James Barnes Jr. — Founder & President of Immaculate Cleaning — on building Northeast Ohio’s fastest growing janitorial services company.
Charlie Lougheed — Co-founder & CEO of Axuall (>$30 million raised) — on serial entrepreneurship, building in Cleveland, and his most recent endeavor, Axuall, an HR data network that empowers providers to manage and share their verified career data and credentials with healthcare organizations.
Aaron Grossman — Founder & CEO of TalentLaunch — on building a growing network of independently operated staffing firms from scratch to >$100mm in sales en route to a $1 billion, and the importance of culture as the foundation for how they operate.
Brian Zimmerman — CEO of The Cleveland Metroparks — on leading the renaissance of Cleveland’s most beloved hidden gem, the Cleveland Metroparks. We cover the history of the Metroparks, the importance of nature and preservation, and how he and his team ha
AC Evans — co-founder & CEO of Drips — on building the first conversational texting company of its kind, founding a new market category and leading the way for some of the biggest brands in the world to use automated, humanized conversations at scale.
Dan Collins — Founder & CEO of Wastebits — on building a software waste-management company and bringing technology to the trash industry.
Brent Zimmerman — Co-Founder & CEO of Saucy Brew Works — on starting and building one of Ohio’s fastest growing breweries and Cleveland-based brewpubs, now valued at over $100mm.
Shane Bigelow — CEO at CHAMPtitles (Cleveland based with >$17.5 million raised) — on jettisoning antiquated paper-based processes and digitizing the process of vehicle titling.
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.
Jacob Sheridan — Co-Founder and CEO at TPA Stream — on simplifying healthcare administration challenges, the power of bringing people together, building TPA Stream from idea to business, and innovation in insurance and employee benefits.
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.
David Edelman — CEO & Founder of Thrivable — on building the leading online community for those touched by diabetes (Diabetes Daily), company building, closing their $1.7mm seed round, helping healthcare companies capture the voice of the patient,
Terence McCarron — CEO & Founder of OpinionRoute — on growing his bootstrapped market research and sample firm to 8 figures in revenue, industry dynamics, company culture, and doing it all here in Cleveland!
Lindsay Watson PT, MPT — CEO & Founder of Augment Therapy — on clinician-driven innovation and building Augment Therapy, which leverages augmented reality to engage kids to exercise, to solve the problems she encountered as a practicing pediatric physical therapist. Augment Therapy looks like a …
Jarred & Brandon Smith — co-founders of NOOMA — on going beyond making sports nutrition drinks and building a company that makes an impact on society.
Todd Federman — managing director of North Coast Ventures — on investing in Cleveland-based startups and the larger Cleveland entrepreneurial ecosystem.
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…
Gordon Daily — founder & CEO of BoxCast — on Cleveland entrepreneurship and the future of live streaming off the bat of a $20 million series A and series of strategic acquisitions.
Laura Steinbrink — founder & CEO of Brilliency and managing partner at Emerald Built Environments — on driving environmental change, sustainability initiatives, and bridging the gap between utilities and consumers by giving people access to their own
Ryan Cleary — co-founder & COO of FloatMe — on how they’ve helped save their users over $30mm in fees and boost savings via financial alternatives to the $46 billion overdraft and payday lending industries. Since its founding in 2017, FloatMe has raised over $28mm in funding on its mission to make …
Justin McLoughlin — founder & CEO of airCFO — on building a bootstrapped company, scaling a professional services organization, the future of work, the importance of taking care of your employees, and finance!
Marisa Sergi — founder & CEO of Red Brands & chief growth officer of L'uva Bella Winery — on starting a wine brand from scratch that is now available in over 3,000 stores nationally and acquiring L'uva Bella Winery, the largest wine operation in the state of Ohio.
Tom Lix — founder & CEO of Cleveland Whiskey — on pushing the boundaries of convention while building on tradition to artfully blend science with craft to create unique award-winning Whiskey.
Mac Anderson — co-founder & CMO of Cleveland Kitchen (formerly Cleveland Kraut) — on creating world-class culinary fermented foods for all and how Cleveland Kitchen has grown from a side-hustle at local-Cleveland farmer’s markets to the #1 brand in sauerkraut with distribution at over 9,000 locatio…