Here’s how CEO Tom Skelton described the company’s strategy for growth:

“We’ve done several things during this period that have helped us to continue our growth pattern. Our primary focus has been on nurturing the relationships that have generated our success. We’ve taken steps to strengthen our relationships within the FRG Team, and, also, with our valued customers.

Our secondary focus has been to invest in ourselves and find ways to continually improve the services that we provide. We have several initiatives in progress that are designed to streamline processes, and, ultimately, enhance the service level that we are able to offer.

We narrowed our focus to these two areas because in our field, having a strong, unified team and satisfied, referenceable customers is extremely important for sales growth. Much of our growth can actually be attributed to customer-to-customer referrals. The investments that we put back into our company continually improve the quality and speed of the service that we are able to provide our current and future customers.”

Read more: Foundation Radiology Group is Pittsburgh’s Sixth Fastest Growing Company – Pittsburgh Business Times

By Tim Beyers | August 12, 2010

More and more, entrepreneurs are turning to the web to start new businesses because of low startup costs–often less than $1 million. Investors are helping drive the trend, in part because they have less money to invest. The average venture fund has shrunk from $166 million in 2007 to just over $120 million at the end of last year, according to data from the National Venture Capital Association and SVB Capital. Smaller funds tend to gravitate toward smaller funding rounds.

Read more…

sjean@dallasnews.com

Frisco business incubator NTEC Inc. launched a new program Monday with 10 mostly out-of-state venture capital partners to reinvigorate investments in Dallas and beyond.

NTEC’s Venture Alliance Partner Program is designed “to address the burning need in the region by companies that have been struggling so mightily to attract venture capital,” said NTEC executive director Larry Calton. “And we want to bring in the venture capitalists and show them there are good deals here in Texas.”

The venture partners, including one Dallas firm, will meet with entrepreneurs during “office hours” at NTEC from two days a month to two days each quarter. Any company in the Southwest can apply to the program.

Seven-year-old NTEC, which provides office and lab space and support services to medical and clean technology companies, will help identify and screen companies and coordinate meetings with investors. Southern Methodist University business students will help with due diligence and market research of applicants.

“Most of our companies here fall into the $2 million to $3 million range,” and that’s too small for many venture capitalists and too big for many angel investors, said NTEC senior director Hubert Zajicek. The 10 venture capital firms invest in medical technology and biotechnology, and they’ve invested in Texas before or want to.

U.S. venture investments have improved this year, but Dallas dollars remain dismal.

Dallas-area venture capital investments fell 47 percent to $68.1 million in the first half of this year from the same year-ago period, based on data from PricewaterhouseCoopers. Investments in biotechnology and medical devices have risen but are still small: $12.1 million for the first half of this year, compared with nothing at all last year.

“There is a glaring dearth of institutional capital throughout Texas, including Dallas,” said Alan Ying, a general partner with Louisville, Ky.-based Chrysalis Ventures, an NTEC partner. “The odds are just less likely to have institutional capital invested in companies without a local presence. We see opportunity in that.”

Ying, who opened a Chrysalis office in Houston in April, hopes the NTEC partnership exposes the venture firm to more “local entrepreneurs working on exciting opportunities.” Chrysalis, which has invested in one Dallas company, is investing from a $175 million fund raised in 2008.

Dallas-based Sevin Rosen Funds was NTEC’s first partner.

“It gives us more reach and an opportunity to work on medical technology projects,” in Far North Dallas, said Sevin Rosen general partner Jon Bayless. “They’re reaching out to folks that we wouldn’t see and they have unique laboratories that we wouldn’t have access to otherwise.”

NTEC eventually hopes to attract more venture capital partners and some strategic partners, also known as corporate venture capital, to the program, Calton said.

One of those partners might want to help NTEC start its own venture capital fund, he said.

Incubator. Just the sound of the word may call to mind raucous Internet entrepreneurs spinning around in Aeron chairs, burning through money.

Yet a new incubator in Texas might have a shot at reinvigorating the idea for startups in the region. The North Texas Enterprise Center for Technology (NTEC), announced today it was working with 10 venture capital firms to stimulate the growth and development of cleantech and medical device startups in the Frisco, Texas area.

Incubators are designed to give a several startup companies a place to work and some degree of back-office support while they are in their most formative stages. The idea is that half a dozen startups can occupy the same office space when each has only three or four employees and can move out into bigger offices when they raise venture capital dollars or develop a level of self-sustaining sales. It’s a good way for small companies to pool their resources and save money.

The dotcom boom gave incubators a bad name. Several real estate firms in San Francisco opened trendy office space in South Park and other areas in the South of Market area of the city to startups looking for a home. The real estate owners traded rent for stock options, hoping their tenants would create billion dollar Internet companies.

It was a scheme that worked for some, no doubt. But real estate owners are not especially well suited to evaluating early stage startups. So a decade after the boom, incubators are seen by many as a cesspool of amateur entrepreneurs and poorly executed startups.

That’s a fate that NTEC should avoid. It’s equipped with three things that the real estate developers of San Francisco lacked.

First, it has recruited people with serious chops to help the startups it works with accelerate their development. Its directors and advisers hail from tech giants such as Texas Instruments, Blue Cross Blue Shield and several major research hospitals in the region.

Second, the incubator isn’t going to compete with venture capitalists to find and finance early stage startups. It’s going to invite out-of-state venture firms to come to the incubator to find potential investments. Partners include Arboretum Partners, Chrysalis Ventures, Noro-Mosely Partners and H.I.G. Bioventures, among others. There’s a real need for this type of partnership in Texas, where startups only raise about a tenth as much as startups in Silicon Valley do during any given year.

Third, NTEC has a clear and well-reasoned mandate. The program is focused on medical device and cleantech startups that can actually benefit from sharing production and prototyping equipment.

Since the dotcom boom, medical device startups are the only ones proven to flourish inside incubators. NTEC is situated to provide a regional alternative to two prominent venture capital supported incubators in other parts of the country: The Foundry, which focuses on medical device startups in Menlo Park, Calif., and Accelerator, which works with healthcare-focused biotechnology startups in Seattle. Each is designed to do a lot of the hand-holding necessary for an early stage technology venture without taking up lots of resources.

The Foundry is backed by Split Rock Ventures and Morganthaler Ventures, each a well-known venture firm with significant life sciences experience. It works with one or two startups at a time, helping them navigate intellectual property agreements with universities, giving them office space to work, lending them tools to prototype their medical devices and lending a hand with the management and administration of the startup.

Accelerator is a management company created by a group of health care-focused venture firms, a real estate firm and the Seattle-based Institute for Systems Biology. Its aim is to utilize the same management, office space and resources to save on costs for the three to five startups looking to prove their worth. Accelerator’s executives focus on getting startups to critical milestones as quickly as possible. That can help the startups raise less money when they go on to collect later rounds of venture capital investment.

Working with The Foundry or Accelerator doesn’t oblige a startup to raise venture capital dollars from the firms that support each incubator. But it does give the venture firms a close relationship with the startup, making it highly likely that they will work together for a subsequent financing round.

It’s unclear exactly what relationship the 10 venture firms who are partnering with NTEC will have to the startups financed there, but it should be a fertile hunting ground for innovation in the region.

Jarchow joined Chrysalis Ventures in March 2010 to drive Chrysalis’ business development efforts throughout Ohio, Michigan and Pennsylvania. Chrysalis Ventures is a leading source of equity capital for young, growing companies in Mid-America, and invests primarily in early-and growth-stage healthcare and technology companies.

“Since the firm was founded over 17 years ago, Chrysalis has been committed to developing and promoting the thriving healthcare and technology start-up ecosystem in Mid-America,” said Koleman Karleski, managing director, Chrysalis Ventures. “Backing successful entrepreneurs of Ohio-based companies like CerviLenz, Construction Software Technologies, MedLab, and guiding Intelliseek and MindLeaders through successful exits has been extremely gratifying. We continue to see great opportunity and talent in Ohio.”

“We congratulate Wendy as she joins the Ohio Venture Association Board of Trustees and puts her energy and full support behind the Association’s efforts towards driving innovation in the state,” Karleski added.

About Chrysalis Ventures
Chrysalis Ventures manages one of Mid-America’s largest funds for early-stage and growth investments with approximately $400 million under management. Since 1993, the firm has invested in over 65 companies, primarily in the healthcare and technology sectors. With headquarters in Louisville, Kentucky, Chrysalis has offices in Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Ann Arbor and Houston. The firm seeks to partner with entrepreneurs to build enduring businesses in industries undergoing significant transformation. For more information, please visit www.chrysalisventures.com.

About the Ohio Venture Association
The Ohio Venture Association is a group of northeast Ohio business people dedicated to providing an atmosphere for the interchange of ideas on entrepreneurship, new ventures and venture capital. The Association provides a scheduled forum for this interchange. For more information, visit www.ohioventure.org.

Obstetric device developer CerviLenz Inc. has named Federica O’Brien to the newly created positions of chief financial officer and chief operating officer.

O’Brien was previously a director of life sciences at RSM McGladrey, an assurance, tax and consulting firm. She also served as a senior financial executive at biotechnology companies Cardiokine Inc. and Barrier Therapeutics Inc. and Internet software and services company Infonautics Inc.

 O’Brien will play a key role in the company’s funding round planned for next year, according to a CerviLenz representative.

Last year, CerviLenz raised $4 million in Series A-1 financing to finish ongoing clinical trials and begin commercialization. Investors include Arboretum Ventures, Chrysalis Ventures and North Coast Angel Fund.

Based in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, CerviLenz was founded in early 2008 and is developing a device to measure the length of a woman’s cervix during pregnancy as a predictor of pre-term birth risk.

http://www.cervilenz.com

CerviLenz Inc. today announced the addition of an executive to its senior management team. Federica O’Brien joins the company in the new position of Chief Financial Officer/Chief Operating Officer.

CerviLenz Inc. recently introduced its innovative medical device to the obstetrics marketplace with great success. The first and only device of its kind, CerviLenz® is a simple and cost effective tool that measures vaginal cervical length objectively to help clinicians identify pregnant women at risk of preterm birth.

“In this period of rapid growth, Freddi’s life sciences and diverse background will be tremendously beneficial,” noted Dean Koch, President and CEO of CerviLenz Inc “Freddi brings leadership in operations, finance, business development and public and private fundraising which will significantly strengthen and complement the expertise of our executive team.”

Ms. O’Brien has 30 years of financial experience including 10 years in life sciences. Prior to CerviLenz, she served as a Director of Life Sciences for RSM McGladrey; as Vice President of Finance and Chief Financial Officer at Cardiokine, Inc., a Phase III biotechnology company focused on the development of therapies to address unmet needs in patients with cardiovascular conditions, during which time $75 million was raised in venture funding and a collaboration agreement was closed with Biogen Idec; and was a senior financial executive at Barrier Therapeutics (NASDAQ: BTRX), a late stage biotech company focused on development and commercialization of products in the field of dermatology that went public during her tenure. Earlier, Ms. O’Brien was Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Infonautics, Inc (NASDAQ: INFO), a technology based online service company. Ms. O’Brien is a Certified Public Accountant, practicing for over 15 years, at Coopers and Lybrand and other national accounting firms, working primarily with life sciences and technology companies.

# # #

About CerviLenz Inc.

CerviLenz Inc. is the manufacturer and distributor of CerviLenz®, a low cost, single use, FDA cleared medical device that measures vaginal cervical length during pregnancy. Dedicated to making a difference in the world of prematurity, CerviLenz Inc. donates a portion of revenue to charitable organizations that advance maternal and fetal health worldwide. The company headquarters is in the beautiful village of Chagrin Falls – a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio. For more information, please visit www.cervilenz.com on contact Melanie Sweeney, Director of Marketing (440.337.4253 or melanie@cervilenz.com).

Research Triangle Park, NC – June 28, 2010

Digitalsmiths, the video metadata experts, announced today that former iBHAN, Inc. president Gregory Hodges and Roger Lynch, current executive vice president of advanced technologies at Dish Network and EchoStar Corporation, will join its senior management team and Board of Directors; respectively. Hodges will be taking on the role of new chief operating officer and Lynch will join as a new member of the Digitalsmiths’ Board of Directors. In these roles, Hodges and Lynch will bring a combined 40 years of team management experience to help drive Digitalsmiths’ financial growth and help further the company’s strategic development and operations.

“Given the growth of our company and the strength of our new business pipeline, we need veteran professionals with a strong financial background, a proven track record of growing companies, and a keen understanding of the vastly changing digital entertainment landscape.,” said Ben Weinberger, CEO and cofounder of Digitalsmiths. “Gregg and Roger’s insightful vision and years of experience in business operations will strengthen our company as they can apply a laser like focus to continuing to grow our business in an increasingly competitive market.”

Prior to joining Digitalsmiths, Hodges was responsible for operations management at iBAHN Inc. which provides IP platform based entertainment solutions and high speed Internet solutions for the hotel industry guests and meeting attendees in more than 30 countries.

Hodges was charged with operational responsibility and field revenue generation throughout North, Central and Latin America. Since joining in 2003, he led teams that experienced a doubling of revenue and 27 straight profitable quarters. During his six plus years at iBAHN (formerly STSN) the company was recognized as being one of the fastest growing privately held companies in North America by Inc.

Lynch, currently executive vice president of advanced technologies at Dish Network and EchoStar Corporation, which specializes in creating hardware and service solutions for cable, telco, IPTV and satellite TV companies worldwide, is currently responsible for the development and deployment of new technologies and services utilizing IP technology.

“I am extremely excited to be joining the Digitalsmiths team,” said Hodges. “As the IP-based video industry continues to mature, seamless consumer experiences must be matched by increasingly sophisticated back-end systems which support them – from deep metadata management to personalization of the video experience to multiplatform distribution. Digitalsmiths set the bar high and I look forward to continuing that tradition here.”

“I was drawn to Digitalsmiths because of its technical differentiation,” said Lynch. “The company clearly leads when it comes to offering deep metadata capabilities. This company is the fuel that will power the next generation of search, discovery and personalization. I am eager to be involved in these projects and help Digitalsmiths grow.”

Hodges holds a B.S. in Accounting and Management from the University of Colorado. In the past he has acted as the fundraiser chairperson for the American Heart Association and the chairperson for budget and financing for the National Kidney Foundation.

Lynch holds an M.B.A. from The Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth where he excelled with highest distinction and received the Leach Prize for Excellence in Finance. Prior to Dartmouth, he attended the University of Southern California where he received his B.S. in Physics.

Digitalsmiths

Digitalsmiths provides the industry’s only studio grade digital media analysis solution with an advanced, time-based metadata framework that empowers digital media companies to distribute premium video content across multiple platforms, open up new revenue streams for film and TV assets, and build audience. To date, Digitalsmiths has indexed over 3,000,000 tracks of metadata across 29,000 pieces of content and more than 200 terabytes of premium video content.

The company’s flagship product, VideoSense®, powers the digital media analytics for today’s leading Hollywood studios, broadcasters, distributors and publishers including Warner Bros., Telepictures and TMZ.com. Digitalsmiths was named one of the “Top 45 Companies to Watch” by Dow Jones, one of the “OnHollywood Top 100” and “OnGlobal 250” by AlwaysOn, “Technology of the Year” by North Carolina’s Council for Entrepreneurial Development (CED), and winner of the “Streaming Media Readers’ Choice Awards.” http://www.digitalsmiths.com/

Gregory Hodges to Join Senior Executive Team and Roger Lynch to Join Board of Directors

Chrysalis Ventures and several co-investors have made follow-on investments in Chronicity Inc., a Texas company that provides treatment for chronic conditions.

Chronicity has sold $3 million in equity securities, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Chrysalis and other original investors in the company were among the buyers, according to Koleman Karleski, managing director of Chrysalis and a member of Chronicity’s board of directors.

The securities sale closed June 4 but was reported this week, the SEC filing said. The proceeds will be use for working capital.

Chronicity offers specialized health care services for treating conditions such as fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, ADD/ADHD and learning disabilities.

Karleski said this was the first significant investment made in Chronicity since it was formed in 2006. At that time, Chrysalis led a $12.5 million investment round.

The Addison, Texas-based company consists of 14 operating centers in major markets, such as Philadelphia, Seattle, Las Vegas, Denver, Dallas and Atlanta. It has worked with about 20,000 patients, Karleski said.

He said Chronicity is one of the more “mature” companies in the Chrysalis portfolio and that officials hope this investment will help expand the geographic reach and number of services offered by the company.

He said Chronicity works on a long-term basis to design therapeutic regimens for patients with chronic conditions. It does not accept insurance for services.

“It’s a very exciting company,” Karleski said. “It is providing health care services in a very different way than we are accustomed to.”

Chrysalis Ventures is a private-equity firm with about $400 million in assets under management. The firm invests in companies in the health care and technology sectors. It has offices in Cleveland; Pittsburgh; Ann Arbor, Mich.; and Houston.

Send comments to egreen@bizjournals.com.

Michael Elliott Of Noro-Moseley Partners To Chair Entrepreneurial Nonprofit’s Board

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. – CED, formerly the Council for Entrepreneurial Development (www.cednc.org), a private, nonprofit organization that promotes entrepreneurial efforts in the Triangle region of North Carolina, has announced that the organization’s board of directors has ratified a slate of candidates for member and officer terms beginning July 1, 2010. The board serves in an advisory capacity to CED president Joan Siefert Rose and staff and has fiduciary responsibility. Board terms last two years.

Officers for CED’s executive committee of the board of directors include: Michael Elliott of Noro-Moseley Partners as board chair, Eric Linsley of Pappas Ventures as chair-elect, Greg Anglum of Grant Thornton LLP as returning treasurer, Kent Christison of K&L Gates as returning secretary and Stephen Wiehe of SciQuest as past chair. Officer terms last one year.

Other executive committee members include: Vipin Garg of Tranzyme Pharma, Garheng Kong of Intersouth Partners, Helga Leftwich of Hutchison Law Group, Steve Nelson of Wakefield Group, Anastasia Pucci of Carlyle & Conlan, David Spitz of Channel Advisor and Ted Zoller of the Kenan-Flagler School of Business at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

New members on the board of directors include:

• Kyle Breischaft, Emergency Technologies Inc.

• Lee Buck, Blue Bright Ventures LLC

• Joe Colopy, Bronto Software

• John Crumpler, Hatteras Venture Partners

• Tony Frazier, Cisco Systems

• Jonathan Gindes, Affinergy

• Collin G. Hill, Cherry Bekaert & Holland LLP

• Laura Hoke, PriceWaterhouseCoopers LLP

• John Kerr IV, York Properties

• Helga Leftwich, Hutchison Law Group

• David Routh, US Trust/Bank of America

• Chip Royce, Lenovo

• Lori Spivey, Financial Directions Group, Inc

• Wright Steenrod, Chrysalis Ventures

• Rob Tyler, Poyner Spruill LLP

Returning members on the board of directors include:

• Susan Acker-Walsh, SRA International

• Greg Anglum, Grant Thornton LLP

• Ryan Allis, iContact

• Win Bear, Silicon Valley Bank

• Kent Christison, K&L Gates

• Michael Elliott, Noro-Moseley Partners

• Vipin Garg, Tranzyme Pharma

• Garheng Kong, Intersouth Partners

• Eric Linsley, Pappas Ventures

• Brooks Malone, Hughes Pittman & Gupton LLP

• Chris Matton, Kilpatrick Stockton LLP

• Steve Nelson, Wakefield Group

• Anastasia Pucci, Carlyle & Conlan

• David Rizzo, NC IDEA

• Teresa Spangler, Plaza Bridge Group LLC

• David Spitz, Channel Advisor

• Rik Vandevenne, River Cities Capital Funds

• Brent Ward, RTI International

• Stephen Wiehe, SciQuest

• Ted Zoller, Kenan-Flagler School of Business at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Nominees were chosen by the governance committee of the board from a record number of candidates who applied through CED’s website. Candidates were selected based on their active involvement as a member of CED, past volunteer work with the organization, and ability to bring specific skill sets to the board.

QUOTES:

“We are pleased to have a group of prominent members from various industries on this year’s board of directors,” said Rose. “This diverse board of directors will continue promoting CED’s mission for entrepreneurial growth in the area.”

NEW MEDIA CONTENT:

CED blog

http://cednc.wordpress.com

CED Twitter page

www.twitter.com/CEDNC

DETAILS:

- Additional information about CED’s board of directors is available at www.cednc.org/content/board+of+directors/168.

ABOUT CED:

CED (formerly the Council for Entrepreneurial Development) is a private, nonprofit organization founded in 1984 to identify, enable and promote high-growth, high-impact companies and accelerate the region’s entrepreneurial culture. Headquartered in Research Triangle Park, CED is the oldest and largest entrepreneurial support organization in the nation with more than 5,500 active members. CED provides know-how, networking, mentoring and capital formation resources to new and existing high-growth entrepreneurs through annual conferences, programs and Web-based resources. CED has helped entrepreneurs, investors, service partners, researchers and public policy makers in diverse emerging industries and at all stages of development – from high-tech, production-based organizations to service companies, from one-person startups to 1000-person businesses. Visit www.cednc.org for more information.