Sept. 12, 2014 UBJ

SEPTEMBER 12, 2014

THE UPSTATE’S

3-D

FUTURE

From advanced scanning and printing technology, to local IT talent, to apps that put the Upstate in your pocket – high tech is driving business in the region

SPECIAL EDITION: FOCUS ON TECHNOLOGY

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UBJ EDUCATION

STEM Summit to address state’s education needs JOE TOPPE | STAFF

jtoppe@communityjournals.com More than 400 of South Carolina’s

Sept. 29, participants will tour several Upstate businesses, schools, and organizations for a firsthand look at how STEAM is used in and outside the regular school day, including: • Chapman Cultural Center • Michelin US3 Truck Tire Plant • Milliken Innovation Center • The Clemson University International Center for Automotive Research (CU-ICAR) • The Children’s Museum of the Upstate • Boys & Girls Club at Cleveland Academy of Leadership • Carver Middle STEM School

The annual summit is a joint project of the South Carolina Coalition for Mathematics and Science and the

South Carolina Afterschool Alliance.

One of the most recent developments in STEM’s evolution is the addition of art into the academic mix for a new concept called STEAM: Science, Technology, Engineering, Art/Design and Mathematics.

Linking STEAM learning in and out of school involves cross-sector collaboration, said Zelda Waymer, executive director of the South Carolina Afterschool Alliance. The partnerships with the South Carolina Coalition for Mathematics and Science at Clemson University and the Chapman Cultural Center will equip educators from different settings with innovative techniques and advance STEAM learning statewide, she said.

South Carolina U.S. Sen. Tim

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STEM EDUCATION SUMMIT

Sept. 29-30 Chapman Cultural Center, Spartanburg Information: sccoalition.org/ stem-education-summit

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Scott has been invited to open the meeting, while featured guest speakers and panelists include U.S. Deputy Secretary Dot Harris of the U.S. Department of Energy; and Tom Thompson and Molly Spearman, both candidates for S.C. Superintendent of Education.

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leaders in business, education and government are expected to come together later this month for the STEM Education Summit in Spartanburg.

The summit’s theme, “STEM and the Arts In and Out of School,” is designed to arm the participants with new strategies for offering young people 21st-century learning approaches and STEM-related opportunities during and outside the regular school day.

“The Summit is about building a community through STEM and the arts,” said Tom Peters, executive director of South Carolina’s Coalition for Mathematics and Science.

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September 12, 2014

UPSTATE BUSINESS JOURNAL

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Volume 3, Issue 37

September 14, 2014

Top-of-mind and in the mix this week

WORTH REPEATING “You have the wrong people bumping into each other not making the right things happen.”

Page 14

“It’s everywhere, and it’s the place business needs to be.”

“The talent pool in Greenville is solid.

However, everyone is spoken for – they have a job already. It’s very competitive.”

Page 20

Photo by Greg Beckner

Page 16

MONEY SHOT: Chris Fay, vice president of TPM, uses a FARO Focus 3-D laser scanner inside the Children’s Museum of the Upstate. The 3-D scanner can be used inside or outside to create extremely accurate 3-D images. Read more on page 12.

VERBATIM

TBA A retail pickup location is in the works for the recently opened Susie & Ed’s Italian Kitchen, which offers family style takeand-bake dishes for delivery or takeout in the Greenville area (by appointment only).

You can find them online at susieandedsitalian.com.

Stay tuned for more info on future plans…

Construction began this week on three new buildings at the Earth Fare shopping center at I-85 and Pelham. Confirmed tenants so far are Chicken Salad Chick and Local Taco, with more to come...

4

UPSTATE BUSINESS JOURNAL

September 12, 2014

On Proterra’s electric revolution…

“Forget about Tesla. When it comes to using electricity for transportation, the real action may lie in the polar opposite of the fancy sports car.”

Slate magazine, praising Greenville-based electric bus manufacturer Proterra as a key to reducing vehicle emissions. (bit.ly/slate-proterra)

UBJ INSURANCE

Strong Greenville roots.

With more branches than ever.

Esurance plans to bring 450 jobs to Mauldin BENJAMIN JEFFERS | STAFF

bjeffers@communityjournals.com The city of Mauldin is looking to add jobs to the Upstate with the opening of a new Esurance sales and claims office.

Gov. Nikki Haley, Mauldin Mayor Dennis Raines and Director for the South Carolina Department of Insurance Ray Farmer attended a ribbon-cutting ceremony Monday at the office at 1200 Brookfield Blvd and welcomed Esurance CEO Gary Tolman to the area.

The new Esurance office hopes to create 450 jobs in Mauldin over the next several years, said Pat Pomeroy, executive director of the Greater Mauldin Chamber of Commerce.

The area workforce and the beauty of the Upstate were both factors in

the Allstate company’s choice of Mauldin, Pomeroy said. “I think any time you add jobs to the economy, it’s a win-win for everybody.”

Esurance officials confirmed that view, saying Greenville “has a large and talented workforce, and a quality of life and cost of living that are very attractive to us and our employees.”

The opening of the Esurance office “is an incredible partnership that represents a significant investment in Greenville,” the Greenville Chamber of Commerce said in a release. “As a Fortune 100 Company, Allstate joins the growing list of major national corporations that have made the decision to locate in Mauldin.”

The Esurance office is in the process of hiring, and interested applicants can visit esurance.com/jobs.

Stay in the know.

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September 12, 2014

UPSTATE BUSINESS JOURNAL

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UBJ UNIVERSITIES

The Value of HR Assessments

Clemson-Furman collaboration aims to enhance innovation

As a business owner, you are constantly performing tasks to increase your bottom line. You evaluate your systems in production; you work with suppliers for better prices; you pour over financials and tighten controls.

But what about your human resources department, have you given it a hard look lately?

JOE TOPPE | STAFF

jtoppe@communityjournals.com

If you don’t have control over your operations or your financials, your business is at risk. The same goes for Human LEE YARBOROUGH Resources. If you don’t manage your HR responsibilities, you may have liabilities that you are not even aware of. In small businesses, HR duties are often relegated to non-HR professionals. In this case, what you don’t know CAN hurt you.

Brought together by a national fellowship program, two Upstate college students are working together to connect the curriculum-based mindsets of students at Furman and Clemson Universities to enhance the innovation and entrepreneurial ecosystem of the region.

Clemson Ph.D. student Breanne Przestrzelski and Furman undergraduate Ben Riddle are members of the University Innovation Fellows (UIF) program, and are using the opportunity as a channel to link students between the two Upstate colleges.

Riddle said UIF is a national network designed to connect university students across the country.

The program teaches students to improve the entrepreneurial network on college campuses, he said. Students can identify assets and opportunities both on campus and in the region that pertain to entrepreneurship and innovation.

The partnership will allow both Furman and Clemson University students to leverage their unique skill sets, Riddle said.

The Clemson students’ science-based education combined with the Furman students’ liberal arts understanding can create a knowledge base designed to in-

Most regulations that fall under the HR umbrella impose penalties for non-compliance. As a business owner, you must understand this risk and work to minimize it.

It is important for businesses of all sizes to periodically review HR infrastructure. Take the time to review the areas related to your personnel and work to minimize your risk.

Some key areas to review: • Hiring Practices

• Labor Relations

• Personnel Files

• Health, Safety & Security

• Payroll Administration

• Training & Education

• Employee Benefits

• Policies & Procedures

• Performance Management

• Termination Practices

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UPSTATE BUSINESS JOURNAL

September 12, 2014

M43A

If you do not have experienced staff necessary to perform these evaluations, outsource this responsibility. Propel HR offers an HR Assessment which will uncover liabilities and serve as a roadmap towards future best practices. Employees are a company’s greatest asset.

It is time to give the systems surrounding your employees the same attention that you give the other areas of your business.

BREANNE PRZESTRZELSKI

BEN RIDDLE

crease the likelihood that companies and partnerships will form and root locally, he said.

In October, Przestrzelski and Riddle, along with their collaborators from Furman and Clemson, will host 100 fellows in downtown Greenville for a regional meet-up to brainstorm starting up, solving problems, and driving change. Students from >>

UBJ UNIVERSITIES >> across the Southeast and Eastern seaboard are expected to convene for the two-day event.

Greenville is known for its collaborative nature and entrepreneurial spirit, Riddle said. While Furman and Clemson differ in size and focus, partnering to create a strong network of entrepreneurial leaders and problem-solvers can enhance the two schools’ distinct qualities and help drive the region’s economic development, he said.

“We hope students develop the mindset to see opportunities for creation.”

said the Upstate could become an ideal location for entrepreneurs.

As the area moves forward, “we will need more venture capital to

attract and retain the types of entrepreneurs being developed here,” he said. The Upstate currently has great universities and quality of life,

but having the capital and support systems for the companies being formed here will be important in the future, he said.

j ust-i n-tim e

Ben Riddle

Przestrzelski said the relationship between the two universities has sparked a revolution that could springboard the state into the forefront of innovation.

“I am thankful to have a partner that is willing to make our home reach its potential,” she said.

Riddle said the partnership would improve students’ community vision, leading them to join startups, open their own companies, intern at venture capital firms, and work together across companies to develop the entrepreneur ecosystem in Greenville.

“We hope students develop the mindset to see opportunities for creation,” he said. “Entrepreneurship is more than starting a business; it is a mindset” that can be carried into a variety of career paths.

Program participants can take the outlook forward into politics, education and the sciences, he said. The unique approach can be applied to any industry or field.

Given the region’s quality of life and organizational diversity, Riddle

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By JOHN MOORE, executive vice president, NEXT – Greenville Chamber

INNOVATE Movers, shakers and disruptors shaping our future

The economic bottle garden What are the ingredients that will make the Upstate’s startups bloom and thrive?

In 1960, David Latimer, an electrical engineer in Surrey, England, filled a large glass container with compost, a small cup of water and a single plant seedling.

He then sealed the bottle tightly and placed it in a sunlit spot in his home.

Except for one small addition of water in the early 1970s, the bottle has remained sealed for over 50 years, yet it is filled with a thriving stand of spiderwort plants, having sustained itself from that single original seedling.

The key to this minor miracle is the creation of a nearly perfect ecosystem inside that bottle combining a balance of nutrients, water, gas and sunlight that allows the plants to grow continuously. As we learned in grade school, the plants convert the sun, water and nutrients into new roots, shoots and foliage. Take away any one of those elements and the plants cannot survive.

That same principle also applies to a important and growing sector of our local economy: high-growth startups.

Read any recent economic development study or research paper and you will likely learn about the importance of high-impact entrepreneurship and the need for regions like the Upstate to build balanced ecosystems that can continuously provide the elements needed for new startups to launch and scale, much like Mr. Latimer’s bottle garden.

A large and growing body of economic research points to specialized, early-stage companies – those that are innovation-based and scalable to compete internationally – as the creators of almost all net new jobs in our country today. This specialized set of companies also has the ability to create wealth over the long term

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as the value they create through company growth is returned to the local founders, investors and team members.

Entrepreneurial wealth is then invested in the local economy, often in additional startup ventures, and may lead to the creation of new private foundations that pour incremental resources into the community’s development, like the Hollingsworth Funds that resulted from the success of Hollingsworth on Wheels, an international textile machinery company founded in Greenville in the late 1800s.

To attract and support these economically critical entrepreneurs, communities must build comprehensive, self-sustaining “ecosystems” that contain and connect a variety of critical support elements. Entrepreneurial ecosystems require a recipe of varied ingredients in order to produce economic growth.

TALENT

CAPITAL

FACILITIES

Early-stage ventures are often too risky to attract investment from traditional sources such as commercial banks. As such, they require unique sources of investment capital.

Aware of this need, NEXT launched the Upstate Carolina Angel Network (UCAN) as a means for entrepreneurs to connect with potential local investors, or angels. UCAN was recently rated one of the top 10 angel networks in the U.S. and has invested over $10 million in 35 companies with more to come.

NEXT also works with partners like the City of Greenville, SCRA and Clemson University to attract additional investment for promising young ventures, especially venture capital, which today is practically nonexistent in South Carolina.

UPSTATE BUSINESS JOURNAL

September 12, 2014

In order to grow, early-stage highgrowth companies need people – innovative, talented, highly skilled people. They need computer programmers, network engineers, lab technicians, sales professionals, and the like in order to keep up with their growing companies. Entrepreneurial ecosytems require a continuous source of talented people and the market mechanisms to connect them to the job and internship opportunities.

We are fortunate to have a strong pipeline of world-class talent coming out of our universities and community colleges. NEXT serves to connect entrepreneurs with the pool of talent available through on-campus job marketing events and through the online NEXT job board – detailing internships and full-time job openings with all types of innovative new companies.

Early-stage knowledge-based entrepreneurs want to locate near one another. They thrive on the close proximity to one another and often share ideas, connections and even staff positions at times.

In 2009, NEXT partnered with Hughes Development, an Upstate commercial development firm, to open the region’s first entrepreneurial accelerator facility – the award-winning NEXT Innovation Center. Today, the Center is home to about 20 early-stage companies, including software, genetics and advanced materials, and has remained at capacity since opening.

Today, NEXT is evaluating additional facility needs including software, life science and advanced manufacturing co-location spaces to meet the ecosystem needs of these

types of companies.

CONNECTING MECHANISMS The most overlooked element of a successful entrepreneurial ecosystem is the mechanism for connecting entrepreneurs with one another and with various other elements like capital, talent and facilities. In the bottle garden example, sunshine provides the raw energy needed to keep things moving within the botanical ecosystem.

In their book “The Rainforest,” authors Victor Hwang and Greg Horowitt wrote, “To explain the differences between highly productive systems like Silicon Valley and most other places in the world, what is most important are not the ingredients of economic production, but the recipe – how the ingredients are combined together.”

In an entrepreneurial ecosystem, entities like NEXT and the entrepreneurs that lead the effort serve as the energy that powers the ecosystem and connects entrepreneurs with capital, talent, facilities and with one another.

Ten years ago, the entrepreneurial ecosystem in the Upstate was practically nonexistent. Thanks to the hard work and dedication of hundreds of entrepreneurs and community leaders in recent years, our area is making great strides in creating just the right conditions to grow more globally impactful companies.

While a 54-year-old bottle garden is quite amazing and brightens the corner of a small English apartment, a thriving entrepreneurial ecosystem in the Upstate will produce jobs, wealth and economic growth, and thus has the ability to positively impact the economic trajectory of this region and its people for generations.

By LAURA HAIGHT, president, portfoliosc.com

DIGITAL MAVEN The technical side of business

Shadow IT – who knows what they’re really up to?

The past 17 years or so have been quite a roller-coaster ride for IT. The profession has traveled full circle from “geeks we’re stuck with” prior to Y2K (ask your mom), to integral business partners at the right hand of the CEO, back to “geeks we’re stuck with.”

Sure, IT departments existed long before Y2K, but they were the province of bigger businesses with data centers and programmers. But the early 2000s brought a new wave of professionals, and most businesses came to realize that they really needed an IT staff of some kind. Riding the wave, IT expanded and upped its game. Professional standards were established, policies and procedures developed, and IT took on a major role in not only supporting business functions but developing new business strategies that took advantage

➤ NUMBERED

80%

employees at large companies who admitted to using non-approved SaaS (Software as a Service) applications in their jobs

35%

non-approved SaaS apps companies were using Source: “The Hidden Truth Behind Shadow IT,” Frost & Sullivan executive brief sponsored by McAfee (bit.ly/shadow-IT)

of emerging technologies.

Don’t get me wrong: Plenty of that is going on today and will grow significantly in importance. But along with this growth in stature there’s a sense that IT has gotten too big for its britches, spurring a disruptive trend called “Shadow IT.”

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September 12, 2014

If IT is going to regain its place at the table, it needs to recast itself as an innovation lab, welcoming the partnership of key staffers.

Shadow IT has been around since the dawn of the PC age. It’s really little more than skilled users who are not technically part of the IT staff working behind the scenes and without any approvals or formal role to “expedite” issues for fellow workers.

This work-around to the more cumbersome and often lengthy approval processes IT departments developed for new systems or change management was pretty common for years.

As systems became more complex and IT locked down access and monitored role-based security much more carefully, this 1.0 version of Shadow IT faded away.

Well, it’s back, and version 2.0, as the Gartner Group refers to it, may not be so easily dismissed.

Keep in mind that the mobile computing environment that killed the desktop PC and has put laptops in intensive care is only seven years old. The first iPhone – the device that presaged the entire shift in computing and communications – was only released in June 2007. Since that time, IT departments have struggled to keep up with personal devices, tablets, laplets, cloud computing and software services instead of shrinkwrapped applications.

The epic speed at which the computing landscape changed has put the user back into the driver’s seat.

New technology is less expensive, new

DEFINED Shadow IT: skilled users, not

technically part of the IT staff, working behind the scenes and without any approvals or formal role to “expedite” issues for fellow workers.

online services are accessible and apps can be downloaded and experimented with in minutes and for low-barrier cost. IT departments – to avoid the “rock-in-the-middle-of-theroad” label – have had to learn to adapt to individuals using personal devices at work (BYOD). Those devices aren’t under IT’s control and users and their managers are less inclined to want to hear complaints from the IT staff about control issues.

At the same time, security threats are at an all-time high, so professional technologists must figure out how to keep sensitive business assets secure while they are being accessed by devices the company doesn’t own or manage. Scary stuff.

A 2013 survey commissioned by Internet security giant McAfee found that the term Shadow IT may be a bit of a misnomer, since employees have become quite open about what they are doing. And, even though they are going rogue, these employees in many cases are operating with the knowledge and tacit approval of their department.

What’s wrong with this? In many ways, nothing. But it does show that IT may have hurt itself with over-control and a perceived lack of responsiveness to business needs. If IT is going to regain its place at the table, according to the Gartner Group, it needs to recast itself as an innovation lab, welcoming the partnership of key staffers in the business who understand both the technology AND the business potential. (Read at: bit.ly/ gartner-shadow.)

Technology is not the goal – it is only a means to an end. If businesses find their line staffers “get that” more than their IT department, Shadow IT won’t be in the shadows for long.

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Provides frequent and effective communications.

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Comprehensive financial planning.

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SPECIAL EDITION: FOCUS ON TECHNOLOGY

UBJ DESIGN

The next dimension in manufacturing 3-D scanning and printing have proved to be essential tools for some of the Upstate’s largest industries JOE TOPPE | STAFF

jtoppe@communityjournals.com Used to streamline the workflow from design to manufacturing with greater efficiency, 3-D scanning and printing has revolutionized early conceptual design, prototyping and production.

As part of the Upstate’s manufacturing ecosystem, industry experts say scanning technology can provide existing corporations with an essential tool to bring their products into the market more quickly and with improved reliability.

A member of Greenville’s business community for more than 40 years, TPM, a software technology company, contributes about half of its business to design software, said vice president Chris Fay. The company works with architectural, civil and structural engineers, contractors and a number of major manufacturers to help with

u GOING BIG 3-D lasers can scan an object of any size from a marble to an airplane and beyond.

Here’s how it’s done: u 3-D laser scans and generates 3-D CAD model of existing part u Use CAD to modify or improve design u Create 3-D printed prototype to check form, fit and function u Tweak design based on 3-D printed prototype (may require additional prints) u Validate design for manufacturing u Begin production (traditional manufacturing or 3-D for complex design or short-run quantities)

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Chris Fay, vice president of TPM, prepares a FARO Focus 3-D laser scanner at the Children’s Museum of the Upstate.

the design process, he said.

The use of 3-D scanning allows manufacturers to recreate the complex geometry often associated with machine parts, Fay said.

Quite often, mechanical parts do not have any design data attached to them, he said. By scanning an existing manufacturing component, the part’s precise measurements can be learned and duplicated, or modified as needed.

Fay said 3-D scanning also provides a valuable asset for inspection purposes.

In any major manufacturing process, a team of professionals will inspect a new product once it has been created, he said. Capable of detecting the slightest miscalculation, the scanning process can help to verify slight miscues in the

UPSTATE BUSINESS JOURNAL

September 12, 2014

product’s design early on.

Area manufacturers such as Michelin, Honeywell, Bosch, Champion Aerospace and GE have metrology experts using scanning technology, Fay said.

GREG BECKNER/STAFF

These experts utilizing 3-D technology are “taking measurements down to the millionth,” he said. With the use of portable scanners, the appropriate personnel can now go onto the manufacturing floor >>

u PRINTING UP BLING In addition to its applications in a manufacturing facility, 3-D printing can be used to create fabric and garments, art, prosthetics and jewelry casting, according to an article published by BBC News.

Kate Worthen, CAD technician at Lyn Strong Jewelers on Main Street in Greenville, said the company uses a 3-D printer and CAD program called Matrix to create wax models for casting jewelry.

“A large portion of commercial 3-D

printers use plastic for prints, but we use wax because it is more conducive for casting jewelry,” she said.

SPECIAL EDITION: FOCUS ON TECHNOLOGY

UBJ DESIGN

A 3-D scanner scans a mock-up of a tool at TPM in Greenville.

>> to scan for measurements rather than removing a part from a machine and taking it to a specific room.

Kevin Kirtley at GE Power and Water said the precision of 3-D scanning enables his company to produce what it designs, while 3-D printing allows designers to rapidly prototype new ideas.

Traditional manufacturing methods have intrinsic design limits, but the 3-D technology allows designers to build complicated components that were not possible before now, he said. From an inspection standpoint, the process can also guarantee repairs to components will match product design specifications.

Industry professionals say the advent of 3-D scanning and printing

GREG BECKNER/STAFF

has drastically shortened the design process and in consequence, the return on investment.

Engineers are billed by the hour, Fay said. If a company can save time by using scanning technology, there is a huge ROI, and “everything in manufacturing is based on ROI,” he said. Also, the technology offers an unparalleled accuracy to “get it right the first time” with parts that cannot be physically measured.

Fay said most manufacturers are applying some form of high-tech measurement capability to their design process.

Laser scanning and printing are becoming more cost-effective, accessible and mobile, and are experiencing a 30 to 40 percent annual growth, he said.

September 12, 2014

UPSTATE BUSINESS JOURNAL

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SPECIAL EDITION: FOCUS ON TECHNOLOGY

CONNECTIONS Local opportunities for networking

Tweaking the networking formula Tech After Five gets beyond small talk to foster productive tech connections CASEY LOVEGROVE CONTRIBUTOR

THE GROUP: Tech professionals and entrepreneurs THE GOAL: “Build business, advance careers, get the ball rolling”

Most networking events “are terrible,” says Phil Yanov, founder of Tech After Five. “You have the wrong people bumping into each other not making the right things happen. They can’t; the recipe is wrong.”

Tech After Five is an organization that hosts networking events geared to connect members of the technology industry in the Upstate and surrounding regions. Unlike the events to which Yanov alludes, Tech After Five uses a different tack to

THE FORMAT: Open for mingling and drinking THE VENUE: Grille 33 (Greenville)

allow attendees to bridge the gap between small talk and productive, meaningful conversations.

The board of advisors for the GSA Technology Council, Tech After Five’s parent group, approached Yanov with the request that he develop a net-

working event specifically for Upstate tech professionals. After several meetings and more thought about how to change the networking formula, Yanov agreed.

Like most networking events, Tech After Five provides opportunities for

THE VIBE: Lively, conversation a constant hum THE MENU: Free drink with token

attendees to pass out and collect business cards, collaborate with other professionals in the field, and gain contacts. However, Yanov >>

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September 12, 2014

9/8/14 11:08 AM

SPECIAL EDITION: FOCUS ON TECHNOLOGY

Connections is a chance to get an inside look at how the business community comes together after hours. Want UBJ to connect with your group? Email joladipo@communityjournals.com.

CONNECTIONS Local opportunities for networking

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noticed that many events failed to meet these objectives.

In order make the key question “What is it you’re looking for tonight?” as easy to share as a name or company, Yanov added this piece of information to the nametag. Whether attendees are looking for work, collaborators, business or employees, their goal is displayed under their name.

E N G A G E SEPT

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TECH AFTER FIVE

Grille 33, Haywood Rd., Greenville 5:30-7:30 p.m.

Monthly events also in Asheville, Charlotte, Columbia, Atlanta Information: techafterfive.com

The feedback after the first few Tech After Five events in 2008 indicated success for Yanov’s idea. Yanov continued to build off the nametag and added components to Tech After Five in order to provide the right conditions for successful connections.

“Look, you can come hang out with us, but you’re going to have to tell me what it is you want,” Yanov says. To sign up for an event online, attendees must provide not only their name, company, and title, but also their reason for attending. Upon online registration, Tech After Five provides a list of others who have signed up, and the information entered during registration is transferred to the nametag that is ready at the event. With the Ta5 iPhone app, users can create and manage a Ta5 profile and select five

WHAT’S THE COOLEST NEW TECH? The coolest coming thing in tech is wearables. Today we are essentially at the first- and second-generation stage of watches that actually deliver connected information. Being able to take a glance at my wrist and see more than just the time allows me to be a nerd and to be connected without looking completely distracted. A connected watch is my fitness device. It lets me know if I’m not getting enough activity in. It will let me know if I need to get up and take a walk.

I’d love to see my upcoming appointments, snooze an alarm, or

people to meet from the attendee list.

For Yanov, Tech After Five’s objective is simple. “If you’re a tech entre-

manage myself towards my goals without having to pull out my phone.

To get this done, smart watches will have to overcome the battery problem. I will put up with putting the watch on the charger every few days, but I’d prefer to do it only weekly.

– Phil Yanov, founder, Tech After Five

preneur, I want you to build your business. If you’re a tech professional, I want you to advance your career.”

More Than Just a Business Club

Join Us For an Exciting Lunch Event Series – Open to the Public SERVICE TO AMERICA A lunch and lecture series honoring those who have served their country.

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55 Beattie Place | 864.232.5600 commerce-club.com

Chief Petty Officer Thom Shea

Wednesday, September 17th @ Noon $22 per person (all inclusive)

$5 per person in attendance will be donated to Veteran Scholarships Forever, a non-profit providing scholarships for occupational training for our returning veterans.

Public is welcome. Make your reservations by emailing contactus@commerce-club.com or by calling 864-232-5600

Corporate Celebration Client Appreciation Luncheon Winter Wedding ...and more.

From small private dining rooms to our newly renovated ball room, we’re ready to accommodate your parties of 2 to 500 guests.

September 12, 2014

UPSTATE BUSINESS JOURNAL

15

SPECIAL EDITION: FOCUS ON TECHNOLOGY

MOBILE MARKETING

C

With iOnGreenville and the iBeacon, Chris Bizzell brings all things Greenville to your phone

By Leigh Savage | contributor

Chris Bizzell got his start selling

DID YOU NEED ADDITIONAL TRAINING?

textile chemicals, but after a dozen years, realized that his passion was for the then-nascent field of Internet marketing – and later, mobile marketing. He founded BizzApps five years ago to create and maintain apps and Web pages, and one year ago launched iOnGreenville, an app created to bring Greenville’s events, businesses and destinations to your mobile device.

While he continues to do other work through BizzApps, the success of iOnGreenville is taking up more of his days as he and his team add business partners and new listings. He recently launched a similar app in Charleston, but Bizzell is focused on expanding his user base in Greenville. “This is the way people interact with the Internet now – it’s going heavily to the mobile side,” he said. “I don’t think that’s

I did a lot of training, including some at Greenville Tech – it was the Certified Internet Webmaster program. I taught there for a while.

But most of what you do with this is experiential, and you learn on the fly.

WHAT TYPES OF WORK DOES BIZZAPPS FOCUS ON? I do software development for local engineering firms and contract work for the S.C. Department of Transportation. I created an app related to spring training for Major League Baseball, and a company in San Francisco bought it. We create apps but also do website stuff too, maintaining the sites for WCCP-FM, the Clemson football radio station.

We also do restaurant websites and others. The work is wide and varied.

HOW DID IONGREENVILLE COME ABOUT?

GREG BECKNER/STAFF

Software developer Chris Bizzell holds a iBeacon device used with the iOnGreenville app (shown at left). The device sends out digital signals to give custom location-specific information about Greenville.

going to abate. It’s everywhere, and it’s the place businesses need to be.”

HOW DID YOU END UP IN THE TECHNOLOGY FIELD? I sold textile chemicals, and

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UPSTATE BUSINESS JOURNAL

September 12, 2014

we started doing online marketing.

This was back in the early days of the Internet, 1993 or 1994. We were doing sales for people in Istanbul because they found us through the Internet. I got interested, and we ended up selling the company and I went into software development.

We created it last June. I really just wanted a way to assimilate everything that is going on in Greenville, because there is so much going on. So we’ve got music, an events calendar, shopping, dining and as things evolved, we added a food truck calendar. We’ve stressed strategic partnerships: NOMA Square, Hampton Inn, the Road Warriors, the Greenville Drive.

HOW MANY BUSINESSES ARE YOU WORKING WITH? HAVE THEY BEEN EAGER TO GET ON BOARD? We are partnered with 75 to 80 businesses, and we’d like to grow that number. What we’re doing is building a portal for some of these people >>

SPECIAL EDITION: FOCUS ON TECHNOLOGY

>> who don’t want to build their own app, but we’re giving them a way to have a mobile presence pretty quickly.

And it’s not just the app, but social media. We tweet out information for our partners – food truck schedules, concert schedules.

So for the end user, it’s a comprehensive guide to what’s going on, and a business can look at it as a total marketing tool.

WHAT’S THE NEWEST ADDITION TO IONGREENVILLE? We recently partnered with St. Francis Health System. On the iOnGreenville app they have a physician locator, practice locations, maps and news – it’s pretty comprehensive health care information.

They had talked about doing a native app for themselves, but iOnGreenville already has a fairly good audience, and we were able to get them up on the app in three weeks, which is in-

“This is the way people interact with the Internet now – it’s going heavily to the mobile side. It’s everywhere, and it’s the place businesses need to be.” credible turnaround for something like this.

HOW MANY PEOPLE USE IONGREENVILLE? We have 6,000 iPhone users and 1,000 more through the iPad and Android apps, so 7,000 total. After only one year it’s a really strong user base, and we track everything on the

back side to see what is most popular.

One hundred to 150 people download the app every week.

We try to push locally owned people. Paws & Claws, Horizon Records, Greektown Grille. We have a neat niche, because we are local.

We’re not built for the whole country.

We are focused on trying to promote Greenville, and I think that’s what makes us unique.

can engage with people based on their proximity to an event, a destination or a person, so you can give context to your message. So you can put an iBeacon on a window of a home that is for sale, and when you drive up, the app automatically sends you information about the home – the listing, photos, contacts. Courtyard

by Marriott is using them to let people know about booking events, and St. Francis is using them at reception desks to remind people to get a flu shot.

WHAT IS THE IBEACON, AND HOW DOES IT FIT INTO YOUR BUSINESS?

DO YOU HAVE PLANS TO EXTEND BEYOND SOUTH CAROLINA?

It’s a simple Bluetooth device that comes in different shapes and colors.

There is a tiny chip in it, and it sends out a signal every five seconds. When a phone has the iOnGreenville app and goes near the iBeacon, it shows a message. It’s fairly new technology.

The iBeacon can be anywhere, and

We just launched in Charleston, and we want to do the same thing there. We are keeping the apps separate, because we want iOnGreenville to be about what’s going on here.

We have discussions going on about other cities, but we want to do this slowly and do it right.

DO YOU TARGET CERTAIN TYPES OF BUSINESSES?

Congratulations Hero among Heroes 2014

Kevin Suddeth

A 5 year veteran with the Greenville Police Department who is currently assigned to the Traffic Selective Enforcement and Collision Reconstruction Unit. His daily efforts positively impact the public safety of our roadways making our city a better place to live. He and his wife Mary have a 4 year old son and 6 year old daughter.

Paul Boggs

Paul has served the GCFD faithfully for 21 years.

Currently assigned to Station 2 in the west end district, and is a Hazmat and Rescue Technician.

He also serves as a member of the SC regional Urban search and rescue team, after spending 11 years as an officer on the Rescue 2. Paul is a mentor to other firefighters, community minded, and a loving family man to his wife Christy, and two sons, Colby and Nick.

Thanks to our sponsors! ARCpoint Franchise Group, Attorney Steve Sumner, Belfor Property Restoration, BlueCross BlueShield of SC, Blue Ridge Security, BMW Manufacturing Co., The Capital Corporation, CBRE, Chris Brank Films, Community Foundation of Greenville, Design Strategies, DP3 Architects, Duke Energy, Gallivan, White & Boyd P.A., Greenville Drive, Greenville News, Greenville Technical College, Hampton Inn & Suites - RiverPlace, Hyatt Regency Greenville, Hughes Development, The Jain Family, Hughes Development, JHM Hotels, Marriott Courtyard, McCallum Sweeney Consulting, McMillan Pazdan Smith Architecture, Nachman Norwood & Parrott Wealth Management, The Palmetto Bank, The Peace Center, Pepsi Cola of Greenville, Poppington’s Gourmet Popcorn, Social Market Exchange.com, United Community Bank, Upstate Business Journal, Verizon, Visit Greenville SC, Wells Fargo Advisors, Windsor Aughtry Company.

September 12, 2014

UPSTATE BUSINESS JOURNAL

17

SPECIAL EDITION: FOCUS ON TECHNOLOGY

UBJ TECHNOLOGY

By CHARLES JOHNSON, CEO, EDTS

Protecting your business from cybercrime – and careless employees For many business owners, the rebounding economy has introduced a devilish new challenge in the form of increasing cybercrime. Sophisticated hackers have begun targeting vulnerable businesses, with the Internet Crime Complaint Center reporting that hacking crimes were up dramatically in 2013. Witness: • Target admitted that 110 million customer payment cards were compromised in a data breach.

• A payment processor for Goodwill stores in 20 states had malware on its systems for more than a year, enabling cybercriminals to gain access to credit card data; investigators believe the security lapse resulted in more than 800,000 stolen credit and debit cards.

• Just last week, Home Depot admitted that millions of personal information records of store shoppers may have been compromised.

The rate of malware, or ransomware, attacks on small businesses continues to climb at an alarming rate. Mostly from abroad, ransomware blocks your access to data unless you pay an extortion fee. It’s organized, automated, and stealthy – and can crush an unprepared organization.

Mobile malware is adapting and evolving faster than security tools can learn to detect and evade threats; expect this to become a new frontier for bad guys as our society leans more on mobile access and devices.

Connected devices make life easy – for you and for bad guys. If you

18

can access your home security turning off encryption capabilities An effective IT audit should include: system or baby monitor camera from or recording passwords on paper. your smartphone, an attacker may To protect your organization, • External vulnerability be able to do so as well. consider retaining a reputable scanning With many small and mid-sized third-party IT partner to conduct • Internal vulnerability businesses deploying unencrypted an IT security audit – a rigorous, scanning wireless networks, and most having comprehensive review of security no security plan, too many organithat provides specific, actionable • Network/infrastructure zations lack essential protection for insight to mitigate risk. configuration review their networks and sensitive data.

Such an audit identifies critical • Wireless assessment With many organizations having information and security issues, and • Current password policy and scarce resources and insufficient helps you develop a layered proteccontrols review time to monitor cybersecurity, they tion plan to strategically defend are particularly vulnerable to Webagainst both internal and external • Outbound traffic analysis based crime. Is your organization threats. And with threats of many • Written IT policy review among them? kinds – viruses, worms, Trojan horses, spam, spyware, theft and Unfortunately, it’s not only cyberOnce completed, you should crime that organizations have to corporate espionage – all around receive a written summary of findworry about. you, don’t “hope for the best” – esings, full details of all reviews and Many employees are negligent in pecially when your organization can assessments, schematics and scan protecting confidential information be held accountable for data secureports detailing your network and and equipment, and cybercriminals rity through regulation and contracvulnerabilities that need to be adhappily target them, creating dantual obligation. dressed, and specific recommengerous data breaches that can dations for improvements and cripple a business. remediation.

Employee email is indispensFinally, all too often we see IT able to business, but unprotected audits conducted either by an email can expose your most in-house IT manager or an ex CHECK FOR VIRUSES AND MALWARE sensitive intellectual property, – Although it can be time consuming, it will isting IT provider. Each has a financial information and custake less time than recovering from a case vested interest in not detailing of identity theft. tomer data. Results can include shortcomings – how would that monetary loss, company disrup PASSWORDS – Do not use the same make them look? – or may lack tion and legal action. password for every account. Be creative, the essential skills, tools and combine letters, numbers and special Sixty-six percent of employees methodology to implement an characters. in a recent national survey said effective audit. Consider a third they no longer worry about losing AVOID PHISHING SCHEMES – Beware of strange party with appropriate credenURLs requeting your login and passwords. The their laptops or tablets because tials like the CISSP (Certified homepage will look real, but the URL will be fake; data is encrypted, incorrectly this allows hackers to steal your information and Information System Security believing encryption fully prerepost spam under your profile.

Professional) or CEH (Certified vents theft of information.

Ethical Hacker) to conduct your SECURE YOUR WIRELESS NETWORK – One-third of respondents said Always make sure to change your router’s default IT audit. password. Cybercriminals often know how to work they frequently leave laptops or In today’s brave new world them, hacking in to your network and stealing your tablets with strangers while of hackers, phishing and personal information. traveling, or leave them unatEastern European ransomware tended in insecure locations. DON’T TALK TO STRANGERS – The same rule threats that can literally put you applies to children and adults, especially when it Two-thirds never use a privacy out of business, chances are comes to people you meet online. shield, and over half admitted to you’ll be glad you did.

UPSTATE BUSINESS JOURNAL

September 12, 2014

Hello, BEAUTYful.

SPECIAL EDITION: FOCUS ON TECHNOLOGY

By JOSH MORRIS, division director, Robert Half Technology, Greenville

UBJ EMPLOYMENT

Tech skills pay the bills It’s a promising job landscape for Greenville’s skilled technology talent The latest report from the South Carolina department of Labor shows the state’s unemployment rate as of July at 5.7 percent – coming in at 0.5 percent lower than the national average. In the same report, Greenville unemployment comes in even lower at 5.2 percent – a positive sign for the region. For skilled tech talent, Greenville and the Upstate in general prove to hold steady in a number of industries and for a variety of roles. From entry-level individuals to mid-level and higher, a number of opportunities are available for local tech talent.

Here are some of the top industries in Greenville and where the opportunities lie for technology professionals of all skill levels.

Manufacturing. Manufacturing has a long history of boosting employment for locals, and there are no signs of change in that respect.

But what is happening is a transformation within the industry, where more sophisticated products are at the forefront, therefore changing the kind of employees businesses are seeking. The roles available and the skill sets of the most highly sought-after professionals have changed over time to reflect this more high-tech environment. Right now, manufacturing companies are seeking networking and systems engineers and administrators.

Health care. Quickly becoming one of the fastest-growing technology employers in the area, this is a fantastic field, rich with opportunity for highly skilled individuals who have experience in the health care or clinical fields. Specifically,

Familiarize yourself with the types of roles that are growing in the area and consider where your skills may fit into the needs of businesses. project managers – especially those with PMP certification – will be able to find opportunities in Greenville.

Big Data roles are growing through the creation of data warehouse teams, creating opportunities for architects, administrators and developers.

Telecom and software. In these industries, certifications and highly specialized skills are most wanted.

Telecom companies are seeking networking individuals with either Cisco or Microsoft certifications, while software development companies are pursuing front-end Web development team members. While .Net and Java are still widely used, we are seeing an increased demand for individuals skilled in PHP, JavaScript, and Ruby on Rails.

Integrators. For entry-level tech talent, integrators are a great place to begin a technology career. These organizations are seeking professionals to provide hands-on, deskside network and systems support.

Whether Greenville residents are seeking their first tech role, are considering a new job or are already established within an organization,

now is a good time to assess where you are with your career and where you would like to be. Familiarize yourself with the types of roles that are growing in the area and consider where your skills may fit into the needs of businesses. If you are seeking a move within your organization or a promotion, it is wise to use this time to review where you stand in terms of salary and use outside resources to ensure that you are on par with other individuals in the same role in the area.

Hiring managers who are looking to grow teams within their organizations will be pleased with the talent Greenville has to offer.

Highly skilled individuals who will work in both project and permanent capacities are available to take on some of the highly specialized existing roles.

As the fourth quarter approaches, there tends to be an increase in project-based hiring for a variety of reasons, including the completion of major projects and tasks before year-end. And as businesses continue to choose Greenville as their base and inevitably expand job options, it will continue to be a jobseekers’ market.

As an organization, it’s important to set yourself apart in terms of the benefits you are willing to provide employees, especially those with the most highly sought-after skills. Use tools that will help you compare local and national salary averages in order to stay competitive in a tight market.

As Greenville continues to be a desirable place for businesses to grow and develop, we look forward to continued career and opportunity growth for our talented technology professionals.

September 12, 2014

by Cindy Jackson and Angela Mathews – Back to 30 Rejuvenation Centers As much as we hate to admit it, time does a number on us.

One minute, we’re lamenting curfews and rolling our eyes at our totally unreasonable parents; the next, we look in the mirror and think, “Well, that was fast.” Just because we’re no longer sassy and seventeen doesn’t mean we can’t recapture some of our best youthful traits (minus the blue eye shadow and over processed hair, of course).

The Art of Being Cheeky

Voluma®, an injectable dermal filler that is the first (and only) filler FDA-approved to instantly add volume to the cheek area, gives you that subtle lift. Helping to restore contour and a more youthful profile for up to two years, it refills the volume that time steals away from us. We have many inquiries about the procedure, so here’s the skinny on how Voluma® enables you to pump up the volume.

Youthful, vibrant, healthylooking skin contains a naturally hydrating substance called hyaluronic acid. Unfortunately, the aging process and other factors can reduce the amount of hyaluronic acid contained in our skin. This loss causes change in the structure and volume of our cheeks, like unwanted facial wrinkles and skin that isn’t quite as plump as it was before.

Dermal fillers are both safe and effective. No surgery, minimal recovery, and instant results...

That’s a beauty equation we can definitely get behind.

So while we’re, for the most part, pretty glad that we’ve left some parts of our youth behind us, it sure is nice that we can take back the parts we actually miss.

Cindy Jackson and Angela Mathews are part of the Back to 30 Rejuvenation Centers team. With two locations in the Upstate, and a third set to open early October 2014, they are industry experts in the area of skin care and total body wellness.

To learn more about Back to 30 Rejuvenation Centers, you can visit them online at:

www.backto30.com or call them at

864.244.8730 TM

TO

UPSTATE BUSINESS JOURNAL

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SPECIAL EDITION: FOCUS ON TECHNOLOGY

FEATURE

BRINGING IT BACK HOME The wave of outsourcing that carried tech jobs overseas has ebbed as companies look for local talent

SHERRY JACKSON | STAFF sjackson@communityjournals.com

In the 1990s and early 2000s as the tech industry boomed, companies started outsourcing more and more of their IT needs instead of keeping those jobs in-house. To companies focused on profits and the bottom line, resources in India, China, Romania and other countries offered IT labor at a fraction of the cost of U.S. resources.

There were lessons learned, tales of nightmare projects that never got delivered and language barriers.

Some companies gave up and brought IT jobs either back in-house or opted to only use onshore (U.S.based) resources, while others muddled through the challenges and figured out what worked and what didn’t.

In a CIO Magazine article earlier this year, Stan Lepeak, global research director for KPMG Advisory, said that in 2014 “of the IT services historically outsourced, 20 to 30 percent will be brought back inhouse.”

“Everyone is spending more on technology now than they were last year and will be spending more next year.”

Dan Rundle

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Today, the tech industry is booming once again. Outsourcing is still a huge business and many companies still use offshore resources. But many companies are forging relationships with local, specialty IT firms with local resources and leaving the IT work to experts they can call upon.

TO OUTSOURCE OR NOT OUTSOURCE? Many medium and large businesses simply don’t have the level of expertise required to tackle some projects, and often the company can’t justify the cost of bringing on a fulltime person because it lacks the work volume to support the head count, said Andrew Kurtz, president and CEO of ProActive Technology, a Greenville-based custom software development firm. That’s where a firm such as his can play a useful role.

Kurtz has a staff of about 25 people in Greenville who provide project management, architecture, technical writing, business analysis, software development and testing expertise.

He said the ups and downs in the industry have been more economic recently, but beyond that, outsourcing really hasn’t changed in the past 10 years.

“From the top down, a lot of companies want to focus on their core business,” he said.

“We’re finding customers have to be pretty large to do development in-house,” agreed Dan Rundle, CEO of Worthwhile, a Greenville Web and mobile application development

UPSTATE BUSINESS JOURNAL

September 12, 2014

firm. “Unless software is their core business, we’re finding customers are outsourcing their IT.” Rundle’s 16 employees focus on project management, development, design and testing.

“Some companies simply out-

source their IT completely, even if they have the budget to hire, because they need specific skill sets,” Kurtz said. Specialized IT firms “can bring that expertise into the project as needed.”

Customers might have an >>

SPECIAL EDITION: FOCUS ON TECHNOLOGY

FEATURE >>

employee on staff who is “a jack of all trades – someone who is good at all, but great at none,” Kurtz said.

Custom software firms “bring great experience at all [trades], and companies can buy that at a fractional service level.”

Most companies are looking to outsource projects that simplify a problem or make employees’ jobs easier, Rundle said. Rundle’s firm also offers what he calls “software rescue,” where a client presents with a software system the company can’t or doesn’t know how to support anymore. The IT team goes into a “forensic-type” analysis and reverse-engineers the application.

Companies that outsource to a local IT firm gain the advantage of having that firm’s experts “start to learn the culture and processes” of the client company, Kurtz said.

Unlike a staffing firm or temporary help, local IT retain the knowledge gained for the next project, whereas a staffing firm may not send the same people for the next project, he said.

The Wall Street Journal reported that in a March 2014 survey by accounting firm BDO USA LLP, only five out of 100 technology CFOs said they were planning to offshore services in the near future – a significant drop from the 16 percent who said yes in 2013 and 20 percent who said yes in 2012.

The WSJ story said after a series of economic disruptions and environmental disasters in the past few years, “CFOs are trying to look a little more holistically at outsourcing,” said Aftab Jamil, a partner at BDO who leads the technology and life sciences practice. “They are saying, ‘Do we really save enough money that it is worth that risk?’”

THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY OF OFFSHORING There are costs incurred in

have someone on site within half an hour if something goes wrong with a project. In his experience, Kurtz said, even though there are companies out there that have gotten really good at managing IT offshore, most companies are “not actively looking at offshore resources.”

In fact, several customers have contract clauses that specify IT work cannot be given to any offshore resources. “It’s for a variety of reasons.

Sometimes it’s because of experiences the company has had, other times it’s for security or privacy concerns,” Kurtz said.

LOOKING TO THE FUTURE AND LOCAL TALENT

Infographic courtesy of TransFormSolution.com

managing offshore development that may not be readily apparent, Kurtz said. Staff is needed to manage offshore resources and a higher level of documentation is required. “If companies do the complete analysis, they’ll find the cost is much closer than they may think,” he said.

Companies that do look at outsourcing are faced with a challenge: “Do we outsource to a U.S.-based

company or an international company?” said Rundle. With offshore, it’s most likely cheaper in the short run, but the cons are language barriers and different time zones to work with, he said.

“Onshore development teams bring skills and a level of problem-solving and creativity to solving the problem that you don’t experience with most offshore development firms,” said Kurtz. Local firms can

September 12, 2014

Rundle said his firm has definitely seen an uptick in business. “Everyone is spending more on technology now than they were last year and will be spending more next year,” he said.

As demand increases, both ProActive Technologies and Worthwhile occasionally augment their own staff locally by calling on trusted freelancers. Rundle said his company hasn’t had to do a lot of outsourcing in recent years but when it does, he works with domestic freelancers who can support his staff in “a specific role or expertise.”

Kurtz said the talent pool in Greenville is good but is becoming “more of a challenge.” Good IT people have many options and jobs are “fairly plentiful.”

“The talent pool in Greenville is solid,” Rundle agreed. “It’s better even than some of the surrounding larger cities. However, everyone is spoken for – they have a job already.

It’s very competitive.”

Kurtz said that “Greenville and the Upstate is starting to get a reputation that it’s a good place to live,” so it’s less of a challenge to find people from outside the area who may want to move here.

UPSTATE BUSINESS JOURNAL

21

FINE PRINT Business briefs you can’t miss

KBR Building Group to construct Ferguson’s distribution center KBR Building Group announced that its Greenville office has been awarded a contract by Ferguson Enterprises, the nation’s largest wholesale plumbing distributor, to construct a 460,000-square-foot distribution center on an 84-acre site in Coxsackie, N.Y. Construction for the project is currently underway with a proposed completion date of late summer 2015.

“We appreciate the opportunity to partner with Ferguson as it expands its geographic footprint

in the Northeast to better serve its customers,” said Mac Carpenter, president of KBR Building Group, in a release. ”We have completed similar regional distribution centers for Ferguson in Celina, Ohio, and Waterloo, Iowa, and look forward to delivering another successful project.”

Ferguson’s new distribution center will specifically support the company’s metro New York and Northeast branches, and the facility is expected to bring nearly 100 jobs to New York’s Greene County.

SC Launch funds 3 Clemson startups Clemson University Research Foundation (CURF) recently announced that three Clemson startup companies have each received $25,000 in seed money from SC Launch’s University Sponsored Application Program (USAP).

The three companies are VRM Labs LLC, ConnectTiss LLC and Additive Drug Delivery LLC. All companies are located in the Upstate and have licensed or optioned Clemson-owned intellectual property as the basis for their company.

VRM Labs created a process of producing the antioxidant “Pro-X” in order to create cost-effective natural food preservatives for applications in the pet food and animal feed industries.

ConnecTiss LLC is using technology to

improve aging skin. The company plans to use its technology to create a cosmeceutical product that can be applied directly to the skin, allowing for compounds to be released at the site of elastin degeneration to prevent further loss.

Additive Drug Delivery LLC enhances existing sutures and surgical meshes with the ability to continually deliver medication for up to three months. The technology is a joint intellectual property commercialized by CURF and Medical University of South Carolina Foundation for Research Development.

Fourteen Upstate companies named to Inc. 5000 List Fourteen Upstate companies were named to Inc. 5000’s 2014 List of the Fastest-Growing Companies in America.

The list ranks the company based on rate of three-year growth and revenue brought in.

Upstate companies on the list are: RANK

COMPANY

861

Sandlapper Securities

YEARS ON LIST 2

959

Wireless Communications

3

966

Mass Media Group

1

1328

Dealer Online Marketing

1

1745

Ob Hospitalist Group

2

2420

ArcPoint Franchise Group

1

2793

Insurance Applications Group

5

3038

M33 Integrated Solutions

8

3411

Fortis Riders

6

3566

GBS Building Supply

1

3904 Worthwhile

2

3912

Website Pipeline

4

4291

Positive Management Leadership

2

4701

Ogletree Deakins

5

For the complete list, visit inc.com/inc5000/ list/2014.

All Sports 24/7

105.9 FM 1330 AM

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UPSTATE BUSINESS JOURNAL

September 12, 2014

Every Game

FINE PRINT Business briefs you can’t miss

Direct Travel establishes hub in Greenville

Direct Travel, a provider of travel management services in the U.S., recently announced the company has established its Southern operations hub in Greenville and appointed John Townes as vice president of business development.

Prior to joining Direct Travel, Townes served as the former co-CEO and owner of Piedmont Travel Inc. Direct Travel is operating out of a temporary location at 220 N. Main St. in Greenville.

The Greenville hub joins its network of locations in New York, New Jersey, Maine, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Florida, Tennessee, Wisconsin, Illinois, Minnesota, Colorado and California.

Milliken honored for arts partnerships Americans for the Arts, a nonprofit organization for advancing the arts and arts education, recently announced that Milliken & Company was selected by the Business Committee for the Arts (BCA), a division of Americans for the Arts, for the BCA 10: Best Businesses Partnering with the Arts in America for 2014 list.

Milliken & Company was honored because of its support of the arts featured

through its artistic decorations and support of art organizations such as the Arts Partnership of Greater Spartanburg. Additionally, Milliken is exploring integrating the arts into the work of its scientists to inspire creative and scientific learning in the workplace.

The company also funds the STEAM Teacher’s Institute, which promotes arts integration in STEM (science, technology, education, math) education.

Cliffs completes $450,000 course enhancement and upgrade The Cliffs recently announced the re-opening of The Cliffs at Keowee Falls Jack Nicklaus Signature Golf Course after the completion of a $450,000 planned enhancement and upgrade project.

“In addition to completing new projects, a large part of this year’s strategic plan is dedicated to modernizing those amenities already completed,” said David Sawyer, executive vice president for The Cliffs Clubs, in a release. “We felt The Keowee Falls Golf Course conversion project was a perfect way to give our members a fresh experience while enhancing an already great

golf course.”

The Cliffs at Keowee Falls’ par-72, 7,171-yard course underwent a complete 18-hole greens conversion, replacing the original Bentgrass with Champion Bermudagrass to enhance overall course performance.

The course also added six new forward tees and a short game facility.

Immedion opens Rock Hill data center Immedion LLC, a South Carolina-based dedicated data center and Cloud services provider, will open its fifth data center in Rock Hill, S.C., by the end of the year. The newest data center will be located in Rock Hill’s 200-acre business park, TechPark.

The Rock Hill facility complements the company’s current sites in Greenville, Columbia, Charleston and Asheville, N.C., according to a statement by the company.

In business since 2007, Immedion’s services include cloud computing, colocation, dedicated Internet access and managed technology services that allow companies to minimize the downtime of critical computer systems, said the statement.

Clems n Every Game September 12, 2014

UPSTATE BUSINESS JOURNAL

23

UBJ LAYOUT

Vom Fass rolls out the barrels SHERRY JACKSON | STAFF

sjackson@communityjournals.com Vom Fass, a cask-aged vinegars, oils, rare spirits, liqueurs and wine retailer, opened to the public last week in the Whole Foods Shopping Center behind Chipotle on Woodruff Road.

German for “from the cask,” Vom Fass offers products such as fairtrade fruit-based vinegars, Balsamico’s from Italy, oils with names like FassZination Argan Oil from Morocco and a large selection of European wines, distilled spirits from across the world and specialty liquors. The products are displayed and kept in casks from Germany, single barrels and hand-crafted jars.

The concept is simple – come into the store, taste and figure out what you like, choose from one of the many different high-quality Italian glass dispensers, and they’ll bottle the product for you to take home.

The company’s motto is “always the best – always,” and that’s one of the reasons that Greenville franchise owners Jean and Michael Martin choose a Vom Fass franchise. The husband-and-wife team said they looked at several oil-and-vinegar type stores, including doing it themselves, before choosing to open a Vom Fass.

“After all, how can I improve upon

this?” said Jean Martin.

The Martins plan on hosting cooking demos; scotch, cognac and whiskey tastings; and other educational events.

Prices on the oils and vinegars range from $5 to $25, and $8 to $45 on bottles of wine. Non-labeled bottles purchased in the store are refillable and can be personalized, and free gift-wrapping is available.

Once this location is well under way, the couple plans on opening stores in Charleston and Hilton Head.

A grand opening event is being planned for October.

Photos by Sherry Jackson

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UPSTATE BUSINESS JOURNAL

September 12, 2014

NEW TO THE STREET The freshest faces on the business landscape

2

1 1. CertusBank recently opened a branch at 3900 Pelham Road in Greenville near the I-85 exchange. It is the bank’s ninth location in the Upstate and joins a network of more than 30 branches across the Carolinas, Florida and Georgia. For more information, call 864-315-1041 or visit certusbank.com.

2. Kiss the Frog Gallery is located at 518 E. Main St. in Spartanburg and is open Wednesday-Friday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Saturdays, 10 a.m.-3 p.m., and open for art walk every third Thursday of each month from 5-9 p.m. For more information, call 864-583-1309.

Upstate Business Journal is looking to fill the following positions:

ENTREPRENEURS FORUM

• SALES EXECUTIVE full time

• CREATIVE PAGE

DESIGNER

2

TICKETS NOW AVAILABLE

2014 GALA 09.25.14 6:00pm Reception • 7:00pm Dinner TD Convention Center

full time

2014 HONOREES

Please send all inquiries to Mark Johnston mjohnston@communityjournals.com

WE’RE GROWING

MICHAEL BOLICK Selah Genomics

MARK JOHNSTON Community Journals

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For more information or to order tickets, please contact Butler Mullins of the Greenville Tech Foundation at butler.mullins@gvltec.edu.

Funds raised from this event will be allocated to student scholarships and other critical needs for Greenville Technical College.

September 12, 2014

UPSTATE BUSINESS JOURNAL

25

SHERRY JACKSON | STAFF sjackson@communityjournals.com @SJackson_CJ

SQUARE FEET Real estate deals and developments across the region

Tijuana Flats coming to Haywood As Greenville’s Haywood Road continues its redevelopment, gone is the former Wendy’s that stood beside Haverty’s furniture store at 610 Haywood Road.

In its place will be a new 5,200-square-foot building that will include Tijuana Flats, a fast-casual Tex-Mex restaurant. The restaurant will have 70 seats and a 30-seat outdoor patio.

Tijuana Flats began in Winter Park, Fla., and has been rapidly expanding with restaurants across Florida and in North Carolina,

Georgia, Virginia, Pennsylvania and Indiana. This will be Tijuana Flats’ first South Carolina restaurant.

The company says it only uses fresh ingredients and all items are made to order.

Tijuana Flats will occupy 2,400 square feet, and the landlord is in talks with another restaurant for the

Rendering courtesy of McMillan Pazdan Smith

remaining space, which will also have outdoor seating space. Construction has already begun and is scheduled to be completed in early 2015.

Next door, Haverty’s has signed a new lease and will be renovating its existing building in early 2015.

PROJECT PARTNERS DEVELOPER: Harper Corporation ARCHITECT: Kevin Hyslop, McMillan Pazdan Smith

Heritage Historic District to see new townhomes A new townhome development is coming to the corner of West Park Avenue and Townes Street in downtown Greenville.

The development will be located in the Heritage Historic District.

Real estate consultant Drew Parker with The Parker Group, which will be handling sales of the townhomes, said the team “worked hard to design a look that not only pays homage to the arts-and-crafts roots of the neighborhood, but also offers a beautiful transition from the CBD [central business district] to a residential area.”

Two existing townhomes at 106 W. Park Ave. will remain and are currently rented. Two new buildings will be constructed at 102 and 104 W. Park Ave., each housing two townhomes, for a total of six.

Each new building will be three stories high and contain two residences. The new townhomes will be approximately 2,300 square feet, and all will have three bedrooms and 3 1/2 bathrooms.

Amenities planned are two-car

26

garages, an elevator option, hardwood floors, granite countertops and stainless steel appliances. The townhomes will also have decks and patios. Prices will start in the mid$400,000s.

UPSTATE BUSINESS JOURNAL

September 12, 2014

Reservations will be start being accepted early this fall. Construction will start after two of the new units are presold.

For more information, visit westparkandtownes.com.

PROJECT PARTNERS ARCHITECT: Trevor Ream, Batson Associates MARKETED BY: The Parker Group

SQUARE FEET Real estate deals and developments across the region

SHERRY JACKSON | STAFF sjackson@communityjournals.com @SJackson_CJ

Latest Stone + Main plans unveiled The Stone + Main project

by The Beach Company is projected to break ground late this fall. The company released new renderings of the project that they plan to share in neighborhood meetings soon.

The mixed-use project will include 241 apartments, an urban courtyard pool, fitness center/club room, on-site restaurant and retail amenities, covered parking and walking proximity to downtown. There will also be 21,175 square feet of retail space.

The plans show a “Fresh Foods” sign, and the company hopes to attract a neighborhood market.

Projected completion date is second quarter 2016.

Reserve a seat at the table to enjoy all you can eat, sip and listen at euphoria2014.

For more details and to purchase tickets, visit euphoriagreenville.com.

Keller Williams plans HQ move After 11 years at its location on Airport Road in Greenville, Keller William Upstate is moving its office.

They’re not moving far, though: The company’s new digs will be less than a mile away at 403 Woods Lake Road, in front of the Greater Greenville Association of Realtors offices.

In January, the realty company announced it was moving to a new building at Markley Station, in Greenville’s West End. But after evaluating the space, parking and cost to retrofit the building, Michael Brown, team leader of Keller Williams Upstate, said it just didn’t meet their needs.

Brown said KW Upstate still owns a portion of Markley Station and may still use it in the future, but for now, plans are on hold for

that location.

Instead, KW Upstate will occupy 1 5 , 0 0 0 square feet or about 75 percent of the black building on Woods MICHAEL BROWN Lake Road that will be “newly designed and remodeled,” said Brown. It will serve as the company’s “major hub

for training, meetings and office space.”

Brown said the building will be a model for Keller Williams with plenty of space for its more than 200 agents to gather, including a café-style area in the middle where agents can socialize. Agents will also have plenty of conference rooms available to meet with clients and offices will be available for those agents who want one.

The company is also planning to have a large training space to accommodate frequent training sessions, which are available not just to KW agents, but also agents with other companies and organizations.

Interior walls, space, paint and carpet are still to be completed, but Brown said he is hoping to move into the new offices in 90 to 120 days.

September 12, 2014

THE TABLE IS SET, STEAK YOUR CLAIM.

SUPPORTED BY

Upstate Business Journal

UPSTATE BUSINESS JOURNAL

27

CONTRIBUTE: New hires, promotions & award winners may be featured in On the Move. Send information and photos to onthemove@upstatebusinessjournal.com.

ON THE MOVE Play-by-play of Upstate careers

ANNIVERSARY

ELECTED

HIRED

HIRED

PROMOTED

John Malsch

Theresa B. Kizer

Logan Bagley

Corey Amaker

Dan Watts

Reached his 25th anniversary with Automation Engineering Co. Malsch is the vice president of sales and began his career with AEC in 1989 when he started as a computer-aided designer. He has also been a controls engineer.

Installed as the president of the South Carolina Clerks to Council Association. Kizer was appointed clerk by Greenville County Council in October 2000 and obtained her Clerks to Council certification in 2005.

Joined United Community Bank as the vice president and SBA business development officer of its specialized lending team. Bagley previously served as VP and business development officer at CertusBank in Greenville.

She previously held the same title at BCI Lending.

Appointed as associate vice president for planning and assessment at Southern Wesleyan University. Amaker previously served as director of assessment/institutional effectiveness at Benedict College for seven years.

Named president of TSAChoice. Watts joined TSAChoice as director of customer development in May 2013. He previously worked with USLEC/PAETEC/ Windstream for 13 years, where he served in various management positions in both sales and operations.

ACADEMICS: Les Grady recently won the 2014 Frederick George Pohland Medal from the Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors, and was named a fellow of the Water Environment Federation. Grady retired from Clemson University 11 years ago and is the R.A. Bowen professor emeritus.

ACCOUNTING: Certified public accountant Robert Visbisky has joined accounting and consulting firm Scott and Company LLC as a senior auditor on the assurance and advisory services team. Visbisky joins Scott and Company with more than 20 years of experience in industry, public accounting and state/local government finance and accounting.

CONSTRUCTION/ ENGINEERING: O’Neal Inc. has hired Jeremy Best as project engineer, Jonathan Flowers as electrical engineer and Michael Johns as senior architectural designer.

Best has more than five years of project engineering, procurement and construction management experience

28

gained while at the firms of Kiewit and Southern Building and Maintenance.

Flowers has interned with both Duke Energy and Ervin Engineering. Johns has more than 20 years of architectural and structural design experience. He has worked the Greenville firms of Professional Engineering Associates and Keith Architects.

KBR Building Group announced that Jonathan Shanus recently passed his LEED Green Associate exam administered by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). Shanus is KBR Building Group’s project engineer.

LEGAL: Attorney Steve Sumner was recently named a “Top Attorney in South Carolina” by Columbia Living magazine for Criminal Defense/DUI Law for the second consecutive year.

Sumner was also the only DUI Defense lawyer in the Upstate to be named as a Super Lawyer in the field of DUI/ Drunk Driving Defense for South Carolina. He was also selected as a “Top 100 Trial Lawyer” for SC in Criminal Defense. He was also includ-

UPSTATE BUSINESS JOURNAL

September 12, 2014

ed in the list of “Pre-Eminent Lawyers” for the state of South Carolina by Martindale-Hubbell for the fourth consecutive year.

MEDICAL: St. Francis Cardiovascular & Thoracic Associates recently announced the addition of Dr. Jeffrey M. Griffin to its medical team. Griffin is certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine and is board-eligible by the American Board of Thoracic Surgery.

He is a member of the Society of Thoracic Surgeons.

NONPROFIT: Centre Stage recently welcomed Sheila Bolick and Llyn Strong to its board of directors. Bolick is currently serving on the membership committee at the Commerce Club. Strong is an award-winning jewelry artist.

The Blood Connection Inc. has announced the promotion of Brian Madden to executive vice president.

Madden was previously chief operations officer. He began his blood-banking career as a phlebotomist at

Greenville Hospital System before joining TBC’s hospital services.

Bruce Pasquarella has been named as one of three new board members of the Better Business Bureau serving the Upstate of South Carolina. Pasquarella is president of American Eagle Builders and franchise owner of Arthur Rutenburg Homes. He will serve a three-year term.

REAL ESTATE: CBRE announced that Tripp Sellers has returned as vice president in the investment properties team and Joe Cummings will join the office services team as an associate. Sellers has more than 22 years of experience in commercial real estate, originally working for the firm from 2001 until 2006. Cummings begins his career with CBRE having spent time with Carolina Brigade Lacrosse.

STAFFING: Human Technologies Inc. announced that Ryann Pasquale has been named the sales and marketing coordinator in the corporate office.

FOR OUR

60TH BIRTHDAY

SOCIAL SNAPSHOT Inside the Upstate’s networking and social scene

CELEBRATION

WE PROUDLY PRESENT OUR NEW, STATE-OF-THE-ART LAUNDRY DEPARTMENT.

COLDWELL BANKER CAINE GOES HOLLYWOOD Coldwell Banker Caine hosted their annual summer celebration at the Warehouse Theater in downtown Greenville recently.

This event celebrated the agents’ accomplishments and awarded an agent an allexpense paid trip to Coldwell Banker’s Generation Blue Experience Conference in Hollywood. In honor of the conference, the evening’s theme was Old Hollwood.

Agents had the opportunity to dress up in glamour attire, participate in improv with local actors, enter the drawing for the Hollywood conference and enjoy a themed reception with colleagues.

Photos by Chelsey Ashford

NOW PROVIDING THE FINEST QUALITY CLEANING AND PRESSING OF LAUNDERED SHIRTS, PANTS, LAB COATS AND HOME LINENS.

Lafayette Scientific Cleaners

Because you demand the best.

Serving the Upstate for 60 years

Personalized Cleaning & Hand Finishing 1707 Augusta Street | Greenville 864.242.5606 September 12, 2014

UPSTATE BUSINESS JOURNAL

29

CONTRIBUTE: Got a hot date?

Submit event information for consideration to events@ upstatebusinessjournal.com.

PLANNER Events you should have on your calendar

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 12 NORTH GREENVILLE ROTARY CLUB The Poinsett Club, 807 E. Washington St., Greenville; 12:30-1:30 p.m.

COST: Free to attend but invitation required, lunch $16 CONTACT: Shanda Jeffries at 864-228-2122 or sjeffries1@allstate.com

SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 13 COMPREHENSIVE SMALL BUSINESS START-UP WORKSHOP Greenville County Library, Hughes Main Branch, 25 Heritage Green Place, Greenville; 9:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m.

COST: $59 per person, includes materials and lunch REGISTER AT: piedmontscore.org

MONDAY SEPTEMBER 15 GCS ROUNDTABLE The Office Center at the Point, 33 Market Point Drive, Greenville; 8:30-9:30 a.m.

SPEAKER: Scott Whelchel TOPIC: The Clemson Small Business Development Center Call Golden Career Strategies at 864-527-0425 to request an invitation SMALL BUSINESS WEEK KICK-OFF & PROCLAMATION

30

Greenville; 8:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m.

READING Greenville Chamber of Commerce, 24 Cleveland St., Greenville; 10 a.m.

TOPICS: Business Financial Matters, Marketing Communications, and Comprehensive Business Start-Up

CONTACT: 864-242-1050 REGISTER AT: greenvillechamber.org

COST: $35 per person; includes workshops, lunch and business information fair

TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 16

CONTACT: Nika White at 864-239-3727 or nwhite@ greenvillechamber.org

HEALTHCARE PROVIDERS NETWORK Greenville Chamber of Commerce, 24 Cleveland St., Greenville; 7:30-9 a.m.

REGISTER AT: greenvillechamber.org BUSINESS AFTER HOURS

CONTACT: Julie Alexander at 864-239-3754

Greenville Country Club, 239 Byrd Blvd., Greenville; 4-6 p.m.

REGISTER AT: greenvillechamber.org 2014 UPSTATE SUMMIT TD Convention Center, 1 Exposition Drive, Greenville, 8:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m.

COST: Free to attend, open only to Greenville Chamber members CONTACT: Lorraine Woodward at 864-239-3742

TOPIC: Re-checking Our Reality

REGISTER AT: greenvillechamber.org

COST: $40 per person, $20 for nonprofit organizations and local governments

GSHRM BOARD MEETING

REGISTER AT: tenatthetop.org CONTACT: Meredyth Boaz at 864-283-2317 or mboaz@tenatthetop.org MINORITY BUSINESS RESOURCE COLLABORATIVE ENTREPRENEURIAL WORKSHOPS & BUSINESS INFORMATION FAIR Kroc Center, 424 Westfield St.,

UPSTATE BUSINESS JOURNAL

Open Hearth, 2801 Wade Hampton Blvd., Taylors; 6-8 p.m.

COST: Free to board members FOR INFORMATION: greenvillehr.shrm.org COMMERCIALIZING TECHNICAL PRODUCTS – GREER Greer Development Corporation, 111-B S. Main St., Greer; 6:30-8:30 p.m.

September 12, 2014

SPEAKERS: Doug Lineberry and Jim Denning, attorneys at law, with the McNair Law Firm

Greenville Chamber of Commerce, 24 Cleveland St., Greenville; 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m.

TOPIC: Commercializing Technical Products

SPEAKER: Melissa Patton

COST: Free to attend REGISTER AT: clemson.edu/sbdc CONTACT: Beth Smith at es2@clemson.edu or 864-592-6318 GOLDEN STRIP TOASTMASTERS Grace Covenant Presbyterian Church, 739 N. Main St., Mauldin; 7-8 p.m.

COST: Free for guests FOR INFORMATION: goldenstriptoastmasters.toastmastersclubs. org CONTACT: Prasad Patchipulusu at pprasa1@hotmail.com UPSTATE PC USERS GROUP Five Forks Baptist Church, 112 Batesville Road, Simpsonville; 7:30-9:30 p.m.

FOR INFORMATION: ucpcug.org

WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 17 HANDSHAKES AND HASHBROWNS Carolina Law Group, 210 W. Poinsett St., Greer; 8-9 a.m.

COST: Free to Greer Chamber members REGISTER AT: greerchamber.com SALES ROUNDTABLE

TOPIC: The 5 Big Mistakes Businesses Make on Social Media CONTACT: 864-239-3728 REGISTER AT: greenvillechamber.org LEADSC YOUNG PROFESSIONALS SUMMIT Columbia Marriott Hotel, 1200 Hampton St., Columbia; 4-7 p.m.

COST: $195 for all three days Check in and networking REGISTER AT: leadsc.net CONTACT: Hannah Cook at Hannah.cook@ scchamber.net or 803-255-2565 TECH AFTER FIVE – GREENVILLE Grille 33, 535 Haywood Road, Greenville; 5:30-7:30 p.m.

Free to GSA Technology Council members.

REGISTER AT: techafterfive.com.

THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 18 LEADSC YOUNG PROFESSIONALS SUMMIT Columbia Marriott Hotel, 1200 Hampton St., Columbia;

8 a.m.-5 p.m.

COST: $195 for all three days, $115 for one day REGISTER AT: leadsc.net CONTACT: Hannah Cook at Hannah. cook@scchamber.net or 803-255-2565 TOURISM LUNCHEON FORUM Spartanburg Marriott, 299 N. Church St., Spartanburg; 10 a.m.-12:30 p.m.

SPEAKER: Bill Geist, author and tourism consultant TOPIC: The Revolutionary Transformation of Destination Marketing COST: $30 per person, $20 per Spartanburg Chamber member FOR INFORMATION: call 800-374-8326 or visitspartanburg.com REGISTER AT: spartanburgchamber. com CHAMBER PRESENTS! Stella’s Southern Bistro, 684 Fairview Road, Simpsonville; 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m.

SPEAKERS: Rance Bryan, the Small Business Development Center, and Eddie West and Rich Cleys, Piedmont SCORE COST: $20 per person CONTACT: Jennifer Richardson at jrichardson@ simpsonvillechamber. com REGISTER AT: simpsonvillechamber. com

Historic photograph available from the Greenville Historical Society.​

SNAPSHOT A quick look into the Upstate’s past

From “Remembering Greenville: Photographs from the Coxe Collection,” by Jeffrey R. Willis

Photo Provided

After the demolition, a 10-story office building was erected on the site at a cost of $250,000. This skyscraper came to symbolize the “New Greenville.” The Chamber of Commerce was housed on the first floor. The remaining floors were rented out as offices, and the Haynsworth Law Firm occupied the top floor. When the Depression hit, the Chamber of Commerce lost ownership.

The building then became the home office of the Liberty Life Insurance Company, organized in 1919 by W. Frank Hipp.

The South Carolina General Assembly created Greenville County in 1786 and appointed nine county justices. Eventually a courthouse was constructed on land belonging to Lemuel Alston in the middle of what is today called Court Square on Greenville’s current South Main Street. In 1922 construction of the graceful building shown in the photo was begun. Later, when a new courthouse was completed in 1855, this building was used to house county records and also offices for the Chamber of Commerce.

The building was demolished in 1924 to build a multistory office building.

MARKETING & EVENTS

Photo by Greg Beckner

IN THIS WEEK’S ISSUE OF UBJ? WANT A COPY FOR YOUR LOBBY?

OCTOBER: COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE QUARTERLY

Kate Madden

DIGITAL STRATEGIST PRESIDENT/CEO

ART & PRODUCTION

UBJ PUBLISHER

ART DIRECTOR Kristy M. Adair

Ryan L. Johnston rjohnston@communityjournals.com

OPERATIONS Holly Hardin

EXECUTIVE EDITOR

Michael Allen, Whitney Fincannon

MANAGING EDITOR

CLIENT SERVICES Anita Harley, Jane Rogers

HOW TO CONTRIBUTE

SENIOR BUSINESS WRITER

STORY IDEAS:

Jennifer Oladipo

ideas@upstatebusinessjournal.com

STAFF WRITERS

EVENTS:

Sherry Jackson, Benjamin Jeffers, Cindy Landrum, April A. Morris, Joe Toppe

events@upstatebusinessjournal.com

CONTRIBUTING WRITER

onthemove@upstatebusinessjournal.com

PHOTOGRAPHER Greg Beckner MARKETING & ADVERTISING SALES REPRESENTATIVES Kristi Jennings, Donna Johnston, Annie Langston, Lindsay Oehman, Pam Putman

jackson Marketing Group’s 25 Years

1988

1997 Jackson Dawson launches motorsports Division 1993

1990 Jackson Dawson acquires therapon marketing Group and moves to Piedmont office Center on Villa.

>>

Chairman larry Jackson, Jackson marketing Group. Photos by Greg Beckner / Staff

Jackson Marketing Group celebrates 25 years By sherry Jackson | staff | sjackson@communityjournals.com

Solve. Serve. Grow. Those three words summarize Jackson Marketing Group’s guiding principles, and according to owner Larry Jackson, form the motivation that has kept the firm thriving for the past 25 years.

Jackson graduated from Bob Jones University with a degree in video and film production and started his 41-year career in the communications industry with the U.S. Army’s Public Information Office. He served during

Vietnam, where he said he was “luckily” stationed in the middle of Texas at Fort Hood.

He left the service and went to work in public affairs and motorsports at Ford Motor Company in Detroit.

After a stint at Bell and Howell, where he was responsible for managing Ford’s dealer marketing and training, the entrepreneurial bug hit and he co-founded Jackson-Dawson Marketing Communications, a company specializing in dealer training and product launches for the auto industry in 1980.

In 1987, Jackson wanted to move back south and thought Greenville would be a good fit. An avid pilot, he

learned of an opportunity to purchase Cornerstone Aviation, a fixed base operation (FBO) that served as a service station for the Greenville Downtown Airport, providing fuel, maintenance and storage.

In fact, when he started the Greenville office of what is now Jackson Marketing Group (JMG) in 1988, the offices were housed on the second floor in an airport hangar.

“Clients would get distracted by the airplanes in the hangars and we’d have to corral them to get back upstairs to the meeting,” Jackson said.

Jackson sold the FBO in 1993, but says it was a great way to get to know Greenville’s fathers and leaders

>>

with a majority of them utilizing the general aviation airport as a “corporate gateway to the city.”

In 1997, Jackson and his son, Darrell, launched Jackson Motorsports Group. The new division was designed to sell race tires and go to racetracks to sell and mount the tires. Darrell Jackson now serves as president of the motorsports group and Larry Jackson has two other children and a son-in-law who work there. Jackson said all his children started at the bottom and “earned their way up.”

Jackson kept the Jackson-Dawson branches in Detroit and others in Los Angeles and New York until he sold his portion of that partnership in 2009 as part of his estate planning.

The company now operates a small office in Charlotte, but its main headquarters are in Greenville in a large office space off Woodruff Road, complete with a vision gallery that displays local artwork and an auditorium Jackson makes available for non-profit use. The Motorsports Group is housed in an additional 26,000 square feet building just down the street, and the agency is currently looking for another 20,000 square feet.

Jackson said JMG has expanded into other verticals such as financial, healthcare, manufacturing and pro-bono work, but still has a strong focus on the auto industry and transportation. It’s

2003 motorsports Division acquires an additional 26,000 sq. ft. of warehouse space

1998 1998 Jackson Dawson moves to task industrial Court

also one of the few marketing companies in South Carolina to handle all aspects of a project in-house, with four suites handling video production, copywriting, media and research and web design.

Clients include heavyweights such as BMW, Bob Jones University, the Peace Center, Michelin and Sage Automotive. Recent projects have included an interactive mobile application for Milliken’s arboretum and 600-acre Spartanburg campus and a marketing campaign for the 2013 Big League World Series.

“In my opinion, our greatest single achievement is the longevity of our client relationships,” said Darrell Jackson. “Our first client from back in 1988 is still a client today. I can count on one hand the number of clients who have gone elsewhere in the past decade.”

Larry Jackson says his Christian faith and belief in service to others, coupled with business values rooted in solving clients’ problems, have kept

2009 Jackson Dawson changes name to Jackson marketing Group when larry sells his partnership in Detroit and lA 2003

2009-2012 Jackson marketing Group named a top BtoB agency by BtoB magazine 4 years running

him going and growing his business over the years. He is passionate about giving back and outreach to non-profits. The company was recently awarded the Community Foundation Spirit Award.

The company reaffirmed its commitment to serving the community last week by celebrating its 25th anniversary with a birthday party and a 25-hour Serve-A-Thon partnership with Hands on Greenville and Habitat for Humanity. JMG’s 103 full-time employees worked in shifts around the clock on October 22 and 23 to help construct a house for a deserving family.

As Jackson inches towards retirement, he says he hasn’t quite figured out his succession plan yet, but sees the companies staying under the same umbrella. He wants to continue to strategically grow the business.

“From the beginning, my father has taught me that this business is all about our people – both our clients and our associates,” said his son, Darrell. “We have created a focus and a culture that strives to solve problems, serve people and grow careers.”

Darrell Jackson said he wants to “continue helping lead a culture where we solve, serve and grow. If we are successful, we will continue to grow towards our ultimate goal of becoming the leading integrated marketing communications brand in the Southeast.”

2011 Jackson marketing Group/Jackson motorsports Group employee base reaches 100 people

2008 2012 Jackson marketing Group recognized by Community Foundation with Creative spirit Award

pro-bono/non-proFit Clients

OCTOBER: LEADERSHIP

American Red Cross of Western Carolinas Metropolitan Arts Council Artisphere Big League World Series The Wilds Advance SC South Carolina Charities, Inc. Aloft Hidden Treasure Christian School

CoMMUnitY inVolVeMent & boarD positions lArry JACkson (ChAirmAn): Bob Jones University Board chairman, The Wilds Christian Camp and Conference Center board member, Gospel Fellowship Association board member, Past Greenville Area Development Corporation board member, Past Chamber of Commerce Headquarters Recruiting Committee member, Past Greenville Tech Foundation board member David Jones (Vice President Client services, Chief marketing officer): Hands on Greenville board chairman mike Zeller (Vice President, Brand marketing): Artisphere Board, Metropolitan Arts Council Board, American Red Cross Board, Greenville Tech Foundation Board, South Carolina Chamber Board eric Jackson (Jackson motorsports Group sales specialist): Salvation Army Boys & Girls Club Advisory Board

November 1, 2013 Upstate bUsiness joUrnal 21

20 Upstate bUsiness joUrnal November 1, 2013

AS SEEN IN

NOVEMBER 1, 2013

ADVERTISING DESIGN

Jerry Salley jsalley@communityjournals.com

Jeanne Putnam

UBJ milestone

1988 Jackson Dawson opens in Greenville at Downtown Airport

Emily Price

Mark B. Johnston mjohnston@communityjournals.com

Susan Clary Simmons ssimmons@communityjournals.com

1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011

UBJ milestone

Order a reprint today, PDFs available for $25. For more information, contact Anita Harley 864.679.1205 or aharley@communityjournals.com

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Contact Executive Editor Susan Clary Simmons at ssimmons@communityjournals.com to submit an article for consideration.

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Copyright @2014 BY COMMUNITY JOURNALS LLC. All rights reserved. Upstate Business Journal is published weekly by Community Journals LLC. P.O. Box 2266, Greenville, South Carolina, 29602.

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