Graduating Companies from RIT’s Venture Creations Business Incubator

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All Access LLC is a free “green directory” featuring restaurants, retail and other businesses. Users access data any way they want by scanning a logo or a QR code, or searching by category or name. Founded in 2012 by Todd Bernhard and former RIT student Ron von Perlstein, the All Access app has more than a million listings worldwide, including several Rochester-area businesses, national chains and products. The app includes a couple of standout features: 1) “LogoLauncher,” a technology that allows users to point their iPhone or iPad at a company’s logo or a QR code and be directed to mobile storefronts. From there, users can access menus, photos, videos, special deals, movie show times and more; and 2) “Reveal A Deal,” which produces an instant scratch off deal on your screen. Similar to scratch off lottery tickets or printed scratch off fliers received in the mail, this saves retailers postage and printing costs and allows the customer to have the deal in the palm of their hand. Bernhard and von Perlstein have won numerous awards since building the app, including Rochester Start-up Weekend’s Best Mobile App Award, The Best Investment Award at the High Tech Rochester LaunchPad, and Digital Rochester’s Rising Star Award. The company has three full-time and three part-time employees and has hired RIT students in co-op positions. 

BlackBox Biometrics was founded in 2011 by RIT faculty member Dave Borkholder with the goal of providing objective data to aid the triage and medical treatment associated with today’s signature war wound: traumatic brain injury. Seeing a need and the opportunity to improve the lives of soldiers and their families, BlackBox Biometrics set out to measure the unseen. Funded by a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency grant, a small team assembled to develop a solution providing better triage data. The result was the Blast Gauge System, a revolutionary sensor that has since been outfitted on U.S. Special Forces, the Army, and SWAT teams across the nation. Coupled with proprietary software, the complete system captures and interprets complex data associated with concussive events. Today, BlackBox Biometrics continues to be the industry leader in measuring the unseen impact of concussive injuries. The company employs 23 individuals, 15 of them RIT graduates. Five RIT students also had co-ops with the company. Learn more at the Blast Guage System website.

ClearCove Systems, founded by RIT alumni and former roommates Greg Westbrook ’81 and Terry Wright ’81, is a wastewater treatment solutions and renewable energy company. Their breakthrough primary treatment solution is bringing fundamental, disruptive change to the wastewater industry worldwide. While ClearCove Systems is built around a solution that separates organics from wastewater, the company’s focus is to effect positive change by introducing dramatic energy reduction in treatment processes — and by enabling treatment plants to become self-sustaining through renewable-energy production. They entered the incubator in March 2013 and now have 15 employees. 

Darkwind Media: Founded in 2007 by RIT alumni Brian Johnstone ’08; Colin Doody ’08, ’10; Matt Mikuszewski ’07; and Scott Flynn ’07, Darkwind Media is a game development studio and consultant agency that offers contracting services for game development, game porting and unique IP creation. As an established leader in game porting, Darkwind Media has helped bring highly esteemed franchises such as Deus Ex, Skylanders and République to market on a multitude of platforms. When not helping other studios with their games, the creative and talented group is focused on their upcoming Xbox One title, Wulverblade. They have 14 employees. Learn more at the Darkwind Media website.

ThirtySix Software: ThirtySix Software brings revolutionary, innovative, refreshingly streamlined content reuse and management to all companies generating content in Microsoft Word. Since 2009, their flagship product, SmartDocs, has helped companies unify all of their writers to automate document assembly, eliminate redundant content searching, improve productivity and ensure that approved, up-to-date content is accessible to all users, all the time. Managing Partners Bryan Lynn and Lisa Pietrangeli ’99 bring more than 25 years of combined experience working with organizations to improve and save money on content development. They currently have six employees.