On Tap Media
This month, the Tech Council brings you an interview with On Tap Media Publisher, Jennifer Currie and Key Account Manager, Tom Roth.

Tell us about On Tap Media.
On Tap was started by my [Jennifer’s] brother in 1998 as an entertainment resource for people living in Washington, D.C. When we started the magazine, the premise was “preview, not review.” We really just want to let people know what events are happening in the area. Our content isn’t opinion-based or partisan; we’re here to say, “Hey D.C., take a deep breath.”

The publication is print and web-based and the circulation is about 35,000. It’s distributed for free on the first Friday and Saturday of each month at 500 locations in the D.C. area. It’s also formatted for mobile on our website at www.ontaponline.com.

We have eight employees who work in the office here in Alexandria (not including Blue, a very friendly Australian Shepherd mix) and sixty who work virtually. Some of our clients are surprised to see a fully cohesive team show up at an event after we’ve planned all of the details virtually. We’ve always worked this way, so it’s natural for us.

In addition to publishing a local entertainment magazine,
you also manage events.
Yes, we’re heavily involved in event planning in Northern Virginia, Montgomery County, and D.C. This was a logical next step for us. We would host a party at a restaurant, for example, and then the evolution of that was to plan their next event and use our publication as a way to promote it. We plan, for the most part, free, non-ticketed events end-to-end which can include hiring bands, caterers, and photographers, executing and managing sponsorship agreements, marketing, and much more. We do a lot of grand opening events for developers and property management companies. Additionally, we are partners with Monumental Sports Network and we produce events for the Nationals and the Friday Night Concert Series in Yards Park.

What is the biggest challenge in event planning?
The biggest challenge is ensuring that we get a good crowd at each event. We take our commitment to the events very seriously, and our clients’ goals are our goals. If we plan a grand opening for an apartment building, we want to get the right people there so that they will rent those apartments.   

What is the craziest event that you’ve been asked to produce?
Corona asked us to put together the Running of the Chihuahuas event for Cinco de Mayo. We’ve done it five years in a row now, and last year we had 96 dogs race with 2000 (human) attendees at The Wharf in D.C. It’s a fun event that raises money for local animal charities. We also did a fashion show in SE D.C. where we assembled a glass runway atop a pool. Just to push the limits a bit further, we even had a fireworks display lit from a barge off of the river.

How can you help Tech Council members?
We can help members create events or look for ways to get involved in their communities. The tech sector is a big draw for retail and housing, so we help those sectors reach the right audiences. We did an event for Mallory Square apartments in Rockville and in that case, we helped them connect with a demographic of people who would be interested in living there.

If readers are interested in having you plan an event for them, what is the next step?
They should email or call me at jennifer@ontaponline.com or at 703.465.0500 or Tom at tomroth@ontaponline.com or at 301.910.2784. We look forward to working with the Tech Council members.

Kitchology
The Tech Council of Maryland visited Kitchology and talked to co-founders Dr. Alain Briançon and Iris Sherman about the company and life as a startup.

Tell us about Kitchology
Millions of people suffer from food allergies and sensitivities and because of that, they may feel like their meal options are limited and that their freedom to choose has been greatly reduced. We set out to change that. We started Kitchology in 2013 building an integrated cooking platform that utilizes machine learning and leverages a deep knowledge base to help users plan their meals with ingredients that they probably have on hand. We now provide targeted and personalized ingredient substitutions during recipe selection and help with purchasing through personalized shopping lists. We even take users step-by-step through the entire preparation and cooking process. We wanted to design something that would go beyond the pain point of food allergies and get valuable feedback from people preparing those meals.

How did the idea of Kitchology come to be?
The idea, naturally, was born in a kitchen. Like most parents [Iris explains], I struggled to find meals that everyone liked, but I also had to take into consideration that one of my sons has a serious food allergy. I not only had to find meals that everyone liked, but I also needed meals that everyone could safely eat. I started to wonder if there was a system that could help people make their own substitutions in their own recipes and if there was a way to modify nearly any recipe to make it safe to eat for almost anyone. Alain was on a mission to help solve the food waste problem, and we knew that we could combine our interests and implement a system that addressed both issues. We’re self-proclaimed serial entrepreneurs and we’ve worked for startups before, so the whole process wasn’t completely new to us.

How does the technology work?
We’ve built a patent pending cooking platform for people dealing with food allergies and special diets. At its core, Kitchology is a profiling engine that analyzes consumer activities and a substitution engine that makes product substitutions and recommendations when consumers plan meals and shop. We put the cooks in the center of our design. If they decide better, they eat better (along with the people they cook for). This requires a lot of work including developing a database with over 480,000 substitution rules and 80,000 culinary rules. Profiling is performed using explicit inputs, inference analysis, and collaborative filtering. Together, this allows for advanced matching of ingredients pertaining to the users’ preferences, enabling planning, cooking, and sharing. We have filed six patent applications on key elements, and we are rolling out this functionality in phases to ensure we are doing it right. We look at this platform as a cook-centric model platform that captures analytics that no one else captures. That could be quite disruptive to many.

Kitchology has garnered quite a few accolades over the past few years. Tell us about some of those.
Just this year we were named a finalist in the Tech.co and Consumer Technology Association Startup of the Year competition, Iris was named as one of the Upstart 100 Inventors, we were two of the Tech.co top Startup Founders over 40, we won the 2016 USA Creative Business Cup, and also a $100,000 deal at the Baltimore Piranha Tank Event. We were also a winner of the 16th Annual Maryland Incubator Company of the Year Awards, and we were voted as a Startup Maryland Fan Favorite two years in a row in 2014 and 2015.

What’s ahead for Kitchology?
We want to bring the technology forward so we can acquire more users and get more retail partners. The trick for us is to manage business and figure out what delivers the most value and then go for that. Our approach is to put in place a system to show partners what the world needs. Technology is not about the good ideas. It’s about coming up with good questions to get to that good idea.

How long have you been a member of the Tech Council and what have you gotten involved in?
We joined the Tech Council almost a year ago. Pam Lubel got us involved in the Venture Mentoring Program and it has been very impactful for us. We just can’t say enough about our mentors. They are incredible.

Where can people sign up to use Kitchology or learn more about the company?They can go to www.kitchology.com where they can use the service for free. They can also contact Alain at alain.briancon@kitchology.com or at 301.728.5512 or Iris at iris.sherman@kitchology.com or at 301.366.1901.

TOMI^TM Environmental
Solutions, Inc.
The Tech Council of Maryland recently visited TOMI Environmental Solutions in Frederick, Maryland and talked with their COO Norris Gearheart and Aaron Loveland, Senior Vice President of Marketing and Public Affairs.

Tell us about TOMI and its products.
TOMI provides infection prevention and disinfection/decontamination products and services for healthcare, bio-safety, pharmaceutical, clean-room, and research. The technology was developed by DARPA for the Anthrax scare post 9-11, 2001 to deactivate weaponized anthrax spores by converting a low percentage hydrogen peroxide to a hydroxyl radical. When the product became declassified, it was commercialized. We actually got involved as an end user and then bought the product when it was in beta. After the purchase, we reengineered it and made it more durable.

Our solution, the SteraMist ^TM powered by Binary Ionization Technology^® (BIT™) is an EPA-registered hydrogen peroxide-based mist/fog. The commercial uses are widespread, but we are focusing on pharma, biosafety, clean rooms, healthcare, and commercial and residential spaces. When you look at statistics you can see that there is a very big need in healthcare right now. C. diff caused 500,000 infections in U.S. hospitalized patients in 2011 and 29,000 of those patients died within 30 days of diagnosis. Hospital infections are the 4th leading cause of death in the U.S., and 10% of inpatients in the U.S. contract infections from a hospital room that is cleaned manually. So we are looking to replace traditional and ineffective manual cleaning with SteraMist which is effective, fast acting (kills within seconds), and has superior material compatibility. In fact, we recently received an addendum to our healthcare/hospital disinfectant label for a six-log (99.9999%) kill of Clostridium difficile spores (C. diff) with our SteraMist^TM  Environment System.

We sell two products, the first is the SteraMist^TM  Surface Unit which is a portable, hand-held system that enables disinfection of all surfaces including high touch, sensitive medical equipment, and electronics. The second is the SteraMist^TM  Environment System which is transportable, remotely controlled, and provides complete room disinfection/decontamination using multiple treatment applications per unit. One of the leading research facilities in the world did a test with SteraMist and it was so effective, that they built a state-of-the-art facility where they designed a SteraMist system into the building with wall-mounted controls. We also have the TOMI™ Service Network, which is a network of selected primary service providers that can service multiple locations nationwide. These rapid response technicians provide solutions for complete room disinfection in a wide variety of residential and commercial settings with SteraMist™ BIT™.

What are a few of the goals for the company?
We plan to increase penetration in the U.S. hospital-healthcare disinfectant market including in hospitals, surgical centers, medical, dental, and veterinary offices. We’re also developing new disinfection/decontamination products for indoor air and surfaces. The overarching goal for us as a company is to allow for a healthier population.

Tell us about TOMI’s emergency response work.
Most notably, we won a grant for our SteraMist™ Mobile Decontamination Chamber units used in responding to the Ebola crisis in Liberia, and our products were used for the MERS-CoV outbreak in Saudi Arabia.

Where does TOMI currently operate?
In addition to our office here in Frederick, we have an office in Beverly Hills, California and all of our products are made in York, Pennsylvania and in Delaware. Our team really enjoys working in Frederick. We’ve been here for two years, and it’s a great place to work and live.

Why did TOMI become a member of TCM?
This is an exciting time in the biotech corridor, and we wanted to network and be part of it all. We’ve only been a member for a few months, and so far we’ve attended an Executive Breakfast Roundtable the Animal Biotech Summit, and the Ultimate Crab Feast & BBQ Networking Bash. We’ve already leveraged some of the referrals that we’ve received.

Where can our readers get more information on TOMI and its products?
They can visit our website at www.tomimist.com or they can contact Aaron Loveland at aloveland@tomimist.com or at 301.686.8317.