Cleveland tech companies attracted venture and angel investments in 2013 amounting to pre-recession levels, according to JumpStart and a report released by the Venture Capital Advisory Task Force. One hundred and eighteen companies spanning IT, healthcare, clean tech, and business and consumer products received $259 million in equity investments last year, a 15-percent increase over the previous year.

“$259 million puts us up where we were pre-recession,” says... Read more >

OnShift, which provides online staff scheduling and labor solutions in healthcare, recently closed $7 million in Series C investment financing. The investors include HLM Venture Partners and five previous investors in OnShift.
 
OnShift CEO Mark Woodka said the money will be used to expand the company’s sales and marketing, product development and customer service departments. “We doubled our customer base last year, and we’re getting out of the gate... Read more >

2004 was a rough year for Deb Papes-Stanzak and her family. First her brother, Ron Papes, was on dialysis for renal failure. Her mother, Mary Papes, was undergoing blood transfusions for congestive heart failure. And her husband, Gary Stanzak, was getting chemotherapy treatments for a rare form of cancer. And Papes-Stanzak was taking care of all of them.
 
One day her brother complained that he was always cold during dialysis and asked his sister to bring some blanket... Read more >

Some storefronts sparkle with inviting merchandise, while others languish behind a layer of dust. For the latter, Cleveland's Storefront Renovation Program has been lending a helping hand to entrepreneurs for almost two decades with financial assistance for exterior improvements and signage.

Tri-C has launched locally the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses, a $500 million initiative to help new business owners create jobs and economic opportunity. The program shepherds small companies through workshops, one-to-one advice, mentoring, capital and networking.

Corporate College, the business and training division of Tri-C, recently tested the notion that even successful businesses must continue to grow and learn with a field trip to the UK, sending a senior training specialist to coach up executives from Smithers Group, a scientific testing and consulting organization based in Akron.

Jonathon Sawyer, the award-winning chef behind Greenhouse Tavern and Noodlecat, is opening a new restaurant with his wife Amelia. The venue, to be called Trentina, will feature cuisine from the Trento region of northern Italy, where Amelia's family is from. It will open in the former Sergio's space in University Circle in the coming months.

Sawyer describes Trentina as a "passion project" that will allow him to pay tribute to his wife's heritage whil... Read more >

Thanks to Thrive, the Cuyahoga Community College business incubator program, students receive a shared office space outfitted with a phone, computer and printer as well as access to a conference room and reception area. Participants also are assigned a mentor from either Tri-C faculty or the business community.

The historic Terminal Tower offices of the Van Sweringen brothers, the duo that built the iconic skyscraper and the streetcar suburb of Shaker Heights, will soon be occupied by a women-owned consulting firm that helps businesses and organizations embrace a more sustainable future.

BrownFlynn is relocating from Highland Heights to the tower's 36th floor. The firm, which provides sustainability consulting, communications and training, needs more space. The 7,000-square-... Read more >

Cleveland continues to gain momentum in leading the country and the Midwest in biomedical investments, according to BioEnterprise’s 2013 Midwest Healthcare Venture Investment Report. The report, released last month, shows that while overall investing is down nationwide, biomedical investments in health IT and medical devices in Northeast Ohio continue to be on the rise.

Ohio ranked number-one in healthcare venture investments. Cleveland earned the number-two regiona... Read more >

Team NEO, the entity charged with marketing Northeast Ohio to the rest of the country and the world, brought a record 16 new businesses to the region in 2013, seven of which are in Cuyahoga County. The new companies add to the region almost 1,400 new jobs and more than $85 million in new annual payroll. The average salary in these companies is $62,000, which also is a record high. The majority of the companies are in manufacturing, healthcare and biomedical.  
 
... Read more >

In Cleveland, you might recognize the work of Think Media Studios from the Cavs intro videos that they produce. The award-winning Mayfield Heights company also has produced videos for Ohio State University sports teams and companies like Nestle, Progressive Insurance and Parker-Hannifin.
 
But Think Media owner Brian Glazen recently achieved his ultimate goal of establishing a reputation as a filmmaker. His film Fishing Without Nets, a feature about Somali pirate... Read more >

We often don't give our old neighborhood restaurants a second thought, but they stand both as witnesses of and agents to change. As the world evolves all around them, they stand firm but flexible, preserving a delicious taste of the past while serving the ever-shifting needs of today's clientele.