Bizdom Cleveland has invested in 16 young companies since it set up shop in January 2012, and the organization is targeting 18 more companies this year. While many of the companies are local startups, Bizdom also scours the country in search of promising businesses to recruit to Cleveland.

So far Bizdom has brought four companies to Cleveland: Queryly from New York, MascotSecret from San Francisco, Firmly Planted from Los Angeles and CourseBuffet from Seattle.
 <... Read more >

The Brain Gain Cleveland Project (BGCP) has teamed up with the Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association to stage a lunchtime pep rally for the city they love.

The rally will be hosted by the legal organization and serve as its annual meeting, just with a far more diverse crowd than usual, says Debra Mayers Hollander, deputy director of scouting for BGCP.

Hollander is expecting 1,000 guests to make it to the floor of Quicken Loans Arena for the June 28 event. A... Read more >

San Francisco and Austin offer residential curbside composting, but such forward-thinking green ideas have yet to become a reality in Cleveland. A recently-awarded grant from Enterprise Community Partners, however, will help the Detroit Shoreway Community Development Organization think through how to develop a community composting facility for restaurants in the Cleveland EcoVillage.

Although citywide composting may not be in the cards right now, the pilot project could d... Read more >

Banks typically lend money to projects; developing them typically is left to homebuilders. Yet Third Federal, which started in a Slavic Village storefront 75 years ago, has taken the unusual step of assembling land and breaking ground on a huge community here.

Construction is underway at Trailside at Morgana Run, a 95-home development that will feature affordably-priced homes within a completely new urban subdivision with access to green space and a rail-trail. The projec... Read more >

East, West, North and South -- it's getting easier and easier to score a hot, fresh and delicious meal from a food truck. In just three years' time, the Cleveland food truck scene has zoomed from 0 to 60, with dozens of rigs scattered all over town. Here's a little help finding them.

Kelli Hanley sees the big picture in cooking -- and she wants to teach people the whole concept of it, from sourcing the produce, to understanding what’s in your pantry, to putting a meal on the table. So she started The Agrarian Collective, a mobile cooking school that does just that.

“When I started The Agrarian Collective, I envisioned an Earth-to-table lifestyle school,” she explains. “My approach is around understanding the relationships ... Read more >

Near West Theatre's new home will be nothing if not active when it opens next year. It will be filled with youth and adults rehearsing for its signature brand of community theatre -- large ensemble productions that bring the arts to youth and city residents.

And when its shows are running, it will draw up to 275 patrons per show into a new, state-of-the-art theatre that caps off a string of investments in the Gordon Square Arts District.

The building not only... Read more >

Jewels Johnson dabbled in a few different career paths before she found her true calling: baked goods. She grew up in Shaker Heights, went off to London, Charlotte, Las Vegas and Chicago before returning to Shaker in 2006 to work as a teacher at Shaker Heights High School.
 
Then, in 2011, armed with her grandmother’s recipe box, Johnson opened Sugar Plum Cake Company. “I’m a self-taught baker; my grandmother taught my mom and my mom taught me,&rdquo... Read more >

Nine young Northeast Ohio businesses were inducted into the Charter One Launch100 Leadership Circle on April 25. Local inductees included Nicole Zmij, CEO of Amplified Wind Solutions in Cleveland, Lindsay Sims, founder and CEO of Renter’s BOOM, Lissette Rivera, founder of SafeCare, all in Cleveland, and Shaquita Graham, CEO of King J Transportation in South Euclid.

“The Launch100 Leadership Circle really focuses on minority entrepreneurs and encourages them to... Read more >

Building off the buzz created by Shaker LaunchHouse, an entrepreneurial incubator, the City of Shaker Heights has partnered with LaunchHouse, Cuyahoga County and Neighborhood Housing Services of Greater Cleveland to renovate two homes on Chelton Road into affordable housing for entrepreneurs.

The homes at 3553 and 3599 Chelton Road, directly behind Shaker Launchhouse in the South Moreland neighborhood, were vacant before the city acquired them. Shaker renovated the homes ... Read more >

On Thursday, May 2, Bad Girl Ventures celebrated nine finalists in its business plan competition during its spring 2013 graduation ceremony at The Galleries at CSU, announcing the winner of its $25,000 BGV loan and other awards.

Jewels Johnson, owner of the Sugar Plum Cake Company, earned the $25,000 loan for her custom cake bakery. She plans to use the loan to open and expand her new physical store and offices, as well as develop her Devour! Gourmet Baking Mixes line.Read more >

Cleveland rocks, that much we know. But it also is home to a band of crafty individuals who make music in a more physical sense, by building the instruments others use to play beautiful music. Guitars, amps and pipe organs all are handcrafted by passionate peeps right here in town.

Project and Construction Services provides owner's representation and design-build services to clients, so it's appropriate that the growing 53-person firm custom-built its new offices. Now that it's settling into its new space in the Erieview Tower, executives are experiencing their Goldilocks moment: Just right.

"We decided to right-size our space for our present needs, forecasting into the future," says CEO Bob Strickland, who downsized from 12,50... Read more >

Abode, developer of the Clifton Pointe Townhomes in Lakewood, is set to break ground on the next phase of the project. As soon as this month, the company could break ground on an additional five units to complement the 17 that have already been sold.

Principal Andrew Brickman says that buyers are drawn to the high-quality, green-built construction, the walkable location in the West End of Lakewood, and the views of the Rocky River Valley and Lake Erie. "I wish we cou... Read more >

With downtown Cleveland's office vacancy rate three percent lower than it was two years ago and vacancy rates hovering around four percent for apartments, new retailers are leasing empty storefronts in the area. Eleven new retailers will open this year, bringing fresh concepts to the local scene.

New offerings include Cleveland Chop in the former Cleveland Chophouse location on St. Clair, Mirch Masada, Red the Steakhouse, four new shops in the Fifth Street Arcades, Wa... Read more >

PlayhouseSquare already is a gem in the crown of downtown Cleveland, yet its sparking renaissance will become even more breathtaking with the addition of a 20-foot-tall LED "chandelier spectacular" at E. 14th and Euclid in the theatre district.

That chandelier, boasting over 4,600 crystals and hoisted 40 feet in the air, is the centerpiece of a $16 million transformation that will bring the beauty found inside PlayhouseSquare's historic theatres out onto the... Read more >

Danny Sheridan comes from a family of entrepreneurs -- his father invests in small tech businesses and deals in commercial real estate for medical officers, and his mother is a marketing consultant. So it was only natural that the junior at Beachwood High School would start his own business. After finding he had a knack for selling things on eBay, Sheridan started Woodside Distributors, distributing energy efficient LED lights for Solon-based Mr. Beams.
 
“Mr. B... Read more >