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Tech event: Startup demo day

Marco Santana
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Tech event: Startup demo day

FREE TICKET LINK: VentureScaleUp Accelerator Spring 2021 Demo Day

Do you need something to do on Tuesday evening? Of course you do.

Why not support Orlando’s tech community by attending a demo day and checking out some of the up-and-coming tech firms downtown?

The VentureScaleUp business accelerator’s spring class will be showing off what they do on Tuesday.

The hybrid will have an online component so people can watch the event. The in-person demo day will be held at Pipeline, 20 N. Orange Ave. Suite 1100 in downtown Orlando.

So who exactly will you meet? Let’s take a look at who they are and what they are working on.

Exhalence: A medtech startup that is building a breath analysis technology for diabetics.

FLUIX: Liquid cooling solutions that will increase data processing speed at workstations.

IDEM Systems: Spectromter technology aimed at helping curb the illegal drug epidemic.

Miventure: Fintech startup with an equity crowdfunding portal for investing in early stage startups.

Modularity Space: Daytona Beach company developing low-cost reusable satellites that can provide rental space for sensors and technology.

Chief innovation and emerging technologies officer for Orange County Andrea Wesser-Brawner and ViewStub CEO Spencer Elliott will keynote the event. Investor Richard Fox and VentureScaleUp founder Dennis Pape will make introductory remarks.

Winter Park’s Sighthound acquires Colorado company

Marco Santana
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Winter Park’s Sighthound acquires Colorado company

Leaders of the Winter Park technology company Sighthound said that they expect the company to acquire several businesses this year while announcing the acquisition of a Boulder, Colo., smart cameras firm for an undisclosed amount.

The company has acquired Boulder AI, which has done work on smart cameras with several cities and government organizations, including Denver, Dallas and the Florida Department of Transportation.

The move also installs Boulder AI CEO Darren Odom as Sighthound’s chief technology officer.

“Together, our aim is to bring openness and programmability to (video management systems), long seen as closed, propietary and inflexible,” Sighthound CEO RJ Burnham said in a news release. “Our objective is to meet customers where they are, give them great technology that’s easy to deploy from a company with integrity and great support.”

Sighthound has in its suite of products license plate recognition software that recognizes, logs and matches license plate numbers with a database of vehicles.

The company counts more than 500 law enforcement agencies as customers.

With the Boulder acquisition, the company plans to create a way to turn any video stream into a network of sensors that can capture data for customers.

“Our goal is to make customers feel there is an alternative to the way things have been done in the past,” Odom said. “They can finally have a technology partner that gives them accurate data, served up in a single pane of glass to view quickly, without sacrificing latency – from license plate reading and vehicle make/model/color for Law Enforcement to pedestrian near-misses for Smart Cities to face-based recognition for touchless Access Control in Government buildings – if we can give them easy access to data instantly and make installations easier and more affordable, while increasing privacy, the customer wins and that’s what we want to see.”

ECS opens 1st Orlando haptics technology lab

Marco Santana
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ECS opens 1st Orlando haptics technology lab

An Orlando-based simulation and training company has opened a haptics-centric lab at its headquarters as it begins work on a U.S. Army contract to evaluate a trio of haptics-enabled vendor gloves.

The Engineering & Computer Simulations project, which is funded through 2024 by the Army’s Simulation and Training Technology Center, will determine the effectiveness of three sets of haptics gloves.

While initial studies will focus on their performance for medical training, plans are underway to expand the studies into aviation maintenance and marksmanship simulation.

The new lab will allow ECS to integrate and refine haptics technology into virtual, mixed, augmented and extended realities, CEO Waymon Armstrong said in a news release.

“The ability to develop and test within this space ensures we continue to enhance the innovative global training products and services for our warfighters, first responders and enterprise clients,” he said.

Haptics enhance the realism of technologies like virtual reality by pairing a visual display with gloves that pulse or vibrate in real time as a user is immersed.

The lab will also dive into front-end analysis and testing of the hardware.

The vendor gloves being studied include the VRgluv, HaptX Gloves DK2 and gloves from BeBop.

National Center for Simulation president and CEO George Cheros said Armstong’s firm has long been a leader in the industry.

“It’s no surprise that they are one of the first technology and training firms to dedicate lab space to research and advance haptic technology for implementation in our simulation and training programs.”

UCF’s incubator adds customer liaison for clients

Marco Santana
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UCF’s incubator adds customer liaison for clients

UCF’s incubator program hopes to charge up its ability to connect small companies to larger ones by hiring a longtime mentor to facilitate that work.

Ray Villegas, who most recently was CareerSource Central Florida’s economic development liaison, was hired as program manager overseeing the Innovation Districts mentorship and first customer programs.

Essentially, his responsibility will be to help incubator clients connect with customers and larger companies for potential collaboration.

Connections with larger companies can often jumpstart a young business’ ability to grow.

“We believe we are uniquely positioned to provide this type of service to our clients that very few organizations can provide,” said Rob Panepinto, UCF’s director of Innovation Districts strategy and partnerships, in a press release. “We’ve already had success in this realm but believe this move will help us truly push this service and help our clients scale significantly.”

Villegas has nearly 14 years of experience working on making connections between businesses. He has been an integral part of three chambers of commerce and other economic development groups in Central Florida.

In a statement, he praised the incubator program’s track record.

OneRail expands ‘last mile’ delivery firm, expects 100 employees by years end

Marco Santana
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OneRail expands ‘last mile’ delivery firm, expects 100 employees by years end
CEO Bill Catania cuts the ribbon on OneRail’s new offices in Orlando.

To say 2020 was something of a perfect storm for Orlando-based tech company OneRail might be an understatement.

The company provides delivery services of all kinds what is called “last mile” support.

As the pandemic pushed more people to work from home, it also lit a charge into delivery services of all kinds, whether it was delivery of fast food from Wendy’s, electronics from Best Buy or, well, anything from Amazon.

“Last mile” support connects delivery drivers with businesses that have promised its customers to deliver goods on time.

“It just happened that everything that happened last year was in the direction that we were going,” said Bill Catania, CEO of OneRail. “We exist in something that already had a big need even before the pandemic.”

The company recently moved into an 18,000-square-foot facility, an effort to accommodate what Catania says will be a workforce of at least 100 by the end of the year.

OneRail employs about 65 right now.

Essentially, when you order an item from Amazon, for instance, the business that you buy from needs to find a delivery driver in the region.

That’s where OneRail does its work, helping connect retail businesses with drivers for services like Postmates or DoorDash.

“The problem that retailers have is that as ecommerce accelerates, it becomes less efficient for them to manage it on their own,” Catania said. “We don’t have to change behavior to make this platform scale. The behavior has already changed and it continues to go toward an ecommerce model.”

Catania said Amazon raised the bar, as consumers now expect efficient, accurate and quality delivery services from all businesses.

“If I can’t deliver as efficiently as Amazon, I’m in trouble,” he said.

Early last year, just before the pandemic pushed everybody home, OneRail completed an investment round of nearly $6 million.

At the time, the company had 10 employees in downtown Orlando.

Catania characterizes OneRail as a tool for businesses who want to start offering same-day delivery, which consumers have become accustomed to.

“This shift (toward more home delivery) was happening before COVID,” Catania said. “But the acceleration of customers choosing to buy online put pressure on the companies to provide delivery. It’s not even that customers want delivery now. They expect it.”

Orlando Science Center’s Otronicon dates moved permanently

Marco Santana
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Orlando Science Center’s Otronicon dates moved permanently

The Orlando Science Center will host its annual Otronicon conference in February permanently.

The museum had held the event on MLK Day weekend in January for its first 15 years. However, it will now instead devote that weekend to more diverse programming, spokesman Jeff Stanford said.

“Ultimately, we felt it was better to move Otronicon to Presidents Day weekend and spend MLK Jr. Weekend focusing on celebrating that holiday,” he said. “And using that to celebrate the values we embrace for inclusivity, diversity, equity and access.”

Otronicon has grown into one of the Central Florida region’s most-celebrated and anticipated technology-related events.

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UCF tech groups, Black Orlando Tech, RALLY, Rollins land Orange County grants

Marco Santana
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UCF tech groups, Black Orlando Tech, RALLY, Rollins land Orange County grants

Note: This is the first in a series of posts that takes a closer look at the funding approvals passed by Orange County this week. In future posts, we will highlight the organizations and programs that landed money.

UCF programs and initiatives landed the majority of nearly $2 million in Orange County money meant to diversify the region’s economy by supporting entrepreneurial and tech-related efforts.

Three UCF Research Foundation priorities, UCF’s StarterStudio and its Veterans Entrepreneurship Initiative combined for more than $1.4 million in grants.

Black Orlando Tech, the social entrepreneurship accelerator Rally and Rollins College’s business program also landed grants.

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Electronic Arts’ NCAA game will mean jobs in Orlando, executive confirms

Marco Santana
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Electronic Arts’ NCAA game will mean jobs in Orlando, executive confirms

Electronic Arts’ highest-ranking executive in Central Florida confirmed this week that the coming return of the company’s popular college football title will mean jobs here.

Daryl Holt, vice president/general manager of EA Tiburon, EA Sports Austin and EA Sports Madrid, said in a statement that a new office in downtown Orlando will be the hub of production for EA SPORTS College Football.

“Central Florida has been an incredible home for EA Tiburon for over 25 years,” Holt said. “We are looking forward to a new chapter as we move to the Creative Village in downtown Orlando.”

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Dennis R. Pape: 3 things to tell potential investors in your pitch

Marco Santana
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Dennis R. Pape: 3 things to tell potential investors in your pitch
Dennis Pape of SeedfundersOrlando

Dennis R. Pape has been one of the leading figures in Orlando’s entrepreneurial ecosystem for years.

He has run accelerators, taught entrepreneurs and advocated for the expansion of financial support for the ecosystem.

On March 1, he announced the return of VentureScaleUp, a  development program for entrepreneurs that took last year off because of the coronavirus pandemic.

You can apply to participate in the entrepreneurial training program HERE.

Pape also is a part of the tech company investment fund SeedFundersOrlando.

We asked him to share three tips for entrepreneurs who are either considering seeking investment or who have a pitch for investment upcoming.

1. Answer the question, “Why now?”

An investor not only needs to see a viable product. They want to see that you have assessed a market and that the timing of your product or service is ideal.

“We want to see you trying to solve a problem that nobody has before,” Pape said. “Tell me what’s happening out there and show me that it is happening. Then, show me how you’re going to solve the issue.”

Pape shared an example used in the book “Backable” by Suneel Gupta. The book recounts Airbnb’s efforts which famously noticed a growth in Craigslist ads and farmed their listings for referrals. You can find that story, as told to Business Insider, HERE.

2. Practice, develop your pitch

Obviously, you need to know what you are talking about to convince complete strangers to part with their money. Start with friends and family but then move on to share your pitch with other entrepreneurs, Pape said.

“You want to seek out, in particular, other entrepreneurs who have raised capital,” Pape said.

Share information about your company that will garner their interest. You do that by developing your pitch and running through it constantly.

3. Know everything about your business

There are few things worse than listening to an entrepreneur make his pitch, asking him a question and then hearing those dreaded words: “I’ll have to get back to you.”

That’s a red flag, Pape said.

“You should know your business inside and out,” Pape said. “You should know its numbers. We want you to obsess over your business, especially if we are going to give you our money.”

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UCF VR experts gather for online forum as part of group’s monthly meetup

Marco Santana
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UCF VR experts gather for online forum as part of group’s monthly meetup

A group of virtual reality experts in Central Florida will discuss advancements that the technology has made in education, deveopment and research.

The event will serve as the monthly meetup for the Central Florida chapter of the VR/AR Association.

Free tickets are available on Eventbrite for the event, which starts at 6 p.m. Wednesday evening.

The meeting will be hosted online on the Zoom platform.

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