The Northeast Ohio Entrepreneur Expo, including 10 participants from Summit County, will be held Tuesday at the John S. Knight Center in downtown Akron.Companies featuring everything from software for DNA analysis to a cutting board for pizzas will be among the exhibitors.The expo is a place for companies to talk to potential investors, look for partners and simply generate awareness, say organizers.The annual event is hosted by JumpStart Inc., the Cleveland-based nonprofit group that mentors and invests in early-stage companies.Not all of those exhibiting have received money from JumpStart.Here are some of the stories behind the exhibitors.ADAP Nanotech LLCAkronBusiness is sticky for this two-employee startup that specializes in adhesives and coatings.That’s because the gecko is its inspiration.Thanks to microscopic hairs on their footpads, geckos are able to climb up and stick to walls. And that’s the idea behind ADAP’s new version of a “thermal pad.”The pad is an adhesive used to dissipate heat generated in electronics.For the thermal pads, ADAP uses microscopic carbon nanotubes to mimic the gecko footpad hairs.ADAP applies the nanotubes to a polymer surface to make a strong adhesive that easily forms to surfaces without glue.The pads aren’t yet on the market.First ADAP “must show we can produce the pads in a very cost-effective manner,” said Sunny Sethi, 28, who is part-owner of the company and received his Ph.D. in polymer science from the University of Akron.ADAP wants to raise $500,000 to $600,000 to build a pilot plant in its space in the city’s business incubator, the Akron Global Business Accelerator.ADAP, founded in 2009, also is part-owned by UA Department of Polymer Science Chairman Ali Dhinojwala. He helped develop the technology, using research involving geckos.Randolph ResearchBath TownshipBill Hinks sees opportunity in the ocean depths.Randolph Research has long made custom laminated rubber bearings for helicopter blades.Now, Hinks has developed bearing seals for underwater craft.Potential uses include robotic vehicles that don’t require an operator and are used by the oil and gas industry, researchers and the U.S. Navy.Randolph Research, with two to four employees, depending on sales, contracts with area companies for manufacturing.Hinks, the chief executive, said the expo gives him an opportunity to “see if there’s interest in the idea and find partners” to help him get into the underwater craft market.iRx ReminderAkroniRx Reminder is a smart- phone system and app that does much more than remind patients to take medication.Anthony Sterns, company chief executive, said researchers already are using the app to provide surveys and education to individuals involved in medical studies. The program also can be used to monitor participants’ exercise habits, as well as their emotional state.Customers include researchers at Summa Health System.This summer, iRx Reminder celebrated the app being available in Apple’s iPhone App Store.Founded in 2009, iRx Reminder is just beginning to generate sales.Sterns wants to grow by selling the app to medical professionals who would use it to communicate with patients.He’s seeking $500,000 in short-term funding and another $2 million in long-term funding to hire employees and continue the FDA-approval process.NicheVisionAkronOne of this company’s main software products will soon join the U.S. military in Afghanistan.The software, called ArmedXpert, is used to significantly reduce the time it traditionally takes to analyze DNA. It recently got the U.S. Army’s approval, allowing it to be used on the Army’s computer network.NicheVision specializes in software and related instruments used in the growing forensics and biomedical market.It was founded in 2006 by Luigi Armogida, a former microscope salesman.Armogida said the challenge for the four-employee company that works out of the Akron Business Accelerator has been supporting a growing customer base here and abroad.More employees are needed, Armogida said, “but to hire more people, you have to have even more customers. It’s the chicken and egg thing.”NicheVision expects to break even next year.Campushift.comAkronThis website aims to be a one-stop place for college students to buy or swap textbooks, find out about campus events and get discounts from businesses.The site – which launched this past week – is a revamped version of Derek Haake’s and his partners’ BookDefy.com, which launched last year, allowing students to list used books for sale or swap. Other students can send messages to the seller to arrange the sale or exchange.It already has a small user base at more than 100 U.S. colleges, with revenue coming from book distributors who list their books via the site.Haake said the site hasn’t yet generated enough money for anyone at the company to make a living.“We’re putting everything back into the company,” said Haake, a 2010 graduate of the University of Akron’s law school.He figures the company needs an investment of $175,000 for a regional push, and considerably more for a national effort.Insight Market DataFairlawnThis startup envisions shoppers using cell phones to scan the bar codes on food and other items to get real-time electronic coupons.The manufacturer of the item being scanned could offer a coupon, and competitors could choose to offer a discount on their products.The free app for shoppers “lets manufacturers fight over customers,” company founder Jim Wilson said.Manufacturers wouldn’t actually communicate with shoppers in real time.Rather, the manufacturers would sign up, paying a fee for each coupon delivered via a computer program.The manufacturers would be privy to lots of market data.Shoppers using the app would first enter their age and other demographic information. Also, the app would let manufacturers know whether their coupons are redeemed. Shoppers would remain anonymous.Wilson, with an IT background, is testing the app at Lorain County Community College as part of a public-private program called “GLIDE” to nurture entrepreneurs.He won a $100,000 grant from the program.Fluence TherapeuticsAkronThis startup is shedding light — literally — on psoriasis.Fluence Therapeutics grew out of more than 20 years of research at University Hospitals and Case Western Reserve University.Psoriasis is an autoimmune disease that affects the skin.The photodynamic technology Fluence Therapeutics wants to commercialize uses a liquid compound that reacts when exposed to specific light wavelengths.Chief Executive Warren Goldenberg, a lawyer who specializes in technology law, said the company is about five years from entering the market.First, it plans to raise money to build a third-generation prototype of its device.Now, Fluence Therapeutics, in the Akron Global Business Accelerator, is finalizing the formulation of the liquid compound, and is working on clinical trials necessary for FDA approval.“This is a very challenging market in which to raise money,” Goldenberg said.Still, he said, “we’ve made a tremendous amount of progress using grant money” from University Hospitals and the National Institutes of Health.Export NowAkronThis company says its online site – www.exportnow.com – allows U.S. companies to inexpensively export to Chinese consumers seeking American goods.John Hoover, chief executive of U.S. operations, said companies can use the site to export at a cost that’s less than an international business trip.Export Now markets the U.S. goods through an online department store that is part of a big Chinese shopping site, Hoover said.Export Now arranges to ship products to a warehouse in China before it lists them through its online superstore.“If we can prove this works, we’ll go to Brazil and Europe,” Hoover said.Three employees work out of the Akron Global Business Accelerator and a few others work elsewhere.The global chief executive is Frank Lavin, who was undersecretary for international trade at the U.S. Department of Commerce.Quixby.comFairlawnCompany co-founder Jack Hilton likes to build computers, and now he’s developing a website for folks like him.He envisions the www.quixby.com site being the go-to place for computer builders to find and buy hardware. The site also will offer tutorials on building computers, Hilton said.“Once you get in there, and get your hands dirty, it’s not as hard as people think,” he said.So far, Quixby has landed funding from “friends and family,” Hilton said.A big challenge, he said, is “overcoming our age, getting someone to believe in our team.”The team is made up of Hilton, 23, and his twin brother, James, and Austin Kettner, 21. James Hilton is company co-founder.NuVo GrandHudsonThe product idea — a pizza cutting board — is low tech, said company co-founder Greg Getzinger.Still, Getzinger said, it’s effective, allowing the user to cut equal slices of pizza.Equal pizza slices are important to school lunch programs and convenience stores that sell by the slice, and to traditional pizza shops that want to maintain consistency, Getzinger said.Getzinger, owner of a Pizza BoGo franchise in Hudson, teamed up with Hudson patent attorney Andrew Spriegel to get the board — called the Portion PadL — onto the market.Spriegel is co-founder of the company.“It’s been an exciting time,” Getzinger said. “We paid off our initial investment. … We’ve only been selling for 14 months and we’ve sold over 2,500 Portion PadLs and rocker knives.”The first big order came from Domino’s.Getzinger came up with the Portion PadL cutting board — with V-shaped grooves that guide the knife — after he began selling pizza pies to school lunch programs,The invention grew out of his realization that finicky students would snub pizza slices that were only the slightest bit smaller than others.In addition to the grooves, the patent-pending boards have “centering circles,” designed to ensure the pizza is centered on the board and custom made to requirements. NuVo Grand contracts with other companies that make the boards, a paper-plastic composite.Beacon Journal business writer Katie Byard can be reached at 330-996-3781 or by email at kbyard@thebeaconjournal.com.