Posted: Sunday, May 5, 2013 6:00 pm

By El Paso Inc. Staff

Andy Krafsur, founder/CEO of Spira Footwear

El Paso-based Spira Footwear has a new way for runners to put their specialty running shoes to the test in USA Track and Field sanctioned road races. The Spira Challenge can be found at www.spirachallenge.com.

Hard Work, Passion Propel ‘Underdog’ Trio to Venture Victory

Last Updated on Friday, 10 May 2013 15:58

A trio of UTEP students at different points in their academic journeys decided six months ago to create a business, where a new technology would recycle water in an affordable, environmentally-friendly way. They have refined their business plan and earned praise for their poise and passion in several competitive presentations.

They also have won a lot of money.

Diego Capeletti, Eva Deemer and Alex Pastor, the founders of American Water Recycling, recently won the UT Horizon Fund Student Investment Competition in Austin, which netted them $100,000. Earlier, they won the Paso del Norte Venture Competition and now have collected approximately $122,000 since last March for their incorporated business.

The prize money will be invested in a pilot program to test the process and validate the technology on a commercial level. The first test will be at a Las Cruces, N.M., business. A Killeen, Texas, company that hopes to produce 2 million gallons of drinking water per day wants to be part of the second trial. Deemer, a doctoral student in material science and engineering, said the trio could expand into petroleum distillation.

The future is bright for the AWR team, but they remember the words of encouragement they received from UTEP President Diana Natalicio during a chance encounter after their May 2 UT Horizon Fund win: “It doesn’t hurt to be an underdog.”

Team formation

Alex Pastor grew up on El Paso’s West Side idolizing his grandfather, who started as a shoeshine attendant and built himself into a successful businessman. The 2008 Coronado High School graduate operated his own seafood stand, Don Camaron, for two years. As a result he earned a Growing Up CEO Award, a national recognition for entrepreneurs under 21, and a McKelvey Foundation Entrepreneurial Scholarship.

Once at UTEP he received a market analyst internship at the Hub of Human Innovation, an El Paso-based technology incubator that helps develop technology-based businesses. His duties included proofreading and editing business plans, conducting market research, and helping develop financial statements for thriving new companies.

Last year Pastor heard about the Paso del Norte (PDN) Venture Competition, where entrepreneurs and business leaders judge a company’s business plan, and was interested in working on a project that involved recycled water. He went to UTEP’s Center for Research Entrepreneurship and Innovative Enterprises (CREIE) and was given a list of projects it was trying to develop, including one proposed by Deemer, who happened to be in the office that day.

Eva Deemer graduated from El Paso’s Franklin High School in 2003. She left town briefly to study chemistry and play soccer for a small, private university in San Antonio. Disappointed with the undergraduate research opportunities, she enrolled at UTEP and began to work with Wen-Yee Lee, Ph.D., associate professor of chemistry. The two share a patent in an analytical method for measuring bound glycerides in a biodiesel composition. Deemer earned her bachelor’s in chemistry in 2008, entered the job market and worked in research and development for several El Paso-based energy companies. During that time she was able to see how business collaborations worked, including alliances with government entities interested in environmental technologies.

After a few years she returned to UTEP to begin her doctoral program under Russ Chianelli, Ph.D., professor of chemistry and director of UTEP’s Materials Research and Technology Institute. Chianelli suggested she study graphene, a carbon-based substance that is thin, strong and an efficient conductor of heat and electricity.

Deemer was speaking with CREIE Director Gary Williams, Ph.D., about creating a business to capitalize on her research when she was introduced to a fellow student interested in technology and entrepreneurship: Alex Pastor.

Pastor was excited about marketing Deemer’s technology, but recognized they would need someone with a stronger financial background. He suggested an M.B.A. student he knew from the Hub: Diego Capeletti.

Capeletti, who graduates May 18, is an international student from Tandil, Argentina, a city about 200 miles southwest of Buenos Aires. His interest in business comes from his father, a former banker who is CEO of a private hospital in Argentina. When possible, he joined his father at work and saw how business was done.

The young man earned his undergraduate degree from the Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina in Rosario and joined the workforce. After his decision to pursue a graduate degree, he contacted a close, childhood friend – a UTEP M.B.A. student – who suggested he apply for the program. He did, and was accepted in 2011. He joined the Hub as an intern and participated in the 2012 Paso del Norte Venture Competition. His team did not win, but his written business plan was judged the best.

Married in 2011 and expecting his first child in March 2013, Capeletti initially rebuffed Pastor’s invitation to join American Water Recycling because he understood the level of commitment for a venture project. Despite his concerns, he met with Pastor and Deemer to discuss the project at Deemer’s home. The meeting lasted four hours and left Capeletti a bit shell shocked by the science, but interested in the potential. He also was intrigued by the doctoral student’s passion and gregarious nature, which was unlike the doctoral students he knew. He decided to join the team.

Deemer registered the team after Thanksgiving for the March PDN contest. The easy part was over.

“It was just fun”

The trio got serious after winter break with the help of UTEP’s CREIE and The Mike Loya Center for Innovation and Commerce, which offered structure and deadlines for progress. The AWR team agreed that the constant feedback and attention to detail kept them vigilant for technological advances and financial factors that could alter their business plan. The team learned how and when to refine their plan on the fly.

The team was confident after it won the March PDN competition, but it continued to refine its presentation as necessary up to the day before the UT Horizon contest held at the UT System headquarters in Austin.

Pastor called the presentation hall “the most intimidating room in the country.” It was two-stories tall with crimson walls and large video monitors throughout. They presented before about 10 judges, and sitting in the audience as they presented were fellow contestants and well-wishers, including other UTEP students participating in the competition. As with most presentations, theirs went well. Often it is during the usually tough question-and-answer session that many teams wither. UTEP’s AWR team, each holding an aquamarine crystal charm for good luck, seemed to get stronger.

“There was no question (Deemer) couldn’t answer,” Pastor said. “I got the feeling after a while that (the judges) didn’t want to ask more questions because they might look (unprepared).”

Deemer added, “At that point it was just fun.”

The team made a quick exit after their presentation because it had to set up for a trade show in a different building as part of a separate contest, the Global Venture Labs Investment Competition. That competition is considered the Super Bowl of its genre and involved 45 top teams from around the country and throughout the world. AWR finished as a Top 10 semi-finalist in that contest.

UT Horizon Fund officials announced their winner at about 7:30 p.m. May 2. Capeletti stayed behind to represent the team. He accepted the oversized check and tried not to faint.

“I almost had a heart attack,” he said, adding that he quickly sent a text message to his teammates and word spread quickly. Pastor and Deemer began to get congratulatory messages on their phones.

The team, still on a visible high from the experience, encouraged UTEP students to participate in future venture competitions because of the benefits, including the opportunity to network with entrepreneurs. They said every participant is a winner.

As for the team, it is back to work to get the commercial pilot project going.

“Now things get real,” Deemer said.

By Vic Kolenc/El Paso Times
Posted: 5/04/2013 12:00:00 AM MDT

American Water Recycling, a UTEP student venture team, won the UT Horizon Fund Student Investment Competition on Thursday in Austin and the $100,000 first prize, the university announced Friday.

It beat out 16 teams from other UT System schools, and advanced to the semifinal round of this week’s Global Venture Labs Investment Competition, considered the Super Bowl of investment competitions. The winner of the 45-team competition at UT Austin will be announced today.

The UTEP team has formed a startup company aimed at using technology to provide water recycling options at affordable prices. Team members are Eva Deemer, a doctoral student in materials science and engineering; Diego Capeletti, a master of business administration student; and Alex Pastor, a junior economics student.

Posted: Sunday, May 5, 2013 6:00 pm

By Robert Gray El Paso Inc. staff writer

UTEP researcher Thomas Boland, sometimes called the ‘grandfather of bio-printing,’ with Laura Bosworth, CEO of TeVido BioDevices, and the company’s staff scientist, Maria Yañez.

A new biotech startup in El Paso is printing living human tissue in hopes of one day manufacturing custom implants and nipples for breast cancer patients, grown from patients’ own cells.

There are still significant challenges, but if all goes according to plan, the products would be on the market in as little as seven years, says Laura Bosworth, CEO of TeVido BioDevices.

“We are just at the beginning of this,” she says of bio-printing. “The idea you could create an entire organ for a liver transplant or heart transplant, that is the ultimate.”

Right now, El Paso’s biotech industry is very small, although it is growing. One study published a couple years ago described it as “shallow.” But, officials say, it’s hard to recruit biotech companies to El Paso when the city doesn’t have the network or infrastructure to support them, and it’s hard to build the infrastructure when there are so few biotech companies here.

That’s why an El Paso startup like TeVido is so significant, says Emma Schwartz, president of the Medical Center of the Americas Foundation. If successful, TeVido could help lay the groundwork for a biotech sector in El Paso.

The MCA Foundation is guiding the development of a biomedical research park encompassing the Paul L. Foster School of Medicine and University Medical Center.

“It is not just about their company,” Schwartz says. “It is about what we are doing to attract a higher-tech industry here, and without companies like TeVido taking a chance on El Paso, we would be much farther behind.”

TeVido is taking a chance by staying in El Paso, says Bosworth, who graduated from the University of Texas at El Paso with an engineering degree in 1988.

“There is a lot of vision to create an environment that will be good for biotech but, I’ll be honest, it would be much, much easier to do this in San Diego or Boston,” she says.

Since graduating from UTEP, Bosworth has built a successful career outside El Paso but began volunteering with a commercialization group at the university thinking she would help faculty bring their inventions to market.

But she met a researcher at UTEP named Thomas Boland and was so impressed by what he was doing she asked if they could go into business together. The result is TeVido.

“It is a great example of a scientist coming up with a fantastic idea and paring with a very smart entrepreneur who can run the business. With their commitment to stay in El Paso, it is a wonderful combination and what we need more of here,” Schwartz says.

Printing tissue

Boland, sometimes referred to as the “grandfather of bio-printing,” came to UTEP from Clemson University in South Carolina in 2009.

Boland doesn’t have a hunchbacked assistant or use lighting to bring his creations to life, but he does have a heavily modified HP Deskjet 340 printer that can print living cells into basic 3D structures. The nozzles direct the cells into exactly the right place and, layer-by-layer, the printer can build the cells into small 3D shapes.

The company’s first product, Bosworth says, would be a breast implant, as small as two to five centimeters, designed for those who have a lumpectomy to remove a breast tumor.

The breast implant could be grown from the patient’s own cells and custom printed for them.

About 200,000 women in the U.S. are diagnosed with breast cancer on average every year. Of those, Bosworth says, 60 percent are eligible for a lumpectomy and 25 percent are dissatisfied with the outcome.

Fat injections to even out breast size don’t always work because the fat is often reabsorbed by the body and the procedure can require months of injections, Bosworth says.

TeVido is seeking $40 million to complete animal and human clinical trials. Bosworth hopes to begin human clinical trials in 2016 and bring the breast implant product to market in 2020.

If that product is successful, Bosworth says they would like to use the printing technology to reconstruct nipples for those who have had mastectomies.

There are significant challenges. The technology needs to be fine-tuned, the costs lowered and it faces several regulatory hurdles.

“We make it sound simple when we talk to people, but cells are very complicated and getting the formulas that keep them alive right and putting them exactly where they need to be to grow exactly how they need to grow is difficult,” Bosworth says.

MCA breaks ground

There are signs that the infrastructure needed to support a biotech sector in El Paso is beginning to form and one key component, Schwartz says, is developing a workforce with the type of education needed by biotech companies.

Right now, UTEP is developing a new biomedical engineering graduate program, according to a UTEP spokesperson. Boland would serve as its director.

TeVido hired its first full-time employee this year. Maria Yañez, a UTEP graduate, is the company’s staff scientist.

In the meantime, the Medical Center of the Americas breaks ground on its first research building in March 2014. It would be located on Gateway Boulevard East between Raynolds and Chelsea near University Medical Center and the Foster medical school, according to Schwartz.

The four-story, 80,000-square-foot building would house an incubator to turn baby biotech startups like TeVido into high-growth global companies. It’s set to open in August 2015, Schwartz says.

“If we have a few biotech startups in the region,” she says, “we can slowly develop the workforce, facilities and other infrastructure needed to develop a biotech sector here. And by doing it little by little, we can build up the critical mass to go after big companies.”

By Robert Gray El Paso Inc. staff writer

From left: Business Dean Robert Nachtmann with members of the American Water Recycling team, Diego Capeletti, Eva Deemer and Alex Pastor, and Engineering Dean Richard Schoephoerster. Team members hold the $10,000 check they won in a March competition.

A startup company founded by students at the University of Texas at El Paso has won the UT Horizon Fund Student Investment Competition in Austin.

The win by El Paso-based American Water Recycling on Thursday includes $100,000 and advancement into the semifinal round of the Global Venture Labs Investment Competition, considered by some to be the “Super Bowl” of investment competitions.

The team, “competed well. They were the best of the best. This is a big day for UTEP,” said Bryan Allinson, founder and executive director of the UT Horizon Fund. The company uses the latest materials and technology to provide environmentally sound water recycling options at affordable prices, according to a press release.

The team is comprised of Eva Deemer, a doctoral student in materials science and engineering; Diego Capeletti, an MBA student; and Alex Pastor, a junior economics major. They beat 16 competitors representing other UT System schools.

The team qualified for the UT Horizon Fund competition by winning the regional Paso del Norte Venture Competition last March at UTEP.

“We are on the verge of something big. This is not a joke,” said team member Deemer. “The sky is the limit.”

The team was assisted by Laura Bosworth of the Mike Loya Center for Innovation and Commerce and Russ Chianelli, director of UTEP’s Materials Research and Technology Institute, as well as Gary Williams and Jeni Clark, directors of the Center for Research Entrepreneurship and Innovative Enterprises.

The next step is to go through the disclosure process, write patents for the technology and create new materials based on graphene, a carbon-based substance that is light and strong, according to a press release.

“Thanks to Mike Loya’s gift to UTEP’s colleges of Business Administration and Engineering, we have now planted the UTEP flag as a leader of academic integration that will result in market success for the state of Texas and the nation,” said Robert Nachtmann, dean of UTEP’s College of Business Administration.

Posted: Sunday, April 21, 2013 6:00 pm

By Robert Gray El Paso Inc. staff writer

Sarkar staffers Howai Wong and Erlend Mowat wear their kilts at a Las Vegas trade show in 2012.

There’s only one guy Sam Sarkar said he trusts to shoot him, slash him with a machete and then stab him.

That’s how Dean Kinder, a 29-year veteran of the El Paso Police Department, found himself preparing to shoot Sarkar on a recent Wednesday afternoon, in a remote desert location under the brilliant blue El Paso sky.

Sarkar was wearing a black polo shirt, cargo pants and one of the bulletproof vests designed by his company.

A former Royal Navy weapons officer notorious for selling his products at an arms fair while wearing a kilt, Sarkar founded Sarkar Defence Solutions in Scotland seven years ago. FYI: “defence” is the way they spell “defense” in the United Kingdom.

Last week, economic development officials in El Paso announced that Sarkar Defence, which makes ballistic body armor and tactical equipment, had established its U.S. headquarters here in El Paso.

“It was probably one of the most strategic locations we could be in – right on the border with Mexico and equidistant from the East and West coasts. The culture was excellent and the food fantastic,” Sarkar said.

Sarkar, who speaks with a polished Scottish accent, talked with El Paso Inc. by phone last week while driving in Scotland’s largest city, Glasgow, where his company is based.

Sarkar Defence has opened a small office and warehouse at 11601 Pellicano on the Eastside.

“In five years’ time, I see a full-fledged defense manufacturing center in El Paso,” Sarkar said.

He hopes to hire 30 employees, including engineers, machinists and cutters, over the next year or two.

Materials would be sourced locally as much as possible.

“Very little is imported, and that is how we control quality,” Sarkar said.

A bit sore

It was Sarkar’s idea to prove the effectiveness of his products to himself and his customers by having Kinder shoot him in the chest with a 9 mm pistol.

Video of the event is posted online on YouTube.

“I was sore for a couple of days and a little bit red, but nothing more,” Sarkar said.

Kinder, who fired the shot, retired from the El Paso Police Department last month to join Sarkar Defence as its vice president of U.S. operations. At the time, shooting his boss wasn’t part of the job description.

“Who can say they have done that before,” he said.

His hometown, Kinder said, is the perfect location for Sarkar Defence’s U.S. headquarters.

“We have one of the largest military installations in the world in our backyard, and you can just go down the list of the law enforcement agencies here,” Kinder said.

The company’s customers include more than 20 armed forces and law enforcement organizations worldwide, including the U.S. Army, the Los Angeles Police Department, the Saudi royal family and the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office.

An order placed by the sheriff’s department some years ago is how Sarkar first heard of El Paso.

“The people were extremely friendly. We have had nothing but utter welcome in El Paso, and that went a long way in the decision-making process,” he said.

Sarkar, 35, was born in India and moved to the United Kingdom as a boy. He’s a civil engineer by trade but hated the profession so much he figured the best way to get away from it was to join the Royal Navy, where he served in the submarine service.

Later, Sarkar worked as a senior manager for NATO Submarine Rescue Services.

He started Sarkar Defence in his bedroom, sourcing bulletproof vests from India and selling them. But he was appalled by the poor quality of many of the vests on the market. So he bought a sewing machine on eBay, and began making his own.

Now he employs 20 people in Scotland and projects $6 million in sales this year.

On April 14, Sarkar Defense was to be awarded the 2012 Queen’s Award for Enterprise under the International Trade category. The awards are the most prestigious accolades for businesses and individuals in the United Kingdom, according to the official website of the British monarchy.

Taco cravings

Sarkar first reached out to local economic development officials for help establishing his company’s U.S. headquarters here in El Paso in August.

Cary Westin, vice president of the newly formed Borderplex Alliance, which develops the economy of the region, said having Sarkar Defence in El Paso is significant and builds on the city’s international presence.

“It adds to El Paso’s defense industry cluster, reinforces the capability of law enforcement here and when you bring a company that has a capability that isn’t already here, it helps in your ability to attract other companies,” Westin said

Last November, Sarkar Defence became a client of the local HUB of Human Innovation business incubator, which helped the company establish itself in the United States and helped its executives learn the “U.S. way of business,” Sarkar said.

Right now, the HUB is also helping a Europe-based company and another from Asia, HUB director Cathy Swain said, although she couldn’t be more specific until an official announcement is made.

“We are sitting on an amazing frontier,” Swain said of El Paso. “We are the gateway to the Americas from Nova Scotia to Cape Horn.”

The HUB is applying to become certified as a “soft landings international incubator” by the National Business Incubation Association. The designation will help the HUB land more foreign businesses, according to Swain. She envisions the region becoming a center for tech companies – a silicon border.

Meanwhile, back in Scotland, Sarkar said he is learning Spanish and craving food from his favorite El Paso restaurant – El Taco Tote.

---

 

El Paso’s Spira to be featured on A&E initiative

Andy Krafsur, chief executive officer of Spira Footwear (Ruben R Ramirez/El Paso Times)

An El Paso shoe company is about to get some major national exposure.

Spira Footwear Inc. has been selected to be part of an initiative by A&E Networks and the crowdfunding site RocketHub to support new entrepreneurs.

Project Startup gives businesses seed money and the opportunity to be featured on A&E, which reaches 99 million homes.

The first commercial on Spira ran last week during the TV show “Duck Dynasty,” one of the top-rated shows on cable TV.

“It’s hard to believe we got picked,” said Andy Krafsur, co-founder and CEO of Spira Footwear. “This is huge, A&E is one of the strongest brands in the country.”

Spira now has its own Web page on A&E.

Krafsur said the initiative with A&E gives his company credibility.

“How many companies get this type of opportunity? Not very many,” he said. “It’s like winning the marketing lottery for us.”

Krafsur said he hopes Spira’s appearance on A&E gives El Paso national exposure and leads to an expansion of his business.

“Our idea is to help build this company from here and brand the company to the city,” he said.

Krafsur’s goal is that when people think of El Paso, they will think of Spira.

“It is a local company that not only grew up here, but was seeded and funded by the local community,” he said.

The company, which started in 2002, has about 270 investors, the majority in El Paso. It employs 15 people.

Spira’s involvement in crowdfunding began last summer when the company was seeking capital to launch its new running shoe, Spira Stinger 2. The company approached RocketHub to crowdfund the new shoe.

“We had a very successful campaign and sold about 800 pairs of shoes and raised over $42,000,” Krafsur said.

The company then used that money to buy the initial run of inventory for the Stinger 2.

In December, a meeting with the A&E Networks and RocketHub led to Spira’s involvement with Project Startup.

Brian Meece, co-founder and CEO of RocketHub, introduced the Spira product and story to Libby O’Connell, senior vice president of corporate outreach for A&E Networks.

About six weeks ago, O’Connell informed Krafsur that Spira was going to be featured as part of the initiative.

“Spira has a fantastic product coupled with an amazing story. This shoe company represents the new wave of entrepreneurship that is happening across the U.S.,” Meece said in a written statement.

What makes Spira unique is the technology used in its shoes — a “WaveSpring” in the heel and forefoot in the soles. The spring helps people run or walk for longer periods with less stress on the body, Krafsur said. The technology was developed by Krafsur’s brother.

Since Spira started 11 years ago, it has sold nearly 1 million pairs of shoes. Runners using Spira shoes have won more than 180 major marathons and races around the world.

Spira shoes are sold in about 300 stores in the U.S. and online at (www.spira.com). Spira shoes are sold in El Paso at Helen of Troy, Up and Running specialty store and New You Gym.

Aileen B. Flores may be reached at aflores@elpasotimes.com; 546-6362.

Posted: Tuesday, April 16, 2013 3:12 pm

By Robert Gray El Paso Inc. staff writer

Sarkar Defence brings new meaning to the phrase “product endorsement” as its CEO tests one of Sarkar’s stab and ballistic vests on himself. Watch as Sam gets shot with a Winchester 9mm FMJ (center mass), slashed with a machete, and stabbed with a tactical knife.

Congratulations to Ruskat Medical Equipment who was selected as Manufacturer of the Year honoree for the 2013 Extraordinary Minority Awards (EMA).   The Series is designed to honor minority small business owners for their diversity and success in the El Paso business community.