It’s been a busy month for Ethan Holmes, founder of Holmes Mouthwatering Applesauce. The 20-year-old took home $500 from Entrovation earlier this summer before moving into the Cleveland Culinary Launch and Kitchen (CCLK). He then launched an Indiegogo campaign in hopes of raising $1,500, but raised $2,274. He also received 100 pre-orders and produced 400 jars, or 5,000 ounces, of his original and cinnamon applesauce in two days during his f... Read more >

Tom Sarago, owner of Spruce, chose Borrow Rentals as the winning company to receive free marketing and PR services. Sarago, who started his full-service marketing communications firm earlier this summer, offered the services to one company as a way to promote Spruce and help a worthy company.

Spruce received about 20 applications for his services. Sarago chose a few finalists before naming Ann King, owner of Borrow Rentals as the winner. Borrow is an eclect... Read more >

As a professional makeup artist, Lou McClung is well aware what goes into good (and bad) makeup. So he started making his own, ultimately opening up his own shop, Lusso Cosmetics, in Lakewood. “As a makeup artist, what I wanted to do was have my own products,” he says.
 
As one of the few independent cosmetics manufacturers in the country, McClung makes and sells his own lipstick, eye liner, lip gloss and powder. His products aren’t tested on an... Read more >

More than 16,000 people in the United States are on the waiting list for a liver transplant, yet 10,000 die before they get one. Cleveland Clinic transplant surgeon Koji Hashimoto has spent the last nine years researching the practice of splitting a donor liver between two recipients, thus reducing demand.

“There’s a big gap between supply and demand,” explains Hashimoto. “In many smaller recipients, the liver is too large. You can’... Read more >

Amy Martin was named principal of marketing for JumpStart Inc., where she will be responsible for managing all marketing and communication efforts for the nonprofit venture development organization. Previously, Martin was vice president of marketing for the Centers for Families and Children.
 
Hilary Sparks-Roberts has been appointed executive director of Social Venture Partners (SVP), the philanthropic venture fund that supports and strengthens lo... Read more >

TechPint founder Paul McAvinchey always envisioned that his organization’s regular mini tech conferences could become something larger. When the last event drew more than 400 attendees to talk tech over a beer, McAvinchey knew it was time to go big.

On Friday, September 5, the first Industry Digital Summit will kick off at Hotcards. “The Industry Digital Summit is a national conference -- not just Cleveland-centric -- but a national co... Read more >

When doctors perform surgical procedures, they typically use cold surgical irrigation fluid to expand the patient’s body cavity. The cold fluid can increase their risk of hypothermia, which in turn leads to three times the risk of surgical site infections and other complications. 

Now hospitals like the Cleveland Clinic and University Hospitals have turned to a local company for a solution. Thermedx has developed the first smart su... Read more >

The Incubator at MAGNET and NASA Glenn Research Center are looking for product-focused startup companies to join its pitch competition on September 18 at Ariel International Center. Unlike other pitch competitions in the region, ProtoTech focuses on those companies with an actual product to market.
 
“There are a number of pitch competitions, but most of them are IT focused,” says Dave Crain, MAGNET’s director of en... Read more >

Since launching Discover My Cleveland in November 2012, owner Lynde Vespoli has seen tourism in the city grow substantially. “There are exciting changes in Cleveland and the tourism business,” says Vespoli. “We’re getting more multi-day events -- groups coming for four-, five-, six-day events. Our company has seen significant growth in the past year as the number of tourists to the Cleveland area has increased.”

Business has increas... Read more >

Welcome to the latest edition of Who’s Hiring in Cleveland?
 
There are plenty of good jobs to be had here in Cleveland. This is the latest installment in regular series of posts in which we feature companies that are hiring, what those employers are looking for, and how to apply.
 
City Year Cleveland, an education-focused nonprofit organization that partners with public schools and teachers to help keep students in school and on track to... Read more >

Jennifer Schwartz Wright has been named department chair of the art therapy undergraduate program at Ursuline College, her alma mater. A board certified art therapist and educator, Schwartz Wright previously worked in various positions at the Art Therapy Studio, most recently as executive director.

For the past 10 years Schwartz Wright has taught as an adjunct in Ursuline’s graduate art therapy and counseling program, where she was asked to develop core co... Read more >

For those who have suffered a traumatic injury to the skull and face -- be it from an accident, cancer or deformity -- OsteoSymbionics leads the way in facial reconstruction. The Cleveland-based manufacturer of custom craniofacial implants serves surgeons at hospitals across the United States. OsteoSymbionics’ products provide both skull rebuilding and is cosmetically attractive.
 
Founded in 2006by Cynthia Brogan, OsteoSymbionics is kno... Read more >

There’s no shortage of food trucks on Cleveland streets these days, but Ron Nelson offers a way for aspiring mobile food entrepreneurs to hit the road for less thanks to his food buggies.
 
When Cleveland launched its pilot street-food program back in 2009, Nelson was working for a non-profit that helped down-on-their-luck folks re-enter society. He saw food trucks as one way to do this, yet the costs were too high for the average person just starting out. And b... Read more >

Startup Lakewood is at it again with its annual Ideation Challenge, during which people are encouraged to present their business ideas. “People can take the next steps and validate their ideas,” says Lakewood’s entrepreneur in residence and Startup Lakewood’s director of Ideation, Mike Belsito. “Sometimes, the first step is the hardest to take -- and that's what we're hoping to encourage.”

Ideation, currently in its fo... Read more >

Welcome to the latest edition of Who’s Hiring in Cleveland?
 
There are plenty of good jobs to be found here in Cleveland. This is the latest installment in regular series of posts in which we feature companies that are hiring, what those employers are looking for, and how to apply.
 
IBM UrbanCode, a DevOps software product line, needs a software developer to work on its market-leading DevOps product line. Work on coding new features, bug... Read more >

After a career in marketing and public relations -- largely in the non-profit sector --Tom Sarago decided to hang out his own shingle and launch Spruce, a full-service marketing and PR company in Lakewood. But the non-profit mentality stuck with Sarago, so he’s offering up his services for free to the right Cleveland company -- a startup or an established company going through transition.
 
“It’s in my roots to always give back,” explains ... Read more >

Brothers Jarred and Brandon Smith were avid hockey players in college, and like most athletes, they used sports drinks to supplement their energy needs.  
 
However, as a college senior, Jarred eventually began to experience acid reflux as a result of the elevated acid content in traditional sports drinks. So the brothers, graduates of Miami and Brown universities, sought to create a healthier sports drink without all that sugary acid.
 
Along with p... Read more >

On Wednesday, June 25, Cleveland will become the 43rd U.S. city to join the 1 Million Cups campaign, a national effort to engage, educate and connect entrepreneurs both locally and nationally -- and eventually internationally. The program, funded by the Kauffman Foundation, is based on the idea that entrepreneurs network and move their ideas forward over one million cups of coffee.

“It’s just about creating a community put together by entreprene... Read more >