While, the tech industry today is an ever-growing community that spans across the continent and beyond, New Jersey is not to be discounted as an area full of burgeoning tech companies specializing in a range of fields, from digital marketing to fintech.

Inpensa – Edison, NJ

At Inpensa they’re changing the way executives decide on project investment with their award-winning data driven capabilities and SaaS Technology. Inpensa’s focus is on strategic project portfolio planning, analysis of ROI, and realization of benefits.

The unique approach of this young business solves the permeating problem across mid- to large organizations that spend millions or more on investments each year. The wealth of data pushes forward timely, informed decisions, which saves their clients millions on new investments.

Inpensa is the better solution for managing the project investment lifecycle, which means no more spreadsheets and a smarter use of data. It is changing the way we’ll think about investments forevermore.

The purpose-built Enterprise Business Value Management suite includes significant capabilities that can be fully integrated or delivered independently, including Project Portfolio Strategic Planning, Business Case Management, and Tracking and Analytics.

You can learn more at their website: www.inpensa.com

www.njtechweekly.com/art/3500-opinion-the-5-coolest-tech-companies-in-new-jersey/

Soil erosion, loss of farmland, increased levels of CO2 in the atmosphere, rising temperatures, water scarcity, food waste, landfills—these are the unsustainable realities that keep Industrial/Organic (IO) co-founder and CEO Amanda Weeks up at night. But after a year of research, three years of testing, and a successful seed round of funding, IO is opening its first food waste facility in Newark, New Jersey, and according to IO’s website, it is ready to close “several crucial loops necessary to support public health, environmental resilience, and economic growth.”

IO is a waste management service, but more accurately, it is the waste management service of the future, employing the kind of commitment, foresight, and ingenuity that is timely and absolutely essential. According to IO, food waste is the largest contributor to landfills in the United States with one-third of all food produced ending up as waste.

Amanda Weeks is from Staten Island and grew up just a few miles from Fresh Kills—the 2,200-acre landfill that at the peak of its operation took in 30,000 tons of trash a day from New York City. The stench of garbage was always in the air. Before co-founding IO, Weeks worked as a market researcher, and through consumer insights, she gathered that food waste diversion was trending, especially in urban areas, but there’s a dearth of facilities capable of organic recycling.

Enter Industrial/Organic. The proprietary process is ideal for urban areas because it’s fast (3 days), clean (reduces transport emissions), odorless (does not produce methane), requires little infrastructure (pop-up, modular design), and saves space (unused, industrial buildings are perfect).

Weeks’ initial concept took years of research validation by a team of scientists and engineers, resulting in the proprietary process which she graciously explained to the unscientific staff at Jersey Digs:

“Similar to a brewery or winery, we ferment food waste in an enclosed tank. The fermentation process sterilizes and stabilizes the organic matter, while also releasing the high moisture content in food. We then separate and reclaim the individual resources present in food waste or that are generated as a byproduct of fermentation: carbon, nutrients, water, organic acids, and alcohol. We use these raw resources to then manufacture new products from organic fertilizers to household cleaning products.”

Newark is IO’s first commercial-grade facility, getting the process out of the lab and into use. Set up in an old meatpacking plant, the location is just 7,000 square feet, which is tiny when compared to traditional waste facilities that sit on multiple acres far outside the city limits. IO chose Newark for its pilot “micro-facility” because “there’s a lot of development going on here, catalyzed by large firms who call Newark home, such as Audible and Prudential. We wanted our first facility to be at the ground floor of an urban renaissance,” says Weeks.

The plan moving forward is to have a “distributed network of smaller facilities that break up the distance that waste travels which in turn eases the burden on specific communities,” says Weeks.

IO recently received approval from Essex County to file its permit application with New Jersey’s Department of Environmental Protection and hopes to be up and running by Spring 2018. IO is also laying the groundwork to train and provide career paths to traditionally underemployed groups as well as increase their involvement with universities and government policy to raise awareness and further affect change.

“Part of sustainable development is making a positive impact on the communities we serve. Every community is different and we plan to serve the underserved in every community we work in,” says Weeks.

Check out IO’s website which is a true primer on conventional agriculture, traditional waste management, and the ways Industrial/Organic is inserting itself into each stage of the current, unsustainable cycle to ensure a future for us all.

www.jerseydigs.com/newark-startup-industrial-organic-will-eliminate-food-waste-without-landfill/

HOBOKEN — Emily Hammond had just moved back to New York after college in Wyoming and the animal lover was hoping to find a job in human rights. But in the meantime, to help pay the rent on her East Village apartment, she took what turned out to be an ideal temp job: walking dogs for a new company called Barkly.

“I care about animals so much!” said Hammond, 23, who also feels good about the humans who feed her dog-walking jobs. “They’re really easy to communicate with, you can tell they value their clients and the dogs, as well as the walkers.”

Newark-based Barkly — call it a leash-hailing app — was founded in Washington, D.C., in 2015, and has been making its way up the East Coast since then, expanding into Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, and now, the New Jersey Gold Coast. Last week, Barkly began operating in the Hudson County K-9 strongholds of Jersey City, Hoboken and Weehawken.

“We think that Hoboken, Jersey City and Weehalken hit our demographics really well,” said Dave Comiskey, a former Defense Department analyst who is a co-founder and chief operating officer. “Younger working professionals who have a commute. Having that commute makes it challenging to care for your own pet when you’re working. And that’s where we come in: to lend a helping hand should work go long; should there be a happy hour after work. We’ll be available in under 60 minutes in all those areas of New Jersey.”

Pet owners who download the app or sign up at Barkly’s web site, pay a basic rate of $18 for a half-hour walk, 80% of which goes to the dog walker. Payment is by credit card through the app. The site also includes articles under the headings Health & Safety, Pet News (“Trump White House to Remain Pet-less”) and General Fluff.

To have their dogs walked, owners contacts Barkly to arrange scheduling and access to their house or apartment. For regular walks, particularly at single family homes, Barkly will come and install a lock box outside the house. For emergency or unforeseen situations when nothing’s been set up in advance, the pet owner can arrange for a doorman, concierge or some other third party to let the walker in, or they can let Barkly know there’s a key under the mat.

In a very few emergency situations, when there is no prior relationship between a pet owner and Barkly, and there is no way to provide emergency access, Comiskey said Barkely will not be able to walk the dog.

To protect pet owners, their pets and their personal property, Comiskey says Barkly does background checks on all walkers, thoroughly trains all walkers in the handling of dogs, and insures against theft or damage. Barkly will also arrange meet-and-greet sessions to let pet owners get a sense of their dog’s potential walker. The walkers are also insured against injury or liability, Comiskey said.

Barkly was one of nine startups in the inaugural “class” of Newark Venture Partners, a tech incubator and investment fund launched by Audible founder Don Katz. Like other members of NVP’s first and second incubator classes so far, the company is provided capital, office space at NVP’s downtown Newark location in a building shared by Audible and Rutgers Business School, mentoring and training in marketing and other business principles beyond their particular expertise.

Comiskey declined to provide sales figures for the company, but he said, “I would say we’re doing several thousand dog walks a month.”

Would-be walkers who visit the site are told, “Earn over $1,000 a month,” and asked for a name, email address and zip code, and must agree to a background check. They are regarded as independent contractors, not employees, a model made familiar by the ubiquitous ride-hailing giant, Uber.

But Comiskey dismisses comparisons between his company and the controversial transportation startup, which has been accused — unjustly, Uber insists — of treating its drivers like employees but depriving them of common employee benefits.

“Whatever it is, we will go to every lenth to insure that our dog walkers, pets and pet parents are happy,” said Comiskey, 30, who founded the company with Chief Technology Officer Jim Camut and Chris Gonzalez, the chief executive officer, both about his age. “So if that means getting the dog walker medical attention or getting a dog medical attention, we will do it.”

Rave reviews light up the Barkly Pets Facebook page. And Comiskey said the 1,000 applications a month the company gets from people who want to walk dogs is both a testament to the company’s commitment and a way to insure a quality workforce.

www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/2017/08/the_uber_of_dog_walking_app_expands_into_hudson.html