Karin Connelly Rice
Ohio is no longer flyover country when it comes to attracting venture capital for biotech companies. In 2014, Cleveland had $398 million in investments among 40 companies, ranking second in major Midwest cities behind Minneapolis. Yet access to local capital remains a concern.
Growing up, Erin Slater was a sticker fanatic “I have fond memories of trading stickers with my neighbor and friend,” she recalls. Little did she know, that childhood passion would turn into a business model as an adult.
Earlier this month Slater launched Fayvel, a line of colorful children’s shoes made with a blank canvas. The kids can then attach Frieze Tags –embroidered patches with industrial Velcro backings in a variety of themes. The Frieze Tags can easily be attached to and removed from the shoes and traded with friends. The tags are available in themes, from fairies and superheroes to sports and outer space.
“Kids personalize the shoes and it encourages creativity,” says Slater, who has a background in product management and two daughters, aged five and seven. “It’s injecting personality into their shoes.”
Slater came up with the idea eight years ago. She spent countless hours researching her idea through the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office at the Cleveland Public Library. “I spent a lot of time on the seventh floor of the library downtown,” she says. “The librarians are trained and use the same databases as the USPTO to research my idea.”
Slater then leased co-working space at LaunchHouse before recently moving to an office in Beachwood. “I wanted to work in shared space,” she says. “They have great internet and white board space, and Dar Caldwell had great advice.”
Slater chose the name “Fayvel,” which means "bright one" in Yiddish because the term resonated with the brand's concept of empowering kids to personalize their shoes and harness their imaginations for creativity.
While the shoes are currently available through the Fayvel site, Slater has talked to major retailers about carrying the brand. The shoes are available in sizes 10 through two and will be available in kids’ sizes three and four in May. The Frieze Tags come in sets out four around 10 different themes, with more on the way.
Earlier this month Slater launched Fayvel, a line of colorful children’s shoes made with a blank canvas. The kids can then attach Frieze Tags –embroidered patches with industrial Velcro backings in a variety of themes. The Frieze Tags can easily be attached to and removed from the shoes and traded with friends. The tags are available in themes, from fairies and superheroes to sports and outer space.
“Kids personalize the shoes and it encourages creativity,” says Slater, who has a background in product management and two daughters, aged five and seven. “It’s injecting personality into their shoes.”
Slater came up with the idea eight years ago. She spent countless hours researching her idea through the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office at the Cleveland Public Library. “I spent a lot of time on the seventh floor of the library downtown,” she says. “The librarians are trained and use the same databases as the USPTO to research my idea.”
Slater then leased co-working space at LaunchHouse before recently moving to an office in Beachwood. “I wanted to work in shared space,” she says. “They have great internet and white board space, and Dar Caldwell had great advice.”
Slater chose the name “Fayvel,” which means "bright one" in Yiddish because the term resonated with the brand's concept of empowering kids to personalize their shoes and harness their imaginations for creativity.
While the shoes are currently available through the Fayvel site, Slater has talked to major retailers about carrying the brand. The shoes are available in sizes 10 through two and will be available in kids’ sizes three and four in May. The Frieze Tags come in sets out four around 10 different themes, with more on the way.
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Marrion Demore has always loved improving on commercial bottled barbeque sauce. “I used to have really big family cookouts and I’d just doctor up some Open Pit to make it taste better,” Demore recalls. “People always said, ‘you should market this.’ I never gave it much thought until the economy went down hill. Then I knew I had to make it from scratch.”
Today, Demore calls himself the Rock and Roll Star of Sauce. In 2009 he began experimenting with homemade sauce, trying his various versions out on friends and family. Two years later, he had perfected his flavors and launched Demore’s Fusion Sauce in 2011 “There were a lot of taste tests and a lot of money being blown on bad batches, he says of his two-year journey. “It was important to me that my sauce was all natural, with no preservatives.”
Demore makes and bottles four versions of his sauce – mild, medium, flaming and hickory smoke. He uses ghost peppers, ground into a powder, to add the heat to his flaming sauce and buys his bottles from Cleveland Bottle and Supply. In addition to being all-natural, all varieties are also low in sugar and sodium. “It’s more sauce with less calories,” he says.
Demore describes his company as a grass-roots effort. He recently launched an online store on through his Facebook site. Last November he began handing out free samples and selling his sauce on Saturdays at Zagara’s Marketplace in Cleveland Heights, where he sells 15 to 20 bottles a week.
“A tell-tale sign to me us when you have a taste-testing and people buy it,” Demore says. “I let people try it and tell them about it. It keeps me motivated and keeps me going when people walk away with a bottle. Ninety-five percent of people are going to enjoy one of my sauces when they try it.”
While Demore still makes his sauce in his home kitchen, he has gone to the Cleveland Culinary Launch and Kitchen (CCLK) for advice and guidance. “Cleveland is very supportive once you plug yourself in,” he says. “Even though this is not high-tech, the platform is here. It gives you more confidence with the product to know there are people you can call for mentoring and that kind of thing.”
Demore is always thinking of new flavors and ideas. He is currently testing coconut and pineapple sugars in sauces and he is working on dry rubs.
Today, Demore calls himself the Rock and Roll Star of Sauce. In 2009 he began experimenting with homemade sauce, trying his various versions out on friends and family. Two years later, he had perfected his flavors and launched Demore’s Fusion Sauce in 2011 “There were a lot of taste tests and a lot of money being blown on bad batches, he says of his two-year journey. “It was important to me that my sauce was all natural, with no preservatives.”
Demore makes and bottles four versions of his sauce – mild, medium, flaming and hickory smoke. He uses ghost peppers, ground into a powder, to add the heat to his flaming sauce and buys his bottles from Cleveland Bottle and Supply. In addition to being all-natural, all varieties are also low in sugar and sodium. “It’s more sauce with less calories,” he says.
Demore describes his company as a grass-roots effort. He recently launched an online store on through his Facebook site. Last November he began handing out free samples and selling his sauce on Saturdays at Zagara’s Marketplace in Cleveland Heights, where he sells 15 to 20 bottles a week.
“A tell-tale sign to me us when you have a taste-testing and people buy it,” Demore says. “I let people try it and tell them about it. It keeps me motivated and keeps me going when people walk away with a bottle. Ninety-five percent of people are going to enjoy one of my sauces when they try it.”
While Demore still makes his sauce in his home kitchen, he has gone to the Cleveland Culinary Launch and Kitchen (CCLK) for advice and guidance. “Cleveland is very supportive once you plug yourself in,” he says. “Even though this is not high-tech, the platform is here. It gives you more confidence with the product to know there are people you can call for mentoring and that kind of thing.”
Demore is always thinking of new flavors and ideas. He is currently testing coconut and pineapple sugars in sauces and he is working on dry rubs.
As the first director of the newly-created Cuyahoga County Department of Sustainability, Mike Foley has visions of Cuyahoga County being a leader in green practices.
“I absolutely believe Cuyahoga can be the greenest county in the state,” Foley says. “We are lucky to have a lot of smart people, good public officials and a solid base of residents and businesses who understand that reducing our carbon footprint is the only sane alternative in the face of climate change. But I also don’t believe this is a county-by-county competition. Cuyahoga should become as green as possible because it’s the right thing to do."
Last week, Cuyahoga County executive Armond Budish launched the Cuyahoga County Department of Sustainability and announced Michael Foley as its first director and Shanelle Smith as its first deputy director.
According to a news release,the sustainability department will promote economic development activity that supports businesses that provide environmentally sustainable products and services; educate the public about environmentally sustainable practices; and collaborate with businesses, nonprofit organizations, and government agencies to develop programs incorporating environmentally sustainable methods into accepted practices.
Foley says his priority is to make environmentally-friendly practices understandable and accessible to all businesses and residents in the county. While he is still getting his feet wet in the new position, Foley has a background in environmentalism and energy efficiency issues as a member of the Ohio House of Representatives.
“Climate change is important to the county, to the state, to the nation, to the world, and we need to address it,” Foley says. “I want to be a part of the minds to work on this stuff. I think that economic and social benefits come to those who adopt renewable and energy efficiency measures as soon as possible. Everybody, everywhere needs to be working towards the same greenhouse gas reduction goals in order to stave off real harm to the planet.”
Some of Foley’s early goals include investing in energy efficient technologies, solar power and collective buying power for groups. “You can’t do it one-off, you want to be a part of a group,” he explains. “We really want to make energy efficiency and green energy, such as solar power, more normal and not such a complicated concept.”
“I absolutely believe Cuyahoga can be the greenest county in the state,” Foley says. “We are lucky to have a lot of smart people, good public officials and a solid base of residents and businesses who understand that reducing our carbon footprint is the only sane alternative in the face of climate change. But I also don’t believe this is a county-by-county competition. Cuyahoga should become as green as possible because it’s the right thing to do."
Last week, Cuyahoga County executive Armond Budish launched the Cuyahoga County Department of Sustainability and announced Michael Foley as its first director and Shanelle Smith as its first deputy director.
According to a news release,the sustainability department will promote economic development activity that supports businesses that provide environmentally sustainable products and services; educate the public about environmentally sustainable practices; and collaborate with businesses, nonprofit organizations, and government agencies to develop programs incorporating environmentally sustainable methods into accepted practices.
Foley says his priority is to make environmentally-friendly practices understandable and accessible to all businesses and residents in the county. While he is still getting his feet wet in the new position, Foley has a background in environmentalism and energy efficiency issues as a member of the Ohio House of Representatives.
“Climate change is important to the county, to the state, to the nation, to the world, and we need to address it,” Foley says. “I want to be a part of the minds to work on this stuff. I think that economic and social benefits come to those who adopt renewable and energy efficiency measures as soon as possible. Everybody, everywhere needs to be working towards the same greenhouse gas reduction goals in order to stave off real harm to the planet.”
Some of Foley’s early goals include investing in energy efficient technologies, solar power and collective buying power for groups. “You can’t do it one-off, you want to be a part of a group,” he explains. “We really want to make energy efficiency and green energy, such as solar power, more normal and not such a complicated concept.”
A research team studying touch and movement in prosthetic limbs at the Cleveland Clinic was just awarded a $2.5 million contract from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to develop a suite of outcome metrics for advanced prosthetic limbs.
Through DARPA’s new Hand Proprioception and Touch Interfaces (HAPTIX) program, Dr. Paul Marasco and his team of researchers at the Cleveland Clinic's Lerner Research Institute department of biomedical engineering will evaluate and identify and quantify the different technologies being used in prosthetic arms. “There’s no way to identify whether something works better or worse,” he says. “We’re trying to develop new ways to get a good sense of how these prosthetic limbs operate.”
Dr. Paul Marasco
Today’s advanced prosthetics work with the nervous system to actually provide sensation in the artificial limb, Marasco explains. While the technology has seen significant advancements in recent years, there is no standardized set of metrics to evaluate these technologies. This lack of information makes it difficult to communicate benefits to patients and demonstrate improved outcomes to insurance payers.
“We are developing metrics based on how people’s brains respond,” says Marasco. "How they move, how much attention they’re paying, reaction times.”
Each of the three groups involved in the research, including the Cleveland Clinic, the University of Alberta and the University of New Brunswick, will focus on two metrics. Marasco will coordinate all of the groups. “We operate as one big team, spread across Alberta, New Brunswick and Cleveland,” he says. “We’re working hard to blur that line between what’s prosthesis and what’s machine. We’re developing prosthetics where what you feel matches what you see – providing the illusionary feel that the prosthetic arm is part of the body.”
Through DARPA’s new Hand Proprioception and Touch Interfaces (HAPTIX) program, Dr. Paul Marasco and his team of researchers at the Cleveland Clinic's Lerner Research Institute department of biomedical engineering will evaluate and identify and quantify the different technologies being used in prosthetic arms. “There’s no way to identify whether something works better or worse,” he says. “We’re trying to develop new ways to get a good sense of how these prosthetic limbs operate.”
Dr. Paul Marasco Today’s advanced prosthetics work with the nervous system to actually provide sensation in the artificial limb, Marasco explains. While the technology has seen significant advancements in recent years, there is no standardized set of metrics to evaluate these technologies. This lack of information makes it difficult to communicate benefits to patients and demonstrate improved outcomes to insurance payers.
“We are developing metrics based on how people’s brains respond,” says Marasco. "How they move, how much attention they’re paying, reaction times.”
Each of the three groups involved in the research, including the Cleveland Clinic, the University of Alberta and the University of New Brunswick, will focus on two metrics. Marasco will coordinate all of the groups. “We operate as one big team, spread across Alberta, New Brunswick and Cleveland,” he says. “We’re working hard to blur that line between what’s prosthesis and what’s machine. We’re developing prosthetics where what you feel matches what you see – providing the illusionary feel that the prosthetic arm is part of the body.”
The Health-Tech Corridor was once a forgotten stretch of Euclid Avenue. Today the three-mile stretch between downtown and University Circle has become a hub of growing biotech and startup companies, with another round of development on the way.
Eugene Malinskiy, founder of healthIT integrated solutions provider DragonID, didn’t even know a friend had nominated him for the 2015 Forbes.com 30 Under 30 in the manufacturing and industry category. And even though he was featured as one of the 30, Malinskiy just wants to focus on the work at hand.
“It’s nice to get recognized and nice to get the award, but we want to be left alone to do our work,” Malinskiy, 29, says. By work, he means a host of projects in everything from orthopedic and cardiac devices to pain treatments and wearable technology.
DragonID works on both their own ideas generated in-house and ideas brought to them from some of the area’s top people in healthcare. “We’ve done work with all the big boys in town – the Cleveland Clinic, University Hospitals,” Malinskiy boasts. “Physicians and others bring projects to us and say, ‘Hey, we have an idea for a product on a napkin, can you improve upon it?’ We follow down projects that we’ll hopefully be able to put into production.”
Most recently, DragonID developed a device that reduces the risk of stroke after aortic valve replacement surgery; this is the innovation that led to recognition by Forbes. The device is currently being tested. When it gets to production, Malinskiy plans to manufacture the product locally.
Founded out of LaunchHouse, DragonID now has offices in Cleveland Heights. Malinskiy credits his company’s success with the support he’s received from LaunchHouse, as well as from organizations like BioEnterprise, JumpStart and GLIDE.
Malinskiy credits DragonID’s success with the support that these organizations have provided, as well as having access to top physicians. “We sort of have our pick of the best projects,” he says, although he also prides himself on client confidentiality. “Of course it has to be related to medical, needs to pay and, obviously, needs to be interesting. As long as I know my team and I can do it, we’ll take it on.”
“It’s nice to get recognized and nice to get the award, but we want to be left alone to do our work,” Malinskiy, 29, says. By work, he means a host of projects in everything from orthopedic and cardiac devices to pain treatments and wearable technology.
DragonID works on both their own ideas generated in-house and ideas brought to them from some of the area’s top people in healthcare. “We’ve done work with all the big boys in town – the Cleveland Clinic, University Hospitals,” Malinskiy boasts. “Physicians and others bring projects to us and say, ‘Hey, we have an idea for a product on a napkin, can you improve upon it?’ We follow down projects that we’ll hopefully be able to put into production.”
Most recently, DragonID developed a device that reduces the risk of stroke after aortic valve replacement surgery; this is the innovation that led to recognition by Forbes. The device is currently being tested. When it gets to production, Malinskiy plans to manufacture the product locally.
Founded out of LaunchHouse, DragonID now has offices in Cleveland Heights. Malinskiy credits his company’s success with the support he’s received from LaunchHouse, as well as from organizations like BioEnterprise, JumpStart and GLIDE.
Malinskiy credits DragonID’s success with the support that these organizations have provided, as well as having access to top physicians. “We sort of have our pick of the best projects,” he says, although he also prides himself on client confidentiality. “Of course it has to be related to medical, needs to pay and, obviously, needs to be interesting. As long as I know my team and I can do it, we’ll take it on.”
Downtown Cleveland Alliance is looking for new members of its City Advocates Program, which is now entering its seventh year. Advocates work on civic-oriented projects and gain an insider’s perspective into downtown Cleveland as well as a chance to experience first-hand the forward momentum of Cleveland’s development.
“The City Advocates Program is considered to be a civic engagement program,” says Laura Wiegand, DCA director of development and community relations. “We want more downtown residents and employees to be involved in DCA.”
The advocacy program also provides networking opportunities with business and civic leaders. DCA offers a mentoring program with DCA board members to learn even more about the city. “It’s a chance to sit down for coffee and chat about anything they want.”
For the first time this year, DCA is releasing its list of projects advocates will work on. “City advocates always express intreest in projects closely related to DCA's mission,” says Wiegand. Applicants can list their top three project choices.
This year's advocates can get involved in organizing a plan to steward public art initiatives in DCA’s portfolio; strategizing and executing the year-round activation of the new downtown dog park at Settlers Landing; and researching and planning ways to encourage people to go to Public Square during the planned renovations.
DCA accepts about 15 advocates a year for two-year terms. Although advocates are limited to one term, DCA looks for other opportunities for people to get them involved in the city’s development after the term expires.
The deadline to apply for the DCA City Advocates Program is 5 p.m. Friday, February 6.
“The City Advocates Program is considered to be a civic engagement program,” says Laura Wiegand, DCA director of development and community relations. “We want more downtown residents and employees to be involved in DCA.”
The advocacy program also provides networking opportunities with business and civic leaders. DCA offers a mentoring program with DCA board members to learn even more about the city. “It’s a chance to sit down for coffee and chat about anything they want.”
For the first time this year, DCA is releasing its list of projects advocates will work on. “City advocates always express intreest in projects closely related to DCA's mission,” says Wiegand. Applicants can list their top three project choices.
This year's advocates can get involved in organizing a plan to steward public art initiatives in DCA’s portfolio; strategizing and executing the year-round activation of the new downtown dog park at Settlers Landing; and researching and planning ways to encourage people to go to Public Square during the planned renovations.
DCA accepts about 15 advocates a year for two-year terms. Although advocates are limited to one term, DCA looks for other opportunities for people to get them involved in the city’s development after the term expires.
The deadline to apply for the DCA City Advocates Program is 5 p.m. Friday, February 6.