Startups

Inside a former mill building in Worcester, a potentially new wave of businesses toils away. One has launched a new way to read the news while another is honing a robotic wok. These entrepreneurs are part of a growing number of college students seeking to evolve their ideas into businesses.

Ashland biomedical device maker BioSurfaces Inc. has kept a relatively low profile through much of its 12-year history. But new developments are creating some noteworthy buzz for the small company and its portfolio of products designed to treat renal, heart and vascular diseases.

Medical companies swept The Venture Forum's Five-Minute Pitch Contest Tuesday night, with the producer of a “smart pancreas” taking home $3,500 in prizes.

Robert Crowley didn't think there was enough support to re-create the recipe for large-format instant film that was lost with the fold of Polaroid, but a Kickstarter campaign proved him wrong. The online services has allowed a number of individuals to fund various projects at multiple levels, each earning investors a reward.

Keeping patients out of the hospital after they're released is a top priority for hospitals today. Just ask Win Burke, CEO of iGetBetter Inc., an early-stage company that provides a cloud-based application to manage patients' care after they're discharged from the hospital. “Medicare doesn't want to pay the hospital if the patient is readmitted within 30 days, so that's going to be on the hospital's nickel,” said Burke, referring to Medicare's new reimbursement policy that's designed to drive down patient readmissions.

A former Telegram and Gazette employee is looking to online fundraiser KickStarter to fund a Worcester newspaper that will be available online and in print.

Ashland-based NuVascular Technologies Inc. said it has obtained exclusive licensing rights to commercialize a stem cell device that allows the heart to repair itself and improve its functions in as little as two to four weeks.

A few years ago, Jennifer Davagian Ensign was a master seamstress, running a custom interior design business in Sudbury. Today, she's the CEO of a Concord-based medical device company that holds patents in the U.S. and abroad, with the latest patent award coming from the Japanese Patent Office. She's not just running the company. She designed the chief product, Sephure. It's a suppository applicator for people with digestive conditions and other illness, from migraine headaches to malaria, and one she designed in her own kitchen after teaching herself the basics of silicon molding.

Last week, MetroWest's only technology accelerator and incubator, TechSandBox, announced its largest sponsorship to date, after its debut a year-and-a-half ago. Landlord Harold Nahigian of Southfield Properties III has agreed to let TechSandBox operate rent- and tax-free in its 8,700-square-foot space on South Street for the coming year. This came as TechSandBox was scheduled to begin paying market-rate rent to Nahigian, CEO Barb Finer said.

A business plan competition put on by Mount Wachusett Community College encourages entrepreneurs to develop their ideas and perhaps win a prize.