When Case's think[box] is completed, it will be one of largest university-based invention centers in the world, bigger even than Stanford's d. school, MIT's Fab Lab, or Rice's Design Kitchen. It’s a venture that has the potential to play a major role in spurring innovation in the region, say local educators and entrepreneurs.

A Cleveland company that has its roots downtown but moved to the suburbs 12 years ago has relocated its headquarters back to the place where it all started.

Ohio Business Machines, a company that offers the latest Sharp office technology to customers in Northern Ohio and Southeast Michigan, recently signed a lease on 8,000 square feet at 1111 Superior.

OBM was located in downtown Cleveland for 25 years before it moved out of the city. With billions in new development either planned or underway and renewed vibrancy downtown, the company's executives believed that the time was right.

The company has 42 employees and plans to grow its sales department. OBM, which also has an office in Toledo, is known for its excellent customer service.


Source: Ohio Business Machines
Writer: Lee Chilcote

On the heels of the National Association of Seed and Venture Funds annual conference, the Great Lakes Venture Fair will host its first event at the Cleveland Marriott on October 17 and 18. The event is a joint effort between the Ohio Capital Fund, Ohio Venture Association, JumpStart, TechColumbus and CincyTech.

“The event builds on the past seven successful years of the Ohio Early Stage Summit,” says Chris Sklarin, event chair and investor manager with Edison Ventures. “Great Lakes Venture Fair will showcase the region’s high potential companies to investors with a focus on successful strategic partnerships -- how it’s done.”

The Great Lakes Venture is designed to highlight the activity in the region, as well as identify the next big things. “It’s important in general for the region because this is the new economy,” says Sklarin. “This is where we find new growth, new ventures. It would be really great for us to have a successful large company to grow out of this.

Keynote speaker for the event will be Jeff Weedman, who took a two-year leave as vice president of global business development of Proctor & Gamble to become CEO of Cintrifuse in Cincinnati. He will talk about the corporate partnerships behind Cintrifuse as well as join a panel discussion about working with strategic investors.

Sklarin’s advice to entrepreneurs planning on attending is straightforward. “Bring your business cards -- there’s a lot of networking,” he says. “Have your elevator pitch down. You want to get out there and meet everyone you can.”

Organizers are expecting as many as 300 attendees.


Source: Chris Sklarin
Writer: Karin Connelly

Gypsy Beans and Baking Company, the popular cafe that has become a hub in the Gordon Square Arts District, is expanding to a second location. Owner Nicole Gillota's homemade pastries, signature Passport coffee drinks, and soups and sandwiches will soon be available in Lakewood when Gypsy takes over the Beck Center Cafe on Detroit Avenue.

Gillota, who opened Gypsy in 2007 with a "monster kitchen" primed for growth, says that she began hunting for a second spot last year. When the Beck Center Cafe became available and the managers called her, it was a "no-brainer."

"I love being part of the theatre community," says Gillota. "One of the reasons I was attracted to Gordon Square was because of Cleveland Public Theatre. There's always been a good synergy between the theatre crowd and the coffee crowd."

Fortunately, the Beck Center space doesn't need much renovation because former manager and art dealer Paul Sykes did a great job fixing it up. "It's absolutely beautiful," says Gillota, noting that she'll keep the waterfall feature.

Gillota expects to feature many similar menu items to Gypsy Beans in Detroit Shoreway, but will add new dessert items, as well. "The space is a little bit more refined, and we're going to cater to the after-dinner theatre crowd there, as well."

Yet Gypsy's unmistakable brand -- as a community nexus that combines fresh food, great coffee and made-from-scratch pastries -- isn't going anywhere. "I think we're an all-inclusive, all-encompassing spot," Gillota says. "I love that."


Source: Nicole Gillota
Writer: Lee Chilcote

Munchit co-founders Tim Holmes and Jon Dinardo were living worlds apart -- Holmes in London and Dinardo in Los Angeles -- but they had one thing in common: the desire to find a better way to snack.
 
“I was based in London and lived inside the city and ended up eating a lot of junk,” says Holmes, a native Brit. Meanwhile, Dinardo was living a fast-paced lifestyle on the west coast. The two, along with Holmes’ wife (and Dinardo’s sister) Nicole, were craving something better.
 
So the three moved back to Dinardo's Ohio hometown to start Munchit, an all-natural snack company. Munchit sells snack boxes, either on a weekly or monthly subscription basis, in which the buyer chooses from 25 wholesome snacks. Snacks feature things like dark chocolate espresso beans, nuts, cranberries, rolled dates and seed mixes. Each box features four different snacks.
 
“You log in and go through all our snacks,” explains Dinardo. “If you love 18 out of the 25 items we mix it up each time.”
 
Holmes and Dinardo source their products from small, local companies as well as national family-owned suppliers. “All of our food is 100-percent natural, with no preservatives or artificial colors,” says Dinardo. “The snacks are portion sized and are 180 calories.” They focus on environmental issues, keeping packaging to a minimum.
 
They decided to start the company in Cleveland to not only be close to family, but also for economical reasons. “Cleveland is a good area logistically because it’s very close to the hub of business,” says Holmes. “The cost of suppliers is right.”
 
Munchit currently is trying to raise $50,000 by Oct. 25 on Kickstarter. “Our goal right now is to launch and stay afloat in the short term,” says Holmes. “We want to make it past the first year. After that, the opportunities in the market are open to us to grow and expand.”
 
While right now it is a family affair, Holmes and Dinardo predict they will hire people to help with packaging and fulfillment as they grow. Eventually they plan to hire people to help with finance and bookkeeping.

 
Source: Jon Dinardo and Tim Holmes
Writer: Karin Connelly

Mike Stanek, president of Cleveland Cycle Tours, is offering the newest way to see Cleveland: A group bike tour. But unlike most group bike tours, this one employs just one vehicle. Nearly the whole group gets behind powering this 15-person, 1,600-pound bike.

“We are a group party bike, a group cycling experience,” Stanek explains. “There’s no motor, there’s no other way to move it except to pedal it.”
 
Ten people pedal Stanek’s 15-person bike, whether it’s a site-seeing tour, a pub crawl, a corporate team-building event or a wedding. Stanek can also haul the bike out to any location a customer chooses. A driver steers and operates the brake. The bike goes four to five miles per hour, and Stanek designs the routes to be mostly flat.
 
Cleveland Cycle Tours has hosted three or four tours since launching in September. Although Stanek applied for the license in July, some red tape kept him from officially launching. For now he is focusing on a successful spring tour season. He’s received a lot of support so far. “We’re building nice relationships with the taverns downtown and in Ohio City,” he says.
 
Stanek got the idea from a group in Minneapolis who brought a similar bike there from the Netherlands. Today that company has seven bikes operating in Minneapolis. Stanek hopes to grow his company in Cleveland similarly.
 
“The ultimate goal is to purchase a second or third cycle for Ohio City and Lakewood,” Stanek says. “The biggest challenge is finding a 10-foot high garage because the bikes are 9-feet, 4-inches tall.”
 
Right now, Stanek operates Cleveland Cycle Tours with his wife, who runs the daily operations, and oldest son, who drives the bike. Stanek hopes to hire and train three or four more drivers by spring.

 
Source: Mike Stanek
Writer: Karin Connelly

Peter Debelak was a frustrated lawyer with a passion for woodworking when he stumbled on a soon-to-be-available woodshop space in a former meat processing plant on Cleveland's near west side.

"There was a woodworker who had been in there for 30 years, and his space opened up," says Debelak, who fell in love with the medium of wood 12 years ago and has worked with it ever since. "The opportunity was hard to pass up."

Still, starting the woodshop was a leap of faith. "I realized it was now or never," he adds. "I could get into the inertia of my next job and it would stay an idea, or I could just do it."

This past July, Debelak opened Soulcraft Woodshop, an artistic space for his own furniture making and a hub for woodworking lessons and workshops. He partnered on the project with fellow woodworkers Jim Doyle and Jim McNaughton.

"There's definitely an existing and growing 'maker' movement among people in their 20s and 30s and retirees," says Debelak. "It's about going back and working with your hands, making your own things and having a connection to objects."

Unless you have a woodworking shop in your basement, there is a dearth of spaces to explore this field, he adds. "Shop class has been eliminated in just about every curriculum in public and private schools. There's a hole in terms of market need."

Soulcraft Woodshop currently offers classes on an ad hoc basis based on inquiries. However, the owners will soon roll out regular classes such as "Introduction to Furniture Making" or "How to Build an Adirondack Chair in a Weekend."

Budding woodworkers can also purchase a monthly membership pass for $120 or a pay-as-you-go pass to complete an individual project for as little as $50 to $80.

Soulcraft Woodshop is located in the Hildebrandt Building at 3610 Walton Avenue.


Source: Peter Debelak
Writer: Lee Chilcote

If you don't know the name Scott Kim, then you likely have been missing out on some of the most thrilling food presently served in Cleveland. Kim's Shaker Square restaurant Sasa encourages exploration through a bevy of Japanese small plates. With Accent, slated to open in just weeks, the chef's culinary borders will expand past those of Japan to include influences from Korea, India, China and beyond.

The Intergenerational School, a high-performing charter school that is part of the Breakthrough Schools network, recently signed on to become part of the redeveloped Saint Luke's Hospital campus at Shaker Boulevard and E. 116th Street.

The highly-rated school, which has operated out of the nearby Fairhill Center for the past decade, will have the opportunity to grow within the Buckeye-Shaker Square community, customize classroom space to meet their unique needs and engage the seniors living at Saint Luke's.

"It's a great school and this will be a catalytic project for the community," says Joel Ratner, President of Neighborhood Progress Incorporated (NPI), the nonprofit developer of the Saint Luke's project. "Their model is to create intergenerational learning opportunities for kids, and now they'll be able to physically do that."

TIS is part of Phase III of the Saint Luke's project, says Ratner. Phases I and II are low-income senior housing. This final phase will complete the redevelopment of the historic, red brick hospital, which has been badly vandalized since it closed over a decade ago. Ratner also expects the Boys and Girls Club to open a small space in the building, and NPI will move its office headquarters there, as well.

NPI is now in a frantic push to complete the project by July 1, 2013 so that TIS can move in before the start of the 2013-2014 school year. The organization must raise another $3 million by May of next year in order to make that happen.

So far, the Cleveland Foundation, Saint Luke's Foundation and several private individuals have contributed to the project, which will cost a total of $6 million.

"We've already ordered the windows," says Ratner. "That alone was half a million dollars, including installation, because there are literally hundreds of custom windows. We're doing this project because it's the right thing to do."

Ratner also hopes the presence of TIS will help improve Harvey Rice School, a newly built K-8 school that is not performing well. "We'd like to get mentors there like they have at TIS, and potentially do programming together," says Ratner. "The Cleveland schools say they're open to it. This will be a huge lift."


Source: Joel Ratner
Writer: Lee Chilcote

The recession pushed many people to trade in conventional careers for artistic pursuits. But establishing an arts studio or workshop is expensive and time consuming. Enter the ready-made studio. From community darkrooms and wood shops to collaborative sewing and printmaking co-ops, collaborative arts studios continue to pop up to serve the burgeoning "maker class."

The way Beachland Ballroom owner Cindy Barber sees it, Cleveland's music glory days are far from over. Yet our music scene could use some better amplification. That's why Barber has created a new nonprofit, Cleveland Rocks: Past, Present and Future, to preserve the legacy of the city's rock-and-roll history while also promoting and shaping its future.

"The past is the legacy project of capturing Cleveland music history, the present is documenting what's happening now, and the future is figuring out what we need to do to grow it," says Barber. "There's already a huge amount of music business here. We need to take stock of what we have and what we're missing."

Barber cites music business startups like Gotta Groove Records, Fortune Drums, Audio Technica and Dr. Z Amplification as success stories. She also wants to highlight the local bands that are touring and getting signed nationally.

"The plan is to create a website to highlight the bands that are getting attention," she says. "If they're out touring the world, they can bring that energy back to share with other people in Cleveland and grow the music business here."

To kick off the project, Barber and others are organizing a series of live interviews with local legends that played a role in Cleveland music history. The first event is scheduled to place on Saturday, November 3rd at 1 p.m. at the Beachland Ballroom. Tickets cost $15 and include lunch and the opportunity to participate as Larry Bruner, former booking manager for the 1960s folk music venue La Cav, is interviewed by Steve Traina, DJ for the WCSB radio show "Steve's Folk."

Future plans include working with the Rock Hall to preserve oral histories and promote live music, helping musicians identify investment sources for growing their bands or recording albums, and marketing the music industry here.

"All the clubs that came together as part of the Cleveland Music Coalition [to challenge the city's admissions tax] are part of this," says Barber. "We want to use the nonprofit to support what they're doing to create live music in Cleveland."


Source: Cindy Barber
Writer: Lee Chilcote

Lindsay Sims has been a lifelong renter and knows the headaches involved with trying to reach a property management office for leasing information. She also knows that property managers are not using social media effectively to promote their properties.

So, in 2011 Sims founded Renter’s Boom, a resource for property managers to use sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn as leasing portals.
 
“We are a software and service company smashed together,” says Sims. “We offer three apps: refer a friend, a listings app, and a make an appointment to see an apartment app. It makes it easy because that’s where some users spend five to 10 hours of their day.”
 
Sims originally designed a maintenance app where renters could text the property managers. But after going through the Bizdom U program, she refocused her businesses. “I figured out what business was going to work,” she says. “The feedback was property managers wanted to know how to handle social media.”
 
With that feedback, Sims developed Renter’s Boom. “For the past six months we were really running as fast as we can, figuring out the silver bullet that works,” she says. Originally working out the Beta Space at MAGNET, Sims recently moved into new offices at E. 55th and Euclid.
 
Business is good. Sims has a solid client base and hopes to start hiring around the first of the year. “I want to make sure our revenue strategy is okay,” she explains. “But I’ll be looking for people to get our clients serviced -- sales and marketing people.” In the meantime, Sims is looking for a fall intern to help with the daily operations.

 
Source: Lindsay Sims
Writer: Karin Connelly

The West Side Market is celebrating its Centennial year, prompting much discussion of the institution's past, present and future. Among other things, city leaders are discussing how best to ensure that the market remains successful for another 100 years.

Last week, however, the best ideas seemed to come not from local leaders but from others in Detroit, Santa Monica and Hong Kong as 250 market leaders from around the world attended the three-day International Public Markets Conference in Cleveland.

"The roots of our market are in local farmers selling their produce during the growing season," said Dan Carmody, Manager of Detroit's Eastern Market, during a panel discussion on the role of markets in the future of cities. "When I started there, it was a place where wholesale grocers dumped their product at the end of the week. Now we're trying to envision it as a revitalized local food system."

Eastern Market now sells locally-grown produce raised by urban farmers in Detroit, unlike the West Side Market, which only has a handful of vendors selling local produce.

Santa Monica's public market also was held up as an example. It offers valet parking for bicycles, works with a nearby cooking school to do demonstrations, and hosts "Meatless Mondays" to educate people about how to cook vegetarian.

And if you're looking for fresh, you can't get much more so than Hong Kong's Tai Yuen Market, which has fish swimming in tanks and live chickens. (The market recently installed a state-of-the-art ventilation system to deal with the offending odors.)

Cleveland Councilman Joe Cimperman, who touted his experience working in his uncle's butcher shop as a young man, said that change is coming to the market.

"People at the West Side Market are looking too much at last year's calendar," said Cimperman to the audience. "It won't survive unless they look at tomorrow."

Among the changes that have been recommended at the market are adding more local foods, creating more convenient hours and charging for parking. There is a proposal for a parking fee, but city leaders are still negotiating with vendors.

Cimperman vowed to continue the fight for change. "The city's lease with vendors runs out in 2014,"he said. "It's time to look at the market for the next 100 years."


Source: Joe Cimperman, International Public Markets conference
Writer: Lee Chilcote

After Robert Knighton’s grandmother had a stroke, she could only use the right side of her body. It made keeping clean in the hospital difficult. Knight’s wife Nina, a nurse at the VA Medical Center, noticed the same problem with some of her patients.

“The bed-bound patient population can’t get up to wash their hands,” explains Nina. “If a nurse comes in and she’s contaminated and touches the bedrails, the patients have nothing to wash their hands.”
 
The problem gave Nina an idea. “After working at St. Vincent Charity Hospital and then the VA she noticed it more in conjunction with the spread of hospital-acquired infections,” says Robert. “One day she was driving and it just came to her that patients needed a personal convenient device.” So Robert and Nina formed RKN Corporation in 2010 and started to develop the Bedside Sani-Holder, a bedside hand sanitizer dispenser. “This is a smart dispenser that helps with compliance, reminds patients if they haven’t used it and tracks usage,” says Robert.
 
Working with agencies like MAGNET and NorTech, RKN is working on a prototype of the Bedside Sani-Holder. They expect to hit the market by the second quarter of 2013. The Sani-Holder is part of NorTech’s Speed to Market Accelerator.
 
“We’ve really been able to use Northeast Ohio to launch our product,” says Robert. “Cleveland is known for healthcare and technology. It kind of feels like we’re entering the market at the right time.”
 
Robert and Nina are targeting hospitals and nursing homes with the Bedside Sani-Holder. So far, interest has been high. “We have spoken with quite a few hospitals in Northeast Ohio and have received welcoming feedback and interest,” says Robert. “Humility of Mary’s purchasing department said they would be interested in trialing our product once we are ready to go to market.”
 
When their product hits the market, RKN will be hiring IT staff, customer service, sales reps and operations staff. Two people that have been helping with management tasks will also join RKN working in permanent project management and operations.

 
Sources: Robert and Nina Knighton
Writer: Karin Connelly

The Cleveland Metropolitan Housing Authority (CMHA) will soon break ground on an array of 4,200 solar panels -- one of the largest solar arrays in Cuyahoga County -- that will reduce energy consumption on its campus by as much as 80 percent.

"When Mayor Jackson said that he wanted to be leading a green city by a blue lake, CMHA took heed of that," says Donovan Duncan, Director of Real Estate and Development for CMHA. "This is one way of reducing our carbon footprint."

The solar panel project will be developed and administered by Carbon Vision, a renewable energy analysis and project development company based in Shaker Heights. Carbon Vision will lease the land from CMHA, and after a period of 15 years, CMHA will have an option to purchase the panels at a sizeable discount.

The project is being developed at CMHA's headquarters, a LEED-certfied building at E. 82nd Street and Kinsman Avenue. Carbon Vision is developing the project using a combination of federal energy tax credits and New Market Tax Credits.

"We selected Carbon Vision because they've been a leader in this industry and had the most successful track record of those responding to our RFP," says Duncan.

Carbon Vision also will hire local residents to work on the project, which will generate high-quality jobs and is expected to take about six weeks to build.

CMHA has undertaken a wide variety of sustainability projects in recent years, including adding solar panels to other development projects, building rooftop gardens and green roofs, and building homes to energy-efficient standards.


Source: Donovan Duncan
Writer: Lee Chilcote