“[Cincinnati] has a lot of the guts of what a good startup city should be.” — Jeff Hudson, LISNR
Today’s issue:
June 16, 2020
COMPANY PROFILE: LISNR
Startup makes noise with ultrasonic proximity technology 
Photo courtesy LISNR
Friendly fraud—when a credit-card user disputes a legitimate charge—costs companies billions of dollars every year. And it’s on the rise as contactless delivery becomes more common. After all, how can you prove you delivered a pizza when your driver never even came face to face with the customer?
Enter Cincinnati startup LISNR and its ultrasonic proximity solution. LISNR’s software, which works in concert with a vendor’s mobile app, pings the customer’s phone with a signal, proving that the driver and customer were indeed in the same place at the same time.
“If the company had us installed in their app, our technology would allow that handshake to happen at distances up to six feet,” says Jeff Hudson, LISNR’s head of marketing and growth.
Food delivery is just one of LISNR’s use cases. The device and platform independent solution can help everyone from rideshare companies to retailers to concert venues confirm customers’ identities while keeping all parties safe.
“Ultimately we believe that society as a whole will naturally be drawn to more seamless contactless experiences,” says co-founder and Chief Commercial Officer Rodney Williams. “This pandemic just accelerated the demand to contactless commerce experiences in retail and mobility, which was focus for LISNR prior to COVID-19.”
LISNR was born, pitched, and initially financed in 2012 during a three-day Cincinnati StartupBus trip to SXSW. Since then, it has raised over $35 million in financing and has powered over 100 million interactions across millions of devices.
Last fall, Visa invested in the company to help accelerate its growth in the mobile-payment space. “LISNR is a better method vs. alternatives like NFC or QR codes for mobile payments globally,” LISNR CEO Eric Allen said at the time. “It decentralizes payment scenarios across a wide range of payment moments with advanced data protection, ability to transact at a distance and concurrent transactions—all which are designed to accelerate payments overall.”
So what makes Cincinnati the right place for LISNR? Hudson offers three key factors.
Growing and attracting talent
Much of the company’s talent is homegrown thanks to the presence of companies like Procter & Gamble, Kroger, and Fifth Third Bank. “You have really talented individuals who are working for Fortune 100 companies that might want to dive into the startup scene,” he says.
The right ingredients
While some people don’t view the Midwest as a tech hub, Hudson believes Cincinnati offers startups many important advantages. “The cost of living’s cheap. You have really talented people all over the place. You have an awesome startup ecosystem and a lot of approachable investors, whether that be through CincyTech or the Queen City Angels. You have a lot of incubator programs that are right here in the heart of Cincy, like Cintrifuse and The Brandery. You have a lot of the guts of what a good startup city should be,” he says.
In the middle of it all
You also have location. Since LISNR is all about proximity, it’s not surprising Hudson thinks Cincinnati’s location relative to cities like Nashville, Columbus, and Pittsburgh is important.
“You’re in the epicenter of the Midwest cities that are startup hubs,” he says.
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Local business incubator now has a worldwide reputation The HCDC Business Center was named as one of the “Top 10 Public Business Incubators” in the World by UBI Global (an innovation intelligence company). You can get the full benchmark study here.
“HCDC is so proud and humbled by the recognition,” said HCDC President Patrick Longo. “This honor is not just about HCDC, it’s about the hustle from every entrepreneur inside these walls and the ecosystem of phenomenal partners who help these entrepreneurs on their journey from startup to standing up on their own.”
“The momentum we’re seeing across the region is inspiring and the HCDC Business Center deserves a lot of the credit for getting the ball rolling over thirty years ago,” said Cintrifuse CEO Pete Blackshaw. “Today our ecosystem is routinely featured in conversations around top innovation hubs in the country and that’s our goal - for StartupCincy to be the #1 startup hub in the Midwest. Kudos to HCDC for being a central cog in that wheel.”
This is not the first international distinction for the HCDC Business Center. This past October, the International Economic Development Council (IEDC) recognized the Business Center with the Excellence in Economic Development Gold Award in the Entrepreneurship Category.
SHAPING THE LANDSCAPE
Innovation lab opens in Covington An innovation lab has opened at the RiverCenter in Covington. The lab will offer courses in networking, security, cloud computing, machine learning and artificial intelligence to help students prepare for the jobs of tomorrow. The lab is a collaboration between IT and cloud provider Extreme Networks and IT services and engineering firm STEP CG.
The 7,000-square-foot commercial space will house the latest networking equipment from multiple vendors and offer practical technology training and certification for industry and professional development. Training and certification will begin this fall. In addition to providing training to customers of both companies, the lab will offer training and certification to local schools that offer engineering and computing programs and will also introduce e-sports to K-12 and higher ed customers.
Cincy lands COVID-19 vaccine production facility The US government’s Operation Warp Speed recently narrowed its list of potential COVID-19 vaccine candidate companies down to five.
That list included AstraZeneca, which reached a $1 billion agreement with the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) last month to support the development of its vaccine candidate. It intends to develop, produce, and deliver the vaccine starting this fall.
With that in mind, AstraZeneca is retrofitting its Cincinnati-area West Chester manufacturing facility within the next month because the company’s complex there has been chosen to produce its potential COVID-19 vaccine.
The permit for the company’s retrofitting project was recently finalized. "We are progressing construction and preparation activities at the West Chester site, and other sites globally, to be fully prepared for the formulation, filling and packaging of the COVID vaccine,” said AstraZeneca spokeswoman Michele Meixell.
HEALTH RESEARCH
TruCircle platform boosted by virtual health demand Telemedicine has seen explosive growth in the era of COVID-19, and it’s serving a vast array of medical needs—including mental health support.
One example is TruCircle, an UpTech accelerator graduate whose management team is located in Cincinnati, California, and New York. The startup connects mental health professionals with those in underserved communities who are seeking the help of a therapist.
Cincy Inno reports that since the pandemic began, TruCircle has grown more than 300%, with its 25,000 therapists conducting “thousands of hours of therapy sessions.”
Founder Lenny Carter thinks COVID-19 has shifted the direction of the mental health field. “The experience has provided us with insight into where the industry has been and where it’s going. I no longer believe things are going to go back to the way they were prior to the pandemic.”
UC receives $900K grant for TAVR Study Donald Lynch, MD, assistant professor at the UC College of Medicine and UC Health cardiologist will conduct an observational study of 150 transcatheter heart valve replacement (TAVR) patients at UC Medical Center and the University of Kentucky. The study is funded by a five-year grant of $898,020 recently awarded from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.
TAVR has become the gold standard for many patients who need a valve replacement but have a narrowing of the aortic valve. This affects about 4% of the population over age 75 and is a leading cause of heart failure and the need for transcatheter aortic valve replacements. In the past, that meant a trip to the operating room to replace the old valve. With TAVR, a catheter-mounted valve is inserted through a small incision in the groin and is minimally invasive compared to open heart surgery.
The new transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) study will help to determine why some patients may develop issues. Each patient’s blood will be drawn throughout the process to help the researchers track any factors that may be associated with a poor response to the procedure.
SCRAPBOOK
Tyler Davidson Fountain, circa 1900, Library of Congress
Non-Cincinnati residents may recognize it from being in the opening credits of the TV show WKRP in Cincinnati. Residents know it as a symbol of the city, an homage to the city’s continuing debt to the Ohio River, and one of its most-visited attractions. Its official name is the Tyler Davidson Fountain but is also called “The Genius of Water.”
The fountain was donated by Cincinnati businessman Henry Probasco as a memorial after the death of his business partner, Tyler Davidson.
While the fountain is beloved to Cincinnatians, some may not know the meaning behind the figures that are part of it.
The central figure, the Genius of Water—9 feet high and weighing 2 tons —pours down the symbolic longed-for rain from hundreds of jets in her outstretched fingers. In the center of the pedestal are four figures showing the principal uses of water:
On the north is a workman standing on a burning roof and imploring the aid of water; at the south is a farmer standing in the midst of a field where are plainly seen the effects of a drought—he too is praying for rain. Upon these two groups the Genius of Water is dropping a gentle spray. At the west a young girl is offering the water to an old man with crutches. On the east side a mother partially nude is leading her naked and reluctant boy to the bath.
Four outer figures with animals represent the pleasures of water which offer fountains from which passersby can drink. You can find some close-up images of the fountain here.
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