Lay of The Land
Telling the stories of entrepreneurship, startups, and builders in Cleveland and throughout Northeast Ohio.
Popular Episodes
New to the show? Check out some of Lay of The Land's most popular episodes.
Recent Episodes
March 20, 2025
#203: Geoff Bruder (Sonic Fire Tech) — Fighting Fires with Sound and Acoustic Waves
Geoff Bruder, co-founder of GhostWorks Engineering and Sonic Fire Tech—a company redefining fire suppression—is fighting fires with acoustic wave technology. Geoff's journey is rooted in his work at NASA Glenn Research Center...
March 6, 2025
#202: Jared Semik (Eternium Aerospace) — Transcontinental Electric Flights
Jared Semik, founder of Eternium Aerospace, a long-range, zero-emissions aircraft development company, is focused on sustainable transatlantic flight. A multi-service military aviation veteran with three global deployments, J...
Feb. 27, 2025
#201: Robert Marks (Projector) — Keepsake and Personal Streaming for Legacy
Robert Marks founded Fidelity Voice and Data in 1999 with just a $600 investment, which he grew into a business generating over $30 million in revenue, making it one of the largest telecommunications and cloud services compet...
Feb. 13, 2025
#200: Andy Tran (Arthur Street Ventures) — A Modern Renaissance Man
Andy Tran has lived more lives than just about anyone I know. He’s a serial entrepreneur who has started multiple businesses across industries, including tech, ammunition manufacturing, defense contracting, and tequila, among...
Feb. 6, 2025
#199: John Knific (Squad) — The EdTech Guru
John Knific is a serial entrepreneur and investor who has built three venture-backed software companies here in Cleveland. His latest venture, Squad, is a peer discovery platform designed to gamify ratings and rankings for Ge...
Jan. 30, 2025
#198: Rob van Haaren (Proximal Energy) — Powering The Solar Revolution
Rob van Haaren is a Dutch-born entrepreneur and CEO of Proximal Energy, a Cleveland-based SaaS company transforming asset management for solar and energy storage projects. Rob has long been interested in renewable energy engi...
Jan. 23, 2025
#197: Ali Bonar (Oat Haus) — The Granola Butter Company
Ali Bonar — CEO & Co-Founder of Oat Haus, a food company bringing fun and play to eating. Their flagship product, Granola Butter, is the world's first oat-based spread and while Oat Haus was born out of Ali's decade-long batt...
Jan. 16, 2025
#196: Stephen McHale (Graici & Unify Labs) — Serial Entrepreneurship & the Pursuit of Inclusive Prosperity
Stephen McHale — a long-time Cleveland serial entrepreneur with a 40-year career founding, investing in, and building companies. Most notably, Steve served as Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Explorys, whi...
Jan. 9, 2025
[Bonus] Rust Belt Rundown featuring Jeffrey Stern of The O.H.I.O. Fund
Welcome to a special bonus episode of the Lay of The Land podcast. Today, we're doing something a bit different as I take on the role of guest on other podcasts to discuss recent developments in my journey and offer a glimpse...
Dec. 19, 2024
#194: Hanna Kassis (Babylon Asset Management) — Business Financing, Private Credit, and Growth Capital
Hanna Kassis — founder @ Babylon Asset Management — who has deployed over $1.5 billion in capital throughout his career in alternative lending.
Starting with Tim Ryan's congressional campaign in Youngstown, Hanna went on to build OAREX Capital Markets while still in law school, securing seed fun…
Dec. 10, 2024
[In Honor Of] Bob Sopko
It is with a heavy heart that I honor Bob Sopko’s memory by revisiting Lay of The Land 's 12th episode . While no conversation could ever fully capture the breadth or depth of his legacy, I hope this episode relays an essence...
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About the Host
Jeffrey Stern
Telling the stories of builders in Cleveland and throughout Northeast Ohio. Jeffrey is a NYC transplant, principal and investor at The O.H.I.O. Fund, Co-founder @ Axuall, product manager, advisor at Signal Cleveland and Venture for America, and optimist who believes telling the stories of those most inspiring builders around us is one of the best ways to learn and to inspire more to build.
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