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 8.5" x 11" paper, they are printed on 8.5" x 14" paper, with the bottom three inches featuring a perforated section of full-color ads. Advertisers are able to tailor or change their ads at will to fit the time of day, content or location of the user’s document.
 
“Libraries are really challenged by economic models,” says Lambert. “Knowta meets those challenges with sustainable printing.” A portion of the revenue collected from the ads goes back to the library to offset printing costs and other expenses. Lambert and Clark have already secured contracts with local merchants around the Case campus.
 
Knowta will launch its product in CWRU’s Kelvin Smith Library in October, followed by a launch in the Cuyahoga County Public Library system later this fall. While Lambert and Clark plan to expand in Northeast Ohio, they also have plans to sell their product outside of the region.
 
“As we grow we’ll be growing within the region with additional locations within the Cuyahoga County Library system and the higher education market within Northeast Ohio, with a few target markets outside Northeast Ohio,” says Clark.
 
The company has one full-time employee, with plans to hire regional sales reps as they continue to expand.
 

Source: Ryan Clark and Nathan Lambert
Writer: Karin Connelly

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. The Cleveland office is the first new office CEOs for Cities has opened in 10 years. The organization has offices in Chicago and Washington, D.C., with partners in 15 cities.
 
CEOs for Cities brings civic leaders from around the country together to come up with solutions to struggling economies and helps cities like Cleveland thrive.
 
“We’re a national network of urban leaders from the public, private and non-profit sectors to develop best practices,” explains Fisher. “We want to bring university and college presidents, business leaders, mayors and city councils together to discuss how to make cities more vibrant, sustainable and attractive.”
 
Based in Cleveland State University’s Levin College of Urban Affairs, Fisher felt it was the best location to keep his finger on the pulse of what’s going on in the city. “I wanted to be somewhere where I can be around smart, urban thinkers like [Levin dean] Ned Hill. I wanted to be in an exciting atmosphere.”
 
One of Fisher’s goals is to create a cluster partnership between Cleveland, Akron, Canton and Youngstown in which city leaders will come together to share innovative best practices. The cluster group will share their thoughts with other city leaders in the CEOs for Cities partnership and, in turn, will gather information from other regional leaders.
 

Source: Lee Fisher
Writer: Karin Connelly

A new bakery on W. 25th Street is out to prove that dairy-free desserts can be just as addictive as the most decadent slice of chocolate cake -- while also cutting back on the calories, health risks, and guilt associated with many of our favorite vices.

Just ask Margaret Bilyeau, owner of the newly opened Maggie's Vegan Bakery, who boasts of her vegan "chocolate" cupcakes with "cream cheese" icing: "You need to come try them -- they're wonderful."

That shouldn't be too hard; she offers free samples to customers who stop in her store, located at 1830 W. 25th Street in Ohio City's ever-expanding Market District.

Bilyeau first started baking professionally in 1994. She sold her goods at farmers markets and the now-closed Food Co-op on Coventry Road in Cleveland Heights. Advised by a Co-op employee that she should start baking vegan because few others were serving that market, Bilyeau started doing just that.

But first she had to learn what being vegan actually means. "I said to him, 'What's that? How do you do it?'" she says. "He told me, 'You have to figure it out.' At the time, not very many people were doing it. It's a much bigger market now."

Although Bilyeau prepares her vegan baked goods strictly sans dairy, her customers aren't limited to hardcore vegans or vegetarians. Increasingly, they are also heart patients or elderly people that can't eat dairy for health reasons, or people who aren't consuming dairy products because of religious reasons.

Bilyeau also makes gluten-free baked goods to serve another growing market -- people with Celiac Disease who are allergic to wheat, rye and barley. "It's hard to find fresh gluten-free bread," she says. "It's flying off of the shelves."

Her ultimate goal is to ramp up her distribution business and ensure that more restaurants in Cleveland carry vegan and gluten-free desserts and other baked goods.

Bilyeau chose Ohio City because she shops at the West Side Market and saw new businesses opening up in the area.

"We're right between the new Mexican restaurant, Orale, and Johnnyville Slugger," she says. "I love being here."


Source: Margaret Bilyeau
Writer: Lee Chilcote

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-described superbarista Sarah Wilson-Jones. “We thought it was time to have a coffee that is uniquely Cleveland.” The name reflects the Cleveland airport code.
 
The coffee, which originated as an espresso blend, is a combination of Brazilian, Columbian, Costa Rican and Sumatran coffees and is a medium body blend with floral aromas and touches of vanilla and a chocolate finish. The blend has its own logo – a CLE baggage tag.
 
Introduced in July, CLE Blend tempts travelers as they enter or leave the airport’s C concourse. It’s also available at Phoenix locations around Northeast Ohio and online. “It was designed to celebrate our relationship with the airport,” says Wilson-Jones. “It’s designed for Clevelanders by Clevelanders.”
 
Wilson-Jones says Auntie Anne’s approached Phoenix because they wanted a local connection for their coffee products.

“There’s a popular demand for local coffee in the airport,” she says. “And that’s what drove Auntie Anne’s to call us.”
 

Source: Sarah Wilson-Jones
Writer: Karin Connelly

When savvy small business owners with an eye for form and function set their sights on historic Cleveland properties, the resulting atmosphere soars beyond the reach of boxy suburban strip malls and bland skyscrapers. Behold recycling on the most profound level: repurposing spaces created decades ago into modern, functional, and inspiring workplaces.

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 same.

“I spent a lot of time in my career helping people bring ideas to market,” says Celeste. “One on the things I realized I wanted to do is help other people create businesses.”
 
So the two created Hatch Partners, which stands for Help At The Critical Hour. The company helps entrepreneurs all over Northeast Ohio bring their ideas to life, whether it’s through mentoring, advising or financing.
 
“The idea behind Hatch is that every entrepreneur has that moment of Should I pursue this idea?" explains Celeste. “We like being at the moment if inception when an idea is really coming to life.”
 
While Hatch occasionally provides capital to its portfolio of startups, its underlying function is to encourage other entrepreneurs. “We have no interest in becoming venture capitalists,” says Celeste. “The idea is really being an advisor and coaching.”
 
Unlike other business incubators in the area, Hatch is focused on coaching. “We’re neither place-based nor institutional,” says Celeste.  “We’ve had a lot of good fortune in our lives. There were always key people who said, ‘Yes you can. You can build this business.’”

 
Source: Christopher Celeste
Writer: Karin Connelly

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 HealthCare Ventures, both out of Boston.
 
The investment will allow Cleveland HeartLab to expand -- both in employees and market acceptance. In addition to its current offerings, the company plans to introduce additional diagnostic tests in 2012. "The goal is to eliminate the threat of vascular inflammation," he says.
 
"The funding allows the company to double in size again," says Jake Orville, president and CEO. "And we've just committed to moving off [the Clinic's] campus to the Health Tech Corridor."
 
Orville predicts the company will double again in the next two years, adding positions in management, sales, marketing, and research and development. He attributes his company's growth to a talented, dedicated staff.

"We have the gift of really good novel technology," he says. "Combine that with really good people and a really good business plan."
 

Source: Jake Orville
Writer: Karin Connelly

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,” he says. “Our goal is to open one to two offices every quarter.”
 
EverStaff has three staffing specialties: Professional, manufacturing and retail. Services include everything in the hiring process, from pre-screening to interviewing to providing references. “We provide the resources to every client to assist them with the hiring process,” explains Spitz.
 
Spitz credits EverStaff’s success with its close attention to client needs. “We consider ourselves different than other people in the industry because we get to know our clients and customize our services to them,” says Spitz. “We provide a customized service to our clients and, more importantly, we listen to them.”
 
Spitz started his career with an accounting degree and four years at Robert Half International. “It was a great starting ground for me,” he says. “But I was at a point in my life where I always had an entrepreneurial mindset and decided to out on my own.”
 
EverStaff has twice been in the Weatherhead 100 and Inc. Magazine’s 500/5000 list of fastest growing companies.
 

Source: Danny Spitz
Writer: Karin Connelly

The decline of traditional newspapers, rise of the Internet, and advent of social media has led to a dizzying media revolution in the past two decades. A new conference aims to help marketing and communications professionals to keep up with these fast-paced changes -- and to make Cleveland a hub for marketing worldwide.

Content Marketing World, a first-ever national conference that will take place at the Renaissance Cleveland Hotel, aims to help businesses and nonprofits place storytelling at the center of their work and to create their own marketing channels to reach consumers rather than relying on traditional media.

"To create and attract customers, marketers need to create valuable, relevant, timely content," says Joe Pulizzi, founder of the Content Marketing Institute, a company headquartered in Cleveland, and organizer of the event. "Customers are bombarded by marketing all day long -- more companies realize they need compelling content during all parts of the buying cycle."

The event will feature more than 50 speakers from around the country, including bestselling authors David Meerman Scott and Sally Hogshead. Comedian and filmmaker Kevin Smith, who bucked Hollywood with the independent release of his early films and is set to release "Red State" this fall, is also part of the lineup.

Given the rich history of marketing and custom publishing firms rooted in the city, Pulizzi hopes to shine a spotlight on Cleveland's content marketers -- and to tout the city as a great place to do business.

"You don't have to be in Hollywood or on Madison Avenue anymore to tell a good story," he says. "Why not Cleveland?"

Content Marketing World takes place from Sept. 6th-8th.


Source: Joe Pulizzi
Writer: Lee Chilcote

Like many immigrants, Carlos Vergara came to the United States in search of a better life for his family. His dream -- a quality education for his sons -- was foremost on his mind when the Vergaras made the journey from Colombia to Cleveland. In the end, it was a partnership with his oldest son Juan that returned the favor.

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 and have a low glycemic index. But don’t let the fact that they are healthy scare you; they’re tasty, too.
 
Pabley first got involved with the product when his family invested with the doctor who created a nutrition powder that is the basis for Good Greens Nutrition Bars. While working on his MBA at Baldwin-Wallace College, Pabley’s family approached him about marketing the doctor’s product.
 
“It was a good product, but had to be positioned properly,” Pabley recalls. He did just that. In May 2011, he went out on his own, brought the price down from nearly $5 a bar to less than $2, and partnered with Heinen’s, Marc’s and Dave’s Supermarkets to promote and sell his products.
 
Just four months later, Pabley has three employees and the Good Greens bars are the number-one seller at Heinen’s. The bars are so popular that Pabley has been developing new flavors, such as chocolate mint, chocolate fudge brownie, and Greek yogurt with blueberries. He plans to introduce them later this fall.

“For a small company without a big marketing budget, to put those numbers up is pretty phenomenal,” he says. He hopes to hire additional people soon and do his own manufacturing.
 

Source: Keith Pabley
Writer: Karen Connelly

When Cynthia Larsen stopped teaching English full-time in 1995 to pursue a Master's in Creative Writing, she watched in dismay as the federal "No Child Left Behind Act" was passed by Congress a few years later. It tied teachers' hands, she thought, forcing them to teach to the test and squeezing creativity out of the classroom.

So Larsen decided to do something about it. She volunteered at her children's schools in Cleveland Heights, teaching and helping students with creative writing projects. Then she met Amy Rosenbluth, a fellow teacher who was running youth poetry slams at a neighboring school. Soon Lake Erie Ink was born.

Now the nonprofit organization, which offers creative writing classes, camps and workshops for school-age youth, has made the jump to leasing space at the former Coventry School and plans to offer additional classes beginning in September.

"My kids went to this school, so it's great to be back in the building, and for it to be put to good use," says Larsen. "Originally, we were looking for a storefront, but the district offered us a deal too good to pass up. Plus, this place is a kid magnet."

The former Coventry School is located at the corner of Coventry and Euclid Heights, adjacent to a playground, the Peace Park and the Coventry Library.

Since launching Lake Erie Ink in 2010, its founders have learned that there is significant demand in the community for their services. In fact, the group had waiting lists for all three of its summer camps this year. "When the students started coming to us, we realized we were really onto something," says Larsen.

This summer, Lake Erie Ink held a play-writing camp (the kids produced 22 separate plays), a comic book camp, and a "people and places" camp where students interviewed local businesses and wrote down their stories.

"The need here is so apparent," says Larsen, who got part of her inspiration for Lake Erie Ink from the 826 Valencia literary centers launched by writer Dave Eggers. "We provide a welcome relief for the parents, teachers and kids."


Source: Cynthia Larsen
Writer: Lee Chilcote

Imagine if we'd all had a crash course in Cleveland -- a tutorial, administered while we were still young and impressionable, on all the great things this city has to offer. Each year, hundreds of high-school and college students are getting just such a lesson. Thanks to internships offered by dozens of local firms and non-profits, students from within and without our region's borders are learning about Cleveland and its potential as a place to live, work and play.

Campbell's Popcorn and Sweets has opened a new factory store in Ohio City's Market District, at which customers can watch the production of its signature products as well as sample tasty, unusual flavors such as garlic parmesan, dill pickle and barbeque.

Owner Jeff Campbell says he decided to expand in Ohio City because of the loyal customers he's generated at his West Side Market stand, which has seen 25 percent annual growth since he opened it in 2004.

"Ohio City is already Cleveland's foodie area," says Campbell. "I believe it will become nationally known as a foodie neighborhood."

Before the store opened at the beginning of August, Campbell and his crew made all of their popcorn and sweets in two tiny stands at the West Side Market. "We probably should have been here a year ago," he says with a laugh.

The new store is airy and spacious by comparison. It is playfully decorated with bright orange walls and a creamy brown ceiling that stir up cravings for cheese popcorn and chocolate-covered pretzels as soon as one walks in the door. Large storefront windows allow passersby to watch popcorn pop and other treats being made before being lured inside for a taste. Next month, a large sign with Campbell's new logo will be installed on the exterior of the building.

Campbell says he's encouraged by the new businesses that are opening on West 25th Street. "We're planning on adding sidewalk dining, and the owners are close to signing a deal with a hostel that would occupy the floors above us," he says. "Ohio City's growth will come down West 25th Street."

This is in addition to the recent news that Mitchell's Ice Cream will take over the former Moda space down the street.

Campbell's Popcorn and Sweets is located on West 25th St. south of Lorain, near Chatham Ave.


Source: Jeff Campbell
Writer: Lee Chilcote

F*SHO, a trade show that showcases the growing cadre of contemporary furniture designers who call Cleveland home, is set to take place on Friday, Sept. 9th in a Midtown warehouse.

This year's show, which is the third annual, will be bigger than ever. It features more than 20 designers, including two that are based in Columbus and Toledo.

"The furniture design industry here keeps growing -- this year we even had to turn a few people down," says P.J. Doran of A Piece of Cleveland (APOC), who organized the event along with Jason Radcliffe of 44 Steel. "We'd like this event to evolve each year, and hopefully begin attracting more out-of-state designers."

The show's organizers hold the event in a new space each year to highlight unique properties. In addition to the building's raw industrial beauty, the artwork of owner Giancarlo Callicia, a sculptor, will also be on display. Part of the designers' challenge, Doran says, lies in how to take advantage of the open space.

"This isn't a typical trade show with velvet ropes and white platforms where the work is displayed," he quips. "Each designer will personalize their display."

Doran is particularly excited about the younger designers taking part in the show, many of whom are graduates of the Cleveland Institute of Art (CIA) who emphasize sustainability. "These pieces are made to last," he says. "We call them heirloom pieces, which means there are multiple lives to the product."

He should know: APOC fashions furniture products using 'upcycled' lumber from reclaimed from buildings before they are deconstructed or demolished.

Doran expects more industry collaboration and more buzz about Cleveland's growing furniture design community to come out of this year's event. "We started the FGroup last year as an offshoot of the furniture show, and people started working together," he says. "We're showing there's strength in numbers."

As for the customers, Doran loves seeing visitors' surprised faces the night of the show. "People are always surprised by how much is being made in Cleveland."

F*SHO takes place on Friday, Sept. 9th from 2 to 11 p.m. at 6550 Carnegie Avenue.


Source: P.J. Doran
Writer: Lee Chilcote