Entrepreneurs + Innovators
Inventive entrepreneur Hikia “Coco” Dixon is taking 5th Street Arcades by storm with her two shops. Now, she's taken over 20,000 square feet in the Arcades to provide affordable studio space for entrepreneurs of color.
A year after securing a storefront on Lee Road in Cleveland Heights, Kandice Marchant is nearing completion of Marchant Manor Cheese Shop—with high hopes to be open for the winter holidays.
The Cleveland Outpost's mission is to make outdoor adventure attainable for everyone. The new store offers used equipment, workshops, and other programs to eliminate the barriers to enjoying everything Cleveland's trails and shores have to offer.
The Van Aken District's Entrepreneurial Initiatives program allows both food and retail entrepreneurs to take their businesses for a test run before deciding to open their own bricks-and-mortar establishments.
Rolando Alvarez is kicking down doors to the knowledge of the world—the Internet. After working to bring high-speed Internet to rural villages in his native Bolivia, Alvarez's mission now is to connect more than 27,000 households around Cleveland in tandem with DigitalC.
Lora DiFranco enjoys activities that help her slow down and unplug. In fact, she's created an entire line of products—including her new collage kits—to help her customers occupy their minds during the pandemic.
Despite the coronavirus pandemic, earlier this month Gordon Green was able to open its events center in the renovated century-old Berger building and allow brides and grooms to save their dates.
MAGNET's annual MSPIRE pitch competition invites entrepreneurs to present their products for the chance to win cash prizes and assistance in bringing their inventions to market.
Even during the coronavirus pandemic, Old Brooklyn Community Development Corporation looks out for its small businesses. Thanks to grants offered by OBCDC, Old Brooklyn Cheese and Coffee, Coffee, Coffee have been able to pivot and thrive during tough times.
They're creative. They're courageous. They're resilient. They're the Fresh Innovators, a group of talented professionals making a difference locally. The Cleveland Leadership Center and FreshWater Cleveland will salute the group virtually with Spark 2020: Grit to Great, the center's annual leadership symposium, tomorrow, Thursday, Sept. 3.
Tom Sarago founded Trialogue to pair nonprofit organizations with freelancers who can fill contract job needs.
Looking out for the health and safety of both his staff and customers, Visible Voice Books owner Dave Ferrante is booking private book-browsing events through this fall.
As Parma small businesses began to suffer in the pandemic, Polish Village Parma stepped in this summer to organize a COVID-19 cash mob—offering raffle tickets for every $10 spent in neighborhood stores.
The Cleveland Leadership Center in September will honor six innovators during the Spark 2020: Grit to Great leadership symposium. These six people accomplish amazing feats while often going unnoticed.
When the coronavirus brought everyday life to a screeching halt and area hospitals worried they would run out of PPE, several Northeast Ohio manufacturers and other businesses stepped up to adapt their processes, save jobs, and make what was needed.
In an effort to find a healthy snack for her three children, Amy Witzigreuter mastered the art of making a tasty, easy-to-digest granola. Two years after launching Witzi's Raw Granola, customers throughout Ohio can't stop eating the five varieties she cranks out of her St. Clair Superior neighborhood kitchen.
Small businesses in Gordon Square, like Superelectric Pinball Parlor and Maelstrom Collaborative Arts, are adapting their models during the COVID-19 pandemic, thanks to money from Detroit Shoreway Community Development Organization's Fast Forward Fund.
Exponential growth in the middle of a pandemic? Taking a new Ohio City beer garden from concept to completion in the span of three weeks? These may seem like Herculean feats, but Saucy Brew Works seems to have found the secret sauce for success.
When local day camps began cancelling sessions this summer, one young entrepreneur took it upon herself to bring camp to the kids in her Cleveland Heights neighborhood with Kamp Kate.
After a year of delighting a growing customer base with its vegan comfort food, Squash the Beef is raising funds to buy a food trailer and take their catering business to the streets of Cleveland.