On May 24, the Ben Franklin TechCelerator@State College graduated a six-team cohort from its 10-week Business Startup Boot Camp. Don McCandless, TechCelerator director, opened the graduation ceremony and introduced the six presenters. Each team leader presented in front of three judges and a crowd of about 80 people, including representatives from ten angel investor groups from the Pennsylvania Angel Network.

Bob Irori, Paul Sciabica, and Marty Bradley, local entrepreneurs, judged the presentations, awarding the $10,000 grand prize to Joel Edelstein of Triglyph.  

Each graduate had eight minutes to present his or her company, describing the technology, need, benefits, challenges, competition, and outlook. After every presentation was a seven-minute Q&A session.


Matt Woods was still an undergraduate student at Penn State when he began the endeavor that is X Material Processing Co. While pursuing a degree in mechanical engineering, Woods entered the world of additive manufacturing, commonly known as 3-D printing, and assumed the title CEO. He believes his Direct Multi Metal (DMM)™ printing technology will revolutionize the additive manufacturing industry by not only expanding the breadth of printing possibilities but also making efficient technology more widely accessible.

Currently operating out of incubator space in the Innovation Park Technology Center, Woods, who recently graduated from the Ben Franklin’s TechCelerator@State College 10-Week Business Startup Boot Camp, is assembling a prototype capable of producing specialty parts with the ultimate goal of offering fellow manufacturers affordable multi-metal printing technology.  

Read more about Woods and X Material Processing Co. in the Centre Daily Times.

Paul Liberti, who founded BioMagnetic Solutions in 2011, is no stranger to the life sciences. A trailblazer in magnetic cell separation, Liberti now seeks to cultivate cutting-edge ferrofluid technology that could revolutionize the diagnosis and treatment of cancer.

In the 1980s, Liberti became a pioneer in the world of magnetic cell sorting with the invention of novel magnetic nanoparticles. Upon this invention, he founded Immunicon. The company’s early discoveries garnered enthusiasm in the research community; the technology, branded CellSearch, was acquired by the pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson. J&J eventually abandoned development of the technology.

Today, Liberti has rebooted this venture. “In my previous career, we were doing the applications, but we didn’t realize there were better ways to do what we were doing,” he said.

Kevin Lloyd watches as whiskey barrels that look like they might burst at the rivets are loaded into Big Spring Spirits’ warehouse in Bellefonte: 141 in total.

Lloyd, co-owner and the distillery’s production manager, says they’ll have to use an offsite facility to store barrels eventually. For now, the red brick building that was originally part of the Pennsylvania Match Company, does a fine job of storing batches, housing the equipment to make it, and providing space for a classy tasting room complete with a long bar, comfy chairs, and a swordfish on the wall.

“It really speaks to reuse, recycle, repurpose,” Lloyd says of the building. “It’s ideal for us. It’s right on the park on one side. It has a big garage door loading dock on the other end. It’s just this really cool building with all this character and so on.”

Since 1963, the President of the United States has officially proclaimed the first week of May National Small Business Week in recognition of American small business owners and entrepreneurs. According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, small businesses create two out of three new jobs annually in the U.S., and over half of Americans work for or own a small business. National Small Business Week, from May 1 – 7, honors the contributions of small businesses on the nation in creating jobs, driving innovation, and positioning the U.S. for competitive success in the global economy.