Leopoldo Peña — Co-Founder & CEO of Presta ($3.3 million raised) — on startups, his passion for expanding access to those who historically haven't had it, Cleveland's ecosystem, and the trials and tribulations of entrepreneurship — from failures to acquisitions.
Dallas Hogensen — CEO of Felux ($24mm raised) — on marketplaces, importance of culture, and creating the world’s largest operating platform and marketplace to help solve commerce for the steel industry.
Shawn Rech — Co-Founder/CEO/Director at Transition Studios, AGTV & TruBlu — on growing Cleveland's permanent media industry, the importance of factual programming and positively affecting history through truth-telling and documentary production!
Tom Tyrrell — founder and Chairman of Great Lakes Biomimicry & co-founder of Segmint — on the power of biomimicry and harnessing the intelligence found in nature’s 3.8 billion years of R&D (asking questions nature has already found the answers to)
John Wetzel, Alex Hilleary, Brooks Sime — Co-Founders of Gather — on building a company oriented around a future of work that puts people first and streamlines workflows for People Operations teams, and their journey from inception to acquisition by ChartHop
Nolan Gallagher — Founder and CEO of Gravitas Ventures — on building a global all rights theatrical distribution company that has released more than 3,000 films on Video on Demand (VOD) and has since been acquired by Anthem Sports & Entertainment in late 2021.
Drew Kraemer — CEO of Code3 & Founder of Marketplace Strategy — on building a digital performance marketing agency that serves some of the largest digital advertisers globally and the future of marketing across search, social, programmatic, marketplaces, and emerging channels.
Stan Garber & Alex Yakubovich — Co-Founders of Scout RFP (now known as Workday Strategic Sourcing) — on serial entrepreneurship and Scout RFP’s journey to acquisition by Workday for $540mm in 2019, where both of them still work leading Workday’s strategy and growth in the source-to-pay space.
Kate Volzer — Co-Founder and CEO at Wisr — on helping schools and students connect with each other, innovating with academic institutions, and Wisr’s acquisition to EAB, a key player in the education industry, in March 2021.
Charu Ramanathan, PhD — Co-Founder and CEO at vitalxchange — on healthcare innovation, building & selling CardioInsight (her first startup) to Medtronic for nearly $100 million, serial entrepreneurship, and on the progress and vision for vitalxchange.
Brett Lindsey — CEO of Everstream & Founder of Snip Internet — on the infrastructure of the internet, the future of telecom, and how he’s realizing that future by growing Everstream to over 25,000 route miles of fiber and multiple $100 millions in contract value while simultaneously building Snip I…
Anthony Hughes — co-founder and CEO at Tech Elevator — on their recent acquisition to Stride, the future of education, unlocking people’s potential, and software development.
Matt Buder Shapiro — co-founder and chief marketing officer of MedPilot — on building and growing his company specifically in Cleveland which has helped over 1 million patients better understand and resolve their medical expenses. Matt Shapiro is a co-
Ready, willing, and *Able* - Gerald Hetrick shares his experience running and growing Able, his entrepreneurial background, love for all things Cleveland, and aspirations for the Cleveland startup scene.