JumpStart will celebrate the region’s entrepreneurs at the Northeast Ohio Entrepreneur Expo and JumpStart Community Meeting on Tuesday, October 25 at the John S. Knight Center in Akron. The event will feature high-growth entrepreneurs, student entrepreneurs and investors. 

Organizers have signed up 20 entrepreneurs to exhibit their companies, and expect almost 80 by the time of the event. Three hundred people have already signed up to attend the event.
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Ryan Clark and Nathan Lambert know how to sell advertising. They also figured out a way to help libraries offset printing costs. The co-founders of Knowta, a Shaker LaunchHouse portfolio company, have created a unique print ad system that runs ads at the bottom of a page that users print out at the library.
 
The concept is brilliantly simple: Users elect to receive the advertising in exchange for free or discounted printing. Instead of receiving documents on typical ... Read more >

CEOs for Cities, a global nonprofit network of urban leaders focused on making American cities more successful, has opened an office in Cleveland. Lee Fisher, former Ohio Lt. Governor, Ohio Attorney General, and director of the Ohio Department of Development, was named president and CEO of the organization earlier this year and insisted his offices be in Cleveland.
 
“I told them I was a lifelong Ohioan and did not want to move out of Ohio,” Fisher says. T... Read more >

Art meets technology at the 2011 Ingenuity Festival this weekend, September 16-18 on the lower level of the Veterans Memorial Bridge. While Cleveland is traditionally known as a manufacturing city in the traditional sense, Ingenuity Fest celebrates the manufacturing companies that lean more toward the creative and artistic side.
 
“When the festival was first conceived seven years ago, it was exploring this idea of art and technology,” explains director of... Read more >

CWRU, University Hospitals and Phillips Healthcare are collaborating on two medical imaging projects that will help with early breast cancer detection and post heart attack evaluation. The collaboration received two grants from the Third Frontier for a combined total of $2.5 million. The projects are part of the Philips Healthcare Global Advanced Imaging Innovation Center.
 
One of the research projects, led by Ray Muzic, associate professor of radiology, oncology and... Read more >

Coffee aficionados at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport were at a loss when Banjo’s closed its door last year. The coffee shop was the only stop in the C concourse for Phoenix Coffee junkies to get their fill. So when Auntie Anne’s approached the local roaster about supplying their coffee, Phoenix decided to introduce a unique blend that is all Cleveland: CLE Blend.
 
“It’s a Cleveland pride thing,” says Phoenix CEO and self-describ... Read more >

Christopher Celeste and Blake Squires have business in their blood. Over the course of their careers, each has made his way through the political world, the marketing and digital music world, and everything in between. Together they founded and fostered Solon-based Findaway World before each eventually left the company.
 
The two came together again when they realized they most liked forming businesses, and wanted to put their knowledge to work helping others do the s... Read more >

Cleveland HeartLab is moving quickly in the prevention and detection of cardiovascular disease. The company, spunoff from the Cleveland Clinic in 2009, is a clinical laboratory and disease management startup that has developed a series of diagnostic tests for determining the risk of heart disease and stroke.
 
The company, which has grown from eight to 80 employees in two years, just completed an $18.4 million Series B financing round with Excel Venture Management and... Read more >

What started a decade ago as a business of one in a little office in University Heights has blossomed into one of the fastest growing companies in the nation. Danny Spitz, president and CEO of EverStaff, started the professional staffing company to satisfy his entrepreneurial spirit. Today, the company has 50 employees in 14 branches across 25 states.

And they aren't done yet, says Spitz. "We’d like to be known as the next national staffing agency,” h... Read more >

Keith Pabley is dedicated to providing a way for people to eat healthy on the go. As CEO of Good Greens, one of Shaker LaunchHouse’s newest investments, Pabley is marketing his nutrition bars around Northeast Ohio with huge success.
 
“Our bar is unique because it has 100 percent of your daily fruits and vegetables,” says Pabley. “We’ve loaded it with all the stuff you’re supposed to be eating.” The bars are gluten free, vegan... Read more >

Greg Murray is capturing the true essence of Cleveland through the people who live and work here. As an HR manager and amateur photographer, Murray has set out to capture 100 of Cleveland’s most interesting characters on film for a portrait album he began on August 11.

“I love Cleveland and thought it would be a fun project to undertake,” says Murray. “Our people make our city what it is, so it was an easy choice to focus the project arou... Read more >

Last January, a group of religious and community leaders got together under one common goal: To make Cleveland a better place to work and live. The Greater Cleveland Congregations (GCC) was born. A united front of 40 religious and community organizations began collecting input on what the city needed to do to improve.“Between January and March we asked participating organizations, ‘What makes life better for you and your family in Cleveland?’” explains Ari ... Read more >

What most people see as pond scum, the folks at Cleveland-based Phycal see as potential fuel. The company, with headquarters and a sub-pilot plant in Northeast Ohio, as well as a bio-technology lab in St. Louis, MO, converts simple algae into oil that can be used in power and utility plants as well as for renewable jet and diesel fuel.

"Algal oils produce more oil per acre than any other crop," says Jeff Bargiel, Phycal's business development specialist. &qu... Read more >

What started out as a small printing company run out of a little office in Euclid by two guys with a background in graphic design and printing T-shirts, has blossomed into a booming print business, Jakprints, which has sprouted three sister merchandising companies: IndieMerch, IndieMerchandising and IndieMerchstore. Founded in 1999 by Dameon Guess and Jacob Edwards, Jakprints has leveraged the partners' artistic talents, knowledge of the music industry, and instinct for what cus... Read more >

When Nora Egger returned to Shaker Heights after a decade in Europe, she was looking for her next career move. "I was completely lost," she recalls. Then she started to think about the flavor profiles of cocktails in Europe, compared to what she saw in the states. "Everything's pomegranate or mango or berries," Egger says of American drinks. "So I said, 'Why don't I do something with flowers?'" Egger started fooling around in her mother's kitchen and developed her Lounging Gou... Read more >

A team of researchers has developed an artificial lung that uses regular air, not pure oxygen, and is portable, marking a huge step forward for people with acute and chronic lung disease. The research is a result of collaboration between CWRU and the Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center. "The most significant finding is that we have demonstrated a small scale, prototype artificial lung," says Joseph A. Potkay, research assistant professor in CWRU's department of electrical e... Read more >

NorTech is helping to harness the alternative energy business and translate it into big business in Northeast Ohio. The Advanced Energy B2B Conference and Expo at the John S. Knight Center in Akron on September 14 and 15 will bring together the major energy players to network, educate and discuss the future of advanced energy. "We will take a look at where we're heading and how we can beat the rest of the country," says Dave Krapinski, NorTech vice president. "The whole driving ... Read more >

Beginning August 29, 92.3 FM will switch formats from alternative rock to Cleveland's first and only FM sports talk radio station. Owned by CBS Radio, Sports Radio 92.3 The Fan (WKRK-FM) will feature locally produced programs hosted by familiar Cleveland voices, along with headline updates every 20 minutes and a full lineup of NFL and college football play-by-play coverage. "CBS has done this across the country with terrific results," says market manager Tom Herschel. "We saw th... Read more >

Five women-owned businesses in Northeast Ohio have been selected by Springboard Enterprises to showcase their companies and participate in a networking program, Build it Big: Cleveland. The companies, selected for their high growth potential and track record of milestone achievements, will present their businesses at a showcase on September 14 at Key Tower. The five companies represent the diversity of enterprises in Northeast Ohio -- from retail and publications to business pro... Read more >