INVEN LLC

At 23, Alex Frommeyer is the oldest employee of his company, INVEN LLC. Still, he worries he's behind the times.

Despite recent accolades and a patent pending for a new technology that could make root canals easier and less painful for dentist and patient alike, Frommeyer knows that the world is changing. And fast.

"We feel old," he says. "I just found a YouTube video of a 14-year-old who made a website that sold for like $1.1 million."

INVEN just celebrated its one-year anniversary. Frommeyer and his partners, Alex Curry and Dan Dykes – all Northern Kentucky natives and friends from the University of Louisville's J.B. Speed School of Engineering – started the business before they had completed their senior year of undergraduate studies.

"We just sat down and said, 'Now's the time,'" Frommeyer says.

They began the enterprise as a product and technology development consultancy, but as the partners recognized a pressing need for innovation in the dental device market, they shifted their business model. Now they're focused on building their own products and bringing them to market.

"Dental technology seems to lag years behind the medical device industry," says Frommeyer. "I really see an opportunity for dentistry to catch up – and that opportunity could allow us to be an innovation leader in the field."

Their marquis product is the Intellidontic Endodontic File, a tool that integrates a depth scale so it's easier for dentists to set and retain a working length during a root canal – ultimately resulting in less risk for the patient.

In September 2010, the Intellidontic File won the Northern Kentucky Commercialization Award, sponsored by Northern Kentucky ezone, Northern Kentucky Tri-ED, Vision 2015 and bioLOGIC, in the Cincinnati Innovates competition.

INVEN has since opened a new office in Florence, sensing an opportunity for growth in the region. (They will retain offices in Louisville as well – at least until they finish their Masters programs at UofL.)

"Northern Kentucky ezone is one of the main drivers behind our presence here," Frommeyer says. "They have been fantastic in helping us make connections and contacts. And the award has really helped us establish a presence in the area. It's been really gratifying."

INVEN plans to commercialize the Intellidontic File in 2011 and gain exposure from the dental community for their efforts to innovate.  

Frommeyer and his partners see this as a major chance to become leaders in Kentucky's economy. As millions of people in the developing world gain access to professional dental care for the first time, the market for superior dental technology is going global.

"The world still looks to the U.S. as the innovative country," says Frommeyer. "This is where new ideas, new businesses, and new products come from, and I see the rest of the world looking to us for dental care and dental products."

Meanwhile, he says, the state will benefit from attracting and nurturing "high-tech entrepreneurial action," and INVEN's success could enable the region and state to support more young companies, new companies, and home-grown high-tech firms.

"We fall into all three categories, and there's a mutual excitement to have build-out in these fields," Frommeyer says. "I love that Northern Kentucky in particular, Kentucky as a state, and the region as a whole is really looking at itself and saying, We need to grow this new economy – web developers, software developers, research and development firms, nano-technology, renewable energy. We really fit into that space."

Beyond economic growth, Frommeyer sees potential for a healthy, growing and supported community of entrepreneurs to bolster the community at large.

"There's a direct correlation between entrepreneurial thinking and the quality of life in a community," he says. "We meet more and more people in this mindset every day – both local entrepreneurs like ourselves and people working for large companies. These are the people leading civic groups, and leading their communities in general."

INVEN is poised to grow in the next two years, and although the firm's three partners are its only employees for now, they expect to bring on new team members in the next 18 months. For now, though, Frommeyer and his partners are enjoying the process of building a business in the same way they'd approach a feat of engineering – anticipating problems where no one has ever seen them before, understanding the moving parts while considering the big picture, and working. Hard.

"Everyone has to do everything," he says. "Day to day I do accounting, marketing, engineering, client management, public relations … and I haven't felt like I've gone to work one day."