Former drummer of local band lands large tech funding

The Dayton Development Coalition’s Accelerant Venture Capital Fund for high-tech start-ups is investing up to $250,000 into two companies.

Both businesses — health care tech firm Sense Diagnostics LLC and music identification company Soundstr — are based in Cincinnati.

But each has links to Dayton that both companies’ chief executives say they want to strengthen.

RELATED: Four area start-up companies to get $1.75M

Dan Kincaid, CEO of Sense Diagnostics is relying on 3-D Technical Services in Franklin to manufacture prototypes of his company’s non-invasive brain injury monitors.

And Soundstr CEO Eron Bucciarelli-Tieger — former drummer for Middletown rock band Hawthorne Heights — is a University of Dayton graduate and an Englewood resident who says he hires UD and Wright State University interns.

IN-DEPTH : 3 questions with Michael Hadjinian and Rogers Edwards, of Accelerant

That reliance on the Dayton area should grow, both men said.

“Radio frequency is what we use,” Kincaid said in an interview Thursday at the coalition’s Kettering Tower offices. “Dayton has a wealth of talent in radio frequency.”

RELATED: Local inventor exits coalition fund

Human trials are underway for Sense Diagnostic’s device, which can detect internal brain injuries and make key distinctions between injuries, Kincaid said.

In the United States alone, the annual market is some $1.8 billion, he said, raising that to $3 billion once Europe is included.

The company has already won support from Queen City Angels, a group of Cincinnati investors, as well as the National Science Foundation and an Ohio Third Frontier grant.

Kincaid hopes for Federal Drug Administration approval for his monitor in early 2019.

Soundstr partners with Gracenote to provide technology to recognize live and recorded music. The idea is to arm venue owners with data about the music their businesses are playing and which organizations control the rights to that music.

Armed with accurate information, venue owners should be able to save money on license negotiations, said Bucciarelli-Tieger.

Venues — bars, nightclubs, concert venues, coffee shops — are required by copyright law to obtain licenses from performing rights organizations for music they use. If they’re caught using a song without a license, they can be fined.

“Some of these rights organizations charge a little bit too much,” Bucciarelli-Tieger said.

The information can also ensure that musicians are paid their due. The entire issue hits home for the CEO because of his experience with his former band, Hawthorne Heights.

“I am an advocate for copyright enforcement,” Bucciarelli-Tieger said. “I am a musician myself. That’s how I got into this.”

Soundstr also provides advertising that can be broadcast between performance sets. Testing has already shown seven to 10 percent conversion or response to those ads, he said.

About the Author