Tech Czar Talk: In Amazon HQ2 Bid, Cleveland Should Learn from Its Past Mistakes with Apple

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- There is so much happening in the local tech scene, here are some highlights...

An Amazon Warning. Amazon's recent announcement for the development of a second corporate headquarters has generated global excitement in economic development circles.

Cleveland, among several other cities, has expressed interest in being the next home for an Amazon office environment. This region has been blessed with a number of Amazon distribution or fulfillment centers (at the former Randall Park Mall and Euclid Square Mall sites) and it makes sense that Amazon might want its newest office environment near these facilities.

Among all the excitement, however, I offer a cautionary note. In our bid to woo Amazon into building its second headquarters in Cleveland, I hope we learned valuable lessons from our past mistakes with Apple.

A Oct. 6, 2007, headline in The Plain Dealer screamed, "Cleveland not ready to take bite of Apple." The article was a cautionary tale as a handful of local economic development professionals worked diligently to secure a digital media studio staffed by Apple professionals. Only it was not to be. (Full disclosure, I was one of the economic development professionals working on the Apple opportunity for the City of Cleveland.)

Having Apple take office space in downtown Cleveland would have been a game-changer for the local tech industry, not to mention Cleveland itself. The details of why Apple choose not to proceed are too many to list here, but it is safe to say that Mayor Frank Jackson probably received bad advice from his inner circle of advisors and from the Cleveland Municipal School District. Questions such as, "Who is Apple," and "What do they do" were prevalent. But now - not relevant.

The key take-away from Cleveland losing a great opportunity with Apple is that the political and civic powers that existed at the time were poorly informed and quite skittish about such a big opportunity with a marque tech company. And I would hate for the same "conventional wisdom" to happen with the Amazon bid opportunity. The deadline for Cleveland to submit its bid was Oct. 19.

I do think this region has matured to the point that courting Amazon and actually winning the opportunity are distinct possibilities, but Cleveland's biggest enemy sometimes tends to be itself.

Tissue transformation. A lot of the success in the regional tech industry is earned through hard work, diligence, a bit of luck and great serendipity. And this new, fresh tech company is making big waves.

Exsurco Medical, Inc. is a Wakeman, Ohio, based medical-device designer and manufacturer. The company was formed in 2011 as a wholly owned subsidiary of Bettcher Industries. Bettcher, based in Birmingham, Ohio, manufactures precision cutting and trimming tools for the food processing and industrial manufacturing sectors.

In 2008, a tissue bank in the United States called an engineer at Bettcher informing the company that the bank was using their legendary food slicing machine to harvest human tissue to support burn units.

Instead of discounting the call, Bettcher engineers transformed the machine and targeted a different industry. Three years later Exsurco was formed.

The company specializes in designing, manufacturing and distributing medical devices that help capture human tissue for medical use. Initial focus of Exsurco was the tissue bank market, but now is beginning to sell to burn and trauma units around the United States. The harvested tissue can then be used in burn units and for life-saving skin grafts. Once a person dies, the tissue bank has only 24 hours to harvest the skin.

The company's first product is the Amalgatome SD which was designed to excise tissue utilizing an innovative rotary blade technology autografting and wound debridgement. Exsurco now has 17 full-time employees, a Class 7 cleanroom is now registered as a medical device company with the FDA. More than 70 percent of the Amalgatome's components are built in the United States.

Sara Ann MacKinlay, general manager, has built an all-star team and is executing on an aggressive, but thoughtful, business plan. Expectations are high at Exsurco, and it should be fun to see if they exceed them.

That's a Mighty Fine Pillow. Balance, Inc. is a hip, creative and energetic joint full of good people designing really cool things - among them, a common household item that needs a modern reintroduction -- pillows.

CEO Rene Polin teamed up with Brian Sokol, healthcare entrepreneur and innovator, to form Enduring Wellness, LLC. Together they are re-engineering the bedroom staple. The end result - the ComfortAdjust Pillow to help reduce "tech neck".

Check out the outstanding Indiegogo campaign the team has created for this re-imagining of the common, yet mostly disappointing, puffy headrest.

I find it fascinating the innovation and creativity this city has to offer the world. Balance Inc. fully symbolizes the great brain trust in Cleveland that can tackle the spectacular and dreamy issues of the world.

This column was originally published in the Plain Dealer & Cleveland.com on Oct. 22, 2017.