Six New Businesses Join Ohio University Innovation Center

Contact: Linda Clark, (740) 593-1803 or clark@ohio.edu

ATHENS, Ohio (March 26, 2001) -- Six new start-up businesses -- most of which provide Internet-related products or services -- have joined Ohio University's Innovation Center in the past month, bringing the total number of tenants in the small-business incubator to 16.

The start-ups, housed in the Technology and Enterprise Building at the Ridges, include several emerging high-tech firms led by Athens-area entrepreneurs. The Innovation Center provides office space, shared equipment, meeting rooms and technical assistance to help these companies keep start-up costs low and improve their chances of success, said Linda Clark, center director.

Clark attributes the recent rise in start-ups joining the Innovation Center to the availability of university resources, the access to high-speed Internet connections and the center's growing reputation for launching new companies.

"Ohio University is strongly committed to diversifying and strengthening the local economy through new job creation," she said. "Investment in the Innovation Center demonstrates that commitment."

The Innovation Center, established in 1983, is one of the oldest university-based incubators in the nation. Since its founding, it has housed 40 companies and fostered the creation of more than 625 jobs in southeastern Ohio. A new building on West State Street in Athens -- slated for completion in fall 2003 -- will double the center's space. When the new facility opens, Clark said, the Innovation Center will have the capacity to work with a greater number of new and emerging businesses.

"We're reaching our goal of becoming a technology incubator focusing on information technology and biotechology companies," Clark said.

The new businesses and organizations are:

• Redlock Industries LLC, (www.red-lock.com) an Athens Web development company. Earlier this month, Redlock launched a new product, eCommerce:Net, which allows users to easily create and manage professional Web sites. Local clients include Zachary's Delicatessen and Ohio University's College of Arts and Sciences.
  
  
• Functional Media LLC, (www.functionalmedia.com) an Athens Internet design firm that specializes in Web development, e-commerce solutions and technical services. Its staff assists with all aspects of managing online businesses.
  
  
• WorldPie, Inc. (www.modernmenu.com), an Athens company that supplies advertising services to the restaurant industry, has launched "ModernMenu," a program that allows restaurants to create Web sites to promote menus, coupons, maps and photos. WorldPie is test-marketing the product in Athens and plans to expand it throughout the Midwest and Canada.
  
  
• OnSlot Productions (www.onslot.net), an Athens firm that creates Web sites, documentaries and commercials. OnSlot Productions uses regional and national artists, as well as digital and Avid editing technologies, to develop projects.
  
  
• The IT Alliance of Appalachian Ohio (www.itaao.org) is a new statewide effort to foster Ohio's information technology industry. Funded primarily by the Ohio Department of Development's Edison Program, the organization represents a 15-county region in southern Ohio.
  
  
• The Council of Development Finance Agencies (www.cdfa.net) was created to strengthen the efforts of state and local development finance agencies in order to promote job creation and economic growth and to expand their ability to deliver a broader range of financing products for public and private investment.

For more information on the Innovation Center, visit its Web site at www.ictto.ohiou.edu/ic/