking-4-Muzik.
The group split into two teams that spent 54 hours hashing out their own versions of software to power the stand. Two members of the winning team continue to work on development of the software, Jandura-Cessna says.
Syracuse Technologies seeks to break out of typical IT mold
SYRACUSE — A two-year-old information-technology firm in Syracuse is striving to move beyond the connotations that usually accompany working in the IT space. “We don’t want to be a break-fix company,” Syracuse Technologies, LLC President Jeff Brinson says. “We try to be more proactive.” That’s something that most IT companies would say, of course, Brinson
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SYRACUSE — A two-year-old information-technology firm in Syracuse is striving to move beyond the connotations that usually accompany working in the IT space.
“We don’t want to be a break-fix company,” Syracuse Technologies, LLC President Jeff Brinson says. “We try to be more proactive.”
That’s something that most IT companies would say, of course, Brinson notes. But actually putting it into practice can be difficult.
It takes time for clients to get comfortable enough with a firm for its experts to make recommendations, which naturally involves a cost. Customers need to know that their vendor is not just trying to sell them something, Brinson says.
“It takes a while to build that trust so they know we truly are trying to make it better,” he says.
It’s a challenging road, but it’s the direction Brinson says he is taking his business.
The firm launched in 2009. At the time, Brinson was working with Presentation Concepts of Baldwinsville, an audio-visual company that had also started an IT group.
New owners decided to refocus Presentation Concepts on its audio-visual work so Brinson decided to strike out on his own in the IT field. He was able to take a few of Presentation Concepts’ IT customers with him since the company was leaving that business, he says.
Another former Presentation Concepts employee, Matt Musumeci, is Brinson’s partner in Syracuse Technologies.
The firm employs five people, plus a stable of contractors. Brinson says he hopes to add another two or so employees in the next year.
Syracuse Technologies focuses on small businesses with five to about 100 users. Companies of that size account for a good portion of the Syracuse market, Brinson says.
Professional-services firms, and especially accounting firms, are a key group of customers, he adds. For example, accountants frequently employ Syracuse Technologies to handle data backup.
Syracuse Technologies can also allow the customers of those firms to back up their data. Partnering with its clients on services like that is one way in which Syracuse Technologies is working to expand its business, Brinson says.
Those relationships usually offer better results than just cold calling, he adds.
The firm also handles IT for the Oncenter. It recently completed a major project retooling the center’s server system and added wireless capabilities to the entire facility, Brinson says.
Syracuse Technologies also works with National Tractor Trailer School in Liverpool.
The firm offers Web development and design, Brinson says. The company has partnered with marketing firms to help its clients generate worthwhile content for their sites, he adds.
In addition, the company brought a vice president of business development on board last year. The position is meant to help speed up Syracuse Technologies’ growth, Brinson says.
“We want good, steady growth,” he adds.
Synairco seeks to make air conditioning more green
ITHACA — Synairco, Inc. of Ithaca is trying to make air conditioning more efficient and more environmentally friendly. The company is commercializing a new type of air conditioning that eliminates the use of harsh chemical refrigerants and uses less electricity than traditional systems, President Crista Shopis says. The company recently won a $50,000 grant through
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ITHACA — Synairco, Inc. of Ithaca is trying to make air conditioning more efficient and more environmentally friendly.
The company is commercializing a new type of air conditioning that eliminates the use of harsh chemical refrigerants and uses less electricity than traditional systems, President Crista Shopis says.
The company recently won a $50,000 grant through the Syracuse Center of Excellence Commercialization Assistance Program (CAP) to help move its technology closer to market. The money will allow Synairco to work with Air Innovations of Cicero to produce assembly drawings for a larger size system.
The prototype unit Synairco has crafted to this point is small and only suitable for residential use, Shopis says. The new unit would allow the company to test in a very large home or small office building.
The grant will reduce the engineering expense of creating the system so a potential early adopter would have to pay only for building the unit.
In addition to grants, Synairco expects to raise private financing at some point. Shopis says the firm is probably 18 months to two years from fully commercializing its system.
The company expects to build the units itself and sell them through representatives.
Since air conditioning was first developed, not much has changed, according to Synairco. The systems pass air over a coil maintained at a temperature of 45 degrees to cool and dehumidify it.
The process requires chemicals that are potentially hazardous and uses lots of electricity, Shopis says.
Synairco’s technology allows air to be cooled and dehumidified with a coil kept at 60 degrees. The higher temperature means geothermal technology can be used to maintain the correct coil temperature rather than refrigerants and a power-hungry condensing unit, according to the company.
The firm grew from Ithaca–based Taitem Engineering. Taitem President Ian Shapiro originally had the idea for the system and several years ago won some grant funding to analyze the concept and build a prototype. Shopis, who is also a project engineer at Taitem, worked on those early efforts.
She and Shapiro eventually connected with an Ithaca–area entrepreneur, Charles Hamilton, and began working out whether a company could be built around the new technology. A student at the Cornell University Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management also helped in the effort.
The student, Adam Conderman, graduated in June and is now Synairco’s vice president of business development. Shapiro and Hamilton are board members.
Synairco shares space with Taitem at the moment, Shopis says. The company incorporated in January 2011.
In addition to winning the CAP grant, Synairco is in line for another grant, but Shopis says she can’t discuss details of that funding yet. The company also won $15,000 in last year’s Creative Core Emerging Business Competition. The firm won the contest’s green business category.
University Hospital provides patients access to EMRs
SYRACUSE — Electronic medical records (EMR) are leaving the confines of the hospital and heading home with patients, Upstate University Hospital said Jan. 25. The hospital unveiled Upstate MyChart, a system that gives patients access to their EMRs on home computers, smartphones, and tablet computers. Data available to patients ranges from information on their medical
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SYRACUSE — Electronic medical records (EMR) are leaving the confines of the hospital and heading home with patients, Upstate University Hospital said Jan. 25.
The hospital unveiled Upstate MyChart, a system that gives patients access to their EMRs on home computers, smartphones, and tablet computers. Data available to patients ranges from information on their medical histories to physicians’ notes from medical appointments.
Upstate is making the system available to its outpatients over the course of the year. Upstate MyChart was first available Jan. 25 to patients at the hospital’s Family Medicine practice, and its Department of Pediatrics is scheduled to offer the service in March.
Upstate University Hospital moved quickly to implement Upstate MyChart because of Medicare and Medicaid incentives for using EMRs, according to Teresa Wagner, chief information officer. Those incentives were part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (the federal stimulus bill), she says.
The incentives could be worth about $15 million across Upstate’s physician practices, Wagner estimates.
Upstate MyChart also fits in with the hospital’s work with HealtheConnections RHIO Central New York, a regional health-information organization that oversees the area’s Health Information Exchange (HIE). An HIE uses EMRs to give authorized medical providers access to patient information and medical histories in real time.
“We will be sending data [to the HIE] just as we do today from our existing systems,” Wagner says. “In some cases where certain offices had been on paper almost entirely, they’ll now be in a position to send electronic information.”
Patients will be able to use Upstate MyChart to access results from on-site lab tests, lists of their known allergies, and their medical histories. Also, they can use the system to send electronic messages directly to their physicians’ offices, schedule medical appointments, and request prescription refills.
Upstate plans to expand the service to inpatient care after all outpatients are covered at the end of 2012. The hospital has no final timeline for moving the system into inpatient care, but it will eventually cover 60 locations and 900 practitioners, including Upstate University Hospital at Community General.
“We have clinics all over Central New York, from Oswego, Fulton, to Auburn, all the way to Utica, Rome, and certainly into the Southern Tier,” says Dr. David Smith, president of the State University of New York (SUNY) Upstate Medical University.
Upstate University Hospital, which is part of SUNY Upstate Medical University, used Verona, Wis.–based Epic Systems Corp. to design the EMR system. The vendor had experience working with other academic medical centers, according to Smith.
“It’s one thing to work with a hospital, but because of the complexity and size, it was important that they’d worked with large academic medical centers like the Ohio States, Vanderbilts, Mayo Clinics — that kind of thing,” he says.
Rolling out Upstate MyChart to outpatients carries a price tag of $20 million — a bill being footed by University Hospital and University Medical Associates of Syracuse, which is Upstate’s faculty practice plan. However, the system could help make physicians eligible for the federal Medicare and Medicaid EMR incentives from the stimulus bill.
Expanding the system to inpatient care will cost an additional $20 million, according to Smith.
The hospital has hired 30 employees to help bring the system online and 12 workers to train doctors and staff members to use it. And it will probably have to add another 30 to 40 employees to make Upstate MyChart available to inpatients.
Most of the new hires will be retained after the system is completely in place, Smith says. Upstate will need them to stay on as support staff.
“Even on the training side, you have to have ongoing training because upgrades will occur,” Smith says.
SUNY Upstate is also in the process of building courses and a certificate program in the EMR technology, according to Smith. It expects to have a plan for the courses in 12 to 18 months, he says.
The medical university would set up training classrooms that would give students the opportunity to go online with mock patient data.
“What’s unique about us is we also have the university side of this to consider,” Smith says. “Ultimately we’d [like to] be able to teach this.”
The system is free for patients to use, and EMRs for each patient will be password protected. Upstate officials described Upstate MyChart as having “bank-level” security.
Other Syracuse hospitals plan to implement EMR portals similar to Upstate MyChart but have not yet done so. St. Joseph’s Hospital Health Center plans to launch a website known as “MyStJosephs” that will contain personalized content this spring. It does not yet have a timeline for opening its EMR portal.
And Crouse Hospital also wants to allow patients to view EMRs remotely. The hospital did not release a timeline but said such EMR access is part of its strategic plan.
Cornell brings new incubator online
ITHACA — A new life sciences incubator at Cornell University plans to help young companies get closer to market. Plenty of early-stage companies in life sciences are swallowed in the so-called “valley of death,” says Lou Walcer, director of the new Kevin M. McGovern Family Center for Venture Development in the Life Sciences. They might
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ITHACA — A new life sciences incubator at Cornell University plans to help young companies get closer to market.
Plenty of early-stage companies in life sciences are swallowed in the so-called “valley of death,” says Lou Walcer, director of the new Kevin M. McGovern Family Center for Venture Development in the Life Sciences. They might have enough funding to complete some initial work, but not the money or resources needed to prove an idea’s commercial viability.
“Facilities and programs like ours exist to fill that gap,” Walcer says. “And it is a huge gap.”
The center launched in early February with the help of a $7.5 million gift from the McGovern family, which includes Kevin McGovern, a 1970 Cornell graduate, his wife, Lisa, and their children, Cornell graduates Jarrett and Ashley. Cornell’s Research Division and NYSTAR’s Biotechnology Institute at Cornell also support the center.
The McGovern Center will help companies founded by inventors at Cornell’s Ithaca, Geneva, New York City, and Qatar campuses. Many of those inventors might be brilliant technologists, but need help with the business end of their operations.
Walcer expects to add three full-time staff members in the coming months, two of whom will be dedicated to helping incubator companies with tasks like business planning and attracting investment.
The McGovern Center includes lab space for up to seven companies, including some very early-stage firms that will work month to month on initial research. Other firms will be farther down the road in their development and work with the center on an annual basis.
Most businesses will spend about 18 months in the center, although that timeline is flexible depending on circumstances. The goal is for the firms to leave the program through acquisition by a larger company or with enough outside investment to continue work on their own, Walcer says.
“Two things that are critical in the life of a young life sciences company are time and money,” he adds. “You don’t have a lot of either.”
The McGovern Center will buy its tenants some of both, Walcer says. The facility offers the specialized, expensive equipment young life sciences firms need to commercialize their technologies plus the permits needed to actually do their work.
“Those can take years to get,” Walcer notes.
The center’s first occupant is Glycobia, Inc., which is developing techniques to produce human peptide, protein, and antibody drugs using common bacteria. Matthew DeLisa, an associate professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at Cornell, founded the firm.
Walcer hopes to announce the center’s second tenant in March. Life sciences, he adds, extends beyond the health-care realm in this case.
While firms working in the pharmaceutical or medical device spaces will certainly be part of the center’s future, companies in areas like horticulture or food technologies are also eligible to be considered as tenants.
There have been fewer venture deals and acquisitions in life sciences in recent years, Walcer says, but those that have closed have been much larger than in the past. It’s becoming expected that institutions like Cornell will help incubate and develop the most promising of the technologies their researchers produce, he explains.
That reduces risk for investors or companies making acquisitions down the line, he says.
The McGovern Center is also striving to keep jobs and investment in Central New York. Left to their own devices, companies like the ones that will populate the facility often wind up in cities with strong life sciences clusters like Boston, Walcer says.
UVC CEO hopes to see seed funds spread across NY
SYRACUSE — Representatives from Upstate Venture Connect have been meeting with groups from around New York State in an effort to spark the formation of more seed funds. Both the Seed Capital Fund of CNY (SCF), which formed in Syracuse in 2007, and the Cayuga Venture Fund of Ithaca, which served as the model for
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SYRACUSE — Representatives from Upstate Venture Connect have been meeting with groups from around New York State in an effort to spark the formation of more seed funds.
Both the Seed Capital Fund of CNY (SCF), which formed in Syracuse in 2007, and the Cayuga Venture Fund of Ithaca, which served as the model for SCF, have been successful in making investments in a number of early-stage companies over the years, says Upstate Venture Connect (UVC) CEO Nasir Ali, who also serves as SCF executive director. There’s no reason similar groups can’t launch elsewhere in the state or even in communities where seed funds are now operating.
“We have room in our communities for a lot more people to be angels,” Ali says.
UVC is a nonprofit group formed in 2010 to encourage the development of more small, innovative companies in upstate New York.
Organized funds like Cayuga and SCF have some key advantages over more loosely organized angel networks, Ali notes. Such networks in upstate New York often include individuals who made their money in traditional industries.
But the investment opportunities they’re presented with are often in cutting-edge, highly technical sectors.
“They’re being asked to make investments in things that they have limited knowledge of,” Ali says.
So frequently, a couple of angels in the network who do understand a business wind up on the hook for large sums. The problem is magnified if a young company runs into challenges.
Those couple of angels could then be asked to put up even more money. It’s a cycle that can easily result in a startup not making it through a rough patch, Ali says.
Using a fund model, where all investors contribute to a pool of capital, spreads out the risk. And it allows members of the fund to take advantage of each other’s knowledge, Ali says.
“At the end of the day, it’s possible to make up a $150,000 to $200,000 investment not in terms of three or [four] people writing $50,000 checks, but maybe 40 people participating by writing $5,000 checks,” he says.
Ali has met with groups in Rochester and Buffalo about starting seed funds in those cities. And he offered guidance to the organizers of Eastern New York Angels (ENYA), which launched in 2010.
The fund made its first investment in October, says Richard Frederick, a founding member of the fund and member of its management committee. It committed $150,000 to Ener-G-Rotors of Rotterdam.
The company is commercializing a technology that captures waste heat in industrial settings and elsewhere and converts it into electricity.
In January, the group made a $200,000 investment in Paper Battery Co. of Troy, which is developing a thin, flexible power source with applications in fields like defense, health care, and consumer electronics.
ENYA adopted nearly the entire model used at SCF and Cayuga, Frederick says. It allows the group to work faster than an angel network. With a network, companies would come in, pitch, and then negotiate separate deals with interested investors, he notes.
“Generally, you’re not getting the kind of money you’re looking for,” Frederick says. “Now, a group comes in and you’re actually in the position of being able to write a check right away.”
Immediate Mailing Services is posting strong growth
SALINA — Immediate Mailing Services, Inc. (IMS) is expanding and addressing a range of clients’ needs. The company, based in Salina, offers a range of mail-sorting, printing, and direct-marketing services — it can print mailings like bank statements or advertisements, insert letters into envelopes, and presort mail so that the U.S. Postal Service delivers it
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SALINA — Immediate Mailing Services, Inc. (IMS) is expanding and addressing a range of clients’ needs.
The company, based in Salina, offers a range of mail-sorting, printing, and direct-marketing services — it can print mailings like bank statements or advertisements, insert letters into envelopes, and presort mail so that the U.S. Postal Service delivers it at a discounted rate.
IMS also has the capability to generate and deliver electronic statements and advertisements. And the company’s diverse set of services are helping it grow.
“2011 was one of the best years in the history of this business,” says John Mashia, Jr., president and COO of IMS. “We’ve invested in technology, and our business has grown.”
Investments in technology at the company’s headquarters include two Pitney Bowes inserters that can insert up to 12,000 letters per hour into envelopes. The inserters, which IMS purchased in December, can handle a range of mail sizes.
Mashia declined to disclose the exact price IMS paid for the inserters. The company’s investment in technology, which also includes software, was “over seven figures” in 2011, he says.
In the last six years, IMS purchased a Xerox iGen3 printer and a Xerox iGen4 printer, which can print in color with variable names and data. Those machines enable the company to produce advertisements that contain details such as the number of reward points a specific customer has earned at a store.
IMS has 110 employees at its headquarters in Salina. Its employment rolls there have grown by about 10 percent in the last year, according to Mashia.
The company also has branches in Albany, Buffalo, and Rochester, as well as a location in northern Virginia that serves the Washington, D.C. and Baltimore areas. IMS employs about 260 people companywide, and has added 50 employees in the last 18 months.
Mashia anticipates IMS will continue to add jobs, although he says its rate of hiring will depend on its growth. The company’s future openings will likely be in software development, information technology, sales, marketing, and finance, he says.
IMS partners with New York State Industries for the Disabled (NYSID), a not-for-profit that works for employment for state residents with disabilities. That has allowed it to fill some of its staff positions with workers who have disabilities, although Mashia declined to say how many people work at IMS as a result of the partnership.
“We’ve been able to place individuals with disabilities and give them an opportunity for employment in our organization,” he says. “We’re fulfilling a need we have, but we also feel we’re contributing to the community.”
IMS generated $82 million in revenue in 2011. Mashia projects revenue growth of at least 10 percent in 2012, which he says would be consistent with the firm’s growth in 2011.
Transpromotional bank statements are currently a major source of that growth, Mashia says. Transpromotional statements are bank statements that carry advertisements alongside standard statement information.
IMS prints standard and transpromotional customer statements for financial institutions like banks and credit unions. If a bank wants to send statements with promotional material, IMS can insert advertisements at the bottom or side of a page that are targeted toward each individual customer.
“You’re trying to focus that message based on the individual data you get,” Mashia says. “You might be a good candidate to refinance your mortgage.”
IMS directs the advertisements on transpromotional statements based on information its clients provide, Mashia says. He declined to name any of the company’s clients.
Many financial institutions are migrating to transpromotional statements, according to Mashia. IMS can also produce electronic statements and bills, although some industries are adopting electronic communications more quickly than others, he says.
“Both in collections and medical billing, we’re seeing a very slow migration,” Mashia says. “People don’t want to see an e-statement as their doctor’s bill. They want to touch it.”
IMS started offering electronic services such as e-statements in the last five years. The company declined to disclose the portion of its revenue that comes from e-statements, but Mashia indicated that revenue from the service is growing at more than 10 percent per year.
Mashia says IMS has added new services since its owner and CEO W. Lee Vanderpool, Jr. started it in 1986 in DeWitt as a firm specializing in presorting mail. That is still a major part of its business — it sorts more than 3 million pieces of mail per day across its facilities — but it started printing in the early 1990s.
“People came to us with a need,” Mashia says. “We evolved into other business units.”
IMS clients include banks, credit unions, insurance underwriters, medical providers, colleges, transportation service providers, nonprofit groups, government agencies, and solicitation agencies.
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